Spotlight - Spring 2015

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Ja-Que Billingsley gets ready to lift weights at the PCC gym.

Justin Clay/Spotlight

LEG ON, GAME ON story by LUIS RODRIGUEZ photos by JUSTIN CLAY

asually leaned against a filing cabinet is one of the legs belonging to a PCC football player. The leg has been there where the player left it almost three months ago.

“That’s his leg, he’s got three,” said head coach Fred

Fimbres.

The leg is a prosthetic limb and belongs to Ja-Que Billingsley, who plays defensive line.

A wrestling accident in his freshman year at Northside High School in Warner Robins, Georgia, left Billingsley’s right leg amputated below the knee.

A common wrestling move would forever change his life when it left his leg pinned under his opponent with so much force it dislocated his knee cap, tore every ligament and, worst of all, severed an artery.

“I had to have an emergency bypass the next day,”

said Billingsley.

While this would shatter the morale of most athletes, Billingsley didn’t let the injury crush his spirits. While in the hospital, both coaches and friends visited him and assured him he would play football again.

“When I found out I had a chance to play football, I was pretty happy,” he said. “The love of the game was still in me. I was ready for it. I started working out, lifting weights and exercising with them every day.”

At nearly six feet tall and 300 pounds, Billingsley is not a player to be underestimated. He’s considered to be the strongest player on the team physically.

Once he gets on the field his opponents realize how hard he hits.

“I can do anything that anyone with two legs can do,” said Billingsley.

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Billingsley even went on to represent the United States at the Junior Paralympics International Championships this past August, competing in shot put, discus and power lifting.

Coach Fimbres was already in the process of recruiting Billingsley and later learned about his status as an amputee. He played so well on video that Fimbres had to go back and rewatch the video but couldn’t tell that he was working with a prosthetic.

“He’s a neat kid. He’s got a great outlook on everything,” said Fimbres. “He’s just a pleasure to be around. I have to imagine that his set of circumstances impact that but he’s just Jaque, a guy on our team.”

When Billingsley comes into the office and asks his coach why he’s smiling, Fimbres replied, “You know Jaque, I never thought that in my life I would have to ask a player or anyone ‘hey, you need to come pick your leg up out of my office. ‘” Billingsley is the first known football player to play with a prosthetic limb at PCC. Among his friends and teammates in the GM building, Billingsley appears to be another athlete hanging out between classes and before

“HE’S NOT SCARED ; HE’S NOT TIMID ABOUT IT. HE JUST GOES FOR IT” practice.

“I believe he’s a hard worker and he’s strong and explosive,” said Ronald Cardenas, an offensive lineman. “I just thought about me complaining about ankle injuries and stuff and him working like that…it motivated me to push myself even more. He’s just another player. It doesn’t bother us, we don’t mention it.”

All around, his reputation seems to rest with his aggression on the field and not about his leg.

Quarterback Trevor Hampton reiterated Billingsley’s strong work ethic.

“He’s very physical for having a prosthetic leg,” said Hampton. “He’s not scared; he’s not timid about it. He just goes for it.”

Unfortunately, an injury early on in the season forced Billingsley to

Photo contributed by Daniel Lottes the bench.

“He’s a big strong powerful guy,” said Fimbres. “It hurt us a little bit not having him this year.”

Luckily his prowess doesn’t exist only on the field, as Billingsley is also a serious student.

“He’s a good student, he studies hard,” said fellow teammate and classmate Steven Lang.

Billingsley also represented the U.S. in the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

“Usually [we experienced] different types of accidents but we all come back to compete and do what we love,” he said.

Billingsley aspires to one day become a coach in the Paralympics where he will be able to help young people who have a desire to get in the game with their own set of challenges.

Despite the setback presented with losing a limb, it set up another major comeback.

Ja-Que Billingsley shows off his big smile in front of PCC Robinson Stadium. Justin Clay/Spotlight

TRADITIONS AND FLORA TRASCEND GENERATIONS AND NATIONS Statue of Buddha in the Storrier-Stearns Japanese Garden. Mick Donovan/Spotlight

He was born the son of a landscaper and a carpenter. The man had immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s.

In 1935 he began working on what would be the pinnacle of his career.

He had worked arduously for seven years. Every day he would move stones one by one and place them in precisely the right spot. He would place the flowers individually so they could reach the sun and the water and create a tranquil environment. He put the teahouse together with his own two hands and he planned the entire garden in his mind. Not a single note on paper detailing where a tree or a plant should go. He loved his work.

The bombs struck. The planes crashed.

The country was at war.

Kinzuchi Fujii had worked diligently to create a beautiful Japanese garden for two wealthy homeowners and was only trying to make a living. That didn’t matter though. He was arrested in 1941, and for the remainder of World War II he spent his days in an internment camp in Gila, Arizona.

The Storrier-Stearns Japanese Garden is a gem hidden in plain view. It sits in the middle of a suburban neighborhood in South Pasadena. The owners, Jim and Connie Haddad, have worked most of their adult lives maintaining and rebuilding the beautiful landscape.

On the last Sunday of every month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Haddads open their garden to the public for a suggested donation. They love the garden and feel that it has a lot to offer to the community at large. They hope that it will someday soon become a center for cultural and environmental learning.

“We’ve had musical performances

here. We’ve had demonstrations of origami here. A lot of Japanese music. We have people who write Japanese poetry,” Connie said. “We want this to be a cultural institution.”

It wasn’t always a tranquil garden where people could come and enjoy the music, readings and flowers. It was at one

point an enormous estate that spanned seven city lots complete with a three-story Georgian mansion. The Storrier-Stearns were a very wealthy couple who had moved to Pasadena in the early 1900s and bought the property. It was they who hired Fujii to build the garden for them.

In 1950, the Storrier-Stearns died, and the property went up for auction. Jim’s mother had been selling artwork to the couple for some time. She knew they owned two Louis XIV chairs and when she heard about the auction, she came to acquire them. She didn’t expect to walk away that day with a deed to a house and a large piece of land.

The land was being auctioned off in sections by lot but the two lots that the mansion sat on did not sell so they

By Mick Donovan

changed it to a joint sale. Another bidder thought he would steal the set for $30,000 but Jim’s mother didn’t take to his smug attitude and outbid him at $30,500 and that settled it.

“They didn’t waste any time, when I stepped out of the Rose bowl with my diploma, WHAM! I was drafted.”

Jim’s mother was the person that all of the galleries went to in order to acquire California paintings. She dealt mostly with art, so when she got ahold of a three-story mansion she thought the first floor would have made a perfect place for a gallery. The city did not agree. Instead, they planned for the lot to be turned into condominiums, so the the mansion got torn down. It would have been the first California Artist Museum.

It would be some time before Jim and his wife Connie would inherit the property. Right out of graduation from high school, Jim was drafted into the war.

“They didn’t waste any time, when I stepped out of the Rose Bowl with my diploma, WHAM! I was drafted,” Jim said.

When Jim got back, he was attending

Flowers by the pond. Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight

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UCLA and planned on transferring to fessor of landscape design at Cal Poly, the Santa Barbara but missed the admissions Haddads have turned a fading piece of deadline. He tried going back to UCLA but history into a present-day cultural treasure. missed the deadline again. So he went back It may not be the exact same garden that to what was at the time Pasadena Junior Fujii originally designed and built, but it College to keep his G.I. Bill going. holds a pretty close flame, Connie and Jim He had only intended on taking a writ- said. ing class, but in that romantic fashion that “The Storrier-Stearns sent him [Fujii] seems to only exist in movies, he ended up back to Japan to buy many things that falling in love instead. are in the garden still,” Connie said. “He “I decided, ‘I think I’d like to take an went back there and his brothers built the English class.’ A writing class, that seemed teahouse, and they sent it over here in secgood. And so that’s what I signed up for, tions and reconstructed it here. The thing dog, and found it hard to find any place and so, I went in to the class, I sat down is, in 1981, it burned down.” to live, we actually for a while lived in this and I looked at the doorway and there Jim spent about four years reconstruct- teahouse. It was quite cold. You can only do she was, just like that,” Jim said as Connie ing the teahouse according to the original that when you’re very young. At that time, turned red and a tear rolled down her plans. It was a long and arduous task but the rice paper was there, and I do rememcheek. they felt it was something worth doing. ber how beautiful it was.”

