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3.14 or an Apple Pie?

Joey Smith

By David Garcia

3.14 is a number that we all think about when we hear the word Pi unless you slept through math class. In this case, Pi does not stand for either 3.14 or the food, it stands for Primary Immunodeficiency. It’s a rare disease in which some of a person’s affected immune system is either missing or has some sort of dysfunction.

It is truly unfortunate, but that is why Pi Week is so important; it raises awareness and it educates the unknown  to the harsher things in life. We should not only enjoy our lives but help the life that just needs a helping hand.

In less depressing words, Pi Week at Taft College was actually really awesome and fun. Through the four school days of March 13-17, we had a couple of two-hour events that students and staff participated. These events all took place inside the ConnExpo room inside the cafeteria.

Now to the main events, Monday was one of the biggest turnouts of the week according to Kaila Haslam who was filling in for the activities coordinator.

She said that on Monday a bunch of people showed up, mainly men’s baseball and women’s softball players (they were there to settle their differences on whose is better).

The task at hand was to build a balloon tower using only tape and of course balloons. Haslama does not remember exactly, but she does believe that the women’s softball team won with the highest tower and earned awhole lot of tickets. They also won bragging rights.

Tuesday’s turnout was not that bad according to Joey Smith. On this day, the participants had to construct a catapult out of rubber-bands and a spoon. The exact point of the game was not clarified, but from what was understood, it was to build the catapult and to see who could catapult an item the farthest. The winner of this particular event was Delyn Calloway. She took home or took to the fish bowl a whopping 12 tickets! Which believe it or not is actually a good amount.

Wednesday was a grand total turn out of two for the first hour of the event; Haslem said that most likely later on in the day the regulars would return. The event for that day was to build a penny boat. The goal was to build a boat out of foil that could hold as many pennies as it could until it sunk. I, unfortunately, had to leave before anyone other the Joey Smith and I were able to show off their engineering skills.

At the time that I left, Joey set a pretty high bar to beat; his revolutionary design saved the lives of 197 pennies until we added the last penny to make it 198 that sunk the boat to the cold dark waters bellow to never been seen again.

I, on the other hand, only succeeded with 96 pennies. I do not have a future in engineering.

Everyone that participated received a ticket. For each event such as the penny boat, for every 25 pennies we received 1 ticket. We put our information on those tickets and placed them inside a fish bowl. At the end of the week, a ticket would be pulled from the bowl and that one lucky winner will take home a brand new Ipad MINI.

Taft College Performers Circle – March 27 –

CSUB Fab Fest

Faculty vs Students Volleyball

Taft College Wine and Jazz

The Art of Self Portrait

Resurrecting the Values of a Forgotten People

By Alberto Muro & Denae Ayala

Art and reading students at Taft College worked together to create artistic pieces of literature.

For the spring semester, Professors Debora Rodenhauser and Kamala Carlson combined their classes for a literature project that consists of two minds utilizing their critical thinking skills.

Students from Professor Carlson’s reading class had to read “The Lakota Tribe,” and in their own words, they had to write a response about the Native American culture. When finished with their response paper, they got together with Rodenhauser’s art students to begin their collaboration.

Each of the student’s art pieces represented the culture and tradition of Lakota people. Love, respect, emotion, and truth are just a few characteristics that are represented in the art work.

“The art work and the written work reflects the values of the Lakota Way people,” stated Rodenhauser.

Art History Professor Gaysha Smith has been running the Art Gallery for the past two years; the friendly persona of Professor Smith’s attitude has accompanied many shows here at TC.

Smith has actively been involved in the art shows and provides a comforting atmosphere for people to come out and support the art/reading students.

“It was a good collaborated effort,” Smith commented.

Diego Salgado and Hannah Glover presented their piece of work titled “Humility.” The word derives from the idea of being humble. Diego was able to relate to the word and had no problem writing about it, “I was raised to always be caring and treat people right, so writing about humility felt like a reflective paper about myself,” he said. With her extraordinary creativity and patience, Glover created a rabbit’s skull with plaster material. Hannah says, “To me the rabbit symbolized a humble animal, although this project took me three days to complete, I was able to remain focused.”

Students Andrew Hinojosa and Laura Russell relied on brush strokes and created two pictures on one canvas for their project called “Sacrifice.” On one side of the picture, there was a Native American woman holding her child and waving to warriors leaving for battle.

The bottom half of the portrait has a soldier hugging his family member as he prepares to board a bus to fight a war. Hinojosa talked about the importance of sacrifice and how it often takes a toll on the human spirit.

“I had a buddy that was in the Army for 6 years, and the sacrifice he made was not being able to see his kid grow up,” he said.

The student project provided insight for spectators to learn about the importance of culture appreciation.

The Taft College Art gallery is located in the Technology Building, T-11 and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Monday- Friday.

