4
28000 MARGUERITE PARKWAY, MISSION VIEJO, CALIFORNIA Volume 44, Issue No. 15 www.lariatnews.com Published since 1968 FEBRUARY 29, 2012 PUBLISHED FOR YOU EVERY WEDNESDAY Your student-run newspaper L ARIAT www.lariatnews.com Friend us on Facebook! No such thing as free tuition Once again, the Governor is asking students help balance California’s budget deficit as community college enrollment fees will jump to $46 per unit this summer. More will likely depend on financial aid to cover the increase, officials say. In December, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered $1 billion in midyear spending reductions, according to the Associated Press. These reductions mean community colleges will lose about $1 million each in the midyear budget shortfall. The subsequent fee hike represents a 77 percent increase in student fees within a one-year period, reports the California Commu- nity Colleges Chancellor’s Of- fice. How to make ends meet? One scenario is to get a Board of Governors’ fee waiver. A surprising 30 percent of Saddle- back College students and 6 percent of IVC students have their tuition set aside, college officials report. This puts more pressure on the system because less revenue goes back into state coffers, officials said. “I’m mad at the cost jump but my education is worth it,” said Cody Boukather, 18, mechani- cal engineering. “I didn’t know there was a fee waiver and I want to look into that.” The IVC freshman said he wasn’t aware that financial aid like the fee waiver was avail- able. Nevertheless, to qualify for a fee waiver, a student has to show financial need, complete a simple form, and he or she need not pay the per-unit enrollment fees. There are three financial eligibility criteria including those receiving cash assistance from programs such asCal- WORKS, students whose fam- ily’s income falls at or below 150 percent of the federal pov- erty level. For 2011-2012, that equates to a family of four with a gross adjusted income of less than $33,075. The third level is determined by a student’s indi- vidual needs. Additionally, colleges are required by state law to waive enrollment fees for spouses and children of disabled or deceased veterans, deceased law enforce- ment and fire fighters. Fee waivers are not, however, only given to students who fit in the low-income bracket. Stu- dents demonstrating need on their Free Application for Fed- eral Student Aid are also eligi- ble. A full-time married student with one child and joint income of $83,000 could receive $180 in need and be eligible for a full fee waiver, according to a report by the The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Edu- cation. “Brown’s new budget ties community college financing to meeting performance goals, such as preparing students for transfer to four-year colleges,” wrote political columnist Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee. One of the recommendations is to require students receiving a BOG fee waiver to identify an educational plan, not have more than 110 units, and be required to show academic progress. The idea is to encourage students to get through the system faster. “If the 110-unit limit went into effect this year, it would impact about 400 students,” Saddleback Director of Finan- cial Assistance Christian Al- varado said. Alvarado said with fees in- creasing, more students will qualify for financial aid. IVC’s Director of Financial Aid Darryl Cox concurs. “Hard economic times always increase the number of aid ap- plications,” Cox said. “Fee in- creases always create hardships for those not on aid.” The number of IVC applicants for the fee waiver has nearly doubled since 2009-2010. “Our applications total for ‘09-’10 was 6786 and in ‘10-’11 our applications totaled 9312,” Cox said. “So far for the ‘11-’12 cycle we have 11062 applica- tions.” I encourage all students to apply for FAFSA, regardless of income levels,” Alvarado said. “Let us determine if you are eli- gible.” He said students can still ap- ply to have fees waived for this semester. Deadline is March 2. Both colleges provide com- prehensive