In 1985, Jim’s mother died, and Jim With the exception of a slightly higher The Haddads had lived on the properand his wife inherited the house and the ceiling and no rice paper on the shoji ty for some time, but it wasn’t until after the death of Jim’s mother that they had to decide what to do with the place. Real estate agents tried to buy the property from the Haddads, but to no avail. It wasn’t that they had necessarily planned to rebuild the place, Jim just didn’t want to think about it.

“It dawned on me [to sell the house] because I must’ve had every real estate salesman in Southern California here after my mother died,” Jim said. “And I kept telling them, ‘I don’t want to think about it right now. I don’t need to think about it right now. I’ve got too many other things to think about, go away.’ Eventually they finally stopped coming.”

Eventually, the couple decided to rebuild the place. They just didn’t realize how big of an undertaking it would be to do so.

“We just didn’t think it out very well,” Connie said with a chuckle. “We just thought ‘we have this gorgeous garden’. It Jim and Connie Haddad stand in front of their garden pond. just never dawned on us to sell it. It was Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight this wonderful, wonderful nightmare. And also it never dawned on us, how much garden. screens, the teahouse is an exact replica. money and how much time it would take, The place had fallen into almost com- The teahouse is also now fireproof. how much effort, and, how old we would plete disrepair. Most people would probaThe Haddads have considered putting get in the process. Those were all things we bly have sold the property or torn it down, rice paper back on the shoji screens, but didn’t think about. So here we are now, 29 but Jim and Connie decided to rebuild the they enjoy the view of the gardens from years older than when you [Jim] inherited place and restore it to its original glory. within the teahouse too much, and it the garden…We got in so deep there was “It was a daunting job. The ponds were brings back memories for them. no turning back.” dry and cracked and didn’t hold water,” “There’s something about the definition, To the common eye it wouldn’t appear Connie said. “The paths were all torn up. the lines the Shoji give to the scenery; so, but the current landscape artist, Uesugi, It was in bad bad shape and so it was only somehow it seems to enhance the whole has mentioned that where the garden when Uesugi came on that we really started thing. We just love looking out through stands now is only phase one of seven in its making progress.” them,” Connie said. “When we were first reconstruction. The Haddads themselves With the help of Takeo Uesugi, a pro- married, and had no money and had a have many more plans for the garden as

well, including having the walkways to the top of the hill redone so that they are useable. She reminisced over the beauty of the mountains from when she was in high school and noted how she’d like to be able to see them from the garden.

“That’s one thing I miss here. We can’t see the mountains,” Connie said. “That to me is so crucial. I remember when I went to Pasadena City College, I lived in La Cañada, and going home on the bus, I would sit and lean my head against the glass and watch those mountains turn from the pinks, peaches and violets—all the beautiful colors. And I want, hopefully I’ll still be here, but I want to be able to see those mountains. I also would like to be able to go up there and watch the moon and the sun.”

The Haddads have spent a considerable amount of time and money on the garden and they have done it all with love.

Neighbors or passersby have often tried to imagine what it must be like to have such a beautiful garden, but it often isn’t what they think it would be.

“People come here and they say ‘Oh, this is so lovely. I bet you just sit here all day,’” Connie said.

“We want to hit ‘em with a crowbar.” Jim said with a hearty laugh.

“You never know until you’re in somebody else’s job what’s involved,” Connie said. “I work at this all the time…it just consumes you…so it’s a matter of time and effort.”

And the Haddads have worked on the garden full-time since they started 29 years ago. They don’t regret it though and they want to give back to the community through their garden by turning the place into a cultural institution, which they feel

the city would greatly benefit from.

“We are applying for a conditional use permit to operate as a cultural institution,” Connie said. “We want to put as much emphasis as we can on cultural and educational things.”

As if it isn’t enough that the Haddads have kept a piece of history alive and now want to give more to the city by creating a place of learning, they don’t throw anything away. They are very environmentally conscious and recycle pretty much everything. All of the waste from the gardens is turned into compost and the water is collected from the rain.

The garden has had quite a few hands take care of it, but it is a true testament to Japanese culture and tradition, and to the man that originally brought it to life.

“He [Fujii] was a remarkable person,

Kinzuchi Fujii (left) and Charlers Storrier-Stearns (top right) pose in front of the house with two workers.

Courtesy Photo Storrier-Stearns Japanese Garden

“People come here and they say ‘Oh, this is so lovely. I bet you just sit here all day.’” because, we’re not quite sure of the extent of his training, but he was brilliant and he was creative and he did this whole thing out of his head,” Connie said. “It’s interesting because we have the [original] plans for the teahouse, but there is not a scrap of paper showing the plan for the garden.

That just amazes me.”

Panorama of the garden and tea house.

Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight

dark, detailed yet subtle—like Disney and Dali had made art together.

Her work mainly consists of skeletons, flowers and anatomy, such as hearts and eyes.

She feels that those subjects not only represent the

she said. “I work on it every day, it’s a passion.”

Not only does the pressure help her make art every day but it also forces her to go through learned trial and error and gives her experience. She claims to not be technologically savvy and only uses Instagram because of its’ ease of use. She doesn’t like any other form of social media.

“I can share my art on Instagram and someone in Germany could see it and make a comment, or just like it.”

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@kathleensanders

fter the phony shutthousands of people are clickter noise sounds and ing the little heart icon, showshe saves a photo to ing their affection for what is her phone, she hits the ‘Share’ posted by the artist. button. The photo zips through Most artists would cut off lines of code an ear to gain and lands 35,000-plus Story by inside a virtual followers on Billy Beans Skelly online gallery Instagram.

Photos by of art. There Before Kathleen Nagisa Mihara are limitless Sanders could and Billy Beans Skelly options she legally have can choose an alcoholic to adjust her beverage, she phone photographs but she has gained such acclaim on the doesn’t choose any. She chooses social media site. to leave it as it is and lets the “I want my art to affect world experience a picture of someone,” Sanders said. “I want her art with no filters. you to like my art.”

Moments later, dozens and Sanders’ art is a blend of sometimes hundreds or even the real and surreal, vivid yet

complexity of life and death but the contrast and philosophical nature of both as well.

“Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” she said of her style, referencing the Finley Peter Dunne quote.

Sanders’ first exposure to the world came when she posted three paintings on Instagram.

Then people just started sharing her work, something she didn’t even know could happen.

“Whoa, these people really do this?,” she asked.

Since Sanders started showing her work in late 2013, she has gained thousands of followers—a trend that continues.

She feels the attention gives her confidence and puts pressure on her to make and create more art. She also does not want to disappoint her followers so she makes sure she posts something every day.

“It forces myself to be better,”

“Facebook is the devil”, Sanders said.

Sanders can finish a piece of art and a couple of clicks later thousands of people all around the globe are admiring her work.

“I love the fact that Instagram is global,” Sanders said. “I can share my art on Instagram and someone in Germany could see it and make a comment, or just like it”.

Born and raised in Glendale, Kathleen Sanders sits behind her glasses, shy and humble.

“I love art so much,” Sanders said. “To start off with a blank canvas and to get done and everything is covered is so awesome.”

Sometimes she doesn’t sleep until a piece is finished.

Looking at her work gives the impression that she has been an artist her whole life. On the contrary, she started making art in high school.

At first it wasn’t even a subject that she was interested in.

Sanders would make “doodles” during class and only started making art because it was a high school requirement to take an art class.

She didn’t even start painting until college, colored pencils being her main medium.

Sanders is now taking multiple art classes from drawing to painting. She loves the new Center for the Arts building.

“It feels like an actual art college,” she said, adding that she “wants to work here all of the time.”

When she is not at PCC, she frequents the Norton Simon Museum and “loves” the LACMA. “She is a model student”, said Rick Osaka, Sanders’ illustration teacher. ”She is very accomplished. She has a sensitivi-

ty to solutions and is very passionate and enthusiastic.”

