Eastfield Et Cetera Feb. 20, 2019

Five black women who changed the world See page 8 ➤ Eastfield College

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Volume 50, Issue 9

Homeless In Plain Sight Nearly 9,500 DCCCD students suffer from homelessness See page 3 ➤

Personal Health

Bills

Family Issues

Tuition

Mental Health

Class Debt

Hunger

Transportation Lack of Sleep

Full Time Job

2

NEWS

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

@TheEtCetera

The Et Cetera

Former CBS anchor warns against nationalism

By DAVID SILVA Managing Editor @DavidSilvaETC

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather discussed the characteristics of great leaders, news coverage in the digital age and the thin line between patriotism and nationalism at his Feb. 13 visit to Brookhaven College.

Rather, a Texas native and Sam Houston State University alumnus, served as a CBS News White House and foreign correspondent and was “The CBS Evening News” anchor for 24 years.

Following his departure from broadcast, Rather has created a social media presence and has developed a following as a progressive voice.

He has also launched an independent production company, News and Guts Media.

His speech at Brookhaven was funded by Title V, the U.S. Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.

Title V also funded Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg’s Jan. 29 visit to the campus.

Rather began his speech, to a mix of students, campus employees and members of the community, by joking of his time as a student and young broadcast journalist before transitioning into the topic of patriotism.

“This is a subject that can be, for many people, controversial,” he said.

“Only because I think some people confuse patriotism with nationalism.”

Rather stated that elements of nationalism, such as a love for one’s country, are folded into patriotism, but when nationalism becomes extreme, when one puts their country in a position of supremacy over others, it becomes an issue.

Rather warned the audience to be wary of people who give the title of patriot to themselves and, without naming anyone specifically, warned of national leaders who seek to exploit these ideas.

He went on to say that patriotism is not only about loving one’s country, but also looking for ways to improve their country through open dialogue.

“It takes engagement with those who are different than you, which is sometimes difficult,” he said. “It takes fairness in law and opportunity. It takes coming together for

RUDY BUSTILLOS/THE ET CETERA

Broadcast journalism veteran and commentator Dan Rather spoke on patriotism, unity and American youth during his Feb. 13 visit to Brookhaven College. His speech borrowed topics from his 2017 New York Times best-selling book “What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism.” Rather has garnered a large following on social media due to his commentary.

good causes.”

Rather said that he wants people to love this country, but he doesn’t want them to think it ever was or is a perfect nation.

Through noticeable emotion, Rather professed his “deeply abiding love” for the people who make the United States “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

“For me, these words mean something very deep,” he said. “A feeling that I’ve struggled to put into words.

From battlefields to segregated lunch counters, I have seen the cost of freedom and bravery, and it is indeed a high cost.”

He said he believes the United States is in a perilous time because of growing social divisions, but that the country has seen perilous times before.

He said engaged citizens, particularly young citizens, can overcome any dangerous eroding of ideals.

During the Q&A portion of the

event, Rather was asked to speak on topics he hadn’t touched on during his speech: digital news and President Donald Trump.

Theater major Allen Wiese said that in the aftermath of the government shutdown, he felt the 24-hour digital news cycle to be exhausting.

“With all of the different breaking news happening every day, it seemed like there was something big going on every single day, every 30 minutes, and that seems to be very daunting for a lot of people,” he said.

Rather said people should be cautious of the usage of the breaking news label and said that he primarily sticks to the Associated Press and Reuters for his news.

“Recognize that the phrase ‘breaking news’ has now been bastardized to the point that it has no meaning,” he said.

Computer science major Allen Solomon specifically pointed at Trump and misinformation on social

media as a concern during the digital age and wondered if citizens should demand more from the media that covers him.

“Do you believe us as citizens have an obligation to keep our news outlets accountable for the information they spread out?” he asked.

Rather responded by saying that citizens as well as media outlets have a responsibility.

He said that the internet and the vast access to information are in ways like the introduction of radio.

Citing radio broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, Rather said the digital age has tools to combat poverty and ignorance, but only if those tools are used effectively.

Rather spoke specifically to students in his closing statement and stressed the importance of their leadership.

He said that to be an effective leader, students should consider prioritizing several traits.

Rather said servitude, humility, learning as well as teaching, being able to speak and listen effectively, being able to write effectively and thinking critically and analytically are all traits that he’s seen in the best leaders.

Rather closed the event, again with emotion in his voice, saying that fate relies on the will of young people.

“I understand that my time to shape and help this world is passing,” he said. “I hope now to inspire others to love this country, … to work hard to make it a healthier and more just place to live. I ultimately have faith in the basic decency of our American citizens. I believe strongly that the core tenets that I love most about this nation can be a foundation for commonality and strength in unity once more. I believe in a wide and expansive vision of our national destiny, and I believe that I want you to make it reality.”

NEWS

3

The Et Cetera

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Addressing students with no address

Housing insecurity garners national attention, new research

By JAMES HARTLEY Life & Arts Editor @ByJamesHartley

Homelessness and housing insecurity have joined food insecurity, debt and inability to pay for textbooks and tuition on the list of financial struggles plaguing the campuses of American colleges and universities.

Nationally, 14 percent of students struggle with some form of homelessness, according to a fall 2016 study conducted by the Wisconsin Hope Lab. While the Dallas County Community College District does not present the same tuition burden as four-year institutions across the U.S., it is still affected by this national trend of students struggling to find a place to sleep.

Eastfield counselor Katie Neff said it’s hard for students to focus on their academics when they’re having to worry about food and housing.

“It impacts, psychologically, students who don’t have the basic foundation of food, shelter, being able to have clothes,” Neff said. “If somebody’s living in their car, couch surfing, there isn’t that stability for them.

That can make it difficult or challenging for them to focus on their studies or complete their homework.”

According to the Hope Lab survey of the district, 11 percent of students in the DCCCD were found to be homeless.

Among those who indicated homelessness, 6 percent surveyed — almost 4,500 students — went at least one night without knowing where they would sleep.

Nearly 1,500 students said they stayed in a shelter and about 2,240 said they stayed in an abandoned building, a vehicle or another place not intended to be a house.

Finding resources While the DCCCD has plans to create student residential facilities that may help alleviate housing insecurity, there is currently little in Dallas County directed specifically at assisting college students find a place to sleep or call home. There are shelters, but none specifically for homeless college students.

Neff said that in the meantime, it’s important for the DCCCD to con-

HOMELESSNESS

Reach Out DCCCD Navigators 972-669-6599 dcccd.edu/navigators

By the numbers

Counseling

The Wisconsin Hope Lab surveyed the Dallas County Community College District in fall 2016 during a national study of student homelessness.

Here’s what the district looks like compared to the national trend.

14%

of students nationally struggle with homelessness

4,500

11%

1,500

of students in the DCCCD are homeless

DCCCD students have gone at least one night without knowing where to sleep

DCCCD students have stayed at homeless shelters

2,240

DCCCD students have slept in their car, an abandoned building or another place not meant to be used for sleep Source: Wisconsin Hope Lab

nect students in need of housing with resources that are available.

She keeps a list of local shelters on hand, complete with phone numbers, addresses and websites and encourages students to contact the DCCCD Navigators, a team of staff dedicated to helping students with anything from registering for orientation to getting food, clothing and shelter.

Brochures and flyers directing students to aid are especially useful because many of these students don’t have internet access outside of campus, Neff said.

Lisa Cook, a navigator working specifically with Eastfield, said most on their team have been students at DCCCD schools, so they have a special understanding and empathy for the things students are going through.

“We are there for anything the students need,” Cook said.

When it comes to housing insecurity, food insecurity or other troubles outside of college, navigators help students work through My Community Services, a program designed by the company Aunt Bertha to connect DCCCD students to resources.

Students can access My Community Services themselves, but Cook said navigators can help determine which resources best fit their needs.

Craig Satterfield, executive dean of student enrollment and services at the DCCCD LeCroy Center, said the navigators are also interested in making sure students going through hard times have support with their academics.

“If a student is, for example, facing homelessness or is currently homeless, we experience that sometimes there are other issues that carry over into their academics, and we need to talk to them about how their classes are going,” Satterfield said. “It carries over into their work life. We’ll have a discussion about how is the student as a whole needing any other assistance.”

Deeper roots Homelessness does not always start in college. After8ToEducate, a social services group partnered with the Dallas Independent School District, estimates 4,000 Dallas ISD students are homeless, 500 of them in high school.

“That’s a conservative estimate,” After8ToEducate executive director Hillary Evans said. “That includes couch surfers, individuals that might be living in motels. It’s really blurred.

I think a lot of youth don’t even know they’re homeless under the federal definition. There’s also a stigma at-

Graphic by: Mateo Corey

tached to being homeless and maybe wanting to fly under the radar.”

