vol. 66 edition 12

By Kameron [email protected]

A Carmichael man was taken into custody on April 27 after a five-hour standoff with Sacra-mento County Sheriff deputies and SWAT teams outside of his Madison Avenue duplex near Schuyler Drive, less than two miles from American River Col-lege.

Jeremiah Hankins, 35, alleg-edly shot a woman in the neck around 10 a.m., and shot multi-ple times at police forces during the standoff. Hankins has been booked at the Sacramento Coun-ty Main Jail on five felony charg-es including attempted murder.

According to Chris Hoff, a neighbor to Hankins, the woman shot was the shooter’s wife or girlfriend, who lived with him at the duplex.

She was running away from him, covered in blood and

screaming, when Hoff first went outside.

Another neighbor of Hoff’s

was also targeted, but not hit, ac-cording to Hoff.

“As I was running out the front

door, the girl was running down the street and bullets were flying SEE SHOOTING PAGE 3

News pages 2 & 3Sports pages 4 & 5 A&C pages 7 & 8

Feature page 6 Scene pages 9 & 10Opinion page 11

FASHION BLOGPAGE 10INDEX 17-year-old ARC student Justina Sharp has written for The

New York Times and appeared on NBC’s “Today” show.

ARCurrent.com @ARCurrentfacebook.com/ARCurrentcom @ARCurrent

Vol. 66, Ed. 12 • May 6, 2015

american rivercurrent

Water use cut due to droughtSCHOOL TO STOP WATERING IN ‘KILL ZONES’ ON LAWNSBy John [email protected]

Students returning to Ameri-can River College for the fall se-mester may notice grass that has turned brown and sidewalks that are dusty.

All that is part of the Los Rios Community College District’s efforts to save water following Governor Jerry Brown’s April 1 executive order that curbs water use in response to the drought.

“We have what we’re going to be calling ‘kill zones,’ where we’re going to have no watering at all,” said groundskeeper Brenda Bak-er. “If there’s no tree in a square of turf, then it’s a kill zone.”

Without water, the grass in the “kill zones” will go brown. Planned locations include the lawn in front of the theater and the lawn that stretches from the library to the science classrooms.

“We can’t have it look like that before graduation,” said Baker. “We have to keep it looking nice because so many people come onto campus who don’t normally see campus.”

Baker and head groundskee-per Michael Kuuskvere agreed that the potential for fire is the biggest risk.

“You obviously don’t want to drop a cigarette in there,” said Kuuskvere.

According to Baker, people walking over the less watered ar-eas of the lawn instead of strictly on the sidewalks will bring dirt and dust to the sidewalks and walkways of the campus.

“What’s normally green and watered will be muddy,” said Baker. “Students don’t adhere to traffic patterns. They don’t stay on the sidewalk. They’re going to get dirty, dusty feet. It’s going to get carried into the classrooms.”

Brown’s April 1 executive or-der, a response to the drought that has afflicted California since 2011, asks most water districts

SEE DROUGHT, PAGE 3

Kameron Schmid / [email protected] Brown and her granddaughter Kayla Childers first began attending ARC together in 2012 and will walk together at graduation this semester.

By Kameron [email protected]

When Pat Brown and Kayla Childers walk together at graduation at the end of this se-mester, it will mark the ending of a three-year period when the two, grandmother and granddaughter, spent every day at school together.

For Childers, who first began taking class-es at American River College in 2011, driv-ing to school together and spending breaks hanging out with her grandmother was “probably one of the coolest things ever,” but it was also inspiring.

“She works so hard on everything she does that it made me want to work harder,” said Childers, a math major who has already

SEE GRADS, PAGE 9

Graduating togetherGRANDMOTHER AND GRANDDAUGHTER BONDED AS THEY PURSUED HIGHER EDUCATION

Emily K. Rabasto / [email protected] Hankins allegedly shot a woman he lived with and fired at police during a standoff that lasted for hours.

Area shooting leads to arrestMAN HAS FIVE-HOUR STANDOFF DOWN THE STREET FROM CAMPUS

She works so hard on everything she does that it made me want to work harder.

KAYLACHILDERS

“

NewsMay 6, 2015

Editor-in-ChiefKameron Schmid

Managing EditorJohn Ferrannini

News EditorJoseph Daniels

Sports EditorsMatthew PeirsonKevin Sheridan

Arts & Culture EditorsMatthew Wilke

Cheyenne Drury

Scene EditorsBrandon Nelson

Jose Garcia

Opinion EditorCameron Weaver

Web EditorEmily K. Rabasto

Multimedia EditorBryce Fraser

Copy EditorLena DoBynes

StaffNoor Abasi

Miranda BolarNicholas Corey

Meredith DurhamMychael Jones

Mary-Ann MyersAlex Panasenko

AdviserWalter Hammerwold

Photo AdviserJill Wagner

POLICYThe Current is produced by the students of College Media Production, J410-413. All opinions are signed and not necessarily endorsed by the Current staff. All letters and articles appearing in the Editorial, Opinion or Forum sections are not necessarily representative of the Current staff or American River College policy. All articles are the property of the Current. Letters must be typed and can be submitted by mail, e-mail or in person at the following addresses:

The American River Current4700 College Oak DriveLiberal Arts, Room 120Sacramento, CA 95841Phone: 916-484-8304Fax: 916-484-8668E-mail: [email protected]

PROUD MEMBERS OF THE CNPA & JACC

american rivercurrent

SENATE MEMBERS VOTE ON GENERALASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONSASBNOTEBOOK

District offers violence trainingBy Joseph [email protected]

Los Rios students received an email on April 21 stating that students will be provided with an online training course that covers violence intervention and prevention training.

An introductory video to the course Not Any More says that the course is intended to help community college students with issues relating to “sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.”

One in five students experience sexual assault on a college cam-pus, and 95 percent of campus rapes are unreported, according to a survey that was done by the American Civil Liberties Union.

According to the Clery Report that is provided by the Los Rios Police Department, there were no sexual assaults that took place on campus in 2014, but as reported in a previous story, the report does not list all the crimes that were reported on campus.

“An increase in reporting is a success,” said Steven Pearlman, who is the content director for Student Success, which is the or-

ganization who created the train-ing video. “Of course the goal is to lower sexual assault rate.”

The email tells students that “This program covers a variety of serious topics, including sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and — just as important — how to intervene as a bystander.”

The email also states that a student must score a 70 percent or higher to pass the test that fol-lows after the training video.

“I think it would give a student or a bystander a sense of what to do in a uncomfortable situation,” said Mitchel Benson, the associ-ate vice chancellor of communi-cation and media relations for the Los Rios district. “The thing is to prevent things from happen-ing.”

Benson said that the reason why the email says the program is mandatory is because the dis-trict has to fulfill federal funding requirements.

Benson said that at the mo-ment there is no consequence for a student who does not partici-pate in the program, or who does but fail the test.

However, he says that it may be a requirement if a student is

a student ambassador, an athlete or a member of the staff.