It’s Sanders’ drive to create something daily that has given her the experience and notoriety within the art world.

Her passion and talent make people all around the globe follow her daily art posts on Instagram.

As her Instagram page, @kathleensanders, gains followers, she gains more confidence in her work. As grueling of a task as it is, Sanders has been able to keep up with her daily posts, showing her followers the growing talent she is obtaining more and more each day.

Click, share, follow, like.

Above: Sanders art work - No name. Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight Below: Sanders posing in front of her art work./ Nagisa Mihara/Contributor Left: Sanders art piece that hangs up in the Boone Family Art Gallery at PCC. Nagisa Mihara/Contributor

S t o r y b y M at t h e w K i e w i e t + P h o t o s b y R ya n K e v i n -

GETTING BACK ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

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laying sold out arenas, touring the globe, possibly suicidal bus drivers, getting robbed on the streets of Pittsburg while looking for a pot connection… what’s not to miss?

“After we had been broken up for a while, we looked back on it and were like, ‘Hey, that was cool, let’s do that again,’” remembers bassist Daniel Brummel.

After tours with the likes of Weezer, Superdrag, and Nadasurf, super-stardom and headlining tours seemed to be the next step for Ozma. However, after years of “slave tours,” circling the country an estimated 23 times, and tension with drummer Patrick Edwards, the band was burnt out.

Ryen Slegr and Jose Galvez, both 16 years old at the time, were students at La Salle High School in Pasadena when they met 14-year-old Daniel Brummel via AOL Profiles.

In their early years they modeled their “progressive geek rock,” as Slegr would call it, or “melodic power pop,” as Brummel would say, after the likes of The Beatles and The Kinks.

“We started incorporating elements of 80s and also 90s music while it was still happening,” said Slegr. “Then 90s retro beginning on January 1st, 2000,” added Brummel.

“We had two demo tapes produced on four tracks,” explained Brummel. “Those were called Cuatro and Ocho. They had four songs and eight songs on each of them.”

Those demos included a yellow two-track cassette single containing “Loraine” on one side and “Los Angeles” on the other. The two tracks were both on their debut album and were the only two songs recorded using two-inch analog tapes.

There was only one more thing they had to do before they could get their name out, and that was actually think of a name to call themselves.

One day while taking a break from rehearsing at Edwards’ parents’ house, Slegr randomly grabbed a book off one of the book shelves. It was one of Frank L. Baum’s Wizard of Oz books. He pointed to an arbitrary spot on a random page that read, “OZMA.” The name stuck, and it was time to show the world who they were.

Star Wick was first introduced to the band in 1998 through Galvez’s

second cousin, whom she attended high school with.

Wick joined the guys for a jam session and they hit it off right away.

By 1998 Ozma released their first self-produced album, “Songs of Inaudible Trucks and Cars.” Slegr and Galvez were both students at Pasadena City College. Going to city college made scheduling easier because they could plan their classes around whatever was planned for the band, whether it was gigs or recording sessions.

“Songs of Inaudible Trucks and Cars is sort of a hybrid between four track recordings and live studio recordings,” said Brummel.

Then Weezer came along.

“It [Weezer] feels like it was a paradigm shift,” laughed Slegr. “It erased our minds of everything else.”

Ozma released “Rock and Roll

of spending their earnings on hotel rooms, they found fans to stay with by posting on their website.

After putting up with shit all day, including actual human shit in one case where someone decided to take care of business in the middle of the floor at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, the band members’ number one priority was sleep. The only problem was that their hosts were usually trying to get their own party started.

“There were some interesting sociological specimen on that tour that we got to observe first hand,” said Slegr, laughing.

Their sleeping quarters would range anywhere from college dorm rooms to the home of “working class heroes” in Houston, TX, who had a house full of just about any item you could order on QVC after 2 a.m.

This family even set up instruments

Daniel Brummel, former PCC student, left and Ryen Slegr, Part Three” in January right mess around with a keyboard. Ryan Kevin/Spotlight of 2000 and spent the next year touring Southern California before their CD and insisted on playing an audition for the band before they hit the hay. ended up in the hands of Brian Bell, After little to no layover, Ozma a Weezer guitarist. He relayed the began a club tour across the U.S. album to lead singer Rivers Cuomo.

“I ran into Rivers and tried to give with Nadasurf in September of 2001 him a copy of the CD and he said he before another huge tour with Weezer in 2002, where they played huge already had it,” Galvez said with a grin. “And he was like, ‘What? You’re venues such as the Meadowlands and hockey arenas. in Ozma? Give me your phone Unfortunately the band disnumber.’ And the next weekend we banded in 2004 before getting back were on tour with them.” together in 2006.

It’s amazing how quickly things “Touring as hard as we toured can change. One moment, Brummel is unsustainable,” said Brummel. is smoking his “one a day” cigarette, “Especially for kids as young as we living in Hedrick Hall with Slegr at were out on the road in a ‘Lord of UCLA, and working with his band the Flies’ type scenario.” mates on finishing their first studio After being in such closed quaralbum. Next thing you know, one ters, night after night, for months cigarette turned into several, the album is finished, and they are going at a time, it is both unfortunate, but completely understandable that on tour with their favorite band.

Over the course of playing rough- tensions between bandmates could arise. ly 20 shows over the next month, “We broke up because we couldn’t the guys were hauled around in a van and paid $500 a night. Instead see any other solution,” remembers

Brummel. “Looking back, I wish we hadn’t!” They released “Pasadena” in 2007 with a new drummer named Kenn Shane (formerly of the band Addison), and hit the road opening for bands such as Shiny Toy Guns and Yellowcard.

“Bands whose fans could give two shits about us,” Slegr added.

As it turns out, three years is a long time to be out of the spotlight.

Ozma had come to the realization that quite a few people had forgotten about who they were.

During their time apart, the band members explored different career paths. Slegr has worked at the Art Center College of Design for the past 10 years. He also went back to PCC in 2005 to study music theory, and again from 2008-2011 to study equal interval harmony. Galvez has remained on the road doing lights for various bands, and Brummel works as a music instructor, which is essentially the same role he had in the band, Slegr jokes. Brummel has also recently started touring with Weezer as a fifth member.

In 2014 the band released their fifth studio album titled “Boomtown.”

“The name “Boomtown” was almost symbolic for the state of our band when we recorded the album,” explained Slegr. “We were in a state of disrepair and neglect, and wanted to symbolize resurrecting the standard we had before.”

The start of the new-year looks to bring yet another fresh start for the group. Ozma will be playing a show at the Bootleg HiFi in early January.

Beyond that, touring is currently “only a vague idea,” according to Slegr. “We’re starting to come up with some basic ideas about cities we want to play, asking fans where we should go and thinking about logistics like cost and transportation.”

One of the band’s songs includes the lyric, “After the last dance, you lose your last chance.” It is hard to say whether or not Ozma has had their last dance with stardom, but the members seem to be content either way.

“Whatever happens, everything will probably be alright in the end,” Slegr concludes.

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FORGED BY ART

STORY BY JUSTIN CLAY PHOTOS BY KEELY ERNST AND BILLY BEANS SKELLY

Francis Audelo show off her jewelry at the Zephyr Lounge in Pasadena.

Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight Magazine

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itting over a workbench amid poisonous chemicals and rare crystals, sweat pouring down from the intense temperatures, as flames rage in the background, a lone student is hard at work manipulating metals into art.

This is how PCC student and designer Francis Audelo makes her living. Audelo is the creator of the jewelry line By Francis Frank, a company she started and has run herself for the past four years.

Audelo’s creative touch began at a young age.

“It started when I was a child. I was really into arts and crafts,” she said. “I always had a creative brain, so my love for making things with my hands started when I was really young and it developed into other forms of art that I got interested in.”

Audelo began her company after she was laid off from the event company she was working for.

“I was creating feather jewelry and I was getting a couple of sales here and there and then I decided to put a website online and it took off from there,” she said.

Audelo says that she went from making a few sales to it becoming her full-time job.

