COMMENCEMENT EDITION
City Times sdcitytimes.com
Covering the San Diego City College community since 1945
Volume 76, Issue 2 May 26, 2022
!
yo soy gr aduado! 100 students honored at the Chicano-Latina Graduation ceremony
B Y SUSANA SE RRANO Multimedia Editor he gloomy evening did not stop families, fr iends and gr aduates fr om gather ing to celebr ate San Diego City College?s 51st annual Chicano-L atina Gr aduation cer emony. The event was hosted by the Chicana/o Studies depar tment and took place May 20 on the A Building Ter r ace. Attendees wer e welcomed with the sound of popular L atin music. Gr aduates lined up for the ceremony, which is one of many festivities complementing the tr aditional commencement cer emony held at the end of the spr ing semester.
T
The Chicano- L atina Gr aduation gives students with Chicanx backgr ounds the oppor tunity to celebr ate their accomplishments with their loved ones in both English and Spanish. The gr aduates enter ed to the song ?Yo Soy Chicano? by Ramon ?Chunky? Sanchez while their families cheer ed them on. The cer emony was full of emotion as ever y student r eceived a sash, with color s and textur e r esembling a tr aditional sar ape. Ever y student had the oppor tunity to speak at the podium and thank their family and loved ones. ?I ?m ver y excited because I never thought I would get her e,? said Aileen Ar echar, a Child Development gr aduate and mother of four. ?A lot of things happened befor e getting her e.? Ar echar said she did this for her childr en. ?I want the best for my childr en and hope they get inspir ed,? she continued. The bilingual cer emony ended with all 100 gr aduates tur ning to their loved ones and clapping as a thank you for all of their suppor t. Left : Sever al st udent s at t he Chicano-Lat ina Gr aduat ion decor at ed t heir caps. Right : A Cit y College st udent smiled at a classmat e in t he fr ont r ow. Phot o by Susana Ser r ano
Chicana/ o
studies
mural
unveil ed
Celebration includes film preview and mural reveal in City cafeteria
B Y K ATH Y A RCH I B AL D Enterprise Editor The Chicana/o Studies depar tment at San Diego City College celebr ated a documentar y pr emier e and mur al
unveiling on May 13, both wor ks shar ing the same name ? ?50 Year s of Chicana/o Studies.? After the 2020 Chicano- L atina gr aduation cer emony was canceled due to COVI D -19, the idea for an on-
The new cafet er ia mur al unveiled May 13 honor s st udent act ivism at Cit y. Phot o by Kat hy Ar chibald
going celebr ation was bor n, coming full cir cle with a completed mur al and the event hosted by Justin Aker s Chacon, chair of the Chicana/o Studies depar tment, dr awing near ly 100 attendees. The documentar y fr om filmmaker Paul Espinosa, and the discussion that followed, highlighted the depar tment and student activism. Attendee Ymoat L una, cur r ently a boar d member of the Centr o Cultur al de la Raza, expr essed gr atitude for the suppor t she r eceived at City and invited cur r ent students to ?continue to make the space your own.? The audience then viewed the finished mur al, complete with a dr um blessing fr om Red Warr ior dr um gr oup. Ar tist Alicia Mar ia Siu explained her pr ocess and pr ovided a r oad map to the dozens of events depicted, including the moment when City stu-
dents hopped on a bulldozer to pr otest in Bar r io L ogan, clear ing the path for Chicano Par k. The sur r ounding ar ea, composed of musical r efer ences, includes cultur al icon Ramon ?Chunky? Sanchez, the Centr o Cultur al de la Raza, and Joaquin ?Quino? McWhinney, whose son, Jakob McWhinney, City Times Media?s managing editor, will gr aduate fr om City in May. Siu said she hopes the space helps empower students to see the unity of differ ent str uggles. ?I t r eally matter s what you see ar ound you,? Siu said. ?I f you change the space, it can empower you to know that you belong.? To read more about the mural, scan the QR code.