There have been several vio-lent incidents that have taken place near or on American River College campus in recent months.

In November 2014, a student claimed to have been robbed at gunpoint on the Arcade Creek trail.

The previous month, a fight broke out at the school’s cafete-ria.

In August, a woman went on what was described as a “punch-ing hurricane” on the second day of school.

In the case of the cafeteria fight, witnesses claimed that more people decided to try to record the fight on their phone than attempt to break the fight up.

The training program can be found in Eservices.

LOS RIOS SENDS OUT AN EMAIL OFFERING VIOLENCE PREVENTION TRAINING ONLINE

Screenshot of Not Any MoreThe image of a woman with bruises on her face is used in the video introducing Not Any More, a new violence training program being offered.

Slapping petitioner sentenced for murderBy John [email protected]

The man arrested last March for slapping an American River College student on campus was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison on April 17, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Pavel Postelnyak, 24, was con-victed last month in the first-degree murder of Anthony John-son, who was shot on May 18. Postelnyak worked with Johnson at Democracy Resources, a com-

pany that gathers signatures for

petitions.

It was while he was gathering signatures on the ARC campus on March 4 that Pavel was arrested after slapping theater major Pe-ter Messick.

Pavel’s mother, Larisa Postel-nyak, spoke to The Current fol-lowing that arrest. She said her son had a mental illness that in-fluenced his actions.

Larisa, a Ukrainian immigrant, said she had trouble understand-ing her son’s murder trial.

She said that she was kicked out of the courtroom for translat-ing the case to her mother, who speaks very little English, and that her son Pavel wouldn’t talk to her after she said he was men-

tally ill. “I talked to him yesterday,” said

Larisa on Monday afternoon. “I explained to him things. I said I know you’re not guilty but the (attorneys) know how to work the documents.”

Larisa believes her son is inno-cent and has hired an attorney to make a possible appeal.

“If I say as a mom that he’s not guilty, nobody will listen to me. I don’t have license for this. I didn’t go to school to be a lawyer,” she said. “I’m 99 percent to 1 per-cent sure. When I saw his case in court, I thought ‘it’s not him.’”

She said she hired an attorney to make a possible appeal.

“The judge gave him 60 days for new options for appeal,” said Larisa. “I got a good lawyer.”

Pavel is at the Deuel Voca-tional Institution in San Joaquin County as of press time, accord-ing to the website of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Kenny Giffard, who Larisa said she hired to help with the appeal, has not returned multiple phone calls as of press time.

Illie Zdragat, who Larisa said she hired as a translator, has not returned multiple phone calls as of press time.

POSTELNYAK GETS SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS TO LIFE IN THE MURDER OF A CO-WORKER

By Joseph [email protected]

Members of the Associated Student Body Student Senate at-tended the General Assembly for California Community College Student Senates last weekend.

CAEB Director of Activities LeslieAnn Dameron was elected as a delegate to vote upon the behalf of Senate. She voted on her discretion on items that were not put up to a vote at the board meetings.

Among the resolutions consid-ered was one that would make it mandatory for SSCCC members to participate in mandatory a “Yes Means Yes” training. Another recommended providing show-ers for homeless students and a third was in favor of giving prior-ity registration to STEM majors.

The ASB Student Senate voted in support of the mandatory “Yes Means Yes” training.

While the board voted to sup-port the resolution addressed

to provide homeless students showers, one issue that the board members took issue with was how it would be implemented.

“It’s not (specific) because this would apply to every single community college in the state of California,” said Tamara Dun-ning who is acting as ASB Student Senate president. “Some colleges have different organizations, than say, we do.”

The board agreed to not sup-port the resolution that would allow STEM majors priority reg-istration.

“It might be a little unfair to give special registration due to your major versus other circum-stances, like being disabled, or a veteran,” said Garrett Kegel, di-rector of activities.

Senate board members were initially unsure about whether to support the bill, because it was not specific on how it will be im-plemented.

Senate voted against giving members who are graduating medals for serving on the board at the recent meeting.

“This is like a double pat on the back on something that we swore an oath to do,” said Senator David Hylton.

The CAEB end-of-the-year ban-quet will include a dance compe-tition, and the winner will win $100 for their club.

At least two participants from the club must participate to be eligible to win the cash prize. If the club’s adviser participates in the contest, the winner’s reward will increase by $50.

“Senate will do an advocacy presentation during CAEB, for people who are walking by, espe-cially for people who are going to be either returning to the board or new to the board, especially in clubs,” said Dameron.

An election committee meeting took place after the Senate meet-ing, which revealed that no elec-tion violations were reported.

The banquet will include a dance competition, and the win-ner will win $100 for their club.

At least two participants from the club must participate to be eligible to win the cash prize. If

the club’s adviser participates in the contest, the winner’s reward will increase by $50.

“You can choreograph a dance with any style, but dirty dancing will be subjected to middle school rules, and you will be booted off the floor.”

We are not looking for talent, we’re looking for effort. I would like to remind everyone that moving is not dancing, dancing is grooving,” said Dameron.

The elections committee re-vealed that no election violations were reported.

“It took us only three years,” said Clubs and Events Board President Jeremy Diefenbacher, who serves on the election com-mittee.

Last year the winner of the Spring 2014 election for ASB Student Senate president, Jorge Riley, was invalidated for reasons the administration and the ASB have not disclosed.

ASB held a special election that took place at the beginning of fall semester, in which Dunning won against Riley by one vote.

News May 6, 2015

In Volume 66, Edition 12 of The Current, the following corrections are listed:

CORRECTIONS

In Vol. 66, Ed. 11, on page 1, it is reported that Travis Lanning attacked a woman and her dog with a medieval morning-star-styled mace. In fact, this is what he is accused of.

In Vol. 66, Ed. 11, on page 11, it is reported that Sacramento City College enacted designated smoking areas last “autumn.” In fact, the policy was enacted in August 2014.

CONTINTUED FROM PAGE 1

and consumers to cut their water use to 75 percent of 2013 levels.

ARC President Thomas Greene said that while most of the land of the Los Rios Com-munity College District is required to abide by the order, ARC is not because the water used on campus comes from well water.

“We aren’t subject because we’re on well water, but we’re going to still comply with the executive order,” said Greene. “We’ve imposed those on ourselves though we’re not under the restrictions of the municipal-ity or water district.”

Greene said ARC is trying to set a good example.

“I think it reflects that we understand the challenges we face as a region and as a state,” said Greene.

Dan McKechnie, the interim director of administrative services, said that there is much the school and district are doing to cut back on water use.

“In an effort to comply with the 25 per-cent reduction goal, we are installing au-tomated weather-based irrigation control systems throughout the District,” said McKechnie. “Going forward, all new proj-ects will include fully compliant lower-flow fixtures. We are installing water meters at all buildings on our campuses to monitor water usage in greater detail.”

Michael Kuuskvere said that irrigation timers will help the maintenance depart-ment regulate how much water the school uses, something that wasn’t measured in the past.

