Rise of The Giants

Larger than your average pumpkin

Megan Moureaux Copy Editor

Daria Matza is an adjunct professor at Pierce College but also recently co-directed a documentary with her husband, Mark Devendorf, called “Rise of the Giants.”

Matza has been working on and making documentaries for around 15 years and won an Emmy as an editor for a documentary named “An Inaugural Ride to Freedom.” cards. The most a giant pumpkin seed has sold for was $1,600. But growing giants pumpkins takes a lot of work and dedication.

“Giants” follows different people on their journey to growing giant pumpkins.

The pumpkins can grow to over 2,000 pounds and some are even larger than cars. Matza started making this documentary back in June of 2013 and finished the editing process in September 2014.

Matza found she was infatuated by the process of growing giant pumpkins and after doing some research, she found out giant pumpkins grow up to 50 pounds a day.

“I was just kind of taken by the fruit,” Matza said.

Matza started off by emailing different pumpkin clubs all across the country. Her documentary began when she received an email from a farmer who she met in Utah while visiting with family.

“He was great, he connected me with all these other people and the ball just kind of started rolling and moving fast,” Matza said.

“Some people say it takes three things to grow pumpkins: seed, soil and luck,” Matza said. “Other people say weather and other factors, but from what I can see it starts with the soil.” us to meet. Two of mine were best friends with his two,” Beavers said. “It’s very sweet. It doesn’t usually go well like that when your children want you to know each other and marry.”

The current world record for growing a giant pumpkin is held by Tim Mathison from Napa, Calif. His pumpkin weighed in at 2,032 pounds in the 2013 Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off hosted by Uesugi Farms in Utah.

When the competitions ends, people do various things with their giant pumpkins. Some people participate in pumpkin drops where they drop their giant pumpkins from a crane. The pumpkins are also fed to the local zoo elephants. But the one that resonated with Matza the most was the hollowed out pumpkin boat races.

“I saw the image of a giant pumpkin and someone rowing in it like a boat and I just thought it was crazy and it just stuck with me,” Matza said.

Matza doesn’t have another idea for her next documentary in mind yet. “Rise of the Giants” came to her and she feels open to whatever the next one should be and feels it will come to her as well.

“A lot of people say it’s love at first sight and I kind of feel like that happened to me,” Matza said.

Beavers did not receive genetic counseling while pregnant with her four sons. She had her boys before she had studied genetics and knew the field in depth.

“I would now, though, without question because knowledge is a useful thing to make decisions, whatever decision it is you want to make,” Beavers said.

From 2002 to 2009 she was a fulltime genetic counselor at Genzyme Genetics (now Integrated Genetics). She started teaching at Pierce College in 2006 as a parttime adjunct and became a fulltime professor in 2009.

Larry Thouin, Chair of the Life and Sciences Department, said his first impression of Beavers was that she was very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and full of energy.

“She has been a great asset to Pierce College,” Thouin said. Biology 110, though a longexisting course in other colleges, is only a recent course at Pierce College due to a lack of genetic specialists to teach it.

“She developed it and we chose that course from the list of curriculum courses that were available and she made it possible,”

Thouin said.

“She’s one of our departments hardest workers. She’s very organized, very diligent, and good to work with and has great ideas.” per week.

She started running in junior high on the boy’s track team as schools were only just beginning to transition into having girl’s teams.

“This was in Michigan and they were just beginning to recognize the importance of funding sports for women, too,” Beavers said. “They didn’t let us compete with males, but they let us train with them.”

Californiaborn Beavers, in her youth, constantly moved back and forth between California and Michigan due to her father’s work as an adman for Chevrolet.

“It’s just like a really fun, exciting group of people to be around and their enthusiasm is contagious and there was a lot of really great stories that I was just excited to follow-up on.”

All giant pumpkins can be traced back to the Dill’s Atlantic Giant seed that originated from Nova Scotia, Canada. Seeds range in prices and some are even traded like baseball

A free screening of the documentary will be held on Thursday, Oct. 30 in the Great Hall at Pierce College. For more information about “Rise of the Giants” visit riseofthegiantsmovie. com.

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Professor Beavers also teaches Biology 3, (Introduction to Biology) and Biology 6 (Major’s Biology.)

“She’s very interested in the major,” said Beaver’s Biology 6 student, Arturo Quinones.

“She tends to go off in a ramble sometimes and it makes you think,‘Oh, well, okay, at least it isn’t boring, and it’s not a waste of time, it’s informative rambling. She’s really engaging.”

Now a fulltime professor at Pierce College, she only works as a genetic counselor on a contract basis with Integrated Genetics.

“I didn’t know I would love it so much,” Beavers said.

Despite being so busy with teaching, she finds time to run five to seven miles at least three times

“We were sometimes in Michigan where the cars were being made. We were sometimes in California where the commercials were made. We moved every three years,” Beavers said.

“When I turned 18 I stayed put [in California]. I said, ‘I am done with moving!’ It’s hard to have to keep establishing a life every three years.”

When she has free time away from work, she makes it her first priority to visit her sons, those who live in the state as well those who live outside the country. Beavers has found both teaching and counseling to be very rewarding.

