Adrian Wiggins- More than a Coach
Gary Moore
Staff Writer
If you are looking for a way to bond more with the community and interact with fellow Christian students, then look no further than the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). This is a group of students and faculty that gather together to share the Christian faith. It is not just for Reedley College, people from all over the valley participate in FCA, such as Fresno State Women’s Head Basketball Coach Adrian Wiggins, who was a guest speaker for the clubs meeting on Monday, September 27th.
Gary Moore
Staff Writer
If you are looking for a way to bond more with the community and interact with fellow Christian students, then look no further than the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). This is a group of students and faculty that gather together to share the Christian faith. It is not just for Reedley College, people from all over the valley participate in FCA, such as Fresno State Women’s Head Basketball Coach Adrian Wiggins, who was a guest speaker for the clubs meeting on Monday, September 27th.
The FCA is lead by their advisor Brian Fonseca, who is the coach of the men’s basketball team. Brian Rike and Jeff Ragan are part of the faculty who help lead this club. Rike is the Athletic Trainer, and Ragan is an English Instructor. “We started with 6 kids and we are now at 22 students,” Ragan said while talking about the event. Rike had added to the statement saying, “The community supports our group by supplying us with pizza, which we are really grateful for.” “Yes,” said Fonseca, “the FCA would like to connect more with the community. We are a group who have been around for years and we are not just for Student-Athletes but for all students.”
The FCA was honored to have Adrian Wiggins as a guest speaker, and the people within the meeting were enthusiastic about the message he had given that night. “This is an important part of any campus and is a great resource for the students,” said Wiggins, who is the Fresno State Women’s Basketball Coach. “I worked with Coach Wiggins at a playground years ago and thought he would be kind enough to be a speaker tonight,” said Fonseca, who was full of enthusiasm about the night’s event. Students were enlightened by the message given that night, “FCA is about people coming together and sharing their experiences with walking with God,” said student Kevin Young had continued on saying, “I think Coach Adrian Wiggins is a very influential person, and you could tell by his personality that he has overcome many hardships that have molded his character into what it is today.”
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a great club to be involved with if you are looking to interact with Christian students, bond with the community, and share the Christian faith.
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Planning for Graduation
by
Cecilia Ruiz
Have you ever felt overwhelmed looking at the long list of available classes in the course catalog when planning for next semester's classes? You ask yourself if you're choosing the right classes, or if the classes you register for will help you at all come graduation. By making a Student Educational Plan with your counselor, you will have mapped out the classes you would be taking until graduation.Laurie Tidyman-Jones, a counselor at Reedley College, argues, "The purpose of an SEP is to provide a clearly delineated pathway of coursework for students to achieve their educational goals."
As Tidyman-Jones points out, the point of an SEP is to get students to see that planning for success means setting goals. In doing so, students could space out more difficult classes throughout the four semesters, making it easier to focus on the tedious work a little each semester.
To make an SEP, she recommends making an appointment with a counselor three weeks into the semester or before registration begins. You may do so by calling 638-0337 or through eSARS on the Reedley College website.
Tidyman-Jones’ advice to RC students is, "start exploring through volunteering, researching on the internet, watching videos online about careers, try doing things you've never done before and take a career assestment."
Taking 30 minutes out of your life to form your own SEP with a counselor will ensure that you don't, as Tidyman-Jones says, "find out [you] took the wrong courses, extra courses, or omitted essential courses."
No one wants to find out that graduation needs to be postponed due to missing units. So for those who haven't already, contact the counseling office to get a jump start on graduation.
Crisis of Conscience
Leonard Torres
Chant Writer
Corridors filled with people crowded around a single doorway vying for a seat and hoping that the teacher, now the gatekeeper of knowledge, will allow them to enter. This scene played out day after day in most classrooms as the semester started. In the past, the on campus population ranged from 5,500 to 5,800 and the school gets a modest budget to ensure a good education for each student. This semester, though, the population exploded to 7,000 students.
Along with the increased enrollment, comes another problem, the budget was slashed which has made it harder to keep a large selection of classes open to students. What this means is parking lots have become LA freeways at rush hour, classes with mile-long wait lists and standing room only classes. Steve Jones, counselor for Reedley College said this is the first time he has seen numbers like these, “ I’ve only been here 10 years, so cannot speak to past semesters prior to 1999 but it’s certainly the busiest semester I’ve had as a counselor since I started in 1999”.
With the lack of a budget in California and the largest unemployment in history, incoming students have to worry about being accepted to a community college. William Turini, Political Science instructor at Reedley College, said “I think that part of California’s crisis is a crisis of conscience.” Turini also pointed out that education is the thing that will help California’s economy. “I do believe that education is a valuable social program, that education is the silver bullet: it is the long term economical investment and to start whittling away at the education budget because we’re not willing to raise taxes is criminal.”
Among the crises Californians face, Reedley College students find themselves in a crisis of their own with wait list numbers. This year, wait lists have 15 plus students trying to add to already full classes.
“In my opinion, the wait lists have been longer than what I’ve seen in the past, with many of them listed as ‘full’ which was rarely seen in past semesters.” said Jones about the problem students see when they wish to add a class to their schedule. “It is very hard on students who are trying to find an open section of certain subjects as many have their wait lists full as well as the class itself. Demand is high while supply is barely adequate”.
“In my opinion, the wait lists have been longer than what I’ve seen in the past, with many of them listed as ‘full’ which was rarely seen in past semesters.” said Jones about the problem students see when they wish to add a class to their schedule. “It is very hard on students who are trying to find an open section of certain subjects as many have their wait lists full as well as the class itself. Demand is high while supply is barely adequate”.
“The greatest assurance of long-term tax cuts is the short term investments in education,” said Turini about the importance of education on the long term scale for the economy. In a time like this where more students are entering college then ever before and the majority are heading to community colleges to save money, one must wonder if there will be any room for the next generation.
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Clay Club Pulls Together for New Kiln
Chant Writer
Some time ago, a nonfunctioning gas kiln was donated to the school. Lacking the funds to rebuild it, the kiln sat around collecting dust until last semester. Instead of paying to have the kiln professionally rebuilt, a one-time only, short-term kiln building class was held to restore the broken kiln. The class served a two-fold purpose: students got the opportunity to learn the basics of kiln construction while the Ceramics program got a restored kiln. Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple. While the College found the money to hold the class, when it came time to buy the materials for rebuilding the kiln, there wasn’t any money. When attempts to gather funds from outside sources proved fruitless, the Reedley College Clay Club was approached for a donation. They unanimously voted to donate the approximately $2,000 needed for the project. The finishing touches were done at the begining of this semester and the kiln had its inaugural firing last week.