Starting late spring or early summer, the organization’s Fannie C. Harris Youth Center will begin offering beds to homeless students enrolled in the Dallas ISD, focusing on high school students.

For now, the center offers a dropin center where youth aged 14-21 can shower, do their laundry, eat hot meals and get clothes for school.

It will soon offer social services to help students find stable housing and connect high schoolers with colleges or technical programs.

While there are no formal partnerships with colleges and universities in the area specifically to help high school students transition to higher education, that is something Evans hopes to see in the future.

The resources for college students in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex are fewer and not as focused or developed.

New studies Urban Theory, a task force founded by Tarrant County College project manager Jesse Herrera, is one group studying student homelessness and trying to find solutions.

“We already know some broad things that are contributing to this

972-860-7270 eastfieldcollege.edu/counseling JasmineGarcia@dcccd.edu Search resources eastfieldcollege.edu/MyCommunityServices

particular problem,” Herrera said.

“We’ve got a decent understanding of some of the challenges they’re dealing with and how to frame some potential solutions for the problem.”

While Urban Theory is still a young group — he licensed the group four years ago but started work in earnest last year — Herrera thinks they have a chance to impact students not only at Tarrant County College but across the metroplex.

The group’s work on student homelessness is still in the research phase, but Herrera said they should have enough information to begin planning by the second quarter of this year.

So far they’ve found that most students impacted by housing insecurity are 18 to 25 and don’t come from any specific type of demographic.

Students consistently report coming from hostile environments in interviews conducted by Urban Theory.

Many students became homeless trying to flee a violent home environment, in many cases some form of domestic abuse.

“The home that they go home to isn’t very safe and isn’t conducive to education,” Herrera said. “It could be a significant other who is verbally abusive or physically abuse or both.

It could be the same with a sibling or a parent. In one case we actually had a mother who had verbally abusive children, so it made her home somewhat hostile.”

Many students will sleep in their cars, couch surf and spend as much time on campus as they can. Some end up on the streets and a few are utilizing shelters, Herrera said.

Shelters, though, can also prove to See Local, page 4 ➤

4

NEWS

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

@TheEtCetera

The Et Cetera

Campus food pantry to open after initial delay

By DAVID SILVA Managing Editor @DavidSilvaETC

A permanent on-site food pantry is reaching its final stages of development despite missing its anticipated soft opening, according to college leaders.

Ashmi Patel, director of the newly established Center for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, said she hopes the pantry will launch by mid-March but could not provide an exact date.

The pantry, which is a part of a district wide partnership with the North Texas Food Bank to combat food insecurity, was planned for a fall 2018 soft opening and spring 2019 full opening.

Patel said that the district has recently finalized its contract with the North Texas Food Bank in order to purchase its food items from them.

She said the college must also detail the roles of those who will work in the pantry and train them properly, which includes hiring a program coordinator to be in charge.

She also said the school plans to have the pantry open even if a coordinator is not hired before their March deadline.

“What we’re trying to do is meet the basic needs of our students so that food and security is not a barrier to their academic success,” she said.

“Students come to class, but they have other things that are going in their lives that we have a responsibility to help them with.”

Despite the DCCCD Foundation being tasked with finalizing the food contract, each individual col-

RORY MOORE/THE ET CETERA

The North Texas Food Bank’s mobile pantry offers fresh produce to anyone in the Eastfield community who needs it. The mobile pantry will continue visits after the campus pantry opens.

lege must have their pantry space approved by the North Texas Food Bank, leading to different timelines for when each campus anticipated opening their pantries.

Eastfield is the only Dallas County Community College District campus remaining without a pantry, despite raising $5,502 in its initial fundraising campaign before last fall.

The campus has also accepted donations, and student organizations such as Phi Theta Kappa have held resource drives for the pantry.

Richland and Cedar Valley both opened their pantries at the beginning of the spring semester.

Brookhaven, Mountain View, North Lake and El Centro had established pantries before the start of fall 2018.

Louise Rogers Keim, administrative assistant at Richland’s Office of Student Life, said that the process at the college took far longer than anticipated, as the guidelines for a pantry location are very specific and contract finalization with the North Texas Food Bank can take time.

“There’s a lot of red tape paperwork that goes into it,” she said.

“They have to come out and look at the area that you’re going to have the pantry in and approve it, and you have guidelines.”

Despite opening the pantry, Richland currently relies on donations and food drives to keep it sustained.

Patel said that despite the donations and drives on campus, without the North Texas Food Bank’s resources, Eastfield does not have enough to fund and sustain a soft opening.

Last fall, Chancellor Joe May said that the district’s initiative to get pantries in colleges was done one by one, and Eastfield is one of the last campuses to get district aid.

“In order to access that, you have to be trained on their system for putting in the order,” he said. “They also will ensure that we adhere to

health standards.”

Despite not having a permanent pantry, the North Texas Food Bank’s mobile food pantry will visit campus March 7, April 4 and May 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in parking lot 8.

Rogers Keim said that an alternative option for students is using the DCCCD My Community Services search engine tool to find resources around them.

There are also already established food pantries near Eastfield partnered with the North Texas Food Bank, including the Mesquite Church of Christ, the Buckner Crisis Center and the Pathway of Life Church.

Local agencies, schools look to combat external student setbacks Continued from page 3 be hostile environments to students. Some students have told Urban Theory that policies, such as no texting or computer use in the shelter, make it difficult to study.

Herrera expects that many of the findings in Fort Worth will be the same in the rest of the metroplex.

While Urban Theory has been working alone to analyze data gathered thus far, Herrera would like to partner with researchers and nonprofits for more scientific results to his study.

He’s also looking for organizations willing to share data and work together.

Existing initiatives Other organizations across the U.S. have had success in helping to relieve homeless insecuri-

ties on campuses.

One organization, Students 4 Students, was founded to help homeless students when doctoral candidate Louis Tse at the University of California Los Angeles noticed a large homeless population on campus and wanted to come up with a solution.

The organization is run by 200 volunteers attending UCLA with help from 100 community leaders, college administrators and faith leaders. Its $65,000 annual budget comes mostly from donations and grants, with philanthropists pitching in big, according to Lori Klein, executive director of Students 4 Students.

Students 4 Students’ Bruin Shelter offers 10 beds to students without places to sleep as well as food and assistance in connecting with resources. The organization is run almost entirely

by volunteers, most of them students or alumni of UCLA. To date, the organization has sheltered 36 students, 90 percent of whom have either graduated or are still enrolled according to Klein.

She said the organization could serve more students if they didn’t allow people to stay as long as they need, up to an academic year. But the current policy allows them to make a deeper impact on students, she said, giving them a safe place to study and sleep without worrying about their next meals. That impact is what the Bruin Shelter is all about. It’s connected an additional 200 students with resources to help with affordable housing, food and other needs.

“College students have enough to worry about just graduating,” Klein said. “When there are students that are homeless and trying to fig-

ure out where their next meal is coming from, where they’re going to sleep, when they’re not getting that sleep, it’s really hard to focus and maintain that GPA.” Getting students to graduate is the main focus of Students 4 Students. To help with that, the services go beyond just housing.

Social work and medical majors volunteer to put residents of Students 4 Students in touch with resources, while other volunteers help with food and other essential needs. The organization is eager to share their success.

Klein said the focus will stay in Southern California for now — Students 4 Students is working to open a Trojan Shelter with the same design as the Bruin Shelter in the near future — but would like to eventually help others from outside the region start similar projects.

NEWS

5

The Et Cetera

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Activist survives streets, helps impoverished

By ANDREW WALTER Copy Editor @AndyWalterETC

Saturday morning cartoons seem to be forgotten in the digital age, but not at Deep Vellum Books.

On this particular Saturday, a group of seven women, ranging in age from teenagers to young adults, crunch on Apple Jacks, Rice Krispies and Froot Loops while watching 1990s cartoons on a small projector screen.

As the X-Men go head to head against a group of underground mutants and Wolverine pines over Jean Grey, the leader of the group asks the women to join her in an activity about the themes of identity within the cartoons.

“Take a step forward if you identify as a Democrat or Republican,” the leader says.

The entire group steps forward.

“Take a step forward if you identify as big or small.”

All but one steps forward.

“Take a step forward if you identify as rich or poor.”

Only two members step forward.

“Turn around,” the leader says to the group. “How far did we walk out?”

The group sees that they’ve been separated into a large circle. The leader explains that while identities can make someone unique, they can also divide people with more commonalities than they realize, just like the X-Men vs. the underground mutants.

Their activity was meant to examine identities “outside of binaries,” the leader said. The conversations that ensued ranged from discussions of minorities battling internalized oppression to how the group views Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a role model.

The group laughs as they compare Ocasio-Cortez to their leader, and how their leader “bothers” representatives in the name of activism.

