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LBCC Student Health Services hosts a mental health workshop celebrating gratitude

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LBCC Student Health Services hosts a mental health workshop celebrating gratitude

A workshop headlined “Gratitude- A Tool for Happiness” was facilitated by Mental Health Clinician Daisy Cook on Wednesday. 

The event lasted an hour and covered the topic of gratitude. The host and students alike shared their opinions and experiences on how gratitude can serve as a useful instrument to help achieve happiness. 

Cook began the workshop by asking, “What is gratitude, and what does it mean to you?”

Many students shared their views and the overarching sentiment that gratitude is the state of being thankful as an acknowledgment of something good. 

The first issue posed was what happens when we lack gratitude. 

What emotions and behavior do we typically display?

Student Ashlee Richards commented, “We just feel frustrated all the time, filled with negativity.”

Cook went on to explain that the lack of gratitude affects people and the relationships around us. 

As a result, loneliness and self-esteem issues present themselves and provide a spiraling-down staircase leading to poor mental health.

Mental Health Clinician intern, Saul Sandoval, introduced a slide and explained the benefits that gratitude can offer in many aspects of life. 

Sandoval drew light on the fact that new perspectives allow us to focus on what we do have and making our problems seem more trivial. 

Emotionally, gratitude can heighten mental well-being and keep suicidal thoughts at bay as it suppresses negative thoughts in those suffering from depression.

Appreciating things in life can also strengthen family relationships in times of stress and improve our social and romantic relationships.

“It makes us more optimistic, increases our spiritualism, makes us more giving, indicates reduced materialism, and enhances optimism,” Sandoval said.

Gratitude provides immense advantages in the workplace, such as improved decision-making as well as contributing to reduced turnover.

Exercises were practiced to shed light on those who deserve appreciation in our lives.

“Happiness starts within. So, if we’re happy then it’s easier to share that happiness with others”, explained Mental Health Clinician intern Charissa Manor.

The idea of gratitude was celebrated by listing five things you are grateful for, three people you are thankful for, three challenges you’ve learned from, and recalling your fondest memories.

The workshop ended with a guided meditation video and exercise to aid students on the path of happiness.

Trump supporters protest election results in Beverly Hills

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Trump supporters protest election results in Beverly Hills

Trump supporters rallied against alleged voter fraud and in support of Trump’s refusal to concede in Beverly Hills on November 14. 

The rally at Beverly Gardens Park was organized by Shiva Bagheri, with a main focus on the election results, which President Trump claims is due to voter fraud and corruption in the election.

Trump supporter Pamela Reese from Long Beach arrived at the rally to express her concerns about the election fraud and said she would accept the results if the election was done fair and square.

“I truly believe that if Biden won fair and square, I’ll accept that, but there are many things that make me wonder if it was clear that Trump had a lead, and they just stopped counting and has never happened in the history of voting,” Reese said. 

Trump supporters argued with a few Biden supporters and people passing by during the rally, but the conflict did not escalate.

Protester Kyle Cline said he believed that more transparency with the vote counting was needed.

“We believe there is a lot of fraud in a lot of places, and it’s a shame what’s happening right now in our country and it goes back to anybody that works on the vote being counted making sure it’s legal, and there should be no fraud at any level,” Cline said.

Another Trump supporter, Adrina Mekertichian, said she believed that Trump is a caring president and that the election was rigged. 

“I believe they have rigged and stolen the election using the intelligence apparatus to destroy the whole country as a weapon,” Mekertichian said.

“I believe if the courts do their job and they do right by the constitution, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t. He won the election, we were all watching those numbers go up as they stopped,” she said.

A Trump supporter holds a petition sign reading, “Democrat voter fraud matters.” Photo by Matthew Choi.

Mekertichian also said that Trump was only defamed by the media, and that the public was always trying to tarnish his image. She said she admires Trump for his confidence and straightforward attitude. 

“He’s taking on the war machine itself and it’s dangerous. I take my hat off to him because he’s a great president and being able to tackle that all at the same time,” Mekertichian said. 

Autumn Schnell is also a Trump supporter who shares the same opinions as Mekertichian. 

Schnell said she believes that Trump cares about America, and is doing what presidents are supposed to do. She was at the rally to support the president.

“I think he’s doing a good job. No president can fix all problems of the country. I think we have a great history in general of having wonderful presidents. I think America sets a good example,” Schnell said.

