THE
San Jacinto Times
Do the Brittish handle crisis better? Page 2
The voice of San Jacinto College since 1991
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Texas wildfires hit close to home October 3, 2011
The Student Publication of the San Jacinto College District
Vol. 22, No. 3
Is Two and a Half men better without Sheen? Page 4
Another great Beirut album. Page 5
MCT Campus
Burning continues to ravage land, property in many areas of the state Panic and devastation ensue after mother nature enforces her will on many Texas towns.
By MARANDA JENKINS San Jacinto Times
Editors note: San Jacinto Times staffer Miranda Jenkins’ hometown of Waller was ravaged by wildfire. This is a first-person account of what happened. “There is a fire a few miles down the road. I’m not sure if I should leave or wait and see if it gets worse,” my mother told me over the phone on Sept. 7. By the next day, my entire subdivision was evacuated and my hometown of Waller, Texas was up in flames.
I drove over to Waller a few hours after receiving my mom’s phone call to help transport her belongings to my home in Houston. I did not begin to worry until I witnessed the thick, black clouds of smoke in the air above the neighboring city of Cypress. It terrified me that the smoke was visible in a town thirty minutes away from the actual source of fire. I had not realized how large the wildfire was until that point, and quite honestly had thought my mother had been exaggerating when she had called. I could smell the smoke in the air as I drove down my parent’s street. The sky was black, ashes
SJC celebrates its anniversary
were falling onto my car, and my neighbors were all outside of their homes looking towards the sky and taking pictures of the wall of smoke that was quickly growing larger. The scene looked like something out of a doomsday movie. As we were packing away the last of my family’s things, a police officer drove by speaking urgently into an intercom. He ordered everyone to pack up their belongings within the next five minutes and leave the area immediately. This command alarmed us more than the visibility of the nearby smoke and ash did. As I began to drive down my parent’s dirt driveway, I remembered how my friends and I used to
race up and down it on cool spring days. I looked towards the woods I used to explore endlessly on my summer vacations and saw the tree I had hit when I first learned to ride my bike without training wheels. I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the chipped green paint that my father had never got around to fixing and the screen door that never quite closed all the way, even though my parents’ house was dark and empty it still looked welcoming. I wondered if any of these things would still be there in a few days. PLEASE SEE FIRES on Page 4
Test driving college can be easy if you have the correct Carr By LESLY DELGADO San Jacinto Times
By HARRISON LEE San Jacinto Times
Interested in being a part of the making of San Jacinto College history? If so, be at the Central Campus track on Tuesday, October 4, at 4 p.m. sharp to mark the 50th Anniversary of the college by forming, you guessed it, a giant human “50” photo. The College estimates about 600 students
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Column/Commentary...2 Around San Jacinto.....3 Front Page Jumps.......4 Entertainment...........5-6
are needed for this endeavor, so bring along anyone you know on campus that might be interested. If you should have a San Jacinto College uniform [athletics, cosmetology, allied health, automotive and so on], please wear it. San Jacinto College apparel is also recommended, but not required. If you wish to obtain any school apparel or memorabilia, it is available at each campus bookstore.
"I used to tell everyone I was related to David Carr, and I went to all his football games when he played with the Houston Texans," Billy Carr jokes as he tells his story. Just like any other guy, he loves sports and likes hanging out with friends. Carr is another San Jac student and is currently taking his last class before transferring to the University of Houston next spring. Carr however, is not your average student. He has been out of school for almost six years. "I enrolled right after graduating high school and I attended for two years, I was actually almost done. I was good student, I even went to class, but then I got a job and I also liked the money, I guess that’s why I decided to take a break from school…. unfortunately a small break turned into a couple of years!" Being out of school for such a long period of time is tough for some people. Getting back into the whole schedule, learning how to sit in a classroom and take notes may take some adjustment and getting used to. And to Carr this was no exception. "Not much has changed, school looks about the same. Classes are just like I remember, I had just forgotten all that reading out of textbooks I had to do.” He wanted to test the waters when returning back to school and decided to start by taking only one class. Carr so far is enjoying the experience and is very optimistic about the future. Since he is currently working at a golf course one of the things Carr is also learning to balance is having a full time job and attending school. According to the Missouri University of Science and Technology website, there several concerns for adults returning to college “…you may have concerns about money, competition with younger students, fears about whether you can remember
Photo by Lesly Delgado
Billy Carr is relearning to become a student.
how to study, and insecurities about being set apart from others. Usually, you have many more activities to balance in your personal life than the younger students,” according to the website http://counsel.mst.edu/selfhelp/vpl/adults.html. It is becoming more and more common for working adults to go back to school to complete or strengthen their education. For example, some people, just like Carr, did not have the chance to finish what they started and want to actually achieve their college education to better themselves and get a better job. Generally the higher the education you have, the higher the paycheck you earn. Another factor encouraging adults to go back to school is that some jobs that existed in the past do not exist anymore. Technology surrounds us, controlling almost everything and contributing to everyday life. It is a must to keep up with it its changes and improvements. It is a very competitive job market especially with the way economy is right now. The more credentials a job candidate has the better it looks in their resume. A degree or certification completion can be the deal breaker for employers when seeking someone to work for them. PLEASE SEE CARR on Page 4