information online, including office hours, links to forms and applications, types of financial aid, contacts, and more. Visit http://www.saddle- back.edu/fao/ orhttp://www.ivc. edu/student/finaid/. [email protected] See STRIKE page 2 Massive increase in fee waivers cuts into funds for community colleges from state Strike vote at CSU The California Faculty Asso- ciation called for a strike vote last Tuesday as contract nego- tiations with the California State University administration en- tered deadlock after 18 months. The CFA board of directors unanimously passed a resolu- tion last Tuesday to ask CSU faculty union members to vote on whether to give the board au- thorization to call a system-wide strike if mediation and fact- finding, the next two steps in the negotiation process, continue to yield no results. “We are reaching the end of negotiations,” said Brian Fergu- son, communications specialist with the CFA, “and things aren’t going well.” For the past 18 months, the CFA bargaining team has been in negotiation with the CSU chancellor’s office over a new work contract for CSU faculty, after the previous contract ex- pired on Jun. 30, 2010. How- ever, talks have become stag- nant as the two sides refused to budge on several important articles. “One of them has to do with moving more and more classes into the for-profit arm of the CSU, which is often called Ex- tension,” Ferguson said. “Fac- ulty get paid less to teach these courses, students pay more in order to register for [them]. We think these courses offer less to students and don’t create a learning environment that’s as good as what’s available in the traditional arm of the univer- sity.” Although the two parties have reached consensus on most of the more than 40 articles in the new contract, the CFA is still concerned about some of the proposals offered by the chan- cellor that they believe would ultimately degrade the quality of education. “With budget cuts in CSU over the last couple years, class size has increased with less faculty members on campus, less support staff, more advis- ing work, more of the other sort of community work that often times goes unseen,” Ferguson said. “It has been very unsettling for faculty and they’ve seen their workload increase substan- tially over the last few years.” He adds, “We’ve said for a long time that student learning conditions are faculty teaching conditions, and we think that still holds true.” Saddleback College student Madison Zraick, 23, communi- cation, saw both sides. “I understand where they are coming from with the budget cuts, because we do have to start finding ways to be more effi- cient with everything,” Zraick said. “But at the same time, no bonuses for working overtime or anything like that is pretty bad. The students suffer in a way because they don’t get as much attention. The teachers are tired.” PHOTO BY STACEY ANGELOFF A NEED FOR FINANCIAL AID: The Financial Assitance Program is kept busy with students rushing to apply for financial assistance after rising tuition fees from California’s budget deficit. MaryAnne Shults SPECIAL TO THE LARIAT $26 $18 $5 $10 $13 $12 $11 $20 $6 $46 $36 $26 $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 $25 $30 $35 $40 $45 $50 pre-1984 1984-1991 1991-1993 1993-1994 1994-1998 1998-1999 1999-2003 2003-2004 2004-2006 2006-2009 2009-2010 2010-2012 Su 2012 Source: http://www.cccco.edu/Portals/4/CFFP/Fiscal/Budget/FEEHistory.pdf Fall 1993: Fees jumped from $6 to $10, enrollment statewide dropped by 124,000 students Enrollments declined from 2.8 million in 2002-03 to 2.5 million in 2004-05. Fall 2003: Fees jump from $11 to $18 per unit – and again in Fall 2004 from $18 to $26. GRAPH BY MARYANNE SHULTS Jason Chung On the Web: Learn about the hereditary disease cystic fibrosis in the Science Lecture Series. On Sports: See how the Gauchos did in the basketball playoffs. See page 4 On Features: Featuring the Italian Instructor Accomando with his new album “One More Chance”. See page 3 On Features: Find out what college students from Hawaii think about going to col- lege in the O.C. See page 3