“We now have irrigation timers,” he said. “We have reduced the amount by adjusting the amount of time that it waters.”

Greene said that the district is currently developing a water plan.

“They’re no longer going to fully drain pools for maintenance workers or power wash hardscape areas,” he said.

Greene also said that the construction of the new athletic complex that starts over the summer will help the school cut back on water.

“The timing of that project is beneficial in that it takes 50 percent of our turf offline until next spring,” said Greene.

The April 1 executive order is a follow up to a 2014 order from the governor that asks schools to “immediately implement water reduction plans to reduce the use of potable water for outdoor irrigation.”

According to Baker, the district asked the groundskeepers after Brown’s April 1 or-der to cut ARC’s water use by 65 percent, but the groundskeepers have already been doing that of their own volition.

“We used to water five days a week and now we’re down to two days a week,” said Baker. “We used to put out an hour of wa-ter on a piece of grass whereas now were putting out 20 minutes. So we’ve changed a lot.”

McKechnie recommended ways students can save water themselves while they’re on campus.

He recommended “typical common sense measures such as ensuring the water is completely shut off after washing hands in a bathroom or reporting any leaks you may see in fixtures or irrigation.

“If showering after a PE class please be respectful on the length of the shower,” he said.

Kuuskvere said that Peter Bowman, the grounds supervisor for the district, made the final decision to institute the kill zones.

“We’re going beyond what the Governor is asking for,” said Kuuskvere.

As of press time, Peter Bowman has not responded to multiple requests for com-ment.

Drought: ARC to abide by Governor’s order

John Ferrannini / [email protected] sprinklers go off on the lawn at Rose Marks Quad at American River College last Tuesday. Starting after graduation, some of the lawns on campus will be designated as “kill zones.”

Emily K. Rabasto / [email protected] Sacramento County Sherriff’s Deputy walks away from the standoff between police and the shooting suspect, Jeremiah Hankins. Hankins shot from inside his house multiple times.

Shooting: Neighbors evacuated for hoursCONTINTUED FROM PAGE 1

towards my neighbor,” said Hoff.“He hopped out of his car and booked

it, screaming ‘get inside, get the baby, close the door.’”

Hoff then said that a postal worker, who has since been identified as Scott Gallegos, a military veteran who had only been a mailman for four weeks, attempt-ed to help move the woman out of fir-ing range, and that police arrived nearly a minute and a half after the first shots were fired.

Then, according to Hoff, the woman, who was bleeding badly, was moved across the street into a store’s parking lot. Police attempted to revive her, but eventually stopped and waited for an am-bulance.

She was taken to a nearby hospital, and after initially being described as in a criti-cal condition, she is now in a stable con-dition.

Hoff, who has lived on the street for over a year, said that Hankins and the woman, who lived two doors down from him, were very reclusive, and often only interacted with their neighbors to tell them not to park in front of their duplex.

“(Hankins) would come out and say something to you, like ‘Don’t park in front of my house or I’ll put a bullet in you,’ cra-zy shit like that,” said Hoff.

Hoff’s landlord, Tom Pool, said that when he did park in front of the duplex, he was met by the alleged shooter, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, large sunglasses and a dust mask.

“He was holding something in his pock-ets,” said Pool. “I felt like it was a gun.”

Pool said that Hankins then said some-one had been looking through his window holding a gun, and that his paranoia had forced him to return to “popping pills.”

Pool described the man as “definitely crazy.”

For Hoff, a former ARC student from 1999 to 2004, the sound of bullets alerted him even more, because he survived be-ing shot in the face three years ago.

The bullet, fired at him during a mug-ging, entered his face near his nose, went through his brain and lodged itself in the back of his skull, where it remains now.

“I’m lucky to be alive,” said Hoff, who also remarked he felt lucky to avoid get-ting shot a second time while running out of his house.

SportsMay 6, 2015

SPORTSWRAP-UPS

Cheyenne Drury / [email protected] men’s swim team competed in the Big 8 Swim Invite on March 13. Five of the six members of the diving team qualified for the State Swim and Dive Championships from April 30 to May 3.

Baseball

Softball

By Matthew [email protected]

Following a dismal 2014 in which Ameri-can River College’s baseball team finished last place in the Big 8 Conference (11-24 overall, 4-17 conference), the team bounced back in 2015 (17-19 overall, 9-12 conference) with a revamped offense to nearly claim a playoff spot.

It had a 90 percent chance of making the playoffs heading into the three final games of the season, only needing to sweep last place Diablo Valley College and have Sierra College lose just one of its games against Santa Rosa Junior College.

ARC lost to DVC in the second game of the series by a score of 15-7 which drasti-cally lowered, but did not eliminate ARC’s chance of making the playoffs.

ARC won its final game of the season in walk-off fashion in the final game against

DVC, winning 9-8 after 14 innings.Despite the win, ARC was not voted into

the playoffs by the California Community College Athletic Association and finished fourth in the Big 8 Conference after finish-ing in last place one season ago.

Designated hitter Dalton Devries led the team with a .358 batting average, catching fire late in the season as the team went into the stretch run.

Right fielder Alex Gaskin and second baseman Cameron Bennett hit .299 and .298, respectively, while left fielder Jimmy Lunardelli led the state in triples for the season with seven.

Pitcher Mike Marlar finished first in the state in saves with nine.

Sophomore starting pitcher Matt Gunter was the team’s best pitcher, finishing the season 7-4 with a 3.18 ERA in 82 innings pitched.

Track and Field

By Kevin [email protected]

For American River College’s softball team, it was a season that began and ended with new faces in the starting ro-tation.

In its season finale, a 13-5 home win over Modesto Junior College, seven of nine freshmen on the roster started the game.

In the season opener, a 10-6 loss at So-lano, starting pitcher Sharie Albert made her first career start after tearing her ACL three years ago while at Sierra College.

The team then went on a tear by win-ning seven of its next nine games, keep-ing four of those opponents scoreless.

Despite this season being her first as a starter, Albert played in 34 games and started 26 of them.

Softball head coach Lisa Delgado said that Albert “improved every game.”

Infielder Jennifer Woo finished the sea-son in a four-way tie for the sixth most doubles in the state.

In that same stretch, they also shutout College of the Redwoods and Yuba Col-lege by scores of 13-0.

At the midpoint of the season, ARC had a record of 12-5.

Following that point, the team would win no more than two games in a row for the remainder of the season.

In March, losing streaks would become the norm as it dropped four games in a row.

After the losses, ARC would rebound to crush Modesto in a late March double-header by scores of 11-1 and 20-9.

Despite the stumbles, ARC would hold down a 19-13 record heading into the fi-nal five games of the 2014 season with a chance to secure a playoff spot.

However, a late season collapse en-sued and ARC lost four of those final five games.

“We were really pushing to make the playoffs in those final five games,” saod Delgado. “We were in every game, (but) we just didn’t get some timely hits.”

Two of those losses came on the road at Diablo Valley College. ARC struggled to win on the road, going 4-10 while accu-mulating a record of 15-6 at home.

