Volume 46, Issue 4 october 8, 2010

Sister campus gets new additions3 Drummer gives Genesis a

steady beat 4 8Cross country runs with the crowd in Salem

Belshe twins keep MHCC volleyball in the family

Pages 6-7

Editors-in-ChiefJen ashenberner &Jordan tichenor

Sports EditorJon Fuccillo

Advertising ManagerCopy EditorDavid Guida

Living Arts EditorDavid Gambill

Assistant Living Arts EditorAnevay Torrez

Photo EditorDevin Courtright

Opinion EditorL. John King

Submissions

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Gresham, Oregon 97030

E-mail advocatt@mhcc.edu

www.advocate-online.net

503-491-7250 (Main)

503-491-7413 (Offi ce)

503-591-6064 (Fax)

AdviserBob Watkins

Assistant AdviserDan Ernst

The Advocate encourages readers to share their opinion by letters to the editor and guest columns for publication. All submissions must be typed and include the writer’s name and contact information. Contact information will not be printed unless requested. Original copies will not be returned to the author. The Advocate will not print any unsigned submission.

Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and guest columns should not exceed 600. The decision to publish is at the discretion of the editorial board.

The Advocate reserves the right to edit for style, punctuation, grammar and length.

Please bring submissions to The Advocate in Room 1369, or e-mail them to advocatt@mhcc.edu. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Monday the week of publication to be considered for print.

Opinions expressed in columns, letters to the editor or advertisements are the views of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of The Advocate or MHCC.

Reporters

2 OPINION THE ADVOCATE OCTOBER 8, 2010

Front-page photo by Devin Courtright

Joseph Baird

Jill-Marie Gavin

Chanel Hill

Riley Hinds

Laura Knudson

Yuca Kosugi

David Lopez

Mike Mata

Jess Peterman

Kylie Rogers

Mario Rubio

Shelby Schwartz

John Tkebuchava

Jessica Winters

A survey done by Norton/Norris (a company specializing in public relations, media production & placement, variable data printing and mystery shopping) on Oct. 4 claims community colleges are not being honest with recruits.

The main areas of concern include community college graduation rates, employment rates of graduates, and pass rates on certifi cation exams.

The Advocate is concerned about the informa-tion given in the report and at the same time re-lay some information uncovered since the report was released.

MHCC President John Sygielski said in an email Tuesday he was “struck by how the under-lying research for this report is incomplete, at best.”

Apparently, the report was paid for by the Co-alition for Education which is a for-profi t group. That means they are in the business of college in order to make money, whereas, community col-leges are in the business of providing education. An example of a for-profi t college would be Apollo College.

Why would a survey commissioned by a for-

profi t organization on community colleges (non-profi t organizations) be credible? The Advocate would have to say it’s because the students who provided their input are or were community col-lege students, according to Norton/Norris’s web-site.

However, Sygielski said those who were sur-veyed were selected by a group consisting of many of the nation’s leading for-profi t colleges and the response rate was 10 percent, which is “a value far below any suitable standard.” Ten per-cent? The Advocate would have to agree and ask 10 percent of what?

By coincidence the report was released on the eve of the fi rst ever national community college summit in Washington, D.C. The summit was held Tuesday, and our president was an attend-ee. In an email sent Tuesday after the summit, he said most community college professionals, including some members of the Obama Adminis-tration, “dismissed the study as incomplete and unscientifi c.” The Advocate just hopes the U.S. Secretary of Education wasn’t too hard on those community college professionals.

Editorial

Community college study appears fl awed

I have a S.A.D. story to tell you.As the Portland rainy season ap-

proaches I get apprehensive the way I did walking home from grade school. The neighborhood bully often hid be-hind a tree ready to pummel me.

In the same way, in the weeks ahead; dark, dismal days of drizzle are also ly-ing in wait promising me a pretty se-vere butt kicking.

The bully eventually got called home to dinner but sunless, gray skies and in-cessant rain will be around for months to taunt and torment me.

As you might have guessed, I am talking about living with S.A.D. (Sea-sonal Affective Disorder) Commonly called “the wintertime blues”, S.A.D. is characterized by a lack of energy, an in