Feb. 29 (Spring 2012: Issue 4)

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Page 1: Feb. 29 (Spring 2012: Issue 4)

28000 marguerite parkway, mission viejo, californiaVolume 44, Issue No. 15 www.lariatnews.com

Published since 1968

february 29, 2012published for you every wednesday

Your student-run newspaper Lariat

www.lariatnews.com Friend us on Facebook!

No such thing as free tuition

Once again, the Governor is asking students help balance California’s budget deficit as community college enrollment fees will jump to $46 per unit this summer. More will likely depend on financial aid to cover the increase, officials say.

In December, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered $1 billion in midyear spending reductions, according to the Associated Press. These reductions mean community colleges will lose about $1 million each in the midyear budget shortfall. The subsequent fee hike represents a 77 percent increase in student fees within a one-year period, reports the California Commu-nity Colleges Chancellor’s Of-fice.

How to make ends meet? One scenario is to get a Board of Governors’ fee waiver. A surprising 30 percent of Saddle-back College students and 6 percent of IVC students have their tuition set aside, college officials report. This puts more pressure on the system because less revenue goes back into state coffers, officials said.

“I’m mad at the cost jump but my education is worth it,” said

Cody Boukather, 18, mechani-cal engineering. “I didn’t know there was a fee waiver and I want to look into that.”

The IVC freshman said he wasn’t aware that financial aid like the fee waiver was avail-able.

Nevertheless, to qualify for a fee waiver, a student has to show financial need, complete a simple form, and he or she need not pay the per-unit enrollment fees. There are three financial eligibility criteria including those receiving cash assistance from programs such asCal-WORKS, students whose fam-ily’s income falls at or below 150 percent of the federal pov-erty level. For 2011-2012, that equates to a family of four with a gross adjusted income of less than $33,075. The third level is determined by a student’s indi-vidual needs.

Additionally, colleges are required by state law to waive enrollment fees for spouses and children of disabled or deceased veterans, deceased law enforce-ment and fire fighters.

Fee waivers are not, however, only given to students who fit in the low-income bracket. Stu-dents demonstrating need on their Free Application for Fed-eral Student Aid are also eligi-ble. A full-time married student with one child and joint income of $83,000 could receive $180 in need and be eligible for a full fee waiver, according to a report by the The National Center for

Public Policy and Higher Edu-cation.

“Brown’s new budget ties community college financing to meeting performance goals, such as preparing students for transfer to four-year colleges,” wrote political columnist Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee.

One of the recommendations is to require students receiving a BOG fee waiver to identify an educational plan, not have more than 110 units, and be required to show academic progress. The idea is to encourage students to get through the system faster.

“If the 110-unit limit went into effect this year, it would impact about 400 students,”

Saddleback Director of Finan-cial Assistance Christian Al-varado said.

Alvarado said with fees in-creasing, more students will qualify for financial aid.

IVC’s Director of Financial Aid Darryl Cox concurs.

“Hard economic times always increase the number of aid ap-plications,” Cox said. “Fee in-creases always create hardships for those not on aid.”

The number of IVC applicants for the fee waiver has nearly doubled since 2009-2010.

“Our applications total for ‘09-’10 was 6786 and in ‘10-’11 our applications totaled 9312,” Cox said. “So far for the ‘11-’12

cycle we have 11062 applica-tions.”

I encourage all students to apply for FAFSA, regardless of income levels,” Alvarado said. “Let us determine if you are eli-gible.”

He said students can still ap-ply to have fees waived for this semester. Deadline is March 2.

Both colleges provide com-prehensive information online, including office hours, links to forms and applications, types of financial aid, contacts, and more. Visit http://www.saddle-back.edu/fao/ orhttp://www.ivc.edu/student/finaid/.

[email protected]

See strike page 2

Massive increase in fee waivers cuts into funds for community colleges from state

Strikevote at CSU

The California Faculty Asso-ciation called for a strike vote last Tuesday as contract nego-tiations with the California State University administration en-tered deadlock after 18 months.

The CFA board of directors unanimously passed a resolu-tion last Tuesday to ask CSU faculty union members to vote on whether to give the board au-thorization to call a system-wide strike if mediation and fact-finding, the next two steps in the negotiation process, continue to yield no results.

“We are reaching the end of negotiations,” said Brian Fergu-son, communications specialist with the CFA, “and things aren’t going well.”

For the past 18 months, the CFA bargaining team has been in negotiation with the CSU chancellor’s office over a new work contract for CSU faculty, after the previous contract ex-pired on Jun. 30, 2010. How-ever, talks have become stag-nant as the two sides refused to budge on several important articles.

“One of them has to do with moving more and more classes into the for-profit arm of the CSU, which is often called Ex-tension,” Ferguson said. “Fac-ulty get paid less to teach these courses, students pay more in order to register for [them]. We think these courses offer less to students and don’t create a learning environment that’s as good as what’s available in the traditional arm of the univer-sity.”

