Long Beach City College quarterback Derrach West aired out 254 yards on 21 completions for the No.19 Vikings to defeat the No.10 Cerritos Falcons 36-24 Sat. night for their first home win of the season.
The Viking offense played with a chip on their shoulders gaining a total of 368 yards to the Falcon’s 250.
The offense wasn’t the only unit that was clicking, the defense had itself a game as well, not allowing a Falcon touchdown until the last five minutes of the game.
The big momentum shift in the game was in the second quarter when the Viking offense put together a 13 play 65 yard drive to score a touchdown and take back the lead up 12-11 before halftime.
With a score of 12-11 at halftime for the Vikings, Long Beach City College didn’t really start to expand their lead until they cleaned up the penalties.
The Vikings committed nine penalties giving the Falcons 84 yards which kept them in the game, as well as their consistent field goals.
“Too many penalties, that’s kind of been our issue, once we’re in rhythm, we play really well, the penalties is obviously a major concern,” Head Coach Brett Peabody said.
Photo by Arlene Guerrero/Viking Staff. Zack Leets from Long Beach City College stiff arms Cerritos defensive back at the Veterans Stadium on Oct. 5 2019. Vikings won 36-24.
Coming out of halftime, the Vikings offense picked up right where they left off going 5 plays for 75 yards including a 29 yard run by running back Jonathan Watson into the endzone all in less than 2 minutes.
At the end of the game the Vikings have up one touchdown to the Vikings, with 37 seconds left on the clock.
“We played good, obviously we could’ve played 10 times better, I think we should’ve gave up no points at the end, but you know that’s on us,” Linebacker DeAnthony Jones said.
Quarterback Derrach West believes the team has the potential to do better than they did Saturday night.
“We performed great but that’s not our best we could be much more crisp, we still need to pick it up a little bit, mental errors nothing physical really,” West said.
The Vikings will have a bye week and return to host East Los Angeles College on October 9.
On the far south side of the LAC campus past Veterans stadium, is the Small Business Development Center. Though a building used for school administrative purposes it often holds workshops, counseling, and resources for not only students but also small business owners looking for assistance in starting up their business.
The SBDC is often confused with it’s very similar sounding parent entity, the Small Business Administration, although both are in the field of supporting small business owners, they operate at different levels and serve different purposes.
While the SBA is at the federal level in Washington D.C., they operate primarily through an education that they call the “three ‘C’s”:“Contracting, Capital, and Counseling,” while the SBDC primarily focuses on the counseling aspect.
Considered a “Technical Research Partner”, the SBDC receives grant funding from the SBA to run their facilities and programs.
While there are roughly 1,000 Development Centers across the country, the one located right in LBCC’s backyard is one of eight centers in the Los Angeles, Santa Barbra and Ventura counties.
Resources are not exclusive to LBCC students as they are open to anyone who may already own a small business or is looking to start their own.
Dan Rosenfeld, a Business Client Supervisor, gave a quick breakdown of what one might do if they’re interested in starting their own business, “A typical path for somebody who has a business idea; for example, ‘I want to sell clothes.’ or ‘I wanna do retail.’ … They’ll call and we’ll typically advise that they take our basic workshop series,” said Rosenfeld.
Their basic workshop series is made up of two lectures. The first, covering the basics of starting a small business covering topics such as licencing, insurance, credit, taxes and more.
Presented by Karie Armstrong, one of SBDC’s business consultants, Armstrong speaks with many small business owners regarding the fundamentals of what it means to be an entrepreneur and how they should run their business by finding one’s “genius”.
Someone’s “genius” is a specific trait about a person that they particularly excel at, whether it be organizational skills or working well with people.
For example, one of the workshop’s attendees, Karina Manuela, is a fitness coach and dance instructor, her genius was motivating her clients.
Both practical and philosophical questions were asked by business owners on one’s vision, why they picked this route as opposed to another and, “How much is this going to cost me?”