Offensive inconsistency plagued ARC throughout the season, as it scored more than 10 runs eight times during the sea-son, all of which were wins.

The team finished the season with an overall record of 20-17 in the regular season and 9-12 in conference.

By Kevin [email protected]

Both of American River College’s track and field teams swept their opponents in the Big 8 Conference Championships.

The women’s team finished first over-all with a total of 201 points.

Mackenzie Theiler scored 22.5 points in the contest and teammates Olivia Brown, Tatiana Bell, and Imani Thomas scored a combined 47.37 points, the best mark of their respective seasons, earn-

ing them fourth in the state and the sixth best in ARC’s track and field history.

Thomas finished second in the 200-meter with a time of 25.06 seconds and third in the 100-meter with a time of 12.37 seconds.

Adrianna Reagan won the high jump event with a distance of 1.6 meters.

Otolose Bloomfield finished sixth in the shot put with a distance of 11.04 me-ters and eighth in javelin with a distance of 28.93 meters.

The next event will be the NorCal finals hosted at ARC on May 8.

Bryce Fraser/[email protected] Steven Mercado was one of five ARC players named to the All-Big-8 Conference team.

Bryce Fraser / [email protected] finished the season 20-17 overall and made the playoffs as the 15th seed in NorCals.

By Matthew [email protected]

Michael Morris dotted 23 years as the head football coach of Rio Linda High School with success, winning the Sac-Joaquin title in 2004, fielding 13 play-off teams while amassing 148 victories overall, the most in school history.

Now, he takes the reigns of being American River College’s running backs coach, strengthening a staff that now has four former high school head coaches.

“He brings a wealth of knowledge to our staff,” said ARC head coach Jon Os-terhout. “Fortunately for us, there was some interest from coach Morris.”

Morris coached various positions at the high school level on both offense and defense, but has never held a position at the junior college level.

“He’s got expertise in every phase of the game in my mind,” Osterhout said. “He’s just a phenomenal addition to our staff.”

Morris is also the athletic director at Rio Linda, and stepped down voluntarily as head coach in 2013.

Morris said he was burnt out after so many years leading the way and that he knew it was time.

“About two years before I stepped down, I knew it was time,” Morris said.

“There was things a head coach has to do that I started to resent, and I knew it was time.”

Morris never had any intention of giv-ing up coaching altogether, however.

“I knew I loved coaching football, I just didn’t want to be a head coach,” he said.

ARC football has only been in its spring practices for three weeks, and Morris is still getting familiar with the differences between the high school and college level.

“The biggest difference is the competi-tion among the positions,” he said.

“In high school, there’s really not the competition level. Here, I’ve got 13 run-ning backs. So the competition level is way higher.”

Osterhout is “ecstatic” about Morris’s addition, citing his knowledge of the game, experience, and ability to relate to young student athletes.

“It just speaks volumes to our program to bring in quality coaches, but more im-portantly men of character to teach our student athletes at ARC,” he said.

According to Osterhout, Morris’s addi-tion will also be a huge help in the re-cruitment process for ARC.

“In the San Joaquin section, everyone

knows who Mike Morris is,” he said. “I think its been a huge advantage in the recruitment process.”

Morris’s son, Matthew, is also on the team, but the elder Morris has never ac-tually been his son’s coach.

“I don’t get to watch my son, ever,” he said. “Every day I go home and my wife will ask me ‘How did Matthew do?’ and it’s the same answer.”

The two had the same situation while they were both at Rio Linda, but Morris said it doesn’t bother him much and his focus is on the job.

“I’m in such a habit over the years of paying attention to what I need to pay attention to, it’s not hard for me,” he said.

“I don’t know if he enjoys it, I don’t know if he hates it, but I know he can handle it,” Morris said of his son.

Morris has adjusted well despite his inexperience at the college level, and though the team is only practicing basics and fundamentals at the moment, he’s said he’s enjoying getting acclimated.

“Right now, the thing I’m enjoying the most is being around the staff. They’re a fun group of guys to be around.”

Morris loves coaching, and doesn’t see himself stopping anytime soon.

“Having a father that worked in a pa-per mill his whole life, I’ve seen what

having real work is like,” he said. “And I’ve always said: if you love your job, that’s not working.

“My whole life, I’ve always tried to avoid working.”

Sports May 6, 2015

ARC adds from Rio Linda

Men’s tennis wraps up with 15-2 record

Kevin Sheridan / [email protected] running backs coach Michael Morris led 13 playoff teams in 23 seasons as the head football coach at Rio Linda High School.

NEW RUNNING BACKS COACH LEFT LAST JOB AS ALL-TIME WINS LEADER, FINISHING WITH 148 OVER 23 YEARS

Kevin [email protected]

American River College men’s tennis head coach Bo Jabery-Madison believed the best thing that came from the 2014 season was what the team took away from it.

“We had a great group of guys who I think worked as hard as they possibly could, pushed themselves to the physical limits (and) mental limits every day,” said Jabery-Madison.

Its season with a loss in the NorCal Fi-nals with a 5-0 loss at Foothill College.

It started the season with a perfect 9-0 record, sweeping six of its opponents by scores of 9-0.

The team would finish the regular sea-son with a record of 15-1, losing its only game of the regular season to Foothill 5-4.

The two losses for the team this season were both against Foothill, which head coach Bo Jabery-Madison said is because Foothill is simply a better team than ARC.

“They have more experience. Seven out of their top eight players are international players and one All-American in their top eight,” said Jabery-Madison. “We’re com-peting with teams that are recruiting from the entire world and so the fact that we are as competitive as we are with them.”

It would close out the regular season by sweeping Folsom Lake College, Modesto Junior College, and Chabot College by scores of 9-0 in consecutive games.

Seppi Capaul, Jimmy Giovannini, Nic Atkinson, Ryan Wilson, John Foote, and Dylan King each competed in individual matchups in Ojai, California.

Capaul and Giovannini each advanced to the third round before losing out to Col-lege of the Desert.

Nic Atkinson and Ryan Wilson defeated Bakersfield College by scores of 6-4 and 6-3 before they fell to Grossmont College in the third round.

John Foote injured his ankle in his match with partner T.J. Aukland and was replaced by Dylan King.

Foote began the season with a lower back injury, and said he played his best tennis later in the year.

ARC was forced to retire after Aukland also injured his ankle in a match with Cer-ritos, and Cerritos won its match.

In doubles, Capaul and Giovannini de-feated College of the Desert, winning the 10-point match tiebreak 10-8.

Jabery-Madison said the depth that some of the Southern California teams had presented difficulties for ARC.

“Seppi, as dominant as he is in Northern California, there’s probably on a given day 10 guys in the South who could play even with him and that makes it tough,” said Jabery-Madison.

The win advanced ARC to the quarter-final, matching the best result by an ARC doubles team since 1992.

Jabery-Madison said he believes the team’s biggest accomplishment was that his team got everything out of its season that it could.

Freshman Dylan King said he believed the team came together well during the season.