Although the two parties have reached consensus on most of the more than 40 articles in the new contract, the CFA is still concerned about some of the proposals offered by the chan-cellor that they believe would ultimately degrade the quality of education.

“With budget cuts in CSU over the last couple years, class size has increased with less faculty members on campus, less support staff, more advis-ing work, more of the other sort of community work that often times goes unseen,” Ferguson said. “It has been very unsettling for faculty and they’ve seen their workload increase substan-tially over the last few years.”

He adds, “We’ve said for a long time that student learning conditions are faculty teaching conditions, and we think that still holds true.”

Saddleback College student Madison Zraick, 23, communi-cation, saw both sides.

“I understand where they are coming from with the budget cuts, because we do have to start finding ways to be more effi-cient with everything,” Zraick said. “But at the same time, no bonuses for working overtime or anything like that is pretty bad. The students suffer in a way because they don’t get as much attention. The teachers are tired.”

Photo by Stacey angeloff

A NeeD FOr FiNANCiAL AiD: The Financial Assitance Program is kept busy with students rushing to apply for financial assistance after rising tuition fees from California’s budget deficit.

MaryAnne shultssPeCiAL tO tHe LAriAt

$26

$18

$5

$10$13 $12 $11

$20

$6

$46

$36

$26

$0

$5

$10

$15

$20

$25

$30

$35

$40

$45

$50

pre-1984

1984-1991

1991-1993

1993-1994

1994-1998

1998-1999

1999-2003

2003-2004

2004-2006

2006-2009

2009-2010

2010-2012

Su 2012

Source: http://www.cccco.edu/Portals/4/CFFP/Fiscal/Budget/FEEHistory.pdf

Fall 1993: Fees jumped from $6 to $10, enrollment statewide dropped by 124,000 students

Enrollments declined from 2.8 million in 2002-03 to 2.5 million in 2004-05.

Fall 2003: Fees jump from $11 to $18 per unit – and again in Fall 2004 from $18 to $26.

graPh by Maryanne ShultS

Jason Chung

On the Web:

Learn about the

hereditary disease cystic

fibrosis in the Science

Lecture Series.

On Sports:

See how the Gauchos

did in the basketball

playoffs.

See page 4

On Features:

Featuring the Italian

Instructor Accomando

with his new album “One

More Chance”.

See page 3

On Features:

Find out what college

students from Hawaii

think about going to col-

lege in the O.C.

See page 3

Page 2: Feb. 29 (Spring 2012: Issue 4)

lariatwednesday, february 29, 20122

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Overloaded students especiallyneed nutritious brain boosters

Students today do not have it easy. Juggling school, work, homework, relationships, and family responsibilities, how do students find the time to eat healthy and maintain balanced diets? Realistically, they don’t.

“As a student, it sometimes feels impossible to eat a bal-anced diet when I’m rushing from school to work,” said Sar-ah Foster, 20, elementary educa-tion. “I should eat healthier, but when all I have is 10 minutes, and I’m standing next to a vend-ing machine with Nutter Butters in it, it’s very easy to settle for a sugary substitute.”

As crucial as a healthy diet is, often it just is simply unat-tainable due to time constraints and on-the-go lifestyles. But in the midst of frantically dashing from point A to point B, there are foods that can pack a serious health punch.

So, to assist hungry students, here are the five most benefi-cial foods to help promote brain function and provide energy ac-cording to brainready.com.

Wild salmon is one of the best sources of essential fatty acids, a rich source of high-quality, non-land animal protein. It has low saturated fat and is gener-ally has the lowest levels of contaminants (such as mercury) among seafood, as well as other health benefits.

Wild salmon can help do ev-erything from improve brain function, mood, synaptic con-nections, arteries, as well as re-duce the risk of stroke, demen-tia, Alzheimer’s and more.

Next up is Cacao. These beans, which are used to make chocolate, provide a wealth of

benefits to your health, but un-fortunately this does not mean all chocolate is healthy.

As long as the cacao bean is minimally processed, cacao is a powerhouse of cognitive en-hancement, mood and bliss-en-hancement (due to the naturally occurring chemical Theobro-mine), antioxidants, flavonoids, catechins and many other brain & body-enhancing compounds.