After completing the workshops, clients can continue to meet with the SBDC’s advisors to help them develop a specific business plan.
Despite the building’s location on the very edge of campus, Rosenfeld believes that it hasn’t been an issue in regards to gathering clientele.
“Typically what happens is somebody saw something on television and they’ll do a web search and then they’ll call and we’ll talk to them … It’s more about building the buzz than about where we’re located.”
“It’s not going to be easy but we have the resources and expertise here to help you,” Rosenfeld said.
The next two upcoming SBDC workshops are on October 15th, at 6:00 p.m. for “Starting a Small Business” and October 22nd, at 6:00 p.m. for “Creating an Effective Business Plan”. Sign-ups and more information are available at https://longbeachsbdc.org/
Published authors Tim Powers and Jim Blaylock visited Long Beach City College to reflect on their past work and help guide students with their future careers as writers.
Tim Powers, author of “The Anubis Gates” and “On Stranger Tides,” mentioned how writers can use YouTube to help come up with descriptions in a novel.
“If your wondering how the Niagara Falls look like or an abandoned house, someone has probably filmed it,” Powers said.
Powers and Blaylock first met each other at Cal State Fullerton. Since then, both writers have collaborated on “The Better Boy,” “On Pirates,” and “The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook.”
Photo by Abel Reyes. Cristina McCain first discovered Tim Powers and Jim Blaylock in her English class earlier in the semester and is currently reading “The Anubis Gates” by Tim Powers.
Both authors began the literary movement of steampunk, a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates themes of 19th century steam powered machinery.
Powers sixth book “On Stranger Tides” was sold for the adaptation of the fourth Pirates of the Carribean film and Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” was dedicated to Powers and his wife.
“Young writers have to read lots of stuff from lots of periods,” Powers said.
“But not from a 2019 point of view because you’re going to see old books as historic exhibits.”
Frank X. Gaspar, a professor emeritus at Long Beach City College, stopped by the event for readings of his own work and held a book signing for attendees.
Photo by Abel Reyes. While Frank X. Gaspar was still teaching at Long Beach City College, he was still publishing poetry and working on his future novels.
Gaspar read his short stories, poetry and provided more information about his upcoming work “The Poems of Rennata Ferrara.”
“I really do hope that students and everyone that attended learned at least one thing for me because those who did attend are very dedicated to the craft,” Gaspar said.
“The only time a college student whose writing should quit is when multiple people tell you to quit. Then you have a problem.”
Event attendee and LBCC student Lee Garcia, came prepared for the event with a copy of “The Steampunk Bible” by Jeff VanderMeer and S.J. Chambers; a work where Powers is mentioned.
“Steampunk has always been something a lot more than the average genre because of creative and surprising it can be,” Garcia said.
Michelle Brittan Rosado, author of “Why Can’t It Be Tenderness” and whose poems have appeared in The New Yorker, will be coming to LBCC on October 14.
Along with Rosado, author of “A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That” Lisa Glatt, will be coming a month later on November 8.
ACJA, or Sigma Pi, Long Beach City College’s chapter of the larger National Criminal Justice Association held their first meeting on September 17 to support students who are interested in a career in law enforcement.
ACJA works to improve criminal justice through educational activities as well as promote professional, academic and public awareness of criminal justice issues.
“Most people join ACJA to help the community and people,” said Vice President, Maci Becerra, at LBCC’s Join A Club Day on September 12.
Club’s advisors Mike Biggs and Jim Henchey attended the meeting and participated in an icebreaker activity.
“One of the things we pride ourselves on in this club is our relationship with LAPD and the Long Beach Police Officers Association,” said retired police captain Jim Henchey.
Henchey added that ACJA does a lot of volunteering and is committed to doing so.
He also told students that volunteer events that the club is involved in are opportunities for students to make valuable networking connections that can be beneficial in preparing for employment in law enforcement.