The group’s leader, Mayra Fierro, started Cereal and Civil Rights to bridge two of her favorite pastimes: activism and watching Saturday morning cartoons. When she’s not drowning in homework, the 29-yearold Eastfield student spends much of her free time fighting as an activist for the rights of LGBTQ and homeless youth.

She’s been a part of both communities.

In the summer of 2007, Fierro had just returned home from her first year at Eckerd College, a private liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was only 17 at the time (she skipped the seventh grade) and was unhappy with her experience there.

Even with a scholarship and financial aid, her family struggled to keep up with the school’s $38,000-a-year tuition and Fierro found the environment at Eckerd to be an unhealthy one. Drug abuse ran rampant on campus, and Fierro said it was common to see students with “softballsized balls of opium.”

Worst of all, Fierro was homesick and getting depressed. One of the only times she’d feel truly happy was when she found time to destress and call her high school crush, Rubi Guizar.

Guizar and Fierro met for the first time in health class at high school.

Fierro would always walk in late, lean back in her chair and leave her feet on her desk.

Guizar did not like her at all. She thought Fierro was conceited, but after talking to her more through a mutual friend, Guizar warmed up to her.

“Eventually, I always found myself around her,” Guizar said. “I saw that she was different, willing to talk to anyone and she wasn’t into the high school cliques.”

One night, while at Eckerd, Fierro finally went out on a limb and texted Guizar asking her if she would be her girlfriend. They had been close friends for nearly three years by then, and Guizar said yes.

There was just one problem with their newfound relationship: Fierro had never come out to her parents and she was raised in a strict, Catholic home.

While back home, Fierro wanted to take Guizar out. On one occasion when they wanted to see a movie, Fierro’s father refused to let her go out, despite her telling him that she was just going out with friends.

Her father had grown suspicious about her sexuality by this point. He’d known she liked to spend almost all her free time with Guizar.

Feeling rebellious, Fierro decided to leave anyway and walked to a nearby bus stop later that afternoon.

Before her ride to freedom came, however, her parents drove to the bus stop and found her.

Fierro’s mother stood by and

watched as her father violently beat her at the bus stop. Before he left, he pulled out a knife and cut off her ponytail.

Fierro hopped on the next evening bus and headed downtown, not really caring where she ended up. She wound up in South Dallas late that night.

Under the dim streetlights, Fierro found her beacon of hope: a 24-hour Williams Chicken. She ordered a two-piece chicken combo, called her uncle, and sat and waited by the drive-thru window.

Around 2 a.m., her uncle picked her up and let her stay on his couch for a few days. Bouncing between his house, other relatives and local friends, Fierro made it by for two weeks.

Then, Fierro and Guizar decided they would run away together. Before they could accomplish their goal, one of Guizar’s friends told Fierro’s parents about their plan.

Fierro’s father was furious. He found her at a friend’s house in Pleasant Grove, picked her up in his truck, and proceeded to beat her for the second time. He dropped her off in the middle of the road and See Fierro, page 6 ➤

PHOTOS BY YESENIA ALVARADO/THE ET CETERA

Top, Mayra Fierro hands a blanket to a thirty-year old homeless man sitting next to a Pizza Patron on the intersection of Inwood Road and Maple Avenue on Feb. 9. Fierro was out volunteering on a homeless youth search survey for the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance with volunteers Caleb Bay and Karlyn Tunnell. Bottom, the volunteer team found a homeless man named Jesus at an Oak Lawn dentist’s office. He wanted to find resources and places where he could volunteer to help others in need.

6

NEWS The Et Cetera

NEWS

Briefs Grad deadline extended The graduation application deadline has been extended to March 6. The deadline was originally March 1, but campus offices will be closed that day and the day prior, Feb. 28. Find more information can be found at eastfieldcollege.edu/graduation — Aria Jones

Eastfield not chosen for baccalaureate Brookhaven College has been selected to host the Dallas County Community College District’s baccalaureate program for early childhood development, a program for which Eastfield was in the running.

The program is possible because of a law passed during the 2017 legislative session. It allows two-year institutions to offer four-year degrees in early childhood education when a county has a need for at least 2,400 professionals in that area.

— James Hartley

Drop dates approaching

Students currently in the first eight-week term have until Feb. 27 to drop a class. 16-week course students have until April 17. Classes can be dropped by visiting the admissions office, on eConnect, by fax or mail.

Students wishing to fax or mail in their request to drop must print out the appropriate forms from the DCCCD’s website and mail it to the admissions office. Students should keep in mind that Texas law only allows six drops per person. Students receiving financial aid that quit attending class without officially withdrawing may be forced to pay back part of the money.

— Skye Seipp

Transcripts require fee As of Feb. 11, students can request transcripts through eConnect as part of a partnership between the Dallas County Community College District and Credential Solutions LLC. Transcripts sent electronically are free and can be sent to more than 120 institutions. Paper transcripts are now $5 each and include trackable shipping.

—Aria Jones

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Fierro assists Dallas youth, homeless Continued from page 5 told her to go home. She started to walk in the other direction.

Before she could get very far, a witness called the police. The police forced Fierro’s father to leave and let her leave on her own.

Fierro was back to couch surfing. She stayed with her godmother, drug-abusing cousins or friends. She worked many jobs to survive: file clerk, office manager and insurance agent. But she credits a cell phone store for keeping her afloat. The owner of the store loved Fierro’s ability to negotiate with clientele. She’d seen his business expand from five stores to 90, so she admired his ability to turn nothing into something.

“No matter how hard things could get on the street, it was comforting that he always gave me a job,” she said.

This was the job Fierro relied on to take Guizar on dates. At least now that she wasn’t living with her parents, Fierro and Guizar could be together.

Then, Guizar’s father got involved.

He learned of his daughter’s relationship and forbid Guizar from seeing Fierro until he met her.

Fierro was fearful. She thought of how her own father reacted when she came out and worried for Guizar.

But Guizar’s father was calm though firm with his demands. He said that he would approve of their relationship on the conditions that they didn’t sneak around and that Guizar was home every night.

After several years of building trust, keeping the promises she made to Guizar’s father and marrying Guizar, Fierro began living with the family.

Actions speak louder than words People who work with Fierro know she gives it everything she’s got, said Andy McDaniel, one of the members of Cereal and Civil Rights.

She has worked and volunteered with Fierro for almost four years.

McDaniel said the emotions Fierro felt during her hardest times were what motivated her to do everything she could for LGBTQ and homeless youth.

McDaniel first met and volunteered with Fierro by helping LGBTQ Dallas youth. They tie-dyed Tshirts and sheets to craft a “rainbow wall” to shield the kids and teenagers from anti-LGBTQ protestors.

YESENIA ALVARADO/THE ET CETERA

Mayra Fierro, left, and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance provide aid during a Feb. 9 homeless survey.

“It was kind of an interesting bonding experience,” McDaniel said. “Standing there, shouting down hate.”

McDaniel has seen firsthand Fierro’s ability to work with kids. She said Fierro can not only teach them practical skills like reading but give compassion that many of the kids never found at home.

“I just show up and move tables and bring books and stuff like that, but Mayra does all the hard work,” she said.

English professor Sabine Winter had Fierro in a class last semester.

She said it was apparent that politics and activism were a driving force in her life.

Winter said that while most people might donate time or money to causes, Fierro practices activism differently.

“Most of us try to help, but she is trying to change the system,” she said.

Seeking those who need help On a cold, rainy, February night in Oak Lawn, Fierro and two other volunteers roam the area as part of a homeless youth search and survey for the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance.

She’s helping pass out blankets, food, water and other necessities to

any homeless person they find.

The group doesn’t let the weather stop their search.

“People need [help] and water is wet, yo,” Fierro said.

They walk several blocks around Oak Lawn, to the local Kroger, Pizza Patron and Cathedral of Hope and find seven people in need.

They find a man sleeping and clutching a damp blanket next to an Allstate insurance building. They wake him up and ask him if he needs some help.

The man says his name is Wheater. Then he bursts into tears.

Fierro and the group hand Wheater everything they can: toiletries, bottled water, granola bars, crackers and packets of mayonnaise.

One of the volunteers runs back to a car to fetch a can of tuna for him.

Wheater explains that he’d only been roaming Dallas for a week. He is from Memphis, Tennessee.

Fierro hands Wheater a soaked resource booklet and points out directions to the nearby Cathedral of Hope. She tells him that she knows what kind of place he’s in and she knows how to help.

She’s previously volunteered with the Cathedral of Hope’s TV ministry.

“Working in the TV ministry, one of the coolest things was seeing the views come in from the sermons

we recorded live and aired and seeing the IP addresses ping all over the world,” she said. “To me, it showed that there was people looking for their faith … all over the world. It was pretty cool to be able to provide them that bit of hope.”

Fierro hosts Cereal and Civil Rights on the first Saturday every month at Deep Vellum Books. The next meeting is March 2.