Matcha (stone-ground Gyok-uru green tea powder) has over 10x the health benefits of bagged green tea. Matcha’s ef-fects are noted in history as well as in health, as it was used as a ceremonial drink used in Bud-dhist ceremonies and traditions.

Matcha’s unique effects on the brain were a perfect fit for the monks in Japan preparing to endure 12-hour straight medita-tion sessions: calming and fo-cusing while stimulating at the same time.

Açai berries, originating in South America, are a super food

high in protein and essential fatty acids (including omega-3). These berries contain the most antioxidants of any berry that has ever been tested.

Coffee beans are incredibly rich with antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Fresh-ground, gently roasted coffee bean powder has numer-ous health benefits for the brain and body.

The caffeine content in coffee beans has recently been shown to be good for the brain. The beans are also particularly high in antioxidants.

According to brainready.com, “Regular coffee consumption has been shown to actually re-duce the risk of mental decline and diseases such as demen-tia and Alzheimer’s, and has also recently been found to be (shockingly) the number one source of antioxidants in the av-erage American diet.”

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fooD WItH a KIcK: A number of beans and berries, coffee beans included, contain high amounts of antioxidants and promote healthy brain function. Coffee is the main source of antioxidants in American diets.

Photo by Datenhamster.org/Flickr:cc by-nc-nD 2.0

LARIATWant your photo

published? Make your move,

submit it to the Lariat.E-mail us at [email protected]

Photo by Nicole bullard

* Submissions must be up to publishing standards

Page 3: Feb. 29 (Spring 2012: Issue 4)

LARIATWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012 3

see LARIAT.COM for full story

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Kevin StreeterDirector of Ambulatory Surgery Center,St. John’s HospitalBachelor of Science in Management 2011

Talented instructor is rockin’ and rollin’ again

There’s a re-emerging talent at Saddleback, Italian instruc-tor John Accomando who is also an alternative rock singer.

Although Accomando had not performed for almost 14 years, his students began push-ing him toward the pursuit of a musical career so his music would be spotlighted in the community.

“After teaching my students songs in Italian,” he said, “they began to persuade me to record an album.”

He went to the University of Florence in Italy to study Eu-ropean history and after nine years, he found himself stuck at a crossroad.

He could either continue his studies in Italy or travel to the U.S.

Accomando chose to leave Italy, and received his master’s degree in romance linguistics from UCLA, and a doctorate in Italian studies.

His most recent album “One

More Chance” is now number one in 12 countries on the web-site reverbnation.com, and is also 44,000 out of the 2 million artists on the website.

Reverbnation.com is a web-site where musicians can display their albums and be-come noticed.

“Our album is 24 out of 700 in Orange County,” Accoman-do said.

He also performs in the an-nual “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” musical at Sad-dleback.

Their music has been put in the same genre as Adele on re-verbnation.com.

“I work with my two produc-ers, Roland Jenster and Sam Sorenson,” Acommando said.

Jenster was the number one pianist in 2011 and Sorenson has done several film tracks.

It costs approximately $1,500 to record a song in a studio, and it could take up to 40 studio hours to finish a song.

“Sometimes I get home at 2 a.m. after working in the

studio,” Accomando said.He generally uses a guitar

and vocals, but the produc-ers will add in parts and a drummer, Ray Weston, will sometimes be included in the songs.

“I actually taught myself how to play guitar,” Acco-mando said. “I started playing guitar when I was seven.”

A few musicians who in-spired him were Cat Stevens and Paul McCartney. He also likes newer musicians like Adele and Katy Perry.

“Cat Stevens was so unpre-dictable, had great originality, and was a great songwriter,” Accomando said, “He was more than a performer.”

Accomando’s number one goal is to one day perform at the Hollywood Bowl. His most recent event was at County Hospital in Chicago, where he sang and performed for the pa-tients.

Incidentally, Accomando was born in Chicago, fairly close to where Al Capone had

lived, he said. But it isn’t his favorite place.