She describes her business as something that just randomly happened and evolved from there. The 28-year-old self-taught designer has been profiled in such publications as Forbes online and Seventeen Magazine, and she says that her pieces draw from

her roots.

She is a mix of Hispanic, Native American and Caucasian and she says that the ideas for most of her designs come from her culture and family.

“I grew up learning more about my Native American side and I draw a lot of inspiration from there,” she said.

She tries to choose designs that are more than just things that look nice.

“I’ve always been fascinated by turquoise jewelry, not just because of its beauty but it’s meaning behind it,” she said. “It’s one of the oldest amulets for protection and I love to create pieces that aren’t just visually appealing but have meaning.”

Audelo gets her materials from a variety of sources, including vendors, antique shops, and flea markets. She even goes so far as to dig for her own stones.

“I recently just got back from Nevada. There was a turquoise mine there and I was able to find a couple of stones and I took them to get shaped,” said Audelo.

Audelo explained that she loves to travel and find stones that are rare. The stones she chooses are personal to her because she finds them herself.

“I also have a connection in Brazil where I get a lot of my minerals and crystals,” she said. “Hopefully soon I’ll be able to travel to some other countries and find my own source.”

She says that her ideal retirement would be to travel the globe in search of precious minerals and stones. And she describes the overwhelming feeling of finding rare stones.

“If I find any minerals or crystals that have a brilliance to them, I will talk about it for days but no one cares because to them they’re just rocks. But to me it’s something that I’m going to be able to turn into wearable art and that excites me,” she said.

Most of her designs come to her while she’s sleeping, sometimes in dreams. Though she has been creating jewelry for a few years now, she says that she is sometimes still blown away by the idea that her work is in demand and people want to purchase the things that she makes with her own bare hands.

“Sometimes it’s insane to think that I’ll sell a piece of jewelry to someone in Europe. And to think that they’re in Europe wearing one of my pieces,” she said.

She said that the idea of Francis Audelo shows off her jewelry. one of her designs becoming a Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight Magazine possible heirloom is an idea that interests her.

The name for her line comes from a combination of her first name and the nickname given to her late father, who’s name was Francisco.

“I kind of felt like I didn’t really get to know this man, but he is an inspiration and his culture is an inspiration so I decided to take his nickname and add that to my name,” said Audelo.

She says that her father’s cultural background colors a lot of her thought process

when it comes to designing.

“He has an indigenous background and all of my work since the beginning has been inspired by indigenous culture,” she said. “It’s a great feeling to think that I’m making something for someone who might possibly pass it down to their child.”

Most people don’t know the work that goes into making jewelry and Audelo says that she likes to document the work she does so that people will know that her work is more than just putting stones on a chain.

“I’m designing and sawing metals. And working with poisonous materials with fire and getting burned. I can make a ring from start to finish in like 6 hours, which is an improvement from two days,” she said.

Audelo said she wanted her line to stand out in a market that is really saturated, so she began taking metalsmithing classes at PCC. She credits instructor Kay Yee as a major inspiration in her

“I grew up learning more about my Native Amercan side and I draw a lot of inspiration from there...”

Francis Audelo goes through the many fazes of making jewelry.

Keely Ernst/Spotlight Magazine

Francis Audelo shows off a handfull of rings she made.

Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight Magazine

development as a designer.

“She’s always pushing me to perfect my craft and that’s a great thing to have when you’re trying to make it as a professional, she doesn’t let anything slide. I’m lucky to be able to finish my program with her,”

said Audelo.

Yee, who has been an instructor in PCC’s art department for the last 33 years, said that Audelo is different from most of her students in that she had experience before taking her class and decided to come to school for the purpose of further perfecting her craft.

“By her creativity she was able to figure out how to assemble pieces and get them out there in a jewelry line. All we’re doing is giving her more technical skill,” said Yee. Yee praised Audelo for her work ethic and how serious she is about improving her skill set.

13

“She’s very hard working and very dedicated. Part of the Audelo said that she still uses her knowledge about marketing reason for that is that everything she learns here, she can see and applies it to running her design business. the implementation into her work because she knows where she “What I learned at Musicians Institute about the music knows where she’s going with the skills that she’s learning,” Yee business applies to business in general. I took all of the tools I said. “Not all student’s have that ability.” learned there and was able to apply them to my own business,” Audelo said that she is blessed to have the program at PCC’s said Audelo.

Center for the Arts because it has allowed her to grow her skills Audelo says that she came from a pretty tough upbringing. in a unique way. It also gives her an edge over other designers She lost her father at a very young age and had to endure growwho are also self-taught. ing up in poverty.

Audelo also credits Yee, who is a jewelry designer herself, for “It wasn’t ideal, and I had to grow up fast,” she said. “But I had helping her learn the ins and outs of a business as well as how to a lot of friends that pushed me to do well. I had to get myself finish and polish a presentable piece. out of that situation, so when I was a teenager I started to focus “She’s a great mentor and that studio is amazing and I am more on school and acting and not doing what other people so fortunate to be able to use all of their equipment that would around me were doing.” take me years to acquire,” said Audelo.

But the 25-year-old said that Before delving into the world she wouldn’t change anything of jewelry design, Audelo tried about her upbringing. her hand at many other art “I think if I didn’t have the forms including acting when she past that I had, I wouldn’t be was very young. here today,” she said. “It was a “I got the acting bug when I tough childhood but it made was 8 years old. I appeared in me the strongest person I Doritos commercials and Gap know.” commercials,” she said.

When not making jewelry, “I slowly exited film and Audelo likes to spend her off entered theater in high school, I days, which she says are rare, did a lot of productions there.” at home watching classic movFrom there she went into the music business. She began playies on the couch with her dog. ing guitar as a child.

She is also a fan of the great “It was a very big scene here outdoors. She said that she in Pasadena. I played bass in loves going hiking and being several terrible bands and it was in the mountains. She also fun,” she said. likes going out on the town.

Audelo said that playing in “I like to go to bars and bands never worked out but she play pool and ping pong with discovered that she had a talent friends,” she said. “That’s how I for the business side of music. like to unwind from the stress “I was really good at marketof the day.” ing and getting the word out Audelo admitted that she on an artist, and I decided was doesn’t get a break, but she going to take that to the next said that she doesn’t want one. step and actually go to school for it,” she said.

She said that she is still young She attended Musicians Instiand plans to continue working tute to work more on the busiuntil she can’t do it anymore. ness side of making music, but Francis Audelo stands in front of racks of tools in PCC’s jewelry class.

“It’s scary to think that I she said that the music business Keely Ernst/Spotlight Magazine might have to stop one day is still very male dominated. because my hands will hurt, they hurt now sometimes and I’m “It’s still really hard for a woman to step in and sadly the only 28,” she said. music industry is dying when it comes to jobs, nobody wants to Though the work is tiring and leaves little time for the kind of retire or give up their places,” she said. leisure that people her age are constantly chasing, Audelo says Though she is no longer in the music business, she still loves it that she wouldn’t have it any other way. and continues to play guitar for fun, while keeping in tough with “As crazy as it gets, I love it. I love the stressed out nights, I other musicians. wouldn’t want my life to be any different, I wouldn’t want to be “As much as I loved it, it was no longer a passion,” she said.

“Luckily I still have the knowledge and I still have a lot of friends bored at any point,” she said. in bands and if they need legal advice, they call me.”

Like her work, Audelo is constantly evolving.

PROGRAMMING THE FUTURE WORKFORCE

W

hen computer science professor Paul Wilkinson graduated from college in 1980, computers were still in their infancy and no one could imagine that they would have as prominent a role as they do in our lives today.

“A computer in every home was science fiction,” said Wilkinson.

According to Wilkinson, a computer back then filled an entire room and required special air conditioning and a staff to run it.

“Disk drives that held 500 megabytes of information were the size of small washing machines, tape drives were still in use, and programs had to be written in under 32 kilobytes of RAM,” said Wilkinson.

“The only “personal” computers around at that time were Tandy’s (Radio Shack) TRS-80, the Commodore, and Apple II,” which Wilkinson says were considered “toys” by professionals.