In-person classes continue at LBCC as administration monitors rising COVID-19 cases

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In-person classes continue at LBCC as administration monitors rising COVID-19 cases

Long Beach City College has yet to suspend its in-person courses, as administrators continue to monitor the rising coronavirus cases in Long Beach and Los Angeles County.  

Courses that have been considered essential, and that are unable to translate to an online format, such as welding and nursing, have continued to operate on campus, with nearly 2,500 students enrolled in such courses.

Los Angeles County reported 5,031 new cases as of today, prompting Governor Gavin Newsom to announce a limited Stay at Home order for counties that are in the purple tier, which is considered widespread. 

For the next month, any non-essential work or gatherings between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. will be prohibited, beginning this Saturday. 

41 out of 58 counties in the state are now in the Purple Tier, which is considered to be widespread.

L.A. County has remained in the purple tier since the tier system was introduced in August.

Within the past week, California has experienced a spike in cases of 37%.

Vice President of Business Affairs at Long Beach City College, Marlene Drinkwine said that in the event that safety guidelines require the suspension of in-person courses, essential labs would be postponed, similarly to in March, when the original Stay at Home Order was given.

Students enrolled in those courses completed them over the summer.

“We’ve learned how incredibly creative and resourceful our faculty are, and that they’ve been able to develop several different approaches to labs to allow those courses that we’re not able to offer on campus, and will continue to really rely on their expertise, their creativity, understanding, of course, that there are some portions to those essential labs that have to be done in a safe environment on campus, and then those portions would be postponed to some future point when we would be allowed to resume,” Drinkwine said. 

Drinkwine said that current plans to support the reopening of essential labs would be published shortly, however, they are a continuing process and will likely be so for a few months.

On Wednesday, El Camino College in Torrance announced that all in-person classes would be postponed until it has been deemed safe to return.

As for Long Beach City College, Drinkwine said she was hopeful that “we’ll be able to make it through the end of the semester. It’s a very fluid situation. I think that we are all dependent upon one another to adhere to the safety orders and to help slow the spread. And the more that we can do that as a community, the more likely it is that we’ll be able to continue to operate in a very limited fashion.”

Drinkwine said that the school has taken a rigorous approach to compliance with the current safety order.

“We have a lot of plan B’s … should we have to halt some on-campus activity.”

For students whose courses of study have been delayed or halted due to the pandemic, Drinkwine said that the school has utilized flexibility from the Chancellor’s office along with agencies that oversee the standards for certifications and the completion of various courses of studies. 

Drinkwine said that she is hopeful that this flexibility will continue to be utilized. 

“We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of hardship for all of our students, and that we as a district continue to try and find resources to help students with those challenges,” she said. 

Regarding sports for the spring semester, Drinkwine said a decision has not yet been made, but discussions have been ongoing.

According to Drinkwine, the athletics team has been participating in statewide discussions and meetings about how to safely resume athletic activities.

“It’s been a challenge that some of the neighboring counties have allowed conditioning to proceed while ours has not,” she said.

“But we have a number of plans that the moment that we are allowed to resume some of those activities, how can we safely resume those activities and those plans are being aligned with all the different Athletic Association plans. So there’s a great interest in making sure that all of our students and staff can be safe and healthy but understanding the importance of athletics in the student’s academic careers and what we need to change with the circumstances right now in order to ensure safety for sport,” Drinkwine said.

Bringing back sports is reliant on public health orders, and the school would need guidance from public health officials pertaining to athletics, said Drinkwine. 

As for in-person plans for the summer and fall semesters of next year, Drinkwine said that will be announced at least a few weeks in advance.

“We would take a look at how the progression of COVID-19 is, the progression of the vaccine, and of course, under the guidance of our public safety officials, public health officials,” Drinkwine said.

“I am truly thankful to all the faculty and staff and the students for their incredible responsibility. We’ve had everybody complying with the measures, it’s been a very smooth process. And that’s done through the work of support of an incredible team of faculty and staff supporting those students and so it’s been as successful as the process could have been considering circumstances,” Drinkwine said.

Parent-students learn about identifying attachment styles in their relationships

Caitlyn Thiele
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Parent-students learn about identifying attachment styles in their relationships

On November 12, a workshop about relationships for student parents was held by Long Beach City College mental health clinician, Brianna Reyes. The workshop started at 2:30 and lasted one hour.