She’s been speaking out at recent public hearings on the Dallas curfew ordinance. The next one is Feb. 27.

Fierro is working to make sure Dallas youth have access to safe spaces and trusted adults. She wants them to not fall victim to citations and to see police in a more positive light. After everything she’s been through, Fierro understands what it means to be part of a collective, to have an identity.

However, she doesn’t let identities define who she is. She chooses to live as herself, not just all the identities that encompass parts of her life.

“I’m just Mayra,” she said. “There’s lots of different labels and identities that other people can tack up on you, but I decide what I answer to and I answer by my name: Mayra.”

If you’re interested in attending Cereal and Civil Rights or a Dallas curfew public hearing, contact Fierro at mayrafierro@gmail.com.

Life &Arts The Et Cetera

7

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Eastfield prepares to host play competition

By SKYE SEIPP Staff Writer @TheEtCetera

TCCSTA SCHEDULE

Community colleges from across Texas are making their way to Eastfield as the Texas Community College Speech and Theatre Association festival will be hosted at the campus for the first time.

The festival is set to take place Feb. 20–23, with Eastfield being the first of nine other schools to take the stage.

Students and employees should expect the parking lot outside of the F building to be full of vans and buses.

The TCCSTA is a collective of community college theater programs throughout Texas that come together once a year to perform an array of shows.

Community colleges that wish to perform at the festival simply have to pay a membership fee to join. The number of schools varies each year.

This year, Eastfield, Blinn College, Houston Community College, Howard College, Lamar State College-Port Arthur, Lee College, Lone Star College–Kingwood, Panola College and Wharton County Junior College will be performing.

Each college will perform a 90-minute show in front of two judges, where at least six awards are handed out among the schools for superior or excellent acting and technical abilities.

The directors will also pick various aspects of the plays to give awards to, with no limit as to how many they can give.

Last year, Eastfield received a total of 17 awards.

Theater program coordinator Dusty Reasons Thomas said that the importance of the festival lies in the ability of students who are

YESENIA ALVARADO/THE ET CETERA

Eastfield’s selection for the TCCSTA festival, “In Love and Warcraft,” will be performed for free on Feb. 20. From left, lead actress Karen Fanka practices combat scenes with Cameron Cook and Joseph Martinez on Feb. 8.

on the community college level to inspire one another.

“The festival is more of a celebration of theater as opposed to just a direct competition,” she said.

Actress Vashti Moffett, who has been a part of Eastfield’s theater department for a year and a half, believes the festival will be a great opportunity for students.

“Not a lot of people know Eastfield has a theater department, which is discomforting,” Moffett said.

Moffett believes that the festival is beneficial for students because it allows the actors to watch other performers, which she believes is the best way for an actor to grow.

“I would like to thank TCCSTA for recognizing us and just realizing that community

college theater does have a voice,” she said.

Eastfield will be performing “In Love and Warcraft,” a contemporary comedy that looks at relationships during college.

The play follows the tale of Evie, a senior in college who has decided to live her life abstaining from having any type of emotional or sexual intimacy with another person.

She instead opts to live her life in the online game “World of Warcraft.”

Evie may not have the firsthand experience of romance, but her major in literature has given her the ability to write love letters.

The plot thickens when Evie begins falling head over heels for a man named Ryan.

With Evie’s wish to remain abstinent, and having no experience connecting emotionally, the story shows the struggle of an introvert

Wednesday, Feb. 20 •Eastfield College, “In Love and Warcraft” at 8 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 21 •Lone Star College, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” at 10 a.m.

•Blinn College, “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” at 2 p.m.

•Panola College, “Anna K” at 6 p.m.

•Lamar State College from Port Arthur performs at 10 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 22 •Howard College, “Charlotte’s Web” at 10 a.m.

•Lee College, “Theophilus North” at 2 p.m.

•Wharton County Junior College, “The Children’s Hour” at 6 p.m.

•Houston Community College, “What is the Cause of Thunder?” at 10 p.m.

coming out of her shell to form a real intimate relationship.

Actor Victor DeTerra, who will be performing in the TCCSTA for his third time, said the importance of theater is its ability to bring new perspectives to life using stories.

“When you boil this play down its about what makes you happy, and being comfortable with that and being able to share that with others,” DeTerra said.

Eastfield will take to the stage on Feb. 20 at 8:00 p.m.

Participants of the festival will have first priority of seating, Thomas said.

Students interested in attending the performances should contact reasons at DReasons@ dcccd.edu.

Admins brewing plans for coffee shop next semester

By ADOLFO RESENDIZ OLGUIN Reporter @AdolfoOResendiz

Eastfield could have a coffee shop on campus as early as next fall as a part of the college’s efforts to make campus more appealing and keep students engaged.

The coffee shop serves as part of a trend to place coffee bars within libraries, but it also serves as a convenience, said Karla Greer, executive dean of the library.

“The other idea behind putting it here was that it could be more con-

venient for students and staff, rather than having to go down to the Hive, especially students who are in the G building and F building,” she said. “It would be more convenient for them to come to this area.”

The overall appearance of the coffee shop will depend on the vendor.

The shop is set to be placed at the intersection of F, L and G buildings, upstairs near or in the library.

Currently, the district is working with a consultant on a final design before any construction begins.

The next steps will include taking bids for vendors and approval by the

board of trustees.

Cindy Pitman, franchise owner of Eastfield’s Subway location, said she plans to make a bid on the space when the time comes.

Jose Rodriguez, the vice president of business services, said the placing of the coffee shop at the library seems like the most convenient choice for future customers.

“It’s centrally located, that way students from all parts of the college can congregate in that area,” he said.

“It’s close to the Performance Hall, it’s by the library and collegewide, it is a central location. And it’s one of

the places that we have the ability to place it.”

Roy Von Harmon, a music major, said he’s excited to have a coffee shop on campus.

“I feel that it would open opportunities for students to connect with each other,” he said. “You’ll see a whole crowd of people and you’ll be with them, and you’re like, ‘I haven’t seen you around, let me introduce myself.’ ” Harmon isn’t the only enthusiastic one. David Ramirez, a department assistant in the Arts and Communications Division, also sees this

as an opportunity.

“A coffee shop would benefit students and especially faculty,” Ramirez said.

The coffee shop is part of Eastfield’s master plan, a proposal to update and improve the campus over the next 10 years to cope with growth across the district.

“It’s important we align the needs of the community with this master plan, which means we have to find out what programs we need to focus on, so we can get the most important benefit for our students and our community,” Rodriguez said.

8

LIFE&ARTS

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

@TheEtCetera

The Et Cetera

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Five trailblazing women African American history is filled with numerous extraordinary figures.

However, during Black History Month, we often find ourselves discussing the same iconic ones.

And focusing on the history of the African American experience doesn’t help shed light on the great men and women who are currently making strides and breaking barriers.

In our current social era, where women are kicking butt left and right, it’s only right to discuss past and present black females who have changed the world.

— Compiled by Aji Mariam Ida B. Wells ➤ Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist and person of influence in the 1890s, who protested the wrongful deaths of three black business owners who were lynched in Memphis, Tennessee. She produced articles criticizing the lynching traditions.

In return, her office was ransacked and death threats became regular. However, she continued to address the killings. In 1892, she compiled a book about her experiences with lynching titled “A Red Record.” Wells went on to be one of the founders of the National Association of Colored Women, which would later become the NAACP.

Marsha P. Johnson ➤ As an LGBTQ rights activist and transgender woman, Johnson fought the injustices against blacks and transgenders before her death in 1992.

She led the Stonewall revolt of 1969 against the NYPD when LGBTQ members were being arrested under suspicious circumstances at the Stonewall Inn bar. The revolt is considered an important precursor to the gay liberation movement.

Soon after, Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, an organization that assisted transgender adolescents without homes. She wanted the voices of African American transgender youths to not only be heard but also be listened to. Soon, shelters began opening in New York City, Chicago, California and England. In 1992, Johnson’s dead body was found floating in the Hudson River.

Her death was originally ruled a suicide, but several days before, several people claimed they witnessed Johnson being harassed by a group of men, one of which allegedly bragged about killing a drag queen named Marsha.

Ava DuVernay ➤

Marley Dias has appeared on Forbes magazine in its 30 Under 30 list for creating #1000BlackGirlBooks, a campaign to collect and donate novels starring black girls as protagonists. She reached her goal and then some, collecting over 10,000 books.

After winning the Smithsonian Magazine’s American Ingenuity Award, she was invited to speak at the White House for the United State of Women Summit alongside Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama to kickstart her literary tour.

She accomplished all of this at only 13 years old.

Photos courtesy of: U.S. Department of the Interior, Diana Davies and The New York Public Library, Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation, U.S. Embassy Berlin.

Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green

➤

Marley Dias

After losing two family members to cancer, Hadiyah-Nicole Green was inspired to find ways to combat the disease. She questioned current treatments and how they affected the body after witnessing the disfigurement of her uncle due to chemotherapy.

The 36-year-old is seeking to eradicate the disease in a more targeted manner to lessen the symptoms. Not

only is Green one of the first black women to receive a doctorate in physics, she is also cultivating technologies to fight cancerous cells with laser precision. Green aspires to make cancer treatments more affordable and created the Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation in honor of her late aunt, who also died of cancer.

Her research cured cancer in mice and she has received a $1.1 million grant to further her studies.

Film director Ava DuVernay grew up in Los Angeles with an aunt who fostered her love for movies.

DuVernay used that fuel to become the first black woman to win a directing award at the Sundance Film Festival, among many other achievements.

The 46-year-old is behind movies like “Selma,” “Middle of Nowhere” and “A Wrinkle in Time.” She has aspired to use her cinematic art as a tool to inspire activism and encourage diversity in film and television. As an independent, minority filmmaker she appealed to raw human emotions and everyday lives to make a statement about the cookie-cutter film industry.

She has also depicted trials within the criminal justice system for black men in the form of police brutality and mass incarceration in her documentary “13th.” DuVernay is an advocate for black rights, privileges and freedoms and has made her visions clear within her art.

LIFE&ARTS

9

The Et Cetera

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Expand your tastes, experience life in college College is like a roller coaster. There are twists and turns, highs and lows, parts we love and parts we hate.

The difference is that, when the ride on the roller coaster ends, we can hop back on right after and do it all again. College isn’t exactly like that. Even if we want to keep pursuing education, we can never get back to the exact same semester.

We need to truly enjoy this part of the ride and take advantage of all that we can while we’re on board. So, here is your college bucket list you should do before you graduate.

— Compiled by Kaitlyn Moore, graphics by Roxana Santillan and Julie Cordova

So, clear a spot in your schedule, get a drink from the bookstore and go see the parts of Eastfield you never knew existed.

I’m positive you’ll find something intriguing.

Find Hidden Gems Thrift shopping is grand because the stuff you find is cheap and generally both quirky and entertaining.

An old CD of pirates singing shanties? You bet. A bacon tuxedo?

Absolutely. A chair with cat faces on it? You can find beneficial things that you will use, or you can find useless

Throw away your compass Going off on a mini-adventure around campus without a destination or goal is one of the easiest things to do in college.

When we are headed to classes, rushing to meet professors, or leaving campus for the day, we normally don’t have time to take in our surroundings.

Exploring campus lets you discover new spots or nooks you’d never noticed. Also, you never know whom you’ll run into or whom you might meet.

but entertaining things.

The possibilities for thrift shopping are truly endless. It’s something every college kid should do at least once.

Develop a palate beyond ramen noodles

Learning to cook something besides ramen and scrambled eggs is a must for college students.

This doesn’t mean you have to take a cooking class or peruse Pinterest boards for hours to find simple, cheap recipes — though you certainly can do that if you like.

A quick search on Google can pull up tons of great recipes,

or you can try YouTube if you fancy watching someone do it first.

Following these simple steps and building up a repertoire of delicious recipes will serve you well while you’re in school and long after you graduate.

Do more than go to class and go home Yes, you’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but I’m going to remind you once more: getting involved in clubs, campus organizations and the school newspaper (wink wink) is one of the best ways to enrich your experience while in school.

The best part of doing this is that you are guaranteed to meet people who have similar focuses and interests.

This is where you build bonds and friendships that can survive past college, and it is also a great way to network with people going into the same field as you are.

OPINION

The Grammys hit a sour note, these albums tune it out

Near the beginning of every year, the Grammys pop into relevancy for, give or take, a week.

The Grammys are so notoriously out of touch that it’s no surprise that fewer and fewer artists show up to the award ceremony. This year was no different.

When I saw Greta Van Fleet win best rock album, I lost all hope and was somehow even more disappointed.

Now that the Grammy Awards have come and gone, check out these great, creative and shockingly snubbed albums that still live on.

— Compiled by Alexis Rodriguez Denzel Curry – ‘Ta13oo’ Denzel Curry is the best thing to come out of Florida since orange juice.

“Ta13oo” is an ambitious project for an artist as young to the game COURTESY PH RECORDINGS as Curry, and a massively underrated record.

It’s not the first album to mix elements of hardcore hip-hop and metal, but it seems like the best so far.

Curry is a weird artist in general, but his ability to seamlessly switch from making the single hardest song of the year in “Black Metal Terrorist | 13 MT” to a super catchy, albeit dark callback to Kurt Cobain’s tragic suicide with “CLOUT COBAIN | CLOUT CO13A1N” is unparalleled in the rap game at the moment.

It’s really a shame that he’s still yet to reach the level of fame some of his contemporaries like Ski Mask the Slump God or XXXTentacion, despite his work being more ambitious and creative than most of them.

“Ta13oo” stands as the culmination of his work so far, and the lack of appreciation for it is a travesty.

succeed only to get ignored makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a guitar pick.

Daughters – ‘You Won’t Get What You Want’

Snail Mail – ‘Lush’ Lindsey Jordan, or Snail Mail, is only a year older than me and has already been called “the patron saint of modern indie guitar rock,” by Out magazine.

“Lush” isn’t reinventing the wheel, COURTESY MATADOR but Snail Mail’s brand of soft, heartfelt indie rock inspired by the likes of Sonic Youth, Paramore and The Velvet Underground really lays down the foundation for what could potentially be the next big movement in rock.

This is a genre that is in deep need of something to propel it back into the cultural zeitgeist, and I adore everything about what Snail Mail brings to the table.

Jack White – ‘Boarding House Reach’ Jack White is without a doubt one of the best rock artists of the past 20 years.

His work as one half of The White Stripes and leader of the early 2000s garage rock revival has made him a 21st century rock legend.

COURTESY THIRD MAN RECORDS

White went in the complete opposite direction with “Boarding House Reach,” dropping one of the most experimental and weird records I’ve ever heard from an artist of his caliber.

Don’t get me wrong, it still has some classic Jack White riffs and songwriting.

But for every song like “Over and Over and Over,” which sounds like it could’ve easily made it into a White Stripes record, there’s a track like “Ezmerelda Steals the Show” or “Corporation” that sounds like a wholly different artist.

This record is the most popular of this list, but despite the fact that it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, it was absent from a ton of year-end lists.

Rock is a genre that is in desperate need of creativity in order to push it back to the forefront of music, so to see an artist try and

After going on hiatus for nearly a decade, Rhode Island noise rock band Daughters returned in 2018 with one of the most abrasive, COURTESY IPECAC RECORDS chaotic and downright terrifying records I have ever heard.

“You Won’t Get What You Want” is a noise rock masterpiece and my favorite album of 2018.

If there’s one album on this list I want everyone to check out, it is this one. If there was ever a record I would describe as “physical,” it’d be this one. Sitting through this album is the closest thing to using music to assault your senses in every way possible.

Often bordering on horror or grindhouse movie soundtrack, this record sounds dark, abrasive and borders on auditory abuse.

From “City Song” at the start to the closer “Guest House,” Daughters delivers walls of sounds and sour guitars, but somehow make all of the spooky things sound beautiful in the darkest way possible.

This record is not for everyone. Noise rock in general is super niche and prior to this album I didn’t understand it, but like every other record on this list, it’s meant to expand your musical horizons.

10

LIFE&ARTS

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Tealer spills the tea

Now in his first full semester as president of Eastfield College, Eddie Tealer sat down with The Et Cetera’s James Hartley to discuss the future for the college, his favorite things about Eastfield and his motivations for his move from the private sector to public higher education.

Q A

What are some of your personal priorities for the college?

My first priority is listening, and I’ve had the opportunity to do some great meet-and-greets across the college and I’m still doing more of those.

But mainly meeting with our faculty.

There was a lot of conversation around our tutoring services, so I want to make sure we’re looking at some of those areas to respond immediately and correctly to what some of our concerns are.

In addition to that I’ve had the opportunity to attend some of our athletic games, our volleyball games and basketball games, and that’s another really important piece of what we do here at the college, and working with our district to understand what my responsibilities are in that area.

I have met with several Independent School Districts in the area, several superintendents.

@TheEtCetera

The Et Cetera

I had a really great meeting with the mayor last week. I invited him to the college and showed him our master plan.

I’ve also been making my rounds around all of our early college high schools. I still have a couple more to do.

Q A

What are some of your favorite things about Eastfield?

One of my favorite things is being able to go around campus and watch the students interact with each other and see the faculty members and just get to visit, to get the raw responses from individuals.

It was really nice to see those areas that I’m here to impact, to make those relationships and get the eye contact with those individuals and really say, “Don’t be a stranger. When you see me walking around, you can walk up to me and have a discussion if there’s something on your mind.”