2
CITYGRADUATES
May 26, 2022 | sdcitytimes.com
Mitch Charlens returns as head coach of the men's basketball team
coming home
Coach Char lens engages wit h his t eam dur ing a 2018 game. Knight s At hlet ics phot o
B Y A NTONI O CONTRE RAS Multimedia Journalist San Diego City College announced longtime men's basketball coach Mitch Char lens accepted an assistant coaching r ole with the Univer sity of San Diego pr ogr am last August. "San Diego City College is home to me and it's been home for so long," Char lens said. "I didn't take it for gr anted, but being gone for this season, it r eally made me r ealize how amazing this place is fr om the people, the leader ship and envir onment." While Char lens was at USD, he stayed in touch with inter im City coach Andy Gr ound but stepped away fr om the player s he was r esponsible for r ecr uiting. "These kids came her e to City College to play for me, so it was har d to leave," Char lens said. "I didn't want the team to be divided between me or the head coach and didn't want ther e to be a conflict of any kind." Under Gr ound's leader ship, the Knights went 16-0 in the Pacific Coast
Athletic Confer ence and finished 25-4 over all. City's leading scor er Jonathan Ogugua (17.0 ppg) was named PCAC Most Valuable Player and has committed to play at the Univer sity of Texas at Tyler. Dr ew Cisse (fir st team), Josh Williams (fir st team), Makiah Mor r is (second team), Antony Howell (second team) and Gr aham Cook (honorable mention) wer e also selected to the All-PCAC team. Char lens wasn't sur pr ised how gr eat the team per for med. "They wer e amazing and I expected that fr om them," Char lens said. "I To watch an interview know how gr eat of with Charlens, scan a coach Andy this code. Gr ound is and I knew the caliber of player s that we left him." Since Char lens star ted coaching at City in 2004, he has led the Knights to a state championship (2017), seven
PCAC titles, 325 total wins and seven PCAC Coach of the Year awar ds in 16 seasons. "I t's welcoming news," Athletic Dir ector Aar on Detty said. "We wer e excited for his oppor tunity at USD, (but) we'r e happy (he's) coming back and ther e's lots of excitement of br inging back another championship." He really is tied into City, his family is all about City and he knows the college, he knows the system and the little nuances of helping student athletes." Choosing to return wasn't a decision Charlens wanted to rush. "The administr ation her e wer e r eally suppor tive of me and wer e not pr essur ing me, they wer e just offer ing suppor t and just being amazing, " Char lens said. "The player s wanted to see me, so being back on this campus, being back wher e
we've done so many amazing things, str uck me and didn't have that feeling while at USD." Men's basketball wasn't the only pr ogr am to make news in 2020-2021. Women's soccer makes hist or y The City women's soccer team made histor y for its most successful season in school histor y and headed to the playoffs for the fir st time. M en's t ennis head t o playoffs The men's tennis team made the playoffs for the four th consecutive season and advanced to a r egional semifinal. Andr ew Suver qualified for the state championship in singles. F let es sist er s advance City's beach volleyball pair Alina and Alyssa Fletes qualified to compete at the state championship. Cit y College's Jonat han Ogugua
SDCCD cancel s invest it ur e event
AFTERWEEKSOFCONTROVERSYREGARDINGKEYNOTESPEAKERALICEWALKER, DISTRICTCANCELEDTHEEVENT B Y P H I L I P SAL ATA AND J AK OB M CW H I NNE Y Multimedia Journalists
Car los Cor tez, chancellor of the San Diego Community College Distr ict, announced the cancellation of his upcoming investitur e event in a distr ict-wide email sent May 23. The event was or iginally scheduled to be held May 31 at Downtown?s Petco Par k. The cancellation comes after sever al weeks of contr over sy r egar ding author Alice Walker, who was to be the keynote speaker. Walker has been cr iticized by var ious or ganizations for antisemitic language in her wor k. The fr ee public event was to celebr ate
CityTimes
CARLOS CORTEZ
ALICE WALKER
Cor tez?s inaugur ation to the distr ict?s top r ole and included appear ances by a host of high-
sdcitytimes.com KATHY ARCHIBALD EnterpriseEditor | PublicationEditor
NICOLEVARGAS, M.A. PEGGY PEATTIE, PH.D.