The main premise of the workshop was about attachments, and managing partners in a relationship. 

There are different types of attachments and each have their own severity. One of the attachment styles is called a secure attachment.

Reyes said, “Secure attachment is that we can trust them easily or tuned to emotions, communicate when upset, and lead to cooperative and flexible behavioral relationships.” 

Secure attachments have a balanced relationship where both partners feel comfortable together. There is a positive atmosphere and environment in this attachment style.

The other type of attachment style is an anxious attachment style. 

Some symptoms include “sensitive nervous system, difficulty communicating, tends to act out when triggered, so not really feeling secure in the relationship,” as described by Reyes. 

These partners are usually needy and anxious. They feel the need to prove their self-worth.

An avoidant or dismissive attachment style is when a partner is very independent and can feel isolated. They are not really into the relationship and have a desire to leave. 

There may also be trust problems in the relationship. The partner can easily walk away from the relationship.

Reyes said, “They may have a lot of barriers. They may not be looking for it.”

In a fearful attachment style, the partner is paranoid and confrontational. 

Reyes said some symptoms include, “strongly fears rejection, has low self-esteem, has high anxiety, afraid of criticism.” They can chase their partner away.

The most important factor to practice In order to create good attachment styles is to be aware of the problems, and work on fixing them. 

Reyes reiterated that attachment styles can be fluid and shift to other styles. However, most attachment styles are established early on in childhood.

There are some ways that an individual can change attachment styles.

“Books on attachment styles might be helpful, but I definitely think getting support in health services or meeting with someone who can help you point out some of these things and create connections,” Reyes said. 

“You can do it independently, and that just means doing the research. Maybe find some really great books on some different techniques, but it might mean even getting some support from someone who has knowledge in these matters like a mental health provider,” she said.

Afterwards, Reyes explained the characteristics of unhealthy relationships and codependency. This can lead to a loss of self. She also discussed physical violence.

A slide that lays out the different characteristics of unhealthy relationships. Courtesy of LBCC Mental Health Services.
IMP, or Intimate Partner Violence, is a vicious cycle of abuse, as shown in the slide. Courtesy of LBCC Mental Health Services.

 LBCC student Lena Hopkins has experienced an unhealthy relationship before.

Hopkins said, “It wasn’t a bad relationship, we grew apart from each other and weren’t communicating our wants and our needs. So we had to get marriage counseling.”

Hopkins said she learned talking to someone is very helpful and can help an individual move on from the situation.

Reyes ended the workshop by reviewing some of the tips and strategies learned during that time. 

LBCC Men’s Basketball team continues recruiting amidst pandemic

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LBCC Men’s Basketball team continues recruiting amidst pandemic

Long Beach City College men’s basketball head coach and director of basketball operations, Barry Barnes, is recruiting basketball talent every day in the community of Long Beach.

Barnes said he has a recruiting philosophy as the men’s basketball coach, looking for a player that is local in the city of Long Beach, and who is “a good student and has good grades.” 

Barnes said a Long Beach City College player should be, ”home grown, a hard worker, dedicated to education and wants to represent the community with pride.”

In addition, Barnes said that he wants his players to earn scholarships to play at universities and further their education.

Interim athletic director Bill Husak said that LBCC sports do not have a recruiting timeline because LBCC is not a D1 school.

“We are a community college, so we have a lot of time for a player to commit to Long Beach City College,” Husak said. 

The LBCC basketball program works to recruit players every year, with an ideal visualization of what players they’re interested in, aiming to build great relationships between the athletes and basketball coaches.

Barnes said one thing he tells a college recruit is that, “Education is the key to success as an individual. And hard work pays off with dedication.”

Barnes and his coaching staff have specific players they are looking for when they are recruiting. 

They’re always looking for point guards who can be a coach on the floor and play both physical and hard. 

In the other positions, they’re always looking for players who can spread the floor and play multiple positions on the floor. 

Husak said that during any recruiting process, he believes and trusts in Barnes and his coaching staff to recruit the best player that is available, and get a player that fits what the Long Beach City College team desires in a player.

Barnes said that a challenge for his coaching staff during the pandemic is that they have to see and talk to the player through Zoom or via phone call. 

When interacting with a player being heavily recruited, Barnes said that expectations are communicated, as well as how interested they are in a potential partnership. 

Barnes said it gives them time to watch a lot of film of the players. 