With almost everyone owning a computer today, whether it be a desktop, laptop, or a smart phone, the demand for computer programmers has never been higher. Despite the high demand, the United States does not produce enough programmers to meet the needs of the industry.

“In the class of 1980 there were more computer science degrees per capita than the class of 2013,” said Wilkinson.

To Wilkinson, the idea of programming is simple: it means teaching a computer to do a certain task.

“It’s translating human thought into something a computer understands, which is ones and zeroes,” he said.

According to Wilkinson, one of the major reasons that the country is not producing enough programming talent is the lack of computer science education in schools.

“The U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world as far as computer science education goes,” said Wilkinson. “In the United Kingdom they start in what would be considered our junior high.”

In a time where jobs are scarce, Wilkinson said that there is an abundance of computer science jobs. The problem is that there are not enough people in the field.

Story By Paul Ochoa

“There isn’t enough coming out to fill the void. For one graduate there is 100 jobs,” said Wilkinson.

Wilkinson also said another reason many students do not pursue computer science degrees is because of the heavy workload that is placed upon them. A computer science major is basically a double major, majoring in computer science and either physics or math.

“A computer science major has to complete the lower division requirements of a math major, all the physics of a physics major and all our stuff,” said Wilkinson.

“A computer science major graduates with

The Tandy TRS-80 was a popular home computer sold by Radio Shack in the early 80’s.

Photo Credit: Binarysequence via Creative Commons. two degrees if they play their cards right.”

Despite the intimidating course load, it is more important than ever for young people to go into the computer science field, Wilkinson said.

“Thanks to the abilities to automate there are jobs that are disappearing but other fields could not function with out a computer. Medicine, for example,” he said.

The example Wilkinson gave is a surgical procedure that was once performed on him called Gamma Knife Surgery, a radiosurgery where no surgical incision is made to expose the inside of the brain, thereby reducing the risk of surgical complications and eliminating the side effects and dangers of general anesthesia.

The “blades” of the Gamma Knife are the beams of gamma radiation programmed

to target the lesion at the point where they intersect, according to the International Radiosurgery Association.

“There are even certain surgeries that are done by computer and the only reason the surgeon is there is because they have a license to practice,” Wilkinson said.

The changing future is something that Wilkinson insists the United States needs to recognize and embrace.

“It’s either going to catch up or have serious problems,” he said. “If more money is not thrown into computer education the world here is going to have some serious issues.”

Part of the problem has to deal with different standards used for telecommunications. In telecom, there is the United States and the rest of the world.

Wilkinson said that not only does the United States pay more for slower internet but as far as cell phone manufacturers, go the U.S. has very few compared to the rest of the world despite the fact that the concept of the cell phone originated here.

“SMS (Short Message Service), also known as texting, was originated in the European Union and was available on EU mobile carriers as early as 1993,” said Wilkinson. “The first access to the mobile web was commercially offered in Finland in 1996…[and] the first commercial launch of a mobile-specific browser-based web service was in 1999 in Japan.”

While there may not be enough programmers to meet the amount of jobs that are created, that does not mean that young people are not learning to program.

Student Waverly Chin said she had never intended to major in computer science. She intended to focus on bio-engineering, but one of her engineering requirements changed her mind. Once she was exposed to computer science, the challenge of the field appealed to her.

“I enjoyed the logic, it’s like a puzzle you get to solve,” said Waverly enthusiastically. “I had a lot of fun making my program more efficient.”

Continued on page

15

WHEN THE SHOE FITS

I

16

n an age where the quality and quantity of communication and self-expression has been so greatly impacted by digital media, the road to self-discovery can be a particularly long and winding journey that often takes unexpected turns. For certain creative minds, they've known what vocation they will spend their life pursuing by the age of five. But for most that revelation is more or less stumbled upon through a series of trial and error.

Many young people passionate about the fashion industry have the notion that in order to work in fashion they have to design. However, there are so many facets of the fashion and arts industry that most young students are unaware about—so many diverse jobs and career paths so generally unknown that upon discovery they can make one think, "That’s actually a job?!”

With a heart-warming yet piercing gaze akin to a real life anime character, Ona Morgana McDonald, an alternative fashion model, show producer and PCC student, explains her approach to life: “My issue is that I like too many things and I”m

Story by Courtney Swan Photos by Ryan Kevin

Chris Fridevaux, left and Ona McDonald are fashion design students at PCC. Ryan Kevin Spotlight Magazine

not really great at anything… but if you try really hard you can get away with pretty much everything”.

Alex Gresham, an aspiring fashion buyer, former FIDM student and current PCC student sits in an outdoor cafe staring into rush hour traffic and ponders the same concept.

He insightfully adds that “we all like to say that we don’t care, but we do.”

Chris Fridevaux, an aspiring fashion branding consultant, skater and PCC freshman, has an easy going, laid back air about him but is equally enthusiastic about furthering his education, personal style, and sense of self-growth away from the idealized role of fashion designer and into his own.

Though the three fashion students have varying personal styles, they have all thought seriously about pursuing a traditional career in fashion design. Though they are also at different points in their education, they have all come significantly closer to their true niche and developed an inclination for the unconventional.

Born and raised primarily

in Japan as the daughter of a costumer, McDonald spent quite a bit of time watching her mother toil over countless theater costumes and Japanesse inspired attire. McDonald 's mother has always been her number one inspiration and ever since she was a little girl she’s been trying to “emulate her badassness.” Currently McDonald and her mother are collaborating on a brand of Japanesee “Lolita” petticoats.

McDonald is a young woman who effortlessly wears many hats (cutesy, little Lolita hats).

She began to explore beyond the design aspect of fashion in

her early college days when she started working as an alternative fashion model for a myriad of companies such as DollDelight and Tune-In-Tokyo.

Japanesse street fashion is what really sparks her interest because it “draws the eye in differently than American fashion, it really is it’s own world.”

After working for a time in New York doing alt runway shows and art shows, initially out of necessity, Ona became involved in organizing the models and flow of the shows.

With a train of thought that runs a hundred miles a minute and an eye for detail, helping produce alt fashion shows came to her naturally.

Expressive doll-like eyes, fabulous cheek bones and all, McDonald is the modern face of true joie de vivre insisting on the importance that people, particularly young college students, “continually try to do something that you’ve never done before.”

Since her early days sketching designs, trying to follow her mother’s footsteps, McDonald has not only changed career direction but picked up a few unique skills along the way as a certified welder, history major and member of the PCC fencing team.

A common theme for passionate and successful students of any kind—whether it be in the pursuit of fashion or fencing—seems to be having a well

Chris Fridevaux stands in an elevator at PCC. Ryan Kevin Spotlight Magazine

rounded board of mentors and influential people you actually listen to.

Through her eclectic experiences, McDonald has developed the viewpoint that a bachelor’s degree “isn’t a hundred percent necessary but because creative markets are so competitive the more you know the better.” She feels strongly that excelling in internship programs and gaining hands-on experience are what makes individuals better stand out.

Gresham initially took the fashion school route and stood out to the board of admissions at Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising when he wowed them with his professional look books based on minimalism and spent over a year there studying fashion design.

Though he discovered the program was not for him and that he’d much rather pursue a career as a buyer and eventually own his own boutique rather than design, Gresham felt that his venture at FIDM was “a positive experience and learned that teachers really are there to help you.” It was a process of “getting out of his own head” and learning to be more intrinsically motivated rather than always externally motivated.

Both Gresham and Fridevaux’s Fashion 21 instructor, Beth Gray, attended and graduated from FIDM. She went on to have a well-rounded and colorful career with titles ranging from creative design director, art director, licensing manager, and apparel product developer to professor.

As a designer or any of the other roles Gray has since taken on she has become a prime example of how far taking initiative in pursuing your different skill sets and interests can really get you. Having worked for a variety of companies and brands such as First Apparel CO. and Forever 21, Gray has found that getting a grasp on your personal style and life

balance (she’s also a wife and mother) is what makes a professional in the fashion industry dynamic.