“We came out, grinded every single day, just came really close as a team and that translated to success on the court,” said King.

ARC REACHES SECOND NORCAL FINAL IN THREE YEARS

Kevin Sheridan / [email protected]’s men’s tennis team finished its regular season at 15-2 before falling in the NorCal Finals.

FeatureMay 6, 2015

Emily K. Rabasto / [email protected] River College student, band manager and drummer Nick Badal of The Livelies says that being as marketable as possible is key to being successful in the niche market of Sacramento.

Emily K. [email protected]

A year ago, 19-year-old Sacramento musi-cian Chris Noia was awoken in his house by the sound of his

bandmate being loaded onto a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance on the way to the hos-pital to be treated for a heroin overdose.

Unbeknownst to Noia, his bandmate had started to abuse heroin through the influence of another band member.

The Sacramento music scene, although relatively small, is com-petitive and laced with drug-centered artists and bands. There seems to be no known advantage to being a user in Sacramento and being a musician.

Sacramento’s drug of choice is mainly marijuana, but meth-amphetamines and heroin have gained popularity recently due to the epidemic of prescription pill abuse, particularly painkillers.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse reports that nearly half of young people who inject heroin abused prescription opioids be-fore starting to use and even de-cided to switch because heroin is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids.

Meth runs cheaper than co-caine and the effects usually last longer, which makes it more pop-ular among young musicians.

Alexander Powell, an American River College business and mar-keting student and 21-year-old rap artist from Sacramento, says his experience in the market has lead him to the conclusion that marijuana and alcohol in moder-ation can breed an equal amount

of successful musicians and those who let it take over their lives.

“I have no tolerance for hard drugs coming from a background where both of my parents are us-ing to this day,” Powell said. “But, I also understand the selling of drugs in urban areas, because opportunity can be slim to none. I obviously wish it wasn’t some-thing people have to turn to.

“For artists, some feel they need weed to be creative. But I wouldn’t want to have to rely on a catalyst to help me. I think it’s fine to rap about smoking weed and drinking if that’s your life-style but not if it’s all you rap about because honestly no one does that everyday and music should be about real life experi-

ence.”A year after Noia’s bandmate’s

overdose, 21-year-old Sacramen-to guitarist Nick Jones recognized Noia from high school and invited him to try out for second guitar in his new band, The Livelies.

“With (The Livelies), it’s not like we were all getting f—-d up all the time,” Noia said. “It looked like it could go somewhere. Drugs sucked (my old band’s progress) all down.”

Jones is the frontman and lead guitarist and vocalist for The Livelies. They consist of four members including Jones, Noia, bassist Andrew Steele and drum-mer Nick Badal, who all agree that drugs are counter-produc-tive to their style of operation.

“It’s not that we’re anti-drug, it’s just not for us and our pro-cess,” Jones said.

“Substances are a big thing in the local scene. Good tools help the progress. Drugs don’t.”

Badal says that being a suc-cessful musician in Sacramento is all about marketing.

“By observing what we see, we just make our own decisions for our performance,” he said. “We want to avoid anything that nar-rows down our audience.”

Badal, who doubles as band manager, is an ARC student and music business professor Kirt Shearer, co-owner of Paradise Studios helped The Livelies re-cord their first album.

The Livelies took six days in the

studio, sometimes for up to 12 hours a day at the price of $5,500 to record the album.

The Livelies played their first live set together in front of a mod-est audience on Friday, Feb. 27 in the back room of Cafe Colonial in Southeast Sacramento for no pay.

In March, The Livelies were in-vited by an entertainment man-ager who directs music festivals in Southern California to play at the Newport Beach Beerfest on April 25. They opened for Los An-geles pop band Metro Station.

The motivation to make it in the Sacramento music scene re-quires a vision. Powell, who goes by his stage name Awells, says he wants to do “something no one from this city has done musically.”

He also says a clear purpose and the desire to make a differ-ence is necessary for success.

“Everyone wants this dream and everyone can tell you why it won’t be you,” he said. “I put that aside and I have no doubt in my mind when I wake up ev-ery morning I am going to make it to my destination. Nothing can block me from that. It’s how I am wired now.”

Powell says he has partnered with a local non-profit organiza-tion to set up a music festival for this summer for local artists of all genres to perform their music.

“I want to open the door for other talented artists, any genre, to get a chance.”

The Livelies, described as “funk-punk-pop-indie,” just want to be smart musicians for the Sacramento music market, minus the drug use.

Jones said, “We needed a good balance between marketable and musically interesting. I want peo-ple who are musicians to respect us.”

Emily K. Rabasto / [email protected] of The Livelies Nick Jones of Sacramento thanks the audience as they play their first live show on Friday, Feb. 27 at Cafe Colonial in East Sacramento.

MUSICALLY MINDEDSTUDENT MUSICIANS DISCUSS THE DRUG SCENE AND WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE IT IN SACRAMENTO’S MARKET

Arts&Culture May 6, 2015

By Nicholas [email protected]

Saxophones, vocalists, flutes and guitars were all featured April 24 as American River College held a music recital for students and faculty to attend.

The opening act of the music recital was by ARC student Nicholas Stefanyshyn, who played Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Trio for Oboes,” and “English Horn Op. 87,” on his tenor saxophone.

Wei-shan Sun and her flute took the stage next, and played Bela Bartok’s “Suite Paysanne Hongroise.”

Sun said one of the things she can take away from her last recital was confidence.

Both Sun and Eric Kuvakos admitted that the flute and guitar were their first choice of instruments and have been playing them ever since.

Sun has played the flute for 12 years now and hopes to transfer to Califor-nia State University , Sacramento next semester where she intends to continue

her study in the musical arts.“My tone needs to be more rounded and

confident,” said Sun.Kuvakos, on guitar, played two songs,

one by an anonymous artist, “Se lo M’accorgo,” and Thelonius Monk’s “Round Midnight.”

Kuvakos revealed that his lack of other extracurricular activities like sports led him to play the guitar for the past eight years.

Kuvakos said “just being here at school everyday,” helped him on his guitar playing in preparation for the recital.

ARC student Gabe Catabran sang a piece by Eric Coates titled “Who is Sylvia?,” and Giulio Caccinis’ “Amarilli, mia Bella,” joined by Barchinoy Karamatova’s piano playing.

Karamatovas performed for both Cata-bran and Sun’s set.

Recitals were held every day for one week, from the end of April to May 4.

Music holds one week of recitalsPERFORMANCES BEGAN IN APRIL AND LASTED THROUGH MAY 4, FEATURING DIFFERENT STYLES OF MUSIC

By Miranda [email protected]

While students were on spring break, the ceramics department was assem-bling and hanging the new mural that was sculpted last semester in the American River College science department.

Linda Gelfman teaches Art 398, the class where the mural is made before it is assembled and hung in the spring.

This class is offered every two years and has a beginning ceramics prerequisite.

“We’re talking about the drought and how water is within everything,” said Gel-fman.

