Cosmetology Open House
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Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Yoga Instructor Profile
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Times staff wins at JACC
The Voice of San Jose City College Since 1956
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Volume 85 Issue 4
Let Your Life Speak
BY NICHOLAS JOHNSON TIMES STAFF
The SJCC Communication Studies Department in association with Adobe held the “Let Your Life Speak” event at the Adobe headquarters in downtown San Jose March 23. Organized by SJCC professors and speech coaches Shelley Giacalone, Chris Lancaster, and Leslyn McCallum, the “Let Your Life Speak” event sees a group of students sharing stories about their life experiences in their own unique ways. Seven SJCC students spoke on topics ranging from issues dealing with depression and anxiety, to adversity faced by immigrants. After a brief introduction by Toni Vanwinkle of Adobe and Blake Balajadia director of Student Life at SJCC, the context for each speaker was introduced by Lilia Huang, the master of ceremonies for the event. The first to speak was Kris Menge, who shared his experiences with PTSD and alcoholism after being discharged from the army. His main point was that mental health issues are often hard to detect from an outside perspective, and that a support system is important for anyone dealing with trauma. Next was Steven Sciplin, a football player who, despite being on the autistic spectrum, overcame his struggles with communication to use his heightened sense of focus to train harder on and off the field. Comparing himself to the DC Comics hero Cyborg, and said he feels like a machine in many
PHOTO BY NICHOLAS JOHNSON / TIMES STAFF
Faculty and students pose at the end of the Let Your Life Speak event in downtown San Jose’s Adobe headquarters. From left, top to bottom: Chris Lancaster, Leslyn McCallum, Lilia Huang, Angel Coronado, Steven Sciplin, Ivan Perez, Rachel Davis, Shelley Giacalone, Kris Menge, Sabrina Maciel, Galy Jimenez and Thomas Guiterrez on March 23, 2018. ways, but often in a good way. Sabrina’s speech, titled “Revising the Struggle,” was about her experience when first attending college. One of the first in her family to attend higher education, the pressure she felt left her mental condition in a slow decline, eventually being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Despite this, she managed to be accepted to her dream school after attending SJCC in an attempt to restructure her life. The first of the truly unique presentations was that of Galy Jimenez, who presented a couple
of powerful poems dealing with the struggles of immigrants from Mexico, illegal or otherwise. After a brief intermission, Thomas Guiterrez presented his speech titled “Shaken Free.” Aided by the visual metaphor of an Etch-a-Sketch toy, his speech about the trouble he got into with his brother when he was younger was presented alongside a dynamic drawing up on the screen, filling in details and changing figures as the speech went along, from a man being surrounded by police officers, to a champion boxer surrounded by
cheering fans. The penultimate speech, presented by Rachel Davis, was about her family dealing with the devastating suicide of her mother, and the struggle of suddenly losing such an important part of her life. The story ends with a touching gesture from her brothers, purchasing a bench in her memory on the pier in San Francisco, where she met her end. The final speech was by Ivan Perez, titled “The Chicano Equation.” He talked about his identity as someone of Mexican descent, and how discovering
Chicano studies was a pivotal moment in his life that allowed him to discover other passions. After the final speech, Lilia came out for one final symbolic gesture, gathering all the speakers on stage and passing around fake candles to the crowd. The lights dimmed and the candles were switched on, creating a poignant moment to cap off the night of powerful talks. The night ended with an informal Q&A, as members of the audience mingled and asked any questions they might have to the speakers.
Limitations in learning Celebrating Autism Awareness by changing the perspective on individuality vs. diagnosis BY JOEANNA LOPEZ
TIMES STAFF
Special education at the college level is much different from lower levels. Instructors have no prior knowledge of any accommodations that may be needed if students do not present them with the appropriate paperwork stating their individual needs. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of student education records. FERPA laws state that it becomes the students’ responsibility to seek accommodation and fill out the appropriate paperwork once the
student is 18 or older. English instructor Marlise Edwards had not received training on educational disabilities in the classroom in her 17 years of teaching, until last January, when the English department was offered a workshop on educational impairments. “I previously had no idea that the proximity in which I’m near a student may for some be a trigger just as certain words commonly used in the classroom can be triggers,” Edwards said. Sometimes difficulty with comprehending material is demonstrated through frustration as was experienced during one of Edwards’ classes in the past.
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“The outburst was uncommon, but the other students were understanding and the appropriate persons were contacted,” Edwards said. Learning disabilities and or educational limitations range on a nonlinear spectrum and include but are not limited to: Asperger’s, autism, illiteracy, needing more time or a different setting for tests, note taker, closed captioning, etc. There are disabilities that can be identified through behaviors; however, Jen Boxerman, Director of Communications and Development at Temple Isaiah, in Lafayette, California says, “(autism is) a human experience, not a list
of behavioral traits.” “What we see is behavior, but there’s so much more going on inside each person. Treating autistic people as individuals and not a diagnosis is what autism awareness means to me,” Boxerman said. English instructor Michelle Blair began teaching at SJCC in 1999 and has always been attentive and interested in the abilities and the different ways our brains work and “how information is processed differently.” “The weird thing is I was sensitive and curious about autism
Photo courtesy of Pixabay before she (Fiona) was born. Maybe there’s something cosmic about that all,” Blair said. Fiona is Blair’s 10 year old daughter and comic strip artist. “She’s much smarter than can be seen by the work that’s required by school.” Blair said that, when suggesting that students and friends look into SAS services, “try to be euphemistic, try hard to avoid saying disability and encourage them to
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