Head of LBCC’s Criminal Justice department Mike Biggs, expressed his pleasure with the number of students present at the meeting and called ACJA a great organization.
“We are part of a national association and we stand by the values that they espouse,” he said.
Each semester, different chapters of the association compete in regional and national competitions in multiple categories including corrections, criminal law, physical agility, and police management.
Students interested in joining ACJA listening intently as members of ACJA introduce themselves and explain the association’s objectives. Photo by Crystal Parker.
Freshman Kyshia Hearns attended the club meeting and expressed an interest in joining the association.
Hearns is double majoring in sociology and criminology. She has had her goals set on becoming an FBI agent since childhood.
When asked about the driving force behind making that dream a reality, Hearns said she grew up in a neighborhood that was not the best.
She also noted not many black women are FBI agents.
“I want to bridge the gap,” Hearns said.
Cristina Rivera and Robert Cisneros also attended the meeting and expressed their desires to pursue law enforcement careers.
ACJA is currently preparing for the volunteer work they will be doing for the Lakewood Sheriff’s Department’s Halloween event, an event that all pledges must take part in.
Sigma Pi welcomes students with interests in criminal justice to participate in the pledging process, which requires students to attend some meetings/lectures and pass a few examinations among other things.
ACJA meetings are held at LAC room T-2313 on Tuesdays room 12 p.m. to 1 p.m..
NextUp is the newest resource to provide assistance for former foster youth at Long Beach City College.
In Los Angeles County, Kids-Alliance.org reported that out of 30,000 kids in foster care, only 3% of those children go on to receive their college diploma.
“There’s many obstacles that are presented to them. Just their upbringing, the fact that they are removed from their biological homes, that’s still a trauma. That’s your family. So, that separation within our community creates a very big obstacle for foster youth,” Claudia Garcia said, Program Manager of Foster & Kinship Care Education at LBCC.
Cooperating Agencies Foster Youth Educational Support, or CAFYES better known as NextUp, provides assistance to students under the age of 26, who were in foster care for at least a day on or after their 16th birthday, and are enrolled in at least nine units at a college with the NextUp program.
Services include academic and personal counseling, priority registration, tutoring, supplemental textbooks and food assistance.
NextUp is a branch of the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services that focuses on providing services for students who are economically and educationally disadvantaged.
EOPS, a state-funded program, celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sept. 4.
Former LBCC student Carolina Alarcon, who was in the foster care system said, “The decision to go to school was all on myself. The obstacle was having to become self-motivated with so little people around you. I was all on my own starting a new chapter of my life.”
Alarcon, like many other former foster youths, struggled with homelessness. She lived in her car for around a year while working at both McDonalds and Denny’s.
“It took me to be at my very low end to see that education was the only way out,” Alarcon said.
Alarcon is a part of NextUp as well as Guardian Scholars, another subset of EOPS, and is studying psychology and sociology.
Alarcon is considering going into social work.
Former foster youth face many obstacles such as homelessness, food insecurity, drug addiction, early pregnancies and lack of resources.
“One of the biggest things that we see as a deterrent for them is the fact that they don’t embrace the services that do exist for them,” Garcia said.
“As far as them focusing on education, they instantaneously become a population that runs a high risk of becoming involved in activities that are not going to promote a healthy adult transition. And one of them is that they don’t seek higher education, unfortunately.”
Even with programs like NextUp in existence, lack of awareness leaves much of the research to be conducted by students.
“Misinformation is a common problem that makes it challenging for former foster youth to pursue higher education,” said Alarcon.
“I reached out, just because of the social workers I had. I didn’t even know about financial aid, or that school could be free for me. I didn’t even know where to begin. With so many other problems to worry about, it was so easy to want to give up because of being misguided.”
According to Alarcon, despite having these services available, a lot of foster youth don’t know how to take advantage of them.
Regarding the need for NextUp at LBCC, Garcia estimated there are 200 – 500 current LBCC students who were in the foster care system.