“As a coach, it’s really not easy recruiting through Zoom. It’s better recruiting and watching them play in person,” said Barnes.

Husak said that he is very optimistic about recruiting on Zoom. He hopes they can recruit like they used to, when the pandemic improves. 

Long Beach and Los Angeles Port region ranks highest in air pollution

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Long Beach and Los Angeles Port region ranks highest in air pollution

The Long Beach and Los Angeles region rank among the highest in ozone air pollution according to the American Lung Association, in their “State of the Air Report.” 

To gain a better understanding of how air pollution impacts communities, Viking News spoke with local nonprofit organizations that advocate for better air quality. 

“Air pollution has adverse health impacts including causing and exasperating: respiratory diseases like asthma, COPD, bronchitis; cardiovascular disease, various cancers, and reproductive issues like premature births and low birth weights,” said Taylor Thomas, the co-executive director of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. 

East Yard is a nonprofit organization which works with communities along the 710 freeway and other nearby regions dealing with industrial pollution. 

The organization has an office in West Long Beach, near sources of pollution such as refineries, freeways and emissions from ships and trucks at the port. 

They organize communities to advocate for cleaner air through policy at the public comment portions of city council meetings and meetings of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), the official state agency in charge of regulating Southern California’s air.

East Yard has a focus on youth empowerment and often brings young people to participate in the civic process. 

Their organization calls for environmental justice, which they say begins with listening to community members. They believe policy making around issues that affect communities should be determined by the communities that are most severely impacted by pollution. 

The Coalition for Clean Air (CCA) is another small nonprofit organization that works on addressing air quality in Long Beach and Los Angeles. The organization is focused primarily on policy around transportation, which is one of the leading sources of air pollution.

Statewide transportation accounts for about half of carbon emissions. 

Like East Yard, the Coalition studies the impact made to communities by the goods movement, which refers to the transportation of goods that move through the port from ships and onto trucks on their journey to warehouses throughout Southern California. 

The SCAQMD released a study known as the MATES study, which shows that areas with the great burden of air pollution are around the 710 and 91 freeways, transporting goods from the ports. 

Pollution sources near the freeways include diesel from trucks, local transportation, and fueling stations.   

According to Chris Chavez, the deputy policy director from the Coalition for Clean Air, there are federal deadlines that regions with high amounts of air pollution must meet to comply with federal regulations on pollution. 

If regions do not meet their federal mandate in time, they can be met with penalties including federal sanctions on the state from the federal government.

Chavez said SCAQMD is not on track to meet standards, and that he sees “no viable plan” for the agency to realistically meet the deadlines.

As a result, communities in Long Beach and other regions in the harbor area will continue to deal with the effects of air pollution. Both groups noted that the areas which deal with the greatest burden of air pollution tend to be low-income and predominantly communities of color. 

Both organizations say major industrial changes need to occur for there to be any improvement in local air quality.

Many of the local sources of pollution also play a major role in the economy, with representatives from both organizations noting that a significant source of Long Beach’s air pollution comes from the Port of Long Beach, which they believe can play a more active role in addressing the area’s air quality.

While particulate matter emitted from the diesel engines has gone down since the ports implemented their Clean Air Action Plans, and both groups have expressed their concerns that the ports have reduced diesel emissions by converting to natural gas, a fossil fuel which also pollutes and consists of methane, a potent greenhouse gas instead of fully electric technology.  

Other noteworthy sources of pollutants include the railyards which move fossil fuels cargo such as coal and petcoke through the ports, oil refineries in the region, the largest of which is the Marathon refinery in Carson and the SERRF facility near the Port of Long Beach, a facility that incinerates trash for energy.   

The areas near the intersections of freeways near the ports face pollution burdens from refineries, traffic and port operations.
Photo by Elliot Gonzales/ Viking News

Herlinda Chico wins seat on LBCC Board of Trustees

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Herlinda Chico wins seat on LBCC Board of Trustees

The Area 4 Trustee election is essentially over, while the official count might take weeks. A report from the Long Beach Post puts Herlinda Chico a few hundred votes ahead of Richard Gaylord. 

Last Tuesday, Chico announced her victory on Facebook. 

“From the first ballot count on Election Day, we established a lead and never relinquished it,” her post read.

During the election, Herlinda Chico would tout her experience in serving the community.

This experience, which in her words gave her, “an understanding of the complexities of the population, which is something that my opponents frankly don’t have.”