The mural “Rain Dance” is a sequence of five bass relief style sculptures, which is a sculpting technique in which other design elements are just barely more prominent than the predominantly flat background.

The first bass relief sculpture is conser-vation, the second is evolution, the third is the cycle of life, the fourth is the water cycle and the fifth is balance in nature.

Barbara Baccei was also a ceramics student last semester and worked signifi-cantly on the conservation rain drop.

“(‘Rain Dance’ is) on different aspects of the natural, lived-in environment and we explored a series of topics and we let the topics inform our art,” said Baccei.

Nicholas Batchelor worked on Balance of Nature. He has been a ceramics student for the last two years and spoke about how they were split into groups of four or five to work on the mural.

He also assisted in finishing the glazing this semester because there was a lot left-over after the fall semester.

Gabriel Mendoza, who worked on evo-lution, spoke about putting in extra hours to fine tune many things on this mural.

“It gives us a sense of pride,” said Men-doza.

Both men agreed on how cool it was to have their artwork permanently up at their college campus.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to look at your art and know its going to be there forever,” said Batchelor.

Although “Rain Dance” is the largest mural in the science department there are also other birds and fish displayed all over leading up to it.

‘Rain Dance’ mural dedicated in scienceSTUDENT ART INSTALLATION WAS MADE IN A CLASS AND HUNG ON THE WALLS OVER SPRING BREAK

Mary-Ann Myers / [email protected] Kuvakos plays ‘Round Midnight,’ a song by American jazz musician Thelonius Monk. Kuvakos played two songs at the recital, and has been playing guitar for eight years.

Miranda Bolar / [email protected]‘Rain Dance’ is a ceramic mural made by students in Art 398, and was made with the thought that ‘water is in everything,’ according to professor Linda Gelfman.

Miranda Bolar / [email protected]‘Rain Dance’ was installed over spring break in the hallways of the science buildings.

Arts&CultureMay 6, 2015

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Student-run fashion show hits the runwayBy John [email protected]

Models wearing garments inspired by nature and ancient Greece were front and center Friday at Aura, American River Col-lege’s 17th annual fashion show.

The fashion show utilized the work of 17 designers in the Collection Design and Production class taught by Diane Grant-Toscano.

Bonnie Spencer, the chair of the fash-ion department, described the process by which the students design their collec-tions.

“They start with a sketch. They dream it, draw it and create it,” said Spencer. “Every-thing you see is completely made by them.”

Catherine Zeunges designed the “On the Beach” collection, which was noted by its use of blue and green colors and floral pat-terns.

Elena Fuentes designed a collection for children. Show director Brittany Picard described what influenced the dresses.

“Elena’s collection says children’s clothes don’t have to be so predictable,” said Picard. “It is inspired by nature and ancient Greece.”

Also inspired by nature is the “Bloom” collection designed by Sarah Flecklin.

“Bloom was inspired by herbal tea bags

and the environment,” said Picard. “It is based in creating the look of a tea bag for women aged 18 to 30.”

Standing out from the crowd was Debo-rah Dano’s collection “Presence.”

“‘Presence’ captures the immediate pleasures of life,” said Picard. “She seeks to celebrate the most important and unique things about a garment: the person wear-ing it.”

Dano described the process of making her collection.

“I wanted to design with knit and make garments that were useable and functional,” said Dano. “They’re multipur-pose dresses that turn into blouses.”

American River College classified employee Tatyana Torgashev said she came to support Alina Zanko, one of the models.

“We want to be involved and participate on campus,” Torgashev said. “We want to support our students and the program.”

At an encore performance Friday evening, judges announced the winners. Tameka Fisher, whose collection was based off the Jamaican flag, won Best Repurpose.

Mercades Fisher Mercado’s “Midnight Prowler” collection, influenced by leop-ard and cheetah skin patterns, won Most Marketable.

Mary Ann Myers / [email protected] Veldman, a theater arts major, was one of the many ARC students who modeled the clothing made for the show. Veldman is wearing a dress made by Deborah Dano.

ANNUAL EVENT FEATURES ARC DESIGNERS AND MODELS

Scene May 6, 2015

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By Brandon [email protected]

Although American River College’s first Arbor Day cel-ebration was announced on the school’s online calendar, just one student and a small gathering of staff members were present at the small ceremony.

The first of two ginkgo tree saplings was planted in the quad near the construction of the student services build-ing.

The roots of the ginkgo tree grow down into the earth rather than sideways which won’t destroy the sidewalk like the tree that was formerly in its place.

The ginkgo tree is an older species of tree. “I like it because dinosaurs used to eat it,” said ground-

skeeper Brenda Baker. “Because of that it (the ginkgo spe-cies) evolved to be disease free and insect free because it has been around for so long nothing can attack it. It has built up a tolerance for all of that.”

Baker made the decision of which tree the school would plant as part of the celebration.

“I’m part of the tree advisory committee and also a groundskeeper and the tree advisory committee left it up to me,” said Baker. “I have been here for 12 years so I kind of know what it needed.”

Don Reid, the chair of the campus tree advisory com-mittee, has worked at ARC for 18 years.

Reid gave a speech as to why Arbor Day was finally be-ing observed by ARC.

“With the loss of the huge oak that was over in the por-table village area, a lot of us started talking about how we were going to save that wood, and that got a lot of us talk-ing about the trees on campus,” Reid said.

Celebrating Arbor Day is the second step ARC has un-dertaken in gaining Tree Campus recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation.

The first step was to create a campus tree advisory com-mittee.

The next step will be to create a tree inventory on Google Maps where students can see what trees are on campus and how many there are.

“It’s a really good tree for cities,” said Reid, who has a ginkgo tree at home.

Brandon Nelson / [email protected] members of ARC’s groundskeeper staff help plant a ginkgo tree outside of the counceling center. The ginkgo was chosen specifically because it’s roots grow straight down, as opposed to growing sideways and possibly damaging the new sidewalk.

Arbor Day observed at ARC

Grads: Grandma was ‘cooler than me’

begun taking classes at California State University, Sacramento.

“Sometimes she was a little bit cooler than me and had more friends.”

Brown said that most of her friends at ARC call her grandma because that’s how her granddaughter refers to her at all times.

Brown’s husband and Childers’ grandfather, Dean Brown, passed away in 2011, after a four year period of health issues. It was some time after that Brown, who had worked at WalMart for decades, told her granddaughter, who was newly enrolled at ARC, that she wanted to go back to school.

Brown, who raised Childers along with Dean, said that her granddaughter was especially close with Dean, and “broke down” when she found out he had died.

“She was in Disneyland with her dance team when he passed, because he wouldn’t let her stay, even though we knew it was close,” said Brown.

“She went down there, and we had made a pact that if he passed away while she was gone, I wouldn’t tell her. I met her at the bus and had to tell her.”

Childers said learning to take care of themselves and each other was a transition, but being together at school brought them closer, adding that they communicate in a way that is unlike any other grandmother and granddaughter relationship she has seen.

Now, Childers works with a clean-

ing company to help pay the bills, and is determined to take care of her grandmother the way she took care of everyone else around her.