Ramon Knox is the Dean of EOPS at LBCC, and supervises resources and support given to economically and educationally disadvantaged students. Photo by Tess Kazenoff.
“It’s not just folks who started in foster care when they were young. Some become wardens of the court because of judicial issues. Sometimes parents have been deceased. Sometimes parents have been deported. So it’s all these things that are part of that, and you want the children to not be impacted. So we try to provide a pseudo-family for that,” Dean of EOPS Ramon Knox said.
“Sometimes you have a hard day, and you need somebody to let you know it’s going to be alright.”
Having a network of support to provide assistance during the stress of college is the central goal of NextUp.
“Sometimes we have our structures in place, whether that’s friends or family, that help us along the way. Sometimes folks are part of the system and don’t have that kind of consistency, and that kind of mentorship. It’s really important for folks to see that they can change the outcome of their lives, and they are not defined by their circumstances,” Knox said.
“For students that participate in NextUp, they get to not only prove themselves wrong, and also other folks wrong, in that they can be successful. And success is meant for them.”
According to Alarcon, the communication issues at LBCC initially made it difficult to fully utilize the services available. Since NextUp, her experience has greatly improved.
“The communication is wonderful. Now I know who the support system is, now I know who to contact. It’s come a long way,” Alarcon said.
Even with these services available, many students who were in foster care still encounter many challenges as they continue on with their education.
Alarcon explained the difficulties of working full time and supporting herself while studying.
“Programs aren’t with me every night, checking in on me, asking how’s my mental health. My goal is to be healthy mentally, and mentally stable while doing the process,” Alacron explained.
While services such as NextUp can’t completely alleviate the hardships that former foster youth deal with, the hope is to lessen them and make earning a degree more obtainable.
“I see you. Your existence is important,” Knox said.
As part of an attempt to increase Long Beach City College students’ knowledge regarding savings, budgeting, credit, debt, and taxes, students were asked “If you had $1,000,000, what would you do with it?” during the All About Savings workshop on September 30.
Learning and Academic Resources Department instructor, Grecia Iniguez said that at these workshops students will be taught a variety of practical tips like, “what should I do if I get an extra hundred bucks?”
“It’s a combination of better decision-making skills that are money management tips. All these things improve quality-of-life,” said Iniguez.
At the beginning of the workshop Iniguez handed out a self-assessment packet that allowed students to reflect on their current finance choices and assessed their short and long-term goals.
First year student Marissa Calderon attended the savings workshop because she’s had past experiences where members of her family would have benefited from financial education.
“I wanted to check out this class because I know a lot of my family have trouble with money. I don’t want to make those same mistakes,” said Calderon.
When answering what she would do with $1,000,000, Calderon said that she would save half of it for future investments. Other students said they would buy a house or start a business.
Iniguez also shared with students the importance of language when it comes to financial education.
“We want to get comfortable with the language of the business, which is the language of money: debt, scholarships, grants, money, income, jobs, and have those conversations so that it’s not something that you fear or feel embarrassed to talk about, because nobody in your family or nobody around you knows,” Iniguez said.
Alexis Redmond, co-coordinator of the workshop said, “I think that LBCC is making it an easier part of the conversation and by supporting these workshops it’s showing that they see the value of being a well-rounded adult: knowing how to manage your finances.”
At the end of each workshop students have a chance to win prizes like gift cards and t-shirts, as well as a certificate of completion for all those who qualify.
Throughout October, additional budgeting, credit, debt and taxes workshops will be held Mondays and Wednesdays from 12pm to 3pm at the LAC and PCC Multidisciplinary Centers.
Delta Alpha Pi, an honors society that recognizes high-achieving students with disabilities, is collecting food donations to reduce students’ hunger at Long Beach City College.
The collected food will be submitted to the Viking Vaults, a service that provides a daily snack to students, which can be found at Student Health Services.