On her victory post, she also pledged to, “remain accessible and open to ideas, and I hope I can count on you for your continued community partnership.”

During a follow up interview she said, “We had to adapt to COVID, but we adapted well.” 

An example she brought up was, “we had literature made, we dropped it off at doorsteps.”

As for what set her apart as a candidate, Chico said, “It resonates with people that I was a product of the Long Beach Community College system.” 

In office, her priorities are the students and faculty. 

“We’re still in a pandemic, we should focus on addressing those needs inside and outside the classroom,” she said.

When asked about how the election process has influenced her policies faculty, she said “one thing that was a reminder is Lee Loverridge’s perspective from the faculty. I think that was a valuable perspective, one that we should keep in mind as a trustee.”

Richard Gaylord is a former appointee of the Board of Trustees personnel commission. He too has a long career in a variety of positions within the government and without. 

One of these positions was as the Presidents of the National association of realtors. He said “my experience with organizations gives me the tools necessary for our board to move forward.” 

When asked for a follow up interview, he declined. Only briefly stated that, “I am waiting for my campaign manager to tell me the vote has been finalized.”

On his website his concession reads “Friends and neighbors, after a week of careful watching, the math is increasingly clear that, sadly, it does not appear I can overcome my opponent’s lead in the race for Long Beach City College Trustee.” 

Ending his election efforts with congratulations to Ms. Chico, “I congratulate Ms. Chico on a race well-run and wish her nothing but the very best as a Trustee of the institution I know both of us love and hold dear.”

Students build self-esteem with “Cultivating Resilience” workshop

Caitlyn Thiele
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Students build self-esteem with “Cultivating Resilience” workshop

On Thursday, Lupita Martinez, a part-time mental health clinician at Student Health Services, held a workshop that discussed building self-esteem. The workshop started at 1:00 p.m. and lasted for one hour.

Martinez opened the workshop with a pre-workshop survey. Afterwards, she discussed imposter syndrome.

“Imposter syndrome is the inability to believe that you are actually deserving of accomplishments that you’ve made,” Martinez said.

In brief, people with imposter syndrome constantly doubt themselves. However, they are usually high-achieving people capable of achieving their goals. It is a common type of social phenomenon. 

Here is a slide from the workshop called “What have you heard others say to themselves? You to yourself?” This poses a question for the audience to ponder over. Courtesy of LBCC Student Health Services.

Some students shared some of their own personal experiences about dealing with self-doubt. 

One student spoke of his experience, saying how he used to struggle with self-doubt. He reinforced the fact that he no longer doubts himself, and continues to persevere through life’s challenges. 

One LBCC student, Lena Hopkins, said she has sometimes experienced self-doubt. 

Hopkins has experienced a loss of a loved one, which spiraled her into depression. Because of this, she often feels some responsibility and guilt as well. 

“I doubted myself so much that it led me into a mental breakdown. It was more of having a lot of death around me, and losing self-confidence in who I was, and just a loss of control when it came to my behavior, because I was depressed,” said Hopkins. 

“I was never introduced to therapy to get the help that I needed. So that was something I did that helped a lot.”  

Martinez explained the first common symptom, which is labeling. 

This slide from the workshop depicts the definition of “labeling.” Courtesy of LBCC Student Health Services.

Martinez said, “This is an extreme form of distorted thinking, basically calling yourself names. They’re actually pretty irrational. You may not necessarily be a failure, it just means that you actually failed at that thing that you were really upset about.”

Most of the time, labelling is exaggerated and often happens because of one’s own temper. 

Another symptom of imposter syndrome is “discounting the positives.” Martinez said that rejecting positive experiences actually dismisses the beneficial outcome of the situation, and only creates negative energy within oneself and among others.

This slide from the workshop shows some of the labels people put on themselves when they are experiencing imposter syndrome. Courtesy of LBCC Student Health Services.

“You feel unrewarded, first of all, and inadequate as well. Sometimes, discounting the positives sucks the fun out of it,” Martinez said. 

Recognizing the underlying problems is key to finding a solution to this issue. 

“Making sure that you recognize the real reason why you didn’t do a good job. The real reason that you actually got to where you are,” said Martinez.

Ra Yoga Survives and Thrives

Caitlyn Thiele
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Ra Yoga Survives and Thrives

The yoga world has been one of the many industries to take a hit in response to the global COVID-19 outbreak.