“My favorite place is Italy,” he said with a smile.

In recognition of his love for Italian culture, he sometimes uses a flauto dolce in his music, which in Italian means “sweet flute.” It looks like a recorder.

Accomando has never ac-cepted money for performing.

“I have a lot of passion about the music and the creative pro-cess,” Accomando said. “I’m not a starving musician, and I’m able to enjoy the music.”

NICOLE BULLARD

[email protected]

The sand is always softer on the other side of the ocean

STACEY ANGELOFF

It is no surprise that students dream of attending colleges in different places all over the globe. But what if you had the option to get an education while living in paradise?

For the community college student preparing to transfer to a four-year college, there are many factors to take into ac-count. One must consider a public or private institution, size, cost and financial aid avail-ability, housing and campus life, athletics, and more, according to collegeboard.com.

Because this is often a young adult’s first chance to experi-ence independence, location is key. Some students may dream of attending colleges in differ-ent places, all over the globe, living in paradise.

Learn what to expect from a college’s setting before you make your final decision, say experts. Collegeboard.com rec-ommends getting an accurate picture by visiting campuses, talking to students and reading campus and local newspapers.

For example, if a transfer student lives in South Orange County and is considering a col-lege in Hawaii, he or she must be prepared for how different the lifestyle of “fun in the sun,” tropical and laid-back Hawaii is from life in the OC.

“I think getting away to Ha-waii for two years would be awesome,” said Hannah Jones, 17, social work. “But I love Cal-ifornia too much. We already have beautiful weather all year round, so if I go anywhere else, I’d want to try somewhere with a varying climate like Portland, or something.”

Going the other direction can be intimidating too. Native

islanders may picture Southern California as Hollywood, celeb-rities driving expensive sports cars, and blond, tan, fit men and women playing volleyball on the beach as seen in television shows such as “Laguna Beach.”

“We all take things for granted, including the sunshine we walk to work under,” said University of Hawaii Manoa student Lauren Perez. “But Or-ange County looks too stuck up for me,” added the 21-year-old

pre-med student.Orange County is much more

than the stereotypical “House-wives of Orange County” lifestyle. Local esteemed col-leges and universities have attracted students from all over the country. Students here thrive in the comfortable Mediter-ranean climate and can enjoy diverse extracurricular activi-ties.

Saddleback student Cory Dibene, 19, business, said, “There is pretty much every-thing here. We have the beach, mountains, and even Disney-land. What else do you need?”

[email protected]

photo credit: John AccomAndo/FAcebook

THE SINGING ITALIAN: John Accamondo teaches Italian at Saddleback College. Students’ en-couragment inspired him to record.

photo credit: StAcey AngeloFF

SMELL THE FLOWERS: Chelsea Russler, 20, said,“I could get used to surfing Huntington and eating fish tacos after studying,” about college in So. Calfornia.

OPINION: Tuition increases cause major concern for students

California community col-lege students have seen a 77 percent tuition increase over a one-year period. That may seem like a heavy burden, but it’s still a bargain considering the quality of the education provided.

Instead of relying on the state to fund our education, students need to step up and contribute their share of the fees. If we want to enjoy the

same quality of education, there is no other way.

The California community college system has already absorbed $769 million in cuts since the 2009-10 school year, according to the California Community Colleges Chan-cellor’s Office.

As a result, many colleges took drastic steps to keep costs low, including less course of-ferings and larger class sizes. Course offering across the sys-tem had already dropped by five percent this fall semester

when tuition rose from $26 to $36 per unit, and approxi-mately 140,000 students were denied enrollment due to class cuts, according to a report from the CCCCO.

South Orange County has been fortunate to not expe-rience this yet. But in Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego and San Jose, students are already being denied en-rollment by the thousands because the number of stu-dents trying to apply for classes has overwhelmed the

shrinking system, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, a news service pro-viding college and university news and information.

If our college district does not find a way to relief their budget problem soon, they will have to resort to the same cost-cutting measures eventu-ally. This will result in faculty layouts, limits on enrollment, and lowering the number of courses offered.