Much like Gresham’s all time favorite designer Marc Jacobs, he typically rocks at least one article of women’s clothing like the white grunge-inspired ripped jeans and acid washed denim button down he was sporting during an interview.

He describes his personal style as “urban minimalism with occasional shock value” and

much like McDonald, Gresham feels that “American fashion is super safe.”

After taking multiple trips to Europe, allocating the majority of his adventure time in Barcelona, Madrid, Budapest and Paris, Gresham was moved by the stylistically liberated and

accepting European cultures.

“Americans don’t have that big of an impact on fashion; Europeans have something that make you dream,” he said.

Gresham has come to deeply value the freedom to dream and express himself after growing up in South Central where neutrals are really the only color palate and embracing being a part of the gay community can be a dangerous struggle. In his home town he faced significant opposition, randomly being

Ona McDonald shows off a Lolita-style dress. Ryan Kevin Spotlight Magazine

called a variety of derogatory terms.

“At first I got angry, but now I realize that it says way more about you than it does about me,” he said.

Gresham claims that in any

social sphere we face adversity; even in the gay community, people have expectations of how you should present yourself. But to Gresham, true luxury is personal satisfaction rather than constantly flaunting. Some of his favorite European brands and designers he one day hopes to incorporate in his boutique are Versace, Robert Cavalli and Jeremy Scott for Moschino because he feels they are “playful designers who really know how to take risks.”

Since the fifth grade, PCC first-year Chris Fridevaux takes a risk every time he skates, still to this day trying to perfect his signature trick: the frontside heel flip. Chris feels skate culture is “not just something that you do, it’s something that you live.” Always rocking a new, interesting graphic skate T, he exemplifies relaxed, modern style—taking inspiration from brands such as Diamond Supply Co. and Supreme.

Throughout high school, he was always busy with one little project or another; the genesis of his interest in fashion lying in the small-scale skate apparel brand he started casually designing with his friends in the ninth grade.

Fridevaux feels there is already a good variety in American men’s wear but he’s excited to see it grow as more color schemes, motifs and graphics work their way into mainstream dress. It’s only since his fall semester this year at PCC that Fridevaux realized he’s drawn more to the marketing and branding aspect of fashion as opposed to just creating.

Fridevaux, like McDonald and Gresham, sees the future of fashion being more influenced by the general masses and independent designers via social media.

And much like the three designers themselves, fashion “will go far, reaching new limits because there is so much raw potential to work with.”

17

Does PCC Have Pride?

Story By Shana Daloria Photos and Illustration By Keely Ernst

Impressions of LGBTQ Student and Faculty Experiences

Pasadena is so gay.

OK. Perhaps that may be overstating the point, but Pasadena, by some estimations, is indeed a gay friendly community.

Advocate.com, a national LGBTQ-interest publication, dubbed the city one of the gayest cities in a January 2014 article.

According to the magazine, LGBT welcoming churches, the election of two openly gay city officials considering a relatively small population of 138,547, a thriving lesbian book club, and two gay bars placed the city second only to Washington, D.C. Based on this ranking, it would not seem unreasonable to assume that Pasadena City College, as one of the city’s largest institutions, should also follow suit.

Compare this expectation, however, with the 2014 review of Campus Pride, a national nonprofit organization that releases an annual LGBT Friendly Campus Climate Index. PCC scored a 2.5 out of 5, below the mid-range. The study analyzes factors such as policy inclusion, support and institutional commitment, academic life, student life, housing and residence life, campus safety, counseling and health and recruitment and retention efforts. In this light—neither enthusiastic, nor deplorable—is ambivalence a fair reading of the state of LGBTQ rights at PCC? Though any college may take

part in the assessment, the index is specific to the experience of residential four-year colleges, which PCC is not. Furthermore, the website also notes that though three stars is the mid-range score, lower scores “may still be viewed as progressive based on the campus or region of the country.”

“It’s tough to be young and gay especially if you come from a lower income or religious family,” It does not, however, explain how to interpret the score based on geographic location. Most notably, Campus Pride admits that the index does not offer an examination of holistic campus attitudes and the perceptions of LGBT and Ally students on campus life.

PCC’s current student body president, a seasoned academic counselor, and the anthropology professor and head of the college’s honors program who has taught at PCC for more than 15 years have a different story to tell. Each of these individuals are on campus every day and occupy roles that directly involve them in the lives of students dealing with LGBTQ issues. The message garnered from

these individuals, who also openly identify as either gay or queer, is that PCC is a very safe place to be if only because of the many people on campus who support the LGBTQ community in both visible and subtle ways.

“We live in a bubble here at PCC,” said Jordyn Orozco, Pasadena City College’s Associated Student Body President and secretary of the campus Queer Alliance.

In no uncertain terms, the openly queer community activist and arguably the most public figure in the student community believes that “here I’m accepted.”

That the histories of LGBTQ people, like the stories of other persecuted groups in America—women, ethnic minorities, immigrants, the undocumented— are histories fraught with violence, repression and marginalization is not news to anyone. On the head-

Associated Students President Jordyn Orozco Keely Ernst/Spotlight

line news of the last few months, the issues dominating the discussion are the legislative fights over same-sex marriage and speculation over the potentially shifting stance of the Catholic Church toward same-sex couples.

“The misconception is that ‘oh, it’s the new millennium, things are better.’ Media images are changing… there’s a highly politicized debate on legislative issues and hate crimes,” explained Jeff Hupp, academic counselor, Queer Alliance faculty advisor, and one of the founding members of Safe Zones, a training program for individuals on campus who identify as allies and proactively seek education in promoting the needs of LGBTQ people as well as undocumented people. “But just because there are a few things that may be different or better [students are] still facing this lack of acceptance from family, this concern about coming out.

One of our students, her mother offered to kill her because she was a lesbian, suddenly that student was immediately homeless.”

Anthropologist and professor Derek B. Milne echoed similar concerns.

“It’s tough to be young and gay especially if you come from a lower income or religious family,” Milne said. “Our suicide rate is crazy.” According to a 2011 study conducted by the Center for Disease Control, lesbian, gay and

HONORING EINSTEINS STORY BY MICHELLE BRITO PHOTOS BY BILLY BEANS SKELLY

The sky and its celestial bodies have been, and likely always will be, the topic of Armageddon theories, the basis for advancement in technology, and the fascination of countless people with a telescope, including maverick scientists.

Most cannot identify one scientist from the recent Rosetta Mission which landed a spacecraft on a comet in November 2014. Yet Albert Einstein is recognizable by his quirky smile and frizzy hair. His life’s work changed the face of science. Household names in science have moved away from Newton and Marie Curie and onto Bill Nye and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Today’s scientists have become celebrities, too.

“A single scientist who makes a tiny contribution makes a big difference for generations,” said John Sepikas, PCC’s honors math professor. The scientists in PCC’s honors math class satisfy an insatiable curiosity with a “never quit” culture rivaling that of many heroes in myths and television. They understand that it is a “labor of passion, of love,” said Bryce VanRoss, an honors math student. “The drive comes from inside.”

The honors math class meets in the planetarium dedicated to PCC by Einstein in 1931. In one of its hemispheres sits five telescopes ranging in length from three to eight feet, globes of various sizes and pictures of planets.

In the other hemisphere is a blackboard detailing the

A plaque dedicated by Albert Einstein hangs on the PCC Planetarium wall.

Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight Magazine

quantum mechanical timeline. The room is a haven to understand math proofs, and possibly get them wrong.

Class was over but a handful of dedicated students hung back in order to continue discussing math. Among them was Tannaz Oskui, a student who wore her love for science on her sleeve in the form of a colorful sweatshirt covered with the face of a frizzy-haired Einstein.

“I wanted to be an astronaut,” said Oskui. “When I found out that I could stay on earth, that I could be a part of the team of people behind the astronaut, that’s what I wanted to do.”

Many of the students taking Sepikas’ honors course have followed a two-yearlong curriculum with the hopes of being nominated for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Student Independent Research Internship (SIRI).

The competitive internship is designed to help students make clear decisions about where they want to take their budding math careers.

“It’s a huge waste not to take advantage [of the JPL internship,] said VanRoss.