PHILIP SALATA
Advisers
NewsEditor
Part of theCity Times Media platform SUSANA SERRANO MultimediaEditor
KATHRYN GRAY
JAKOB MCWHINNEY
ANTONIOCONTRERAS
Editor-in-Chief
ManagingEditor
Sports Editor
Duringthespring2022 semester, City Timeswill publishonlineregularly, or asnewsbreaks, onsdcitytimes.com. City Timeswill publishasingle commencement edition.
level officials, including Califor nia Secr etar y of State Shir ley Weber and State Senate Pr esident Pr o Tempor e Toni Atkins. The following statement was emailed by the SDCCD Office of the Chancellor : ?Over the past few weeks, concer ns have been expr essed about the political beliefs and wr itings of the investitur e keynote speaker, Alice Walker. "At the same time, other s have expr essed their suppor t of Ms. Walker. As a distr ict that celebr ates inclusion, we believe the best way for war d would be to cancel the event altogether. I apologize for the pain caused to any member of our community.?
May 26, 2022| Volume76, Issue2
Howtoreachus: City TimesMedia| SanDiegoCityCollege 1313 Park Blvd. | San Diego, CA92101 Newsroom: L-117 E-mail: citytimes@gmail.com
District policy statement: Thispublicationisproducedasalearningexperience under San DiegoCityCollege?sDigital Journalism program. All materials, includingopinionsexpressed herein, arethesoleresponsibility of thestudentsand shouldnot beinterpreted tobethoseof thecollege district, itsofficersor employees.
CITYGRADUATES
sdcitytimes.com | May 26, 2022
3
RISINGTOTHECHALLENGE OVERCOMI NG ADVERSI TY
T HE STRENGTH T O PERSEVERE
M ENTAL H EALTH I N M I ND
JEANNETTE MAYO GALLEGOS
RACHEL KARALNIK
ANA ISABEL SERRANO
or much of her life, City College student Jeannette Mayo Gallegos woke at 3 a.m. to cr oss the bor der to get to school. When she r etur ned home to the Baja Califor nia town of El Flor ido, she often studied until midnight and then woke just hour s later to do it all again. The exper ience weighed on her and she str uggled with bur nout. But looking back she sees it was an impor tant par t of her jour ney and is gr ateful for her par ents' suppor t. Gallegos, a 2022 r ecipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Under gr aduate Tr ansfer Scholar ship, was awar ded $55,000. She was over whelmed by the news and incr edibly gr ateful. I t will help her achieve her goal of wor king in cyber secur ity ? focusing on combating issues like human tr afficking ? potentially at Cal Ber keley wher e she was r ecently accepted. She believes education is impor tant but should be available to ever yone. ?I hope to one day we live in a wor ld wher e education is accessible to ever yone and ever yone has the oppor tunity to challenge themselves,? she said. Meanwhile, she said people who have the pr ivilege of getting an education should focus on ?giving back to our communities and uplifting the voices of those fr om disadvantaged backgr ounds.?
n 2019 Rachel Kar alnik was gr aduating high school in Br ooklyn with dr eams of heading to film school in Califor nia. Then the r ejection letter s came one after another. Kar alnik initially felt defeated and took a year off to r ecalibr ate. But she ultimately decided film school in Califor nia was her destiny. So she moved to San Diego to live with her father and star ted attending San Diego City College to complete her pr er equisite classes to tr ansfer. She ended up finding community and a love for cr oss-countr y at City as well. Kar alnik said when she ar r ived at City she didn?t know what to expect, but cr oss countr y coach Mar co Anzar es and City Honor s Pr ogr am Coor dinator Kelly Mayhew pr ovided her invaluable suppor t. I n 2022, Kar alnik is headed to Chapman Univer sity, her dr eam school and hopes to shar e coming-of-age stor ies thr ough her wor k. A hefty scholar ship and aid package will help her alleviate the financial str ess of attending a pr ivate film school. ?I t still doesn?t feel r eal sometimes,? Kar alnik said. ?So many people told me to give up.?