Delta Alpha Pi will be at both the LAC and PCC quads every Monday beginning October 7th until December 2nd, from 1-2 p.m.
Any non-perishable snack can be donated, such as protein, granola bars or noodle bowls.
“A lot of students may not say it, but they are in need. A lot of students are struggling for housing while still part of our campus and going to our school,” Delta Alpha Pi adviser and Disability Support Specialist Valinda Intarattana said.
“Many need to choose between buying a scantron and food. Our club members brought this to me, and said ‘what can we do?’
In April 2019, Inside Higher Ed published a study conducted by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, it found among 86,000 students surveyed across 123 schools, 48% of community college students and 48% of university students are food insecure.
In the past LBCC has held events such as Better Breakfast Day and implemented programs like CalFresh, to assist struggling students.
Delta Alpha Pi’s initiative to tackle food insecurity began a couple semesters ago.
Intarattana also stated that Student Health Services has seen an increase in donations since the fliers were created.
Octavio Alcantar, a club member and second-year student at LBCC, expressed his excitement.
“I’ve always looked for a place to help out. Viking Vaults is one way to make sure we’re all taken care of,” Alcantar said.
Sheree Guillory, a member of Delta Alpha Pi, spoke about her hopes for an increase in food donations this semester.
“It was new for a lot of students. We didn’t really know what to do,” said Guillory regarding donations from last semester.
This year Delta Alpha Pi sought to increase awareness for their cause by placing fliers around school, along with word of mouth proves promising, according to Guillory.
“It’s not just a student thing, it’s a community thing. It means a lot to be able to help.”
While Long Beach City College’s LAC Viking West Coast Grill has been a breath of fresh air in terms of affordable vegetarian food options, the cafeteria should further expand their menu to provide more healthy, dynamic, and varied choices for vegetarians and vegans alike.
As a fairly new vegetarian, over the past year I have found myself always looking for new vegetarian and vegan friendly places to eat at school, especially after coming from a high school who’s cafeteria food was the equivalent of microwavable dinners.
A simple and hearty meal option that students could choose is the veggie burger which costs $4.70, with the typical hamburger fix-ins like lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and an optional extra cost for cheese.
Personally, I prefer the veggie burger combo which consists of a burger that comes with french fries and a 16.Oz drink.
The combo totals at just under $10 and is enough food to satisfy me for the majority of my day throughout my classes.
With a protein choice between a standard, but good quality veggie patty, the cafeteria now offers “beyond meat” for those looking for an non-meat patty that is closer to the original for just $5.99.
The veggie burger at The Habit Bar & Grill located at LBX Hangar totals $7.56, and that doesn’t include fries and a drink.
In comparison, the Viking Grill offers a great affordable option for students.
Another great choice is the burrito with vegan chik’n which is simply just beans and rice with your choice of protein being vegan chik’n.
A grilled and spiced tofu patty, vegan chick’n is a great filling substitute costing only $5.99.
Pair any of these two meals with some of the cafeterias several other healthier sides like fruit and vegetable cups, garden salads or veggie wraps, and you can have yourself a great sized meal that will hit the key nutritional bases.
I would also love to see the cafeteria continue to expand their veggie-friendly options with items such as the “impossible burger” or offer more meat alternatives to other meat centric items like using ground up beyond beef for tacos or nacho topping, vegan chik’n on salads, or even taking up new items like beyond sausage.
Not to mention also adding non-dairy cheese options for our vegan students as well.
Dedicated vegetarian food can sometimes be difficult to find in Long Beach, especially when you’re just starting out like I was not too long ago.
Meat alternatives making an appearance in the food main stream has been sort of a double-edged blade.
On one hand, many fast food places and restaurants alike now offer plenty of vegetarian and vegan friendly options.
This new convenience comes at the price of — well, the price being severely increased almost everywhere you go.