“She took care of so many people all of her life,” Childers said. “It’s my turn to take care of her now. If that means I have to go to school and work, and bust my ass, that’s fine.”

Childers wants to be a middle school math teacher, explaining that it’s an age where she feels children can still be grasped and engaged.

“It was then that everything clicked with me. I feel like if it clicks for you, you have an obligation to help other people click onto it as well,” said Childers.

Going to school without Brown has been a process for Childers, who said the first two weeks at Sacramento State were especially difficult, and included a lot of phone calls between classes.

For Brown, who is finishing her time at ARC with an associate degree in social sci-ences, the next step is online classes with Phoenix University, and the ultimate goal being to get her master’s in psychology so that she can eventually volunteer as a counselor for hospice care, because “they were really good to me when my husband was sick and through his death.”

Childers believes that kind of urge to care for others is emblematic of her grandmother’s personality.

“She’s never done anything but help people.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

TREE ADVISORY COMMITTEE DECIDED TO PLANT A GINKGO TREE NEAR COUNSELING SAPLING TO CELEBRATE

By John [email protected]

At 17-years-old, she has al-ready appeared on the “Today” show, been published in The New York Times, been featured in Teen Vogue and is a writer for The Huffington Post.

This year, Justina Sharp has added another item to her long resume: American River College student.

Sharp says her long journey to notoriety began when she started a fashion blog at age 13.

“In 2010, I started my fash-ion blog. I was 13 and I basically started because my mom said I wouldn’t do it,” said Sharp. “I had to prove her wrong.”

Sharp said she was interested in fashion from when she was little.

“I loved Tyra Banks and I want-ed to be like her,” said Sharp. “I dressed up as Tyra in the fourth grade for career day. Some of my friends were models and I start-ed to see the way their industry works. Then I thought ‘I don’t want to be a model. I want to be in charge.’”

Sharp updated her blog, A Bent Piece of Wire, for several years until she tweeted at Andrew Bev-an, the style editor of Teen Vogue, and got a response.

Bevan subsequently contacted her about being featured in an article about “small town fashion bloggers.”

“I answered the questions, for-got about it, and then all of a sud-den I had this issue of Teen Vogue in my hands with the picture,” said Sharp. “I was like ‘whoa, this is legit.’”

Sharp then reached out to The Huffington Post after seeing that they were looking for teenage writers.

“They were like ‘yeah, sure you can come do that for us,’ so I did and I think my first story for them was on my photoshoot for the Disney Channel for ‘Teen Beach Movie,’” said Sharp.

Sharp wrote a piece for The Huffington Post about her thoughts on the image that the Barbie dolls present to women and girls.

“Every once in a while the ar-gument comes up that Barbie is affecting body image, like of teen-age girls,” said Sharp. “I feel that’s much more of an adult projected thing.”

Sharp was then contacted by a publicist for Mattel, who put her in touch with The New York Times.

Her opinion piece, “Barbie Is a

Positive Role Model, and a Leg-end,” was published on Feb. 12, 2014. In it, Sharp said that Barbie actually improves the self-esteem of young women.

“She shows little girls that they can do it all, even become an as-tronaut if they please, and do it all in sparkles,” said Sharp in the Times.

NBC’s “Today” contacted Sharp after the article’s publication, asking if she would appear on the show to discuss her views with Jewel Moore, a teenage girl from Virginia who circulated a peti-tion to Disney for them to create a “plus-sized princess.”

“I think that the idea behind the story was that we were going to argue on national television at like 9 o’clock in the morning, and it just didn’t happen,” said Sharp. “We made sense, we made sense to each other. We came some-where together. What she’s say-ing makes sense, we’re not going to fight.”

Justina was homeschooled by her mother and graduated high school at the end of her junior year. This is her second semester

at ARC.Sharp said she likes the free-

dom provided by writing regu-larly for The Huffington Post, on whose website she has provided coverage of the Kids’ Choice Awards.

In Los Angeles, she had the opportunity to speak with Josh Hutcherson of “The Hunger Games” fame among others. Sharp said she tries to ask more relatable questions than other journalists covering young adult stars.

“For that ten minutes we’re talking, I’m your homie. We are friends,” said Sharp. “I don’t care about your new TV show. I don’t care about what movie you’re in right now or about what designer you’re wearing. Just tell me about you.”

Sharp said she has plenty of help from her parents in her en-deavors. Her father drove her to Los Angeles for the Kids’ Choice Awards and her mother, Heike, accompanied her to New York for the “Today” interview.

“We spend a lot of time togeth-er on a daily basis, so these trips

are like a working vacation for me,” said Heike. “Justina is where she is on her own volition … So, when she goes to New York or Los Angeles to work, she knows what she is doing.”

Justina is not only an entertain-ment journalist and blogger. She is also a California ambassador for 4-H Club, a youth organiza-tion run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Heike said she wanted to get her children involved in 4-H Club because of the atmosphere pro-vided by the organization.

“It is really a family program.

We began homeschooling, and became more heavily involved,” said Heike. “I like that it is inclu-sive. There are wonderful people involved who share their talents.”

Justina said that the 4-H club gives her different experiences from her life in media.

“People see my fashion blog and think I’m super glamorous,” said Justina. “I’m a camp director. I spend a week in the mountains with 10-year-olds. We get really muddy and it’s funny because I’m just like ‘I would never go out in public.’”

SceneMay 6, 2015

“Don’t drink water.”

-JASVIRDHALIWAL Computer Engineering

CAMPUSPU SEL“I stop taking baths.”

-ALEXVASILENKO Computer Science

“I save water regardless.”

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“I don’t really use a lot of water to begin with.”

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What are you doing to save water during the drought?

Teen blogger is looking SharpARC’S JUSTINA SHARP, 17, IS PUBLISHED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE HUFFINGTON POST AND TEEN VOGUE

Courtesy of Jusitina SharpARC student and fashion blogger Justina Sharp, right, is pictured here with “The Hunger Games” star Josh Hutcherson at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards.

ON THE WEBGo to Justina’s fashion blog to read her writings about clothing, TV shows and

interviews with celebrities like Rebecca Black, Luke Bilyk and more at

abentpieceofwire.blogspot.com

See news story on cover

By Miranda [email protected]

American River College re-cently enacted a policy encour-aging new students to meet with a counselor after partici-pating in an online orientation so the new student and the counselor can create a student education plan, or iESP.

This is a great step in the right direction, but students who are not new to the campus are often unaware that such a program is in place. With delays and stress abounding in trying to meet with a counselor, they often find themselves out of the loop in their own educa-tion.

As media continues to push into the age of the Internet, a shift towards an online form submission system or chat-based session with a coun-selor would be a fantastic route for ARC to pursue in mitigating the hassles that currently exist in the system.

The counseling department currently has no plans on expanding counselor availabil-ity via online capabilities that could include quick-question chats with counselors, which is an overlooked option in an effort to improve the situation without busting the budget.