na I sabel Ser r ano honed her cur iosity while gr owing up in Tijuana and attending what she descr ibed as a, ?ver y Catholic high school.? ?I tend to jump into taboo topics,? she said. ?What don?t you want me to discover ?? Ser r ano at fir st found the higher education system in the U.S. confusing. But when she landed at City and found psychology she knew that was it. She soon became the pr esident of Active Minds, a student-r un chapter of the nationwide mental health advocacy or ganization, and joined Psi Beta, the honor s society. Dr awn to political and social issues, Ser r ano also became an inter n with the Amer ican Feder ation of Teacher s labor union. She also took on the position of peer educator, acting as a student liaison for the Student Health Center. I n all this Ser r ano saw her inter ests conver ge. Dur ing her fir st ter m at City the COVI D -19 pandemic hit, so in her leader ship r oles she was faced with the challenges of countless unknowns. But for her, those challenges enr iched the exper ience. She is now headed to UC San Diego wher e she plans to study social psychology and aims to wor k in public policy. Postgr aduate studies ar e clear ly in the pictur e.
B Y J AK OB M CW H I NNE Y
B Y K ATH RYN G RAY
B Y P H I L I P SAL ATA
F
SD CCD COURTE SY P H OTO
SCHOLARSHIP
I
R ACH E L K ARAL NI K COURTE SY P H OTO
A
P H I L I P SAL ATA P H OTO
SEASON COMES TO CITY
The college awarded over $366,000 to worthy students B Y J AK OB M CW H I NNE Y Managing Editor San Diego City College awarded over $366,000 to City students at its 31st annual scholar ship awar ds cer emony. The event took place on May 10 at City College's A Building Ter r ace. The theme of the scholar ship ceremony was ?I Am Resilient.? I t was meant to honor ?students? dr ive to stay motivated and optimistic,? even as the ?community continues to face challenging times,? amid the COVI D -19 pandemic, accor ding to the cer emony?s pr ogr am. The awar ds r anged fr om aid for students enr olled in specific pr ogr ams like nur sing and cosmetology to ones
for students tr ansfer r ing to 4-year-univer sities. Awar ds wer e also given to for mer foster youth and L GBTQ+ students. I t was the fir st in- per son scholarship event since the COVI D - 19 pandemic for ced lear ning online in 2020. Attending the cer emony wer e a wide r ange of City and San Diego Community College Distr ict administr ation and faculty, including SDCCD Chancellor Car los Cor tez and City pr esident Ricky Shabazz. ?This is what we call smile season,? Cor tez said. ?Today is an opportunity to celebr ate you, the scholar s of City College and all that you?ve accomplished." Cit y Pr esident Ricky Shabazz deliver s a speech at t he scholar ship event . Cit y College Flickr
4
CITYGRADUATES
May 26, 2022 | sdcitytimes.com
cel ebr at ing ident it y INAUGURALLAVENDERGRADUATIONONEOFMANYEND-OF-YEARCELEBRATIONSATCITYCOLLEGE
honor DSPS gr aduates on the A Building Ter r ace on May 11. DSPS pr ovides students with myriad ser vices, including accommodation for r emote lear ning and educational planning.