Ra Yoga is one of Long Beach’s beloved yoga spaces. They have been constantly finding new ways to adapt to the quickly changing environment they find themselves in.

Ra Yoga does have several locations, a few in Orange County, but just one in Long Beach at the LBX Hangar.

While the other locations have been able to re-open and test the waters of teaching in person classes during a pandemic, the Long Beach location remains closed.

Madison Canary, one of Ra Yoga’s Master Teachers, shared that their studios “actually had more opportunity because people want to focus more on trainings…it allowed me to grow our program bigger than if it was still in person.”

Ra Yoga is known and loved for its studio class settings but also for its training facility, which has been one of the main factors allowing the studio to remain afloat during these unique times. 

Some of the ways they have adapted to these new circumstances is by transitioning almost completely into a virtual setting. Integrating platforms such as Zoom and Vimeo into their new routine.

When asked about how this transition has been for Ra, Madison said, “The transition onto zoom was pretty seamless. The transition off of zoom will be difficult due to students that are out of the state and out of the country.”

Madison also believes that despite the challenges of the new environment that it has “given us more opportunities and growth than not.”

Stephanie Serrano, the manager of the Ra Yoga Long Beach location, shared the difficulties of what it has been like trying to manage a studio space in a pandemic setting.

The Long Beach location was only able to re-open one time earlier on in the pandemic. She said that it was difficult trying to ensure all staff were on the same page about the new way of operating.

“I had to be a leading example for social distancing,” she said. 

Some other changes she had to endure was the new normal of “reminding folks to have masks on” and “all signs changed to focus on precautions for covid.”

Unfortunately, after one trial run of being allowed to re-open, Long Beach once again was forced to close until further notice due to regulations in LA County.

Stephanie said, “Just when people got the hang of things we had to re-close again.”

When asked about how these changes affect the community, Stephanie said, “What is different now is the organic sense of connection.”

She does hold optimism for the future, “Long term picture I know that things will go back to normal.” Though she did speculate this still may not be the case until late 2021.

Madison shared similar concerns. “I was worried that I wouldn’t feel connected to everyone and everyone wouldn’t feel connected to each other,” she said.

The “great thing about yoga is that it teaches us to be flexible,” Stephanie said. Even such a simple statement holds immense amounts of truth.

Despite all these unforeseen challenges Ra Yoga has faced, Madison says, “Ra has been through many storms…It will only get bigger and better.”

This chalk board always has a message for motivation, community, and inspiration. The Ra Yoga staff will alternate the content of the board every several weeks to suit changing seasons, themes, and events happening both within the studio and outside of it. (Photo by Caitlyn Thiele).

How will COVID-19 affect transferring LBCC students?

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How will COVID-19 affect transferring LBCC students?

One of the biggest questions a Long Beach City College student may have if they are planning on transferring to a 4-year school soon is, “How will COVID-19 affect my transfer process?” and the answer varies.

During this unprecedented time, CSUs and U.C.s have implemented accommodations for students.

For some schools, deadlines are being extended and SATs and ACTs are not being required, as is the case for California State University, Long Beach.

“I don’t foresee the pandemic affecting transfer rates or making it harder to be admitted into the school,” said UCLA representative Jessie Arias.

“One of the biggest issues students may face is if they decide to live on campus or at home because of remote learning,” said Arias. 

As far as the admissions process goes, not much will be different, it simply depends on how many students are applying.

Cal Poly Pomona representative Eddy Reyes said that the admissions process will not be more difficult. 

“Many of the requirements are the same. There are still 60 transferable units. If we’re getting more applications, then it might be a little more competitive,” Reyes said.

However, if there aren’t as many students applying to the school of their choice, that could benefit students, as GPA averages may lower.

CSULB  representative Diego Monge said there may be a reason for this happening. 

“For this academic year, we’re not accepting international students. Because of this we will have more spots available,” Monge said.

COVID-19 has made it extremely difficult for international students to be admitted into a U.S. school as a freshman.

Still there is no reason to believe it will be easy to get into your preferred school. 

“Universities still have to maintain their standards, so I don’t think they will accept you just because they need students,” said LBCC transfer staff member Judy Quilaton.

The key is for students to meet the minimum admissions requirements and the Major Specific Criteria (MSC) for their major as well as submitting their applications correctly and on time.

It is also important for students to check what adjustments that the school they are applying to have made to accommodate for COVID-19.

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