Students find it difficult to meet with a counselor on cam-pus to iron out their educa-tional goals with the current systems in place, which only gives students the option to book appointments sometimes months in advance or the op-tion to drop-in and hope they can be seen within several hours - literally.

A student population totaled at 28,175 according to school records as of spring 2014, is not helping matters.

Counselors are limited in availability for appointments

due to the very disproportion-ate student-to-counselor ratio, which is a problem that may only be solved via the finan-cial means of the school itself to hire the extra staff and even expand the physical dimensions of the counseling office.

Online offers a compro-mise. More staff may be neces-sary, but the lack of needing to expand operational space will make a difference in cost and improve response times to stu-dents in need of counseling as-sistance.

Can you imagine how much of a hassle it would be to find out that you weren’t on track for graduation after being told you were by a previous coun-selor, and then being unable to set up a timely appointment to discover the problem before it became one?

The faceless voice on the other end of the phone when trying to schedule an a ppointment at ARC often tells students that there are no more appointments available and to try again in two weeks. In busier times of the semester, it becomes a game of rinse and repeat.

Students in such situations end up facing disheartening news that could have been avoided with a better, more accessible system in place.

A large portion of paperwork that students need to fill out on their road to a counselor ap-pointment could be managed in an online system that would facilitate the process, giving counselors access to student information (at their request) and allowing them to help ad-vise students via secure chat communication.

A paperless option is another route, allowing students to fill out and submit paperwork on-line with a simulated program that allows students to input

needed classes for their major like some of the larger state colleges have when applying.

An early-form of online coun-seling currently exists in the Los Rios district via distance counseling appointments, but these are limiting in that a student must have access to a webcam in order to conduct the scheduled appointment with the counselor.

The stress of missing gradua-tion deadlines or getting mixed up in the plethora of classes at

ARC should not be something a student dreads over while attending college.

While it is ultimately the stu-dent’s responsibility to man-age their education, the course catalog listings for graduation requirements can be daunting to any student not versed in the expertise of campus coun-selors, which is why they are so thankfully relied upon for their assistance.

Work schedules, compli-cated class arrangements, and

obligations outside of school make it difficult for students to schedule appointments several weeks out or be able to drop-in without any idea of how long they will have to wait.

A push for more interactive counseling sessions via on-line can help solve the issue of overworked counselors and underserved students in one fell swoop, and is worth a con-versation as ARC continues its commitment to higher learning in the 21st century.

Opinion May 6, 2015

Students need electronic counselingWITH THE CLICK OF A BUTTON, STUDENTS COULD BE ASSISTED WITH PICKING CLASSES

At almost every level of higher education, students com-plain that tuition costs are too high, class materials cost too much and it is otherwise too costly to live while put-ting in the work to get that college degree.

The bottom line is that spending money on tattoos, ciga-rettes and other luxuries not essential to the completion of your education when you don’t have the money reeks of recklessness.

Free college and credit can be beneficial but taking per-sonal responsibility for financial shortcomings is the hall-mark not only of being a responsible student, but of being a future leader.

Many students, including those here at American River College, have a problem with spending their money in a way that is consistent with the lifestyle that comes with the choices they have made.

It’s no secret that pursuing a college education in hopes of a more financially and intellectually prosperous future can present income challenges along the way, but accept-ing these roadblocks and overcoming them is a decision that every student must make if they are to succeed.

According to Nationwide Insurance, 40 percent of col-lege students’ spending is discretionary, meaning money spent on nonessential items such as technology, enter-tainment and cosmetics.

Part of what makes a college student successful is the ability to stretch their dollar in order to afford the often exorbitant prices associated with college.

In other words, students must be willing to make sac-

rifices in order to graduate. This is no different from achieving and setting goals for anything in life.

The journey to this destination is enriched by the pit-falls that we overcome in the process.

Yes, this means possibly giving up the amenities that others may enjoy in order to afford that math textbook.

While many students take this knowledge to heart and make the necessary cutbacks, others find themselves ded-icating money towards other, less productive, means.

Frankly, it is difficult to take the financial complaints of students seriously and from a state of empathy when those same students show up the very next day to school with a new phone, pack of cigarettes or a fresh new set of tattoos.

Not enough students understand the sacrifices that, for better or worse in our modern world, must be taken on the road through college.

This irresponsibility is simply not a surprise anymore when you consider that total outstanding U.S. student debt was $1.16 trillion as of March 2015, according to the Federal Reserve of New York.

While students certainly share blame for their own fi-nancial decisions, the fact that this debt has been increas-ing for the past 45 years leads one to believe that the time has come to question if the institutions set in place prior have failed us.

Perhaps in our education system’s rush to teach us the dry and straightforward facts about history and math, it has forgotten that one of the most important things for

an adult to not only learn but exercise, is financial literacy.Elementary school curriculum does not normally con-

sist of educating young pupils on the importance of cer-tificates of deposit in generating residual wealth.

High school courses are not stringent on teaching stu-dents on the financial flexibility and prosperity that can come with investing in stocks.

Even at an institution of higher learning such as Ameri-can River College, where financial literacy would be of ut-most importance, there is no significant outreach to stu-dents to educate and enrich them in this endeavor.

ARC offers only one course in financial literacy, ECON 320, which teaches students how to analyze financial af-fairs for lifelong decision making, according to the course description.

One course at one of the most populated community colleges in the state is not enough. Short dialogues on financial sustainability in the educational sector are not enough.

Focusing on financial literacy advocacy for young Amer-icans as soon as they leave the cradle is an important step in remedying the problem, but at the end of the day col-lege students must take accountability in how they spend what they have in order to ensure their ultimate success.

That new iPhone or makeup kit endorsed by the hot new celebrity of the week can wait because unlike both of these, a college degree and the experiences that come with it last a lifetime.

CURRENTEDITORIAL MAKE YOUR MONEY LASTSTUDENTS RECEIVING FINANCIAL AID FOR ATTENDING COLLEGE SHOULD CUT DOWN ON DISCRETIONARY SPENDING

Cameron Weaver / [email protected] shift towards an online form submission system or chat-based session with a counselor would go a long way in expanding ARC’s current capabilities of assisting students with their educational goals.

Michele Lutche, center, explains her sculpture, “Man Eater,” to Brianna Hulce and Renee Miller. Lutche, who won the first place award, described her work as a series of intimidating creatures.

“Oceania” by Elaina Creedon. “I started it just for fun, but as I worked the tex-tures, I saw nature and I incorporated ocean-type elements,” said Creedon.

“Mother” by Daniel Dunivani. According to Dunivani, the leather purse sculpture is based on the many iconic Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child, but with an alien twist.

Student artists compete

“Nature Versus Technology” by Julya Matsakyan. Matsakyan said the ink and water color drawing is about nature. “Even though it looks like nature, if you look closely it is really mechanical,” said Matsakyan.

Photos by Mary Ann Myers

ON THE WEBTo read the full story on the Kaneko Gallery’s student

exhibit, go to the Arts and Culture section of arcurrent.com

vol. 66 edition 12

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