While in the grand scheme of non-meat alternative competition, it may not be the most gourmet option, but when you don’t have the time or money to get some overpriced cuisine, the LAC West Coast Grill offers some really solid options for any vegetarians, or anyone looking to try something new.
The Long Beach Antique Market brings together locals and newcomers to marvel over works of art, collectibles and unique trinkets.
The event takes place at Long Beach’s Veterans Stadium on the third Sunday of every month, from 5:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m..
A Long Beach city tradition since 1982, over 20 acres are dedicated to booths of entrepreneurs who show off their products to the public eye.
Long Beach local and antique market entrepreneur Julio Vazquez visits the stadium continuously to sell decorative road signs to men.
Vazquez explained that he gathers the road signs “Here, there, and everywhere,” while gesturing to his displayed pieces.
Photo by Talia Coeshott. Julio Vazquez scatters decorative road signs to be sold at the Long Beach Antique Fair on September 15, 2019. Vazquez allows Roberto Vivar to accompany him while selling his sculptures.
United States manufacturer and entrepreneur Roberto Vivar stood alongside Vazquez eager to promote his business, The Vivart Company.
The Vivart Company disassembles and reassembles ordinary objects into furniture, sculptures, and wagons.
As a self-taught wood and metal worker, Vivar learned to take advantage of market fairs because of his strong dislike of disregarding any object with potential use for transformation.
“I started off going to this swap meet looking for stuff, looking for junk and looking for weird things to repurpose,” said Vivar.
“It was one of those things where I started making wagons and going to shows like this and I met a museum curator and she had a show, so she offered me the opportunity to put items into there and I had never done anything like that before so it was pretty cool,” Vivar added.
Vivar’s wife, Gabriella Vivar, envisioned the design of the art while Vivar utilized his influence of cars to access parts for the sculpture.
Together the couple scouts the streets for any stray object that may play a part in whichever piece Vivar is constructing.
“We work together and both love rusty old metal junk stuff,”
“I help with the design and I’ll just grab parts that I like,” said Gabriella Vivar.
Vivar’s art has been exhibited in the San Diego Automotive Museum in 2018 and continues to grow in an exposure.
Long Beach City College Professor Emad Faltas found his passion at Cairo University in Egypt where he studied the development of humanity.
With 9 years of experience in archeology, Professor Faltas has led many tours for Cambridge, Oxford, and toured with popular, now retired UCLA professor, Bill Creasy.
“One of the worst experiences of my nine years of archeology, was being locked in a pyramid for 16 hours,” professor Faltas says.
19 years ago Faltas was on an expedition exploring an abandoned pyramid in Dashur, Egypt.
Faltas’ team had been investigating the first two chambers for hours.
As his team grew tired, Faltas decided to investigate the third chamber on his own.
Upon ascending into the third chamber, the ladder broke, leaving no safe way for Faltas to descend.
He proceeded to yell for help for hours, but no one could hear him, as his team had already left.
When 8pm rolled around the lights in the chamber shut off, leaving the room pitch black.
It wouldn’t be for another 16 hours that Professor Faltas was found.
A guard dog heard him yelling for help, a guard soon followed, who called a rescue team .
Despite this scarring experience, professor Faltas continues to spread his love for history through teaching.
Photo by Nate Enierga. Egyptologist professor Faltas in his office, building T, holding a Sphinx.
A series of pro-democratic protests and uprisings known as the Arab Spring, occurred throughout the Middle East which caused professor Faltas to move to the United States out of concern for his family’s safety.
Professor Faltas now teaches at LBCC as well as Fullerton college.
Faltas’ peers speak fondly of him.
“He has an amazing backstory on how he got to where he is today. He’s a very popular professor in our department, and he engages students’ interests in his topic” professor David Lehman said.
“We are very lucky to have an egyptologist professor here, his passion for ancient Egyptian history is contagious,” professor Mary Marki states.
Students interested in learning more about Egyptology and other archeological ventures can register for Professor Faltas upcoming Spring 2020 classes.
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