JASON CHUNG

Page 4: Feb. 29 (Spring 2012: Issue 4)

Gauchos move on to the next round of the playoffs with a gritty win at home Friday night against San Diego City College 65-55.

The home game for the Gau-chos didn’t feel much like a home game, as most of the crowd in attendance was sup-porters of the San Diego City Knights. The Knights fans brought signs and were mak-ing more noise than the Gau-chos supporters throughout the game but the Gauchos were not rattled.

The first half was heated and went back and forth with six lead changes. The Knights went into halftime with the lead at 28-27.

The Gauchos shot 41.4 per-cent from the field in the first half and 0-for-3 from behind the arc. The Knights 3-point shoot-ing wasn’t very impressive either in the first half as they made only one on nine attempts.

Saddleback uncharacteristi-cally shot poorly from the free throw line, when they only made three out of eight attempts from the charity stripe in the first half.

The Gauchos came out in the second half with improved shooting and defense. Saddle-back opened up an eight point lead with seven minutes remain-ing but poor free throw shooting kept the Knights in the game. Freshman guard Miles Green had an off night from the line shooting only 4-for-12.

The Gauchos outworked the Knights in the second half and as a result were getting fouled and sent to the free throw line. Saddleback went to the line 27 times in the second half but

only made 17. The Gauchos free throw percentage for the game was 57.1 percent.

Saddleback won despite only making one 3-pointer in the game. Instead the Gauchos re-lied on a strong performance in the paint from their forwards. Saddleback outscored San Di-ego City 32-20 in the paint.

Saddleback pushed the tem-po well scoring 14 fast break points compared to eight for the Knights. The game had 11 lead changes and was tied seven times. The Gauchos held the advantage in rebounds as they brought down 40 rebounds compared to the Knights’ 31.

“I thought we rebounded the ball well and defended well down the stretch,” head coach Andy Ground said.

The Gauchos were led by freshman forward Alex Worth-en-Harris who scored 13 points and seven rebounds. Freshman guard Josh Smith was only lim-ited to 20 minutes due to foul trouble but play well when he was on the floor, especially on the defensive end. Smith had eight points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Freshman forward Darnell Taylor also had a strong per-formance with 12 points, three rebounds and two assists. The leading scorer of the game was Knights guard Marvin Sykes with 19 but Sykes was the only player for San Diego City that scored in double digits as they struggled to find a consistent of-fense.

“Next game will be awful tough. We have to work on our defense and taking care of the ball in the offensive end and ex-ecuting,” Ground said about the next round.

lariatwednesday, FeBrUary 29, 2012 4

• NOW RUN…DON’T WALK to FA 304 and pick up your application, or download the application at www.saddleback.edu/arts. Click on Angels for the Arts.

• For more detailed information, contact Cathy Beres, FA 304, 949-582-4412 or [email protected]

IF YOU’RE AN AWESOME STUDENT IN THE ARTS AT SADDLEBACK COLLEGE, YOU COULD BE AWARDED ONE OF NINE $1,000 ANGELS SCHOLARSHIPS!

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Saddleback golfer with dark past has inspired comeback storyHis love for the game of golf

and his strong Christian faith helped 34-year-old Saddle-back student Sam Apresa over-come drug addiction and finish school.

Apresa is currently playing in his first season for the Saddle-back golf team and is going for his associate of science degree in human services. His future is looking bright for him, but get-ting to this point was a rocky path.

Apresa was born in Bakers-field on Nov. 9, 1977 to Joe Apresa and Rosalinda Lewis. He is the youngest of three boys and was home-schooled for 10 years starting in the second grade. He started classes at Los Angeles Valley College at the young age of 13 and his first course there was ping pong.

But when Apresa was 16 his father introduced him to the game he would fall in love with, golf.

“I love the beauty of the game and the beautiful courses, espe-cially the ones by the beach. I feel like I am in nature while on the golf course,” Apresa said.