Q A

What prompted your transition between private sector and public higher education?

You know, at some point in your life you begin to realize what’s really important.

Family is really important to me, but more so I was brought up to really understand and appreciate others and try to serve in that capacity.

One thing I realized when I was in corporate America is that I was taking, but I wasn’t really giving back.

I couldn’t be intrinsically filled from that.

So I began to understand and search for something that was more intrinsically fulfilling for me.

When I had the opportunity to join the Dallas County Community College District, I realized that I could now serve in a role and I could give back to those who needed that leadership and that mentorship.

I hope that somewhere down the line I’ve made a difference in someone’s life that they can be inspired with those challengers and barriers and move forward and say, “You know what? Dr. Tealer did it,” or “President Tealer did it,” or “Eddie did it, I

RORY MOORE/THE ET CETERA

can do it.”

The most important thing I want our students to be is better citizens and better individuals and I want them to have the education, but I want us to produce individuals that are real and that want to give back.

Q

Have there been any moments where that transition has been difficult?

A

I would say in the beginning, just understanding that in corporate America things move really fast.

Me being in finance, looking at market rates every day and what that means to the bottom line, that kind of thing.

When I got to education, things were a little slower paced but strategic.

Those were the major differences, knowing you don’t have to get this done by the end of the day.

This might take a little longer, so practicing patience I think was one of the things I had to realize.

Q A

How is the Early College High School program changing, and how is it shaping Eastfield?

I think we will continue to do what’s already been started here.

I think the early college high school is shaping our dis-

YESENIA ALVARADO/THE ET CETERA

Eddie Tealer began his first full semester as college president at the Jan. 17 convocation, above, and Jan. 31 “Tea with Tealer,” top.

trict as a whole, not just Eastfield. And I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to expand those relationships and really create student success.

So, these are students that come to us and are able to move through college with us, but they are set up with pathways for

success, that guidance point, so they can have the advisers and counselors to help mentor them to be successful.

When I was younger, I didn’t have that opportunity but I would have appreciated that opportunity to be in early college high school.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

The Et Cetera

11

12

LIFE&ARTS

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

@TheEtCetera

The Et Cetera

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Alita’ offers great visuals, plot not half as stunning

By SKYE SEIPP Contributor @TheEtCetera

The new Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron collaboration movie “Alita: Battle Angel,” is a visual feast for the senses with a dull narrative.

The film is based on the manga series “Gunnm” by Yukito Kishiro and tells the tale of Alita, a cyborg girl in the 26th century who is awakened after 300 years with no recollection of who she is.

While the special effects make for a real visual treat, the rest of the movie is lackluster. With the same cliched sci-fi world, it makes for a movie that you feel you’ve already seen.

The story takes place in the dystopian cyberpunk world of Iron City, which is controlled by an upper echelon city that floats directly above called Zena.

After being discovered by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christopher Waltz), Alita (Rosa Salazar) is now faced with a world unbeknownst to her.

With help from the street-smart

Hugo (Keean Johnson), Alita manages her way through the mucky world and takes a liking to the sport “motorball,” the only form of entertainment for the citizens. Life is not all fun and games for Alita though.

Curious as to why Ido is out late at night, she finally sneaks out to see what secrets her father-figure creator is hiding. She discovers that by night he is a “hunter-warrior” (a fancy term for bounty hunter).

Of course, things go awry and Alita jumps in to help fight.

During the action, Alita has a flashback to her previous life.

From here, Alita is determined to fight to find out not only who she is, but who she was.

The rest of the story is nothing new, nor is it thrilling, with action scenes that range from subpar to satisfactory. What draws you in to the movie though is Alita.

While she was the only character who was entirely animated, the state-of-the-art motion-capture technology used in the animation is

COURTESY 20TH CENTURY FOX

“Alita: Battle Angel” delivers on James Cameron’s reputation for breathtaking visual effects.

so stupendous that you almost forget she is animated. With the likes of Rodriguez and Cameron and a $200 million budget, you would think the writing could be better.

What the viewer is left with is a story that skips from one plot line to the next, with no real backstory developed on any of them.

The movie had some noteworthy actors, but nearly all their performances were subpar, knowing what

TWU Transfer Connection Event Visit our Denton campus, March 23, 8:30 a.m. - noon, to: • Get admissions, scholarship & financial aid information • Meet advisors & faculty; receive sample degree plans • Learn about Touchstone Honors transfer program Learn more at TWU.edu/transfer

they are capable of.

The only notable performance came from Rosa Salazar, who made her animated character feel more alive than the rest of the characters.

Christopher Waltz was by far the most disappointing of all the performances. If you are hoping to see a performance like that of “Django Unchained,” then I have some bad news for you.

Jennifer Connelly and Mahersha-

la Ali were neither great nor terrible at their roles. They both just kind of said their lines but didn’t make you hate or love them.

All in all, “Alita: Battle Angel” can be described as “just OK.” For a movie with incredible visual effects, it’s a shame that so much of the film was lacking any real depth when it was obvious that great lengths were made simply for the sake of animation.

Sports The Et Cetera

Feb. 20 Feb. 27 March 8 March 9

Baseball vs. North Lake College Baseball vs. Brookhaven College Baseball vs. Mountain View College Baseball vs. Mountain View College

www.eastfieldnews.com

2 p.m.

2 p.m.

2 p.m.

Noon

13

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Captain makes comeback, drops 95 pounds

By ARIA JONES Editor in Chief @AriaJonesETC

It was too painful to move. Scott Garriga laid flat on his back at his parents’ home in Murphy. He no longer saw the point of earning his degree. Basketball was his only motivation, and it was lost to him.

Muscle relaxers and painkillers were the only way he could tolerate the injury, and they turned his life into a blur. At 6 feet, 6 inches tall and 285 pounds, his weight put pressure on the sciatic nerve in his back.

His injury took him off the Eastfield College basketball team in fall 2015. The jumping and running required in the sport meant the extra weight was putting pressure on his hips and spine.

“My dream of playing college basketball had kind of been crushed,” he said. “I just needed my body to heal.

I needed my back to heal, and I just needed to get my head on [straight].”

Garriga had a difficult conversa-

tion with coach Anthony Fletcher when he told him that he was leaving. He was only playing 2-5 minutes per game and had lost the chance to truly make his mark on the team.

Garriga said the reason he was overweight was an unhealthy diet.

Before he was injured, his weight wasn’t a concern. He had always been the bigger kid growing up, and he got bullied for it, but he could still play.

In the years Garriga was away from Eastfield, he enrolled at two other colleges but was in a slump without basketball. His loss of motivation caused his grades to suffer.

“I had no passion for school,” he said. “I didn’t see the point. Whenever I was in school the first time, it was to play basketball. It wasn’t really to go to school for school.”

Being injured also caused him to become inactive and gain more weight.

He got up to 315 pounds.

“I was going to the gym, but I wasn’t really taking it seriously,” he See Garriga, page 16 ➤

COURTESY OF SCOTT GARRIGA

YESENIA ALVARADO/THE ET CETERA

Forward Scott Garriga has returned to the Harvesters after four years. He’s earned his place on the team as a veteran leader and lead rebounder. The Harvesters finished the season tied at No. 10 in the nation. Above is Garriga at 285 pounds prior to his departure from the team in 2015.

OPINION

Mavericks win in pre-deadline trading with young, dynamic players Every February, the NBA has a deadline for teams to trade players and draft picks with other teams. The reasons for making trades varies from team to team. For some, it’s to be a championship contender. For others, it’s to rebuild into a playoff hopeful.

When these trades take place, the teams involved all believe they won. Whether that is true or not, only time will tell. In the meantime, fans will speculate on which teams were the winners and losers. Here’s how I see it: Biggest winner: Dallas Mavericks The Mavericks made two trades before the deadline that will make them a true title contender in the next season or two and set up the post-Dirk Nowitzki era very nicely.

First, they got their rookie sensation, Luka Doncic, some help by trading for all-star Kristaps Porzingis and guards Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Courtney Lee from the New York Knicks in exchange for Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and two first-round picks.

Second, they were able to create more cap space for the future by trading away Harrison Barnes and his large contract to the Sacra-

Francisco Longoria @TheEtCetera

mento Kings in exchange for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph, whose contract was later bought out.

With both of those trades, the Mavericks have created a young, exciting dynamic duo in Doncic and Porzingis, but they also created cap space to potentially sign a top-tier player like Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson or DeMarcus Cousins. They could also sign two middle-tier players like Khris Middleton, Tobias Harris or Kemba Walker. Either way, it sets up a bright future in Dallas.

Biggest loser: The Los Angeles Lakers The entire NBA world was waiting on the LA Lakers to acquire New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis, but they couldn’t get the trade done.