B Y CI TY T I M E S M E D I A STAF F San Diego City College held an inper son commencement ceremony for the fir st time in thr ee year s. The venue of choice was the Or gan Pavilion in Balboa Par k, the site of the 2018 event. The 2019 gr aduation was held at the Convention Center in Downtown San Diego due to constr uction at Balboa Par k. The pandemic then canceled two year s of in-per son events. I n addition to the Or gan Pavilion commencement cer emony, City College officials or ganized a var iety of gr aduation events. Acting Dean of Student Ser vices Adan Sanchez said they wer e meant to celebr ate the unique identities of the college?s diver se student population. "?We want to make sur e (students) feel validated, so they feel uplifted and empower ed to be who they ar e,? Sanchez said. ?That's why we have these identity-specific celebr ations.? L avender Gr aduat ion comes t o Cit y City?s fir st annual L avender Gr aduation event, which honor s L GBTQ students, was held in Cur r an Plaza on May 12. ?I t was a r eally per sonal event,? said Rocky Dove, a 20- year- old City
St udent s walk at Rit e of Passage The ceremony that celebr ates Black gr aduates was held at San Diego Mir amar College on May 11. The celebr ation was fir st conceived at SDCCD in par t by Ashanti Hands who was Mesa College's for mer Vice Pr esident of Student Ser vices. Hands was announced as Mesa's new pr esident ear lier this month. She r eplaces Pamela L uster, who is stepping down this year.
Angel Lopez, a Cit y st udent involved in t he college's t heat er pr ogr am r aises his fist in celebr at ion at t he fir st annual Lavender Gr aduat ion cer emony on May 12. Cit y College Flickr
gr aduate wor king to tr ansfer to UCSD to pur sue a degr ee in Cognitive Science. ?I 'm r eally glad that we wer e able to make that space for people.? As far as anyone involved in the planning of the event can tell, it was the fir st in City?s 108-year histor y. But that?s not a huge sur pr ise.
Cit y st udent Jen Lot hr idge cheer s at t he DSPS gr aduat ion cer emony on May 11 at Cit y College. Cit y College Flickr
D SPS gr aduat es honor ed The disAbility Suppor t and Pr ogr am Ser vices hosted a celebr ation to
Gr aduat ion scar ves for Rit e of Passage held at Mir amar College on May 11. Mir amar College Inst agr am
City times media acknowl edged B Y VI CTOR ORTI Z , J R . Multimedia Journalist
The tr adition only dates back to 1995 when Ronni Sanlo, then the dir ector of the Univer sity of Michigan?s Office of L GBT Affair s, cr eated the inaugur al event.
Chicano- L at ina gr aduat ion celebr at es 100 Chicano- Latina graduation for 100 students was held on the A Building Ter race on May 20. City College is for mally designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the United States Department of Education. City's L atinx To read more about the history of community makes Lavender up 46% of its stu- Graduations, scan this code. dent body.
St udent s at t he Chicano-Lat ina gr aduat ion cer emony smile at t heir family on May 20. Phot o by Susana Ser r ano
at national conference ina, Gabr iel Schneider and Vicky Pineda,
Over 500 par ticipants fr om two and fouryear colleges acr oss the U.S. attended the ACP/JACC confer ence that was hosted on Mar ch 3- 5 by the Jour nalism Association of Community Colleges and the Associated College Pr ess in L ong Beach. Repr esented by six media students along with jour nalism adviser and assistant pr ofessor Nicole Var gas, San Diego City College Jillian For t ner , Susana Ser r ano and Ingr id Est r ella pr esent competed in sever al state and confer encet heir awar ds at t he ACP/ JACC confer ence in Long Beach on wide competitions, winning 17 awar ds. Mar ch 5, 2022. Phot o cour t esy of Susana Ser r ano ?I was ver y, ver y excited. One of the awar ds was for a video my team and I cr ethat took us six months,? City Times multiated for a fellowship we wor ked on dur ing media editor Susana Ser r ano said. spr ing semester 2021 and it was a pr oject Ser r ano, along with peer s Katia Pechenk-
won four th place for the pr oject in the JACC state publication awar d categor y for video jour nalism. Ser r ano also won a fir st place gr oup awar d with Jillian For tner and I ngr id Estr ella in the ACP on-the-spot competition for their wor k in video. ?Just to be consider ed was a big deal to me. We all wor ked so har d on that pr oject. I t was so exciting,? Ser r ano said. The thr ee-day event included tr aining sessions and panels pr oviding par ticipants with the tools necessar y to succeed as a jour nalist. CT news editor Philip Salata won five JACC student publication awar ds and one ACP on-the-spot competition awar d.