Sepikas assures the young scientists that the road toward a career in science will be long and trying. If it

and I want to be a part of that,” Oskui added.

To Oskui, who has been on the long road toward the independent research course required for the nomination, it is important to use the honor programs Transfer Admission Guarantee to get into one of the UC schools.

She plans to save money for graduate school. She aims to study cosmology and quantum mechanics.

“The kind of stuff professor Stephen Hawkins taught,” she said.

Big hopes like these are not diminished by the workload that lies ahead of her.

When asked who among them is in the running for the coveted internship, all fingers pointed to Oskui. “This is a future scientist,” said Sepikas. “ “Some people are concerned about the grade, about passing the class. I come to learn,” said Oskui. “Math is the closest thing to the language of nature.”

weren’t for their fascination with math, these students wouldn’t be there. “[It’s] the way they look at the world,” said Sepikas of what makes honors students different from his regular math students.

The students try hard simply because they are fascinated by math. “Take some math, and what [you] love doing will make sense,” said Moses Audi, an honors math student. “Math applies to life,” added VanRoss.

An orbital projector rises out of the planetarium ground.

And they Billy Beans Skelly/Spotlight Magazine understand that the subject appears intimidating to most.

“There’s a fear of math – it’s hard. It’s wrong,” said Francisco Raygoza, another honors math student. “There are multiple ways to solve a problem.”

“Every piece of technology has a team of people behind it. There are engineers, and mathematicians, and administrators,

19

The Right Frequency An RF Engineer’s work is never done STORY BY MARY NURRENBERN PHOTOS BY DANIEL VALENCIA

20

It looks like a glass closet that has a sliding door but once the door to Jacob Portukalian’s office is opened, the metal shelves containing absorbers, motherboards and two-inch sized clear plastic boxes holding computer components come into view. A square-shaped wood box sits on one of the metal shelves. The side of it reads: “Jacob, Keep standing on the Soap box, you are going to do it.”

Portukalian takes down the box and smiles slightly, holding it up.

“I am very opinionated, I go on a lot of rants,” he says. He reveals the label of the antique soapbox, explaining that people used them to get other people’s

Jacob Portukalian displays a project that he is working on. Daniel Valencia/Spotlight

attention. The aged box is filled with handwritten farewell wishes from SpaceX employees he worked with.

“I always liked his unabashed honesty, the good and the bad,” said Rob Martin, a RF engineer who worked with Portukalian at SpaceX. “He had a very well thought out opinion, he was always thinking.”

Portukalian speaks with strength but not overpowering conviction. His words are those of someone who stands firm in what he believes. He has a subtle humor and a brain and determination that never quits. The president of his own business, Skywave Design, Portukalian knows there

is no time to waste in life.

“There is a point where you are too busy for procrastination,” he said.

When he first moved to Los Angeles, Portukalian worked at various odd jobs.

He got hired to work for a company that repaired the ankle bracelets for home incarcerations and then sold them to parole officers. He took it because he was interested in doing hardware work and the job required him to take apart the bracelets to figure out what was wrong with them.

“At the time, I knew a lot less than I thought I did,” Portukalian said.

When Portukalian first entered the offices of Floor 84 studios in February of 2008, he was hoping to get an internship; they were looking to develop video games.

With nothing but some computer science classes under his belt, Jacob showed the owner the games he had written during his classes.

The owner told Portukalian he would give him a full time job.

“It was amazing,” he said. “I didn’t know that much about software at the time.”

Portukalian went from working 10 to 12 hours a day at the job to coming home at night and studying for four hours from books on software patterns.

The love of science and technology started when he was around nine years old. He got a weather vane and a cloud chart and would try predicting the weather. This sparked an interest in science and biology that he dived into while being homeschooled until he started college.

He evolved from being a pseudo-meteorologist to obtaining a ham radio license when at 13. He had an interest in radio frequency engineering but wasn’t sure yet whether this is what he wanted to pursue.

Portukalian attended Vincennes University where it became clear to him that he wanted to focus on learning engineering.

His fascination with engineering leads him to many places. He was also led to an IRC Armenian channel chat room where he started to talk to a girl named Anna.

He was enjoying talking to her and was curious to know more about whom she was.

Leaning back in his chair, a slight grin on his unshaven but well–trimmed face. “We met in a chat room,” said Portukalian, his hand spinning his silver wedding band. “I came to California to meet her.” He wanted to see if there was something between them and there was. He stayed and started attending PCC. “We were married in 2010,” said Jacob. He sits up straighter in his chair and the slight intensity that usually shows on his face disappears.

Portukalian takes his time when he elaborates. He never speaks too quickly and dispenses information at a measured

pace. He has always been fascinated with what was around him, observing it and dissecting it. He didn’t have the math skills needed for a career in engineering when he first started out, but he learned them quickly.

“When I finally decided to go to college for engineering, I didn’t know Algebra,” he said. “I was planning to go to Vincennes University but I had no high school math whatsoever so I got some math books. I went from knowing no algebra to [knowing] calculus in six months.”

He did this while also working full-time as a carpenter.

is in my top five best students and most interesting too.”

Portukalian is in an office at the very end of the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the company he started in April 2014, Skywave Design, he never forgets the people who got him there.

“Without [Wilkinson] I wouldn’t have gotten the job and who knows where I would be now, “said Portukalian.

It is evident by the people who know him that he shines. “Portukalian took time to plan through, he would start from the group up to building a plan,” said Martin.

His life is working endless hours and building clientele. Skywave Design provides engineering design services. “[The clients] firmware will have a lot of complex functionality that ultimately is going to change and needs to be driven by the customer and not the programmer so I will give them tools to allow them to edit their functionality graphically,” said Portukalian.

He is the only employee but that will change soon as he interviews people to work for him. He has a pilot’s license and rents planes to take short trips and still is into Ham radio.

Some people like to unwind for fun, they have hobbies or watch TV. But not Portukalian. He loves his work.

“I work then I work some more,” he said with a grin on his face.

“At the time, I knew a lot less than I thought I did.”

“It made me much better at construction because knowing geometry helps when cutting roofs,” said Portukalian.

There was a plan formulating in his early college years, that one day he would be his own boss and be able to design and construct products.

Though he strives while working by himself, he wasn’t too proud to get help from Pasadena City College computer science instructor Paul Wilkinson.

They spent much time discussing Portukalian’s future plans. Wilkinson had no doubt in his mind that Portukalian would be a success.

“He (Portukalian) is in a category all of his own,” said Wilkinson from his computer-filled room in the R building. “Of all of the students I have had in all the time I have been teaching (since 1980), he

Jacob Portukalian works on a project. Daniel Valencia/Spotlight

21

Continued from 18 It’s this image that graces the cover of the brohure entitled “Being Gay/Lesbian.”

“Yes, it’s normal!” are the first words at the top of page one of this six page LGBT issues primer. The pamphlet sends the message that on this campus there are people dedicated to supporting students as they deal with the negative reactions that identifying as LGBTQ identity may engender.

“We connect students to resources, trying to make sure they’re safe…students who feel like they matter do better in college,” said Hupp. “So how do they feel they matter? Faculty and staff know them.

The student feels that people care about them. The student feels connected to college…I try to increase those avenues so they have a stronger network of that mattering feeling and doing safe zone training to make sure that other people can step in and take over too.”

In the classroom, Milne has students talk about their experiences of marginalization. If, for example, an undocumented student opens up in the class about stigma, he said, “I think in that kind of moment as a teacher it’s important to share with your students that, ‘Look I have the same experience and I, too, have experienced stigma.’”

Beyond his own efforts to identify with his students and help them identify with him, Milne also believes that the experiences of LGBTQ people at PCC is largely positive and attributes this to the efforts of the students.

“Most people will tell you we have a really good community here, we are strong, we are accepted, we have been in a better position than we have ever been…and things will continue to improve because a lot of really dedicated people are working toward it, meaning staff as well as the students, but the students are really driving it,” said Milne.

From the campus LGBTQ club, Queer Alliance, to Safe Zone training, students are proactive Continued from 15

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efficient.”