The Lakers tried their best by offering almost everybody on the roster not named

Lebron James, along with Shaq’s statue and a couple of championship banners. The trade rumors led to confidence and chemistry issues on the team, with the Lakers losing to the Indiana Pacers by 42 points on Feb. 5.

Whether these younger players can get their heads back into the game and try to make the playoffs will be interesting to watch Best power struggle: Eastern Conference contenders The top teams in the Eastern Conference had themselves a busy deadline day trying to one-up each other.

The Milwaukee Bucks added more depth by acquiring veteran scorer Nikola Mirotic and gave up basically a 2-liter soda and a bag of chips to do so. The Toronto Raptors also added former all-star and Defensive Player of the Year Marc Gasol. And the Philadelphia 76ers, who had already acquired all-star Jimmy Butler earlier in the year, went all in by trading for forward Tobias Harris and a bunch of great bench players. Even though they gave up a lot in those deals, the 76ers are confident that they can win it all this year.

The Boston Celtics didn’t make any moves

during the deadline, but they still won since they’re in the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

Biggest missed opportunity: Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies should have traded both of their franchise stars, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley, in exchange for valuable assets to start their rebuilding process.

But they only traded Gasol and got two aging veterans, a decent young player and a second-round draft pick in 2024. Keeping Conley only delays the inevitable rebuild and is sadly wasting the last few years left in his career. He deserves to play for a contender.

Biggest question marks: New York Knicks and LA Clippers In the long run, the two biggest winners or losers in this year’s trade deadline could eventually be the LA Clippers and the New York Knicks. It just depends on what transpires in the 2019 free agency period. Both teams made trades to create a lot of cap space, so they can sign not one but two top-tier superstars. But if they don’t, they will end up as star-less teams in a star-driven league.

opinion

14 www.eastfieldnews.com

Etera

America’s habit of over indulging on meat is ethically irresponsible

Award-winning member of: • Texas Intercollegiate Press Association • Texas Community College Journalism Association • Associated Collegiate Press • College Media Association

Eastfield College 3737 Motley Drive Mesquite, TX 75150 Phone: 972-860-7130 Email: etc4640@dcccd.edu Editor in Chief Aria Jones Managing Editor David Silva Visual Arts Editor Yesenia Alvarado Copy Editor Andrew Walter Life & Arts Editor James Hartley Graphic Design Editor Mateo Corey Web Editor Anthony Lazon Senior Graphic Designer Manuel Guapo Staff Writers Macks Prewitt Alexis Rodriguez Samuel Farley

Cameron R. Cook Aji Mariam Skye Seipp

Photographers Rory Moore Saralyn Corey

Yvonne Garcia Rudy Bustillos

Videographers Esteban Andrade

Marisol Ramirez

Reporter Adolfo Resendiz Olguin Contributor Sarah Ivy Francisco Longoria

Kaitlyn Moore-

Graphic Artists Abednego Leal Daisy Araujo Jesus Madrid Julie Cordova

Aldahir Segovia Jackie Trevino Roxana Santillan

Editorial Assistant Marie Garcia Tambresha Anderson

Daniel Durrett

Student Media Manager Sarah Sheldon Publication Adviser Elizabeth Langton Faculty Adviser Lori Dann The views expressed on the opinion pages and other opinion pieces and cartoons in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Et Cetera, Eastfield College or the Dallas County Community College District.

The Et Cetera is published by a student staff.

Each member of the college community is entitled to one free copy of The Et Cetera.

First Amendment Right Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Letters to the Editor Letters must be typed, signed and include a phone number. Letters will be edited for profanity and vulgarity, Associated Press style, grammar, libel and space when needed. The content will remain that of the author.

ABOUT THE COVER ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID SILVA, MATEO COREY and MANUEL GUAPO

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

OUR VIEW

ANTHONY LAZON/THE ET CETERA

Homeless students need attention now Student homelessness is a major problem on American college campuses today, and with the resources available to the homeless community at large, as well as the resources available to students not related to housing, it’s astounding that we don’t have any methods to help relieve this specific problem.

The Dallas County Community College District is not exempt from this national trend. They know that and have discussed plans to offer relief to students with housing insecurities. We applaud them for recognizing the problem, which is not due to any fault by the district, but we also urge them to be quick with providing this relief.

Housing has been a point of discussion in the DCCCD master plan, and district leaders have mentioned the possibility of dedicating some of that housing to aiding students without stable sleeping arrangements. But students sleeping in their cars or moving couch to couch can’t wait the 10 years allotted for the master plan.

While the work done by Eastfield counselors and DCCCD navigators is admirable — they’re doing all they can with what they have — the district has the weight and power to create new resources.

We encourage the DCCCD Foundation to look into avenues to raise the money for a solution while the Board of Trustees focuses on quick but effective research on the needs

of homeless students and the best ways to meet those needs.

It shouldn’t be missed that district leadership has been up front about the socio-economic issues facing students today.

The North Texas Food Bank visits every campus every month to deliver fresh produce to students in need.

The My Community Services online resource, which the district introduced two years ago, is a good way for students to connect with organizations that can help them with their needs. It is a good placeholder, but want to see the DCCCD introduce internal initiatives to help meet these needs.

Shelters certainly offer students a safe place to sleep for the night, but many have rules and environments that are not conducive to academic success.

In the meantime, we need to be more public about the struggles faced by students and the resources there to help them.

The definition is much broader than many realize. Homeless students are rarely what we believe most would think of: they aren’t sleeping under bridges and panhandling at intersections.

With the ingenuity shown in the Dallas Promise, it’s not hard to believe they could create a similar innovation to offer these services with donations and revenue that does not come from taxes or tuition.

While the majority of the U.S. popuAnthony lation continues to Lazon primarily consume a @AnthonyLazon diet of animal products, there seems to be a trend that could potentially tip the scales.

As the world begins to face issues such as climate change, political imbalance and food scarcity, an ethical and compassionate approach to your lifestyle could be the solution we have all been waiting for.

By switching our dietary habits from one of self-indulgence to one of self-love and making the transition toward a vegan diet, our environmental footprint would dramatically decrease.

The effects can only be positive.

Twelve percent of 18 to 49 year-olds followed a mostly vegan or vegetarian diet, compared to 5 percent of those 50 or older, according to a 2016 Pew Research survey.

People generally choose a vegan diet for health, environmental or ethical reasons.

For example, a vegan diet, which means that one must abstain from eating meat, dairy and eggs, could be adopted by someone that rejects the unethical practices of the livestock industry, or perhaps by someone who feels that animals are sentient beings and therefore should be allowed to live a happy existence.

As the idea of a greener and healthier future begins to seem closer, a recent study by the Agriculture Department would suggest otherwise.

Americans consumed a record amount of meat in 2018 — an astounding estimated 222.2 pounds per person, compared to 216.9 pounds in 2017.

Between Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants tailgate parties, little David’s birthday celebrations at Chuck E. Cheese’s or the fathers’ “MasterChef ” interpretations of a weekend burger, Americans have become desensitized to the consequences of consuming high quantities of meat, not only at the expense of their own health, but also their wallets.

With heart disease and stroke alone costing the U.S. an average of $1 billion a day, it is important to address the health consequences that sustaining a diet based on animal products has on our economy.

By choosing to follow a vegan diet, you will not only reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, but most importantly, you will be contributing to the idea that exploitation and cruelty have no place in our society.

We as citizens of this world have an option, outside of the status quo, to gain consciousness through our actions, and through the acknowledgement of our environmental footprint.

I challenge everyone that reads this column to question themselves on the daily food habits in which you choose to partake, as well as doing the necessary research on the everincreasing plant-based alternatives.

— Anthony Lazon is a digital media major and The Et Cetera’s web editor

OPINION

15

The Et Cetera

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Being a mother, wife, student can be a handful I am old, y’all. I am not the typical young adult you see in your classes.

I may not ever see most of you as my classes are all online. I don’t carry a backpack, or bother with a student ID. On my left hand, you will find a modest diamond engagement ring, a solid wedding band and a recently added five-year anniversary band.

My right hand not only holds a tiny rubber band for my daughter’s pigtails, but now a highlighter and pen.

The pen is used for grocery lists, contacts and note taking. The highlighter serves as a bright crayon in a coloring book and now is used to try and remember key points for quizzes and tests.

My life is busy, but I have made the decision to go to college and that decision is not without its challenges.

The story of those hands and that decision starts in the spring of 2000, when I graduated from high school and spent the next 18 months working on my teaching degree one

Sarah Ivy @TheEtCetera

elective at a time.

Then our family suffered the tragic loss of my maternal grandmother. My world was turned upside down and I stopped showing up. No one was there to check attendance or call my mom if I didn’t show up.

I stopped showing up to school, to work and to life in general.