His golfing career was tem-porarily derailed a year later in 1994 when his parents got a di-vorce and Apresa stopped play-ing. He picked the game back up when he was 20 and in 2001 even thought about trying out for the Amateur Open when he

had his handicap down to two.But when Apresa was 19 he

picked up a new hobby, one that almost killed him, crystal meth.

“I felt like I was invincible while I was using,” Apresa said.

In 1998 Apresa got married but divorced only a year later. He had two daughters with his ex-wife, 13-year-old Alyssa and 12-year-old Alexis. Apresa’s daughters are currently with his ex and he has not seen them for seven years. He also has a 5-year-old son named Seth from a different relationship.

In January, 2006 Apresa took his addiction and his sense of entrepreneurship to Las Vegas. Apresa and his brother Michael, who is a year older, wanted to open an advertisement com-pany. But the advertisement company soon turned into a fur-niture store.

Apresa got into trouble with some bad people which led to some close calls, he said. His partner made some bad deals with a biker gang on the out-skirts of Vegas and the gang put a hit out on Apresa and his partner. The leader of the gang’s daughter was fond of Apresa and eventually cleared his name. he said.

Another incident also in-volved Apresa’s partner making a chain of bad deals. Four guys with guns showed up to his apartment and tried to get in. A neighbor saw the men with guns and quickly called the police

who showed up in time before they got into the apartment, he said.

One of Apresa’s lowest points on drugs was when he almost overdosed in Utah. He had heart palpitations and went into a coma. Paramedics revived him and when he woke up he said he felt depressed and scared.

In January, 2007 Apresa made the decision to move to Orange County to enter a rehabilitation program for his addiction. He entered Teen Challenge which is a 15 month live-in program. He finished the program in Oc-tober, 2008 and has been free of crystal meth since June 4, 2007.

Apresa credits his strong faith and the help of God for get-ting him through his addiction and get his life back on track. Apresa attends church regularly on Sundays. He goes to Cross Point in Yorba Linda and Vine-yard Church in Laguna Niguel.

Three months after finishing Teen Challenge, Apresa went back to the game he loved and started golfing again. He uses golf to find some inspiration or as a source of relief.

“I do a lot of thinking on the course,” Apresa said. “When I get stressed I go play a game.”

Apresa got into the golf team by meeting his now teammate Brian Boermeester in a class they had together. Boermeester encouraged Apresa to tryout for the team.

Apresa said he enjoys being

on the team and has improved his game under coach Mike Rae and other instructors at the Sad-dleback range. He gets along well with his teammates and jokes often with them.

“They call me grandpa and I call them my sons,” Apresa said.

Even coach Rae enjoys hav-ing a good role model as a stu-dent athlete.

“[Apresa] adds stability and maturity to the team. [Apresa] doesn’t cause problems and is not a distraction and is respon-sible by showing up on time,” Rae said.

Apresa hopes to one day be a golf instructor and infuse his passion for the game into others. Another goal Apresa has is to be a drug and alcohol counselor so that he can reach out to a young-er generation and tell his story so that others don’t have to suf-fer like he has.

He is currently working on an autobiography and it is a quarter of the way completed.

He still has a sense of entre-preneurship and he wants to open an outdoor lighting busi-ness with a friend.

Apresa has two classes re-maining before he gets his A.S. degree and he is excited to walk when he graduates.

“It will be a huge self esteem boost because I have started but not completed many things in my life,” Apresa said.

Tameem Seraj

[email protected]

photo by tameem seraj

Teeing Off: Sam Apresa practices his swing at the Saddleback College Golf Driving Range on a bright Saturday afternoon.

photo by tameem seraj

PLaYmaKer: Freshman forward Darnell Taylor handles the ball while being defended by Knights guard Stephon Lamar.

Gauchos men’s basketball triumphs in first round of playoffs against San Diego City

Tameem Seraj

[email protected]

playoff resultsfirst round

men’s basketball

antelope Valley 69, irVine Valley 57saddleback 65, san diego cc 55

Women’s basketball

east los angeles 74, irVine Valley 66chaffey 67, saddleback 61

game tonight

second round

riVerside cc at saddleback, 7 p.m.

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