Student Service Building Update

Alex-Zandria Corbin

Construction continues on the new student service building, the plan is in the utilities trenching stage. The building will be the newest addition to Taft College. It is  in the beginning stages of construction. The demolition began with the dorms that weren’t being used. Now all of the demolition is complete . The project has had some delay due to the rainy weather season. Despite this, progress has still been made.

It is expected to be completed in the spring or summer of 2018. The building is expected to house a new cafeteria, bookstore, mail room, office rooms, and student center. The construction will cost about 12 million dollars and is 21,000 square feet. The money was approved back in 2004, so Taft College could have new buildings throughout campus to enrich the lives of the students. Measure A was approved by the citizens of Taft to have improvements made to the college.

With the new student service center, it eliminates students from lounging in their cars in the parking lots between their classes. It gives the students a place to hang out with classmates or friends, and they can complete group assignments, class projects or any other homework they have to complete. Yet, for more improvements and construction at Taft College,  another bond will have to be passed.

Free Money!

By Denae Ayala, Arely Mondragon and Nicole Ransick

There are thousands of scholarships out there, but to be eligible, you must apply. Many resources are available at Taft College to help with your student finances.

Barbara Amerio, the Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at Taft College, has been helping and encouraging students to apply for financial aid since 2011. Prior to writing this piece, we had no idea how many scholarships were available for students like us. The money is out there, knowing this, we went to talk with Amerio to get an insight on what kind of help us students could be receiving.

One type of federal aid available to students is the Pell Grant, however to be eligible, you must fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA),which has no deadline. However, state aid is also available in the form of a Cal Grant. Depending on your financial standings and background, there is a chance you may receive free money, but you will never know if you do not apply!

Here at Taft College, getting a scholarship may be as easy as filling out a piece of paper with your information on it in the Student Service Administration Building. The Board of Governor’s fee waiver can be filled out in paper form at the Financial Aid office or online through FAFSA.  It is available solely to California community college students.

The deadline for the Taft College Community Scholarship Program is March 17 for the 2016- 2017 Academic Year. If you were unaware of this, you are not alone. We were not either, and at our confusion, Barbara Amerio was shocked and jokingly asked “are you living under a rock?” She reminded us that free money is out there in the form of grants and scholarships.

The Taft Community Scholarship Program simultaneously allows you to apply for 30- 35 scholarships just by filling out a single application. Hurry though, your time is running out, you do not want to miss out on the chance to receive a scholarship.

https://fafsa.ed.gov/

Financial Aid Home

6th Annual Growing Opportunities Career Fair

By Alberto Muro

Representatives from Central Valley agricultural companies come to Cal State Bakersfield campus March 8.

The 6th annual Growing Opportunities Career Fair was held in the Student Union Multi-purpose Room at Cal State Bakersfield on March 8. The event was designed for representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to distribute information regarding potential employment and internship opportunities for students.

Tractors were aligned outside the Student MPR  welcoming anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in agriculture. Agriculture in California is a powerful economic force, and the state is also one of the largest distribution centers for fruit and vegetables for the United States. Government land management agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and Natural Resources Conversation Service were on campus offering opportunities to preserve the fertility of the farmlands and forests through out California.

The Animal and Plant Health Service were at the career fair to distribute information about invasive aquatic weeds with capabilities of damaging the rivers and invasive pests damaging California farmlands.  Abel Williams, an employee for the Animal and Plant Health Service, was there to talk about his experience dealing with invasive plants, “I have been chasing the Giant Salvinia since 1983,” he says.  Mr. Williams also spoke about the dangers that the invasive plant presents; as it matures, it becomes a thick floating mat capable of damaging boats and preventing light from reaching other plants.

The design that goes into creating a well established environment for crops to strive requires the ingenuity of engineers. With that said, vineyards throughout California require the right equipment in order to stand strong against the harsh elements. Jim’s Supply Company  utilizes their resources to help create sturdy environments for farmers. Jim’s Supply Company has been in Bakersfield since 1959, and they are looking for internships that are customer orientated since they will be exposed multiple aspects of the business from purchasing to logistics to management to sales.

Other local businesses such as Bolthouse Farms, who are known throughout the San Joaquin Valley for their quality consumer products and carrot distribution, offered various information regarding internships and employment opportunities. Although Bolthouse Farms is based in Bakersfield, the company was bought back in 2012 by Campbell Soup. Current and future Bolthouse Farm employees and interns will now become part of Campbell Fresh (C-Fresh) Division along with their benefits and systems. Their current career website is still listed as Bolthouse for the time being, and once on that site, if Bakersfield does not offer a desired position, then you can look at openings throughout the United Sates.

Thanks to the Growing Opportunity Career Job Fair, agriculture and biology students found interest in  Central Valley agriculture and the land management industry learning that their set of skills will contribute to stabilizing their environment and a fulfilling career.