We all grieved for what felt like years. I lucked into a job in property management that paid well without a degree and didn’t look back. That is until 2010, when I decided to go back to school.

And I wasn’t going to let my fear get in my way. I was never any good at math and I knew I needed to conquer college algebra no matter what degree plan I chose.

Two developmental math classes later, I decided I was ready to try.

Then life happened. I worked two or three jobs at a time and no longer had time for school.

After creating a fulfilling career, finding an amazing husband, founding a nonprofit and having a darling daughter over the next near-decade, I found myself in a deep conversation with my inspirational aunt during a family vacation.

She began college in her 50s, after having a family, and got her doctorate.

She has little grace for excuses.

Once I revealed that not finishing school was the only regret I had in life, she convinced me the time to check that off my list was now.

Even after reminding her that you need time and money to attend school, she enlightened me that I could keep letting life live me and wake up in five years in the same spot, or I could start moving toward repairing my regret.

One class at a time. Semester by semester.

Then in five years I would wake up closer to my goal at the very least.

Kick in the gut much?

If I had just kept going either time I started before, I can’t stand to think about where I would be now.

But that wasn’t my story. That wasn’t my path.

So here I sit in my third semester of college, for the third time in my life, determined to finish what I started nearly two decades ago.

Not to further my career or to make more money, but to make myself a more well-rounded woman.

Not to make my family proud but to prove to myself that I can do it.

Not to defy the odds but to encourage others to never give up.

Every trial or setback in our lives gives us a choice to make an excuse or excel. We can think of every reason why we can’t do things, or we can face each challenge from a point of creating a legacy of excellence.

Those 36-year-old hands have always held my future, but now they must juggle a few other things too.

That hand with the diamonds now holds note cards and study guides while the other pats a sleeping prin-

cess who just won’t leave mommy’s side.

My computer is not only used to write papers and discussion boards but to help manage operational excellence on several multi-milliondollar assets across the globe.

Among being called wife, mom, daughter, sister and friend, I am determined to be called the first college graduate in my maternal family tree.

I may be a nontraditional student, but I am still a student.

My tuition may have to be paid in installments because we have to pay a mortgage and I do not qualify for financial aid, but it gets paid with joy. My classroom may be my side of the bed late at night, but it is still a space of knowledge transfer.

My answers to discussion boards may be longer than most, but they are filled with life experiences and it may take me five years to get a twoyear degree, but I would rather excel than make excuses.

Just watch me.

— Sarah Ivy is a communications major and contributor

Video game loot boxes: gambling for kids Your letter to the editor here Purchasing a game in these times entails more than just $60. Sure, you can settle for the standard copy, but why stop there? Why not buy even more, like a $20 skin or a $60 season pass? Why not just buy $100 worth of virtual boxes for a slim chance to get whatever you want?

These are examples of loot boxes and micro-transactions, a trend among games and game companies. However, they entail more than just unnecessary spending.

Games should be immersive, an escape. But then suddenly a reminder appears: Your experience is incomplete.

Take a chance on this loot box. Buy this feature. You’ve already paid $60 for a brand new game, but the game developers say you need more. What the hell?

Micro-transactions are a business model where players can purchase ingame items in small, separate payments.

Sometimes called “pay-to-win” by the gaming community, these can range from a variety of items, like a new look for your character, a new addition to the story and in-game currency, which is just turning real money into Monopoly money.

Sometimes the items for sale are ludicrous, like paying $2 for a reticle for your gunsights in “Call of Duty: Black

Adolfo Resendiz Olguin

@AdolfoOResendiz

Ops 4” or buying an extra save slot for your game in “Metal Gear Survive.”

In “Asura’s Wrath,” for a small price you could see the “true” ending of the game rather than the one viewed by the masses.

At least with micro-transactions, you’re guaranteed to receive something.

“Fortnite” has this system, but lets you earn v-bucks (its in-game currency) by playing the paid version of the game and completing challenges. “Overwatch” has a similar system of earning loot boxes by playing the game and leveling up.

But loot boxes are a gamble.

They take the form of little containers with in-game items, whether it be a new cosmetic skin for a character or a rare weapon. Open the box and you might get what you want.

Or just as likely you’ll get something completely useless.

The worst side of this is explored in “Star Wars Battlefront II.” In order to stand a chance in combat, you’ll need to purchase or earn a loot box containing

“star cards,” a power up that can give you an advantage over other players.

The game is difficult without them.

Adults may have more sense than to spend almost $100 on in-game cosmetics, but maybe not unattended children.

So why is this system allowed to be in place? Maybe it’s the drive for a bigger profit. Perhaps it’s just human greed, knowing they’ll get away with all of this.

Maybe it’s something genuine to help provide more funding for their studio.

I know from working in a retail game store that both kids and parents don’t understand the system.

And each game sold and each ingame purchase encourages game developers and publishers to keep it up.

So, how do you escape this terrible fate? You can’t. Nearly every game available in the market has some form of this.

There has been some pushback. Last year, Belgium banned the use of loot boxes within the game series “FIFA.” In the U.S., some in the gaming community are calling for boycotts.

But for the foreseeable future, this practice has ingrained itself in the gaming industry. And frankly, it’s exploitation.

— Adolfo Resendiz Olguin is a fine art major and a reporter at The Et Cetera

Do you want your voice to be heard?

Send your letter to the editor or submit a guest column to the

at etc4640@dcccd.edu Letters considered for publication must be 250 words or fewer and will be edited for vulgarity, Associated Press style, grammar, libel and space when needed.

All guest columns must be between 400 to 600 words long and must go through the standard Et Cetera editing process before publication.

You have a voice.

We’ll make it heard.

16

WRAP-UP

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

www.eastfieldnews.com

The Et Cetera

SUDOKU CHECK YOUR ANSWER AT EASTFIELDNEWS.COM

Madpuffy Comics By Jesus Madrid

Garriga changes health habits, bounces back Continued from page 13 said. “Because you know when you’re really giving it 100 percent and whenever you’re giving it 50.”

By the fall of 2017, he decided it wasn’t the right time for college and got a job selling insurance.

Fletcher had been trying to get in contact with Garriga to check on him, but he wasn’t able to connect.

When Garriga lost his job and struggled to find another with the same pay and opportunity to advance, he decided to call coach Fletcher.

“It was more like a last chance cry for help because I was lost,” he said. “I was looking for a job for a couple of weeks and I hadn’t found one. I didn’t want to go down and pay [for college]. I wanted a degree and I wanted to use basketball for it, but I wasn’t sure how coach Fletcher was going to react.”

Garriga said he was nervous because he hadn’t had any basketball training in almost three years. But he was looking to get back on track.

“We just talked about coming back in and being an older student, coming in and really helping our program, being a captain,” Fletcher said. “He knew the system and knew what we expect and what we need to be good.”

Over the summer, Garriga followed a vigorous and regimented schedule.

Monday through Thursday he would go to the weight room at 6 a.m. and lift two muscle groups for two hours. Then he had an 8:30 a.m. yoga class for an hour before going to his old high school to do drills with his former basketball coach until noon.

He would go home to rest for several hours before going back to the weight room at 6 p.m. for another two-hour workout. Afterward, he would decide whether he would play basketball with his friends or go on his nightly run.

His diet resembled a paleo diet. He ate mostly foods that grow naturally and are high in protein.

Garriga prepares to take the court. He leads the Harvesters in rebounds, averaging 9 rebounds per game.

“When he completely buys into something, he’s going to make it happen,” Julie Garriga, his mother, said. “That’s how he lost weight and got himself in really good shape.”

At 220 pounds, Garriga realized he had lost a significant amount of weight.

“I took a picture. I sent it to my mom,” he said. “I was like, ‘Mom, look at this. This is crazy. 95 pounds.’ She’s super proud of me.”

In fall, Garriga rejoined the Harvesters as a forward and team captain. He leads the team in rebounds averaging 9 rebounds per game.

Since returning to Eastfield, he said his

grades look better. He is majoring in computer science. When he graduates, he wants a leadership position in the information technology field.

“I just wanted change,” Garriga said. “I didn’t like what I looked like. I didn’t like who I was as a person. So I decided to kind of change who I was and kind of transform into the person that I am now. I like this version of myself much better than I like the old version of me.”

Fletcher said he has noticed how Garriga is more focused than when he was as a freshman.

His real-world experience helped him realize

YESENIA ALVARADO/THE ET CETERA

his education is important.

Garriga said he knew he wanted to be a team leader when he chose to change his lifestyle.

“I do my best to lead by example,” he said.

“I try to be the person that everybody should look up to. If Scott’s doing this, then I should probably be doing this too.”

He even enjoys running and exercising before and after practice.

“I just like the grind,” Garriga said. “I enjoy working out. I enjoy running. I enjoy every aspect of it. I enjoy eating healthy. It’s the way I live, so that’s just who I want to be.”