For the first time, community college students who meet requirements of a new model transfer degree will graduate with an associate’s degree and guaranteed admission to CSUs.

In January 2011, a bill sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla (DPacoima) was signed into law to advance these privileges, and City College and other state community colleges are changing curriculum and degree programs to reflect the law.

“The important thing at this point is for students to be made aware of this degree,” said City College Communication Department Chair Patti Redmond, whose 18-unit Associate in Arts in Communication Studies for Transfer is in the college catalog and ready for students to follow for transfer. “It’s important for all students to go to their counselor and get the details.”

Known as the Transfer Model Curriculum (designated as either A.A.-T or A.S.-T), the new degrees reflect the purpose of Padilla’s bill: to change the California education code to help colleges streamline the process for students to transfer to a four-year  California State University from a California community college, according to City College Curriculum Committee Manager and Vice President of Instruction Mary Turner. City College faculty and its and curriculum committee are working…» Read More

Most people would not shun a prize of $10,000 unless they were wealthy enough to hire small children to serve them around their mansion and pay the officials to ignore the indiscretion. It’s a prize worth driving all over Northern California to gather friends and family members to shoot a video in San Francisco. Which is exactly what Amanda Oliver did.

City College photography student Amanda Oliver, 26, won a $10,000 cash prize for shooting a commercial for the fast food chain, Wingstop.

“We were super excited,” Oliver said after winning.

After a friend told her about the contest, Oliver went and gathered some close family members and called upon her experience with film and video production to make a 30-second commercial worthy of the cash prize.

“I first started learning video production in high school,” she said.

After attending Downey High School in Modesto, the San Jose-born videographer attended the Art Institute of California in Sacramento for four years, where she focused on documentary filmmaking.

“I want to do documentaries for athletes, artists, and musicians,” Oliver said.

For the Wingstop commercial, she and her crew drove across Northern California. They left Modesto and grabbed wings in Emeryville, because their…» Read More

Alter egos make for great entertainment. Take, for example, Marshall Mathers. As Eminem, Mathers made it big. And on the silver screen, as well as in comic books, via cartoons, and even as illustrated on lunchboxes of the founding fathers of the old school, Clark Kent saved the day as Superman.

But alter egos aren’t just limited to Hollywood. According to one City College student, alter egos exist locally too.

“I deejay and make rainbow lasers shoot from the eyes of Grizzly Bears,” says 24-year-old City College graphic design major Curtis Currier.

Well, Currier says he doesn’t actually do the whole disc jockey/rainbow laser thing—his alter ego does.

Meet DJ Jurts, Currier’s alter ego. When he’s Jurts, Currier express himself in the Sacramento music scene as a dee-jay.

“[Jurts is] my DJ alter ego,” says Currier. “I’ve been DJ-ing for about three years now. Before that I was skateboarding.”

Not just your run-of-the-mill skateboarding though. Currier was on the semi-pro circuit, getting attention from skate apparel companies like DVS.

“I was getting shoes and stuff from DVS and some other companies, but I just never made any money doing it. It was fun though. I got to…» Read More

It can be hard for people to look past the green grass on their own side of the fence to see a neighborhood infested with weeds.

The timeless argument of “walk–a-mile” in someone else’s shoes is hard to comprehend when the person is thousands of miles away and they’re wearing combat boots.

Professor of Computer Information Science Sheley Little admits to her once obliviousness to the trials and tribulations of the United State’s military troops.

That was until her son was deployed to Afghanistan last December. Little says that fear, concern, and realization all hit home when her baby boy was sent into combat.

It was then when her primal motherly instinct took over.

Little says she needed to feel proactive. She found a way

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It was a dark and stormy night and not a creature was stirring, except for my cat.

Well, actually it wasn’t dark and stormy, but if I recall correctly, it was drizzling a bit. You know, what we call a storm here in Sacramento.

Anyway, I was looking through Target’s weekly advertisement in search of a new video game to purchase when I came across the biggest monstrosity I’ve ever seen: “A Christmas Story 2”.

My jaw dropped to the floor, my eyes lowered in

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City College’s only art historian, Valerie Kidrick, shows students the true meaning behind art by examining the culture that created it.

Once a lawyer, and now a doctor in art history, Kidrick talks of her love for the Italian Renaissance, teaching, and the challenges she had to overcome to get where she is today.

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Students who like to read or need a resource for a project should be excited to know that the Learning Resource Center has received new books and media.

Among the new selections is a variety of topics, from music to war to justice for human rights.

City College’s LRC orders new books on a regular basis for students. The LRC would also

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The bar is dark and you can hear the clink of glasses and laughter. But only just. There is a jazz combo on stage and they are swinging through a Duke Ellington tune. The horn player is softly blowing and the smoky sound transports the listeners back in time.

The bass player is wrapped around his instrument like it was a woman. His left hand is caressing her neck and his right is wrapped around her waist. His head is bowed and his eyes are closed as he reaches out with his senses to feel the song and the mood of the other players.

Every note is perfect; every bar pushes the listener further into the mist.

Bassist Gerry Pineda has been playing music since he was 9 and at the age of 57 is regarded by his peers as one of the best musicians in town. He has given private lessons for over 20 years, and since 2009 has taught at City College. In that time he has introduced hundreds of students to the transcendent joys of playing music.

Pineda, who plays in at least eight bands, is a slim, dark fellow with long quiet fingers and a wicked…» Read More

Nearly clinching the majority vote by 799 votes, Michael Edwards, a 22-year-old City College student and sociology major, conceded to Sacramento ex-mayor Heather Fargo for a charter commission seat on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The Strong Mayor Initiative, endorsed by Mayor Kevin Johnson, in which the mayor has more responsibility and power over charter officers, was one of the reasons Edwards decided to run for a charter commission on the official 2012 ballot this year.

“My grandmother and I discussed the issues pertaining to the Strong Mayor Initiative and I decided that if this initiative were to pass, I would want to be a part of this charter commission in order to avert any mayor from obtaining too much power of his office,” Edwards said.

Opportunity for an inexpensive way to gain knowledge and experience in running for an official public office is another reason Edwards said he ran for the charter commission.

“My designation of ‘student’ probably made a lot of difference to the people who did vote, in that a student designation holds a lot of weight,” Edwards said.

A mandatory class was held at City Hall and was conducted by the city clerk about responsibilities that would…» Read More