“It’s an amazing thing,” Beavers said,” taking biology and seeing how it affects lives, to know biology and then see it play out.”

Gay Straight Alliance Club seeks to educate community

Matthew Robinson Roundup Reporter

There are many clubs at community colleges across the U.S. that are exclusive to certain cultures, races, and genders. However, exclusion has no place with the Pierce College Gay/ Straight Alliance [GSA] Club.

Discussions for the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) community can be a controversial subject, but fortunately for Pierce there are two well-informed and mature leaders. The GSA club is led by President Jose Moran and Vice President Cameron Brenner.

“I wish they [America] had more education, more about what it’s like to be in the transgender community, the gay community, the bisexual community or the pansexual community,” Moran said. “They think we’re all the same and it’s not true.”

Brenner, a theater costuming major, said he wants to enlighten and inform others on the topics in the LGBT community.

“To inform and enlighten others upon topics in the LGBTQ community and acknowledge our existence and others existence and the fair equal rights that we deserve,” Brenner said.

With leaders like Brenner and Moran, the club not only serves as a forum for the LGBTQ community, but an inviting place where everyone is welcome and treated equally.“I’m very passionate about this because it means a lot to me,” Brenner said.

“It offends me that people really think we need to divide ourselves, we should be more of an inclusive society.”

Moran, a sociology major, was elected as the GSA president last spring, but his official duties as president only started this semester.

One thing about the club that brings a smile to Moran’s face is the interaction with new people and relationships the club has built with other clubs and organizations on campus.

“I enjoy meeting new people and networking with outside organizations like Francisco [Rivas],” Moran said. “As well as finding resources for the LGBTQ community outside of school.”

For more information on the GSA Club, visit room BUS 3218 on Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m.

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For Donne Lobendahn, the 6’8, 340 lbs offensive lineman, who helps protect the blind side for the Brahmas, life is better than before.

Lobendahn, 25, who comes from a family rich in its football legacy, was stuck. After his playing days at Gahr High School in Cerritos he became involved with some of the wrong people and lacked the maturity it took to be a successful athlete. He played football at Cerritos College where his dad Vince Lobendahn was a coach.

“Initially when I started junior college I didn’t understand the kind of dedication it required, the sacrifices I needed and the struggles,” Lobendahn said.

“I had to adapt everyday to the struggles and challenging homelessness and going nights without food. I had nobody at times, I had to learn to be independent.”

Lobendahn failed to succeed in the classroom as well as the football field. He didn’t like school and couldn’t hold various jobs, playing football and going to school led to homelessness.

“I didn’t take school seriously at first and so I never understood the value of it,” Lobendahn said.

“I was homeless because I couldn’t make any money at the time. I got hungry and there were days where I didn’t eat. There were nights where I felt like crying until it broke me down to get what I needed.”

Lobendahn struggled to turn his life around while the rest of his family was having success. Meanwhile little brother To’a Lobendahn maintained a high grade point average and along with his tremendous talent of being a skilled offensive lineman, he was accepted to the University of Southern California (USC) on an athletic scholarship.

Donne looks up to his little brother and says that his two main goals is to get a bachelor’s degree and join his brother at USC.

“It would be a dream come true to play with To’a for the Trojans,” Lobendahn said. “Ever since we were kids we always wanted to play on the team and he is an inspiration for everything that I do.”

After his struggles at Cerritos and problems becoming eligible, Lobendahn went to College of the Canyons (COC), the team that won last year’s state championship and is known for getting athletes into shape.

But things took a turn for the worst while playing a pick-up basketball game in 2012. While he was playing, Lobendahn stepped awkwardly and shattered his left ankle which would require surgery.

“At first I wasn’t going to go but my girlfriend made me go to the hospital,” Lobendahn said. “But when I got to the hospital things only got worse.”

Not only did Lobendahn end up breaking his ankle, but the cast that was applied to his ankle was wrapped too tight and caused blood clots. The injury forced Lobendahn to take a whole year off from football to get back to full health.

“I literally had to learn how to do everything all over again,” Lobendahn said. “I had to learn how to walk. I couldn’t shower on my own and I couldn’t do the simple things I needed in life.”

Lobendahn got inspiration from his girlfriend of two years Allison Perry. Perry saved Lobendahn’s football career, and his life.

“He has a good heart and he’s very strong,” Perry said. “We have helped each other through some hard situations, he helped save me from throwing my life away. He makes me a better person.”

After Lobendahn got rehabilitated, he had a choice to make. Either to stay at COC or join Pierce College that has had a good reputation of getting players into Division I programs. He found out about Pierce through a number of former COC players who had joined Pierce along with his friend, Brahmas defensive tackle Chung Lee.

“We have a brotherhood and we stick together,” Lee said. “We help each other out and we want each other to be successful.”

Even though Lobendahn was finally healthy by the spring of 2014, he still lacked the necessary motivation and needed someone to push him. It couldn’t be a coach, but a mentor and he found that with sophomore offensive lineman David Barajas.

“I told him the first thing he needed to do was to work his [tail] off,” Barajas said. “I’d have to tell him all the time to not be afraid and sometimes he would want to quit on himself. I just told him that he had to persevere and I didn’t want him to fail.”