Besides the challenge, Chin also enjoys the freedom that is available with computer science.

“The physical world is bound by laws of physics and space but with computer science you’re free,” said Chin.

The easy availability of computer science jobs is another thing that made Chin want to pursue a degree in it.

“Bio-Engineering jobs are concentrated in San Diego, Singapore, Germany… but computer science jobs you can do anywhere,” said Chin.

Chin said that she would like to see more women going into computer science, “It’s a stigma that it’s only for guys and so women think that it’s not for them,” said Chin. “There’s not enough encouragement.”

Chin says the problem is one that is unique to the United States and does not have to do with maltreatment of women in the field.

“We’re not mistreated, [women] are afraid or they

about protecting and creating spaces for LGBTQ students. Not only are students who identify as LGBTQ active in campus groups that support their equity goals, but a few are also forging a path into careers that directly support community needs.

Hannah Blaisdell, a psychology major and active Queer Alliance member, said that the high rates of suicide among trans people inspired her to contribute and become a therapist for LGBT youth and teens. In a study released by The National Transgender Discrimination survey in January of this year, researchers found that 41% of transgender or gender nonconforming people have attempted suicide sometime in their lives.

“Thirty to 40 percent of the trans community think, ‘I’m not supposed to be here. I wasn’t born correctly.’ It’s something I really feel needs attention,” she said.

Claire Brandmeyer, a freshman and also a Queer Alliance member, said that though she is undeclared, she know that she wants to focus her studies on gay rights.

“I really want to help those in my community because you love who you love,” she said. “I’m just so passionate about it…I want to help people realize that just because you love someone who is the same sex or you feel you were born in the wrong body, doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.”

Of course, no survey of the LGBTQ friendly climate at PCC would be complete without mentioning the controversy surrounding alumnus Dustin Lance Black, whose invitation to give the 2014 commencement address was withdrawn by the Board of Trustees amid concerns that sexually explicit photos of Black on the internet would harm the college’s reputation.

The ordeal opened up a dialogue within and outside the community about homophobia, which Milne believed was ultimately a good thing. In response, Mark W. Rocha, the college president at the time, met with the Queer Alliance faculty

advisors to listen to their concerns about how the decision would effect the students’ perception of themselves on campus.

“President Rocha actually came to a Queer Alliance meeting and assured the students that it was a mistake that would be changed and that he didn’t intend for it to make gays and lesbians feel that they weren’t part of the PCC community,” Milne said.

“Say what you want about Rocha, but I was happy that he came and was listening to what we had to say. It drew some important intention to the issues and got resolved as well as it could.”

The commencement controversy is an example of the effectiveness of students and staff who called out the perceived unfairness of the situation and spoke out in solidarity with Black. This ultimately led to Black’s re-invitation and his delivery of what many felt was one of the best commencement addresses in the campus’ history.

Not because of some delusion of how they wish to represent this campus or imagine this campus, but as literal parts of the very support and advocacy networks for LGBTQ people, gay and straight allies at PCC feel that despite the occasional manifestations of underlying prejudice, PCC ought to receive credit for the movements that are being enacted to make the campus a welcoming and safe environment.

“I think ultimately there’s still some underlying forms of oppression that everybody feels on campus—whether you’re black, brown, queer, any sort of ethnic minority, sexual orientation, status, legal status…but I think being queer has a lot of its advantages being on this campus because a lot of people are so supportive,” Orozco said. “You might hear of the bad, but there’s still so much good that’s going around PCC…We have resources so that you don’t need to hide and we teach you to do it in ways that is not destructive or in ways that will endanger your safety.”

don’t know that it is an option. Somewhere some how there is a mental block. You don’t see that problem in Asia, India, or Europe,” said Chin.

David Douglas, PCC’s Dean of Science and Mathematics, said that prior to mid-1980s, there were a lot of women in the field. But that all changed after the release of the personal computer.

“When personal computers came out they tended to market them to males,” said Douglas. “So it was hard for women to be competitive because the boys had a head start.”

Douglas says that in the STEM fields an extra effort is needed to embrace diversity, which means supporting women and underrepresented minority students.

Mejan Rostamian, computer science, feels that part of the reason that a lot of women do not pursue careers in computer science is because of the way it is portrayed in the media.

“The media portrays it in such a way that it is not feminine to go into computer science,” said Rostamian. “In my classes I’m one of three girls out of 30.”

Rostamian says the reason she decided to study computer science was because it offered her more job opportunities. “I was mainly interested in design but I felt that design was limiting me. With a platform in computer science I would have more variety in my career choices.”

Brandan Ticas, a computer engineering major, said that not only are there plenty of jobs available for computer programmers but they are also sometimes so informal that anyone with enough knowledge in the field can find some sort of work. “[I] just got done working with a mortgage company doing IOS programming, then they offered me a job making their app afterwards,” said Ticas.

“After that I started doing circuit board design on campus and I don’t even have my degree yet.”

With the field only getting bigger and new job opportunities constantly developing, Ticas recommends that students of all majors learn to program.

“A lot of people get intimidated because they see something they don’t understand it but we all start that way,” he said. “I had no math background and now I’m here and I love my major.”

50 Shades of Blue STORY BY Sybrina iracheta PHOTO BY Erica Hong

Vigorously stroking her paintbrush onto a canvas with a mix of different shades of blue, the beautiful portrait started peeking out.

But this was not just any blue. It was by the artist known for her specific use of the color.

Bonnie-Blue Delgado, 20, has been dreaming of the day one of her abstract paintings would be placed in a museum with a metal plate bearing her name. She hopes to someday see one of her works featured at the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena.

One of her favorite pieces that she’s produced is “The World Is New I’m Drowning In Blue,” an abstract work with its three panels layered in different shades of blue allowing one to see a much more different unique side of painting.

Delgado’s artwork is a different type of abstract she likes to call her own by using past experiences as inspiration and adding different shades of blue into the mix and also having a dark side to painting.

“I want my work to be something everyone can relate to, not just a blue painting on the

wall but a painting that is eye catching to all,” she said. “My work has different emotions and experiences that are laid out for all to relate.”

True to her name, a theme Delgado often uses of paintings is the color blue, and she is currently working on a new series involving the theme.

A huge inspiration for Delgado’s paintings is Irish figurative painter Francis Bacon, known for his graphic and dark abstract art based on personal experiences.

Delgado is also inspired by Sam Francis, who is known for his colorful, bright and free paintings and printmaking.

“I like the way he uses the negative space and the colors are sporadic, carefully placed.

How he looks at the painting is different than most,” Delgado said.

Delgado has being working with art during her sophomore year when she was accepted at the Visual Arts and Design Academy at Pasadena High School.

During high school she won two awards for scholastic art and writing and also received

a Pasadena young emerging artist award.

With such awards and opportunities, Delgado kept practicing her art and is currently majoring in art history with a minor in fine arts at PCC. James Morphesis, one of her art teachers for the last three years, has instructed Delgado in his Painting and Life Drawing classes. He said she exhibits a unique quality in each of her assignments.

“Bonnie eventually recognized that she did indeed have something personal and quite special going on her work,” he said.

Denna Capparelli, a drawing instructor and mentor of Delgado’s, believes her work is unique and the energy she brings into her work shows in a substantial way.

Her mentors who have seen her work and helped her become the artist she is today are very proud and have high hopes for her artistic future.

“It has been rewarding to see a young artist like Bonnie discover that she has something special to offer through her work,” Morphesis said.

“Bonnie has the potential to become a professional exhibiting artist and an individual that PCC will be proud of.”

Choosing to pursue the life of an artist comes from a close connection and an inescapable bond Delgado said she can’t ignore.

“Art was something I could stick with and could do well but I never thought I would grow a huge love and passion for it that I do today,” she said.

Coming from a family of musicians, being an art history major was a little bit of a shock, but Delgado has succeeded in it tremendously.

After curating her first art show at the Eden Garden Bar and Grill, her dream is to curate her own gallery and not have to go through anyone else.

Her talent and motivations keep her moving forward in hopes of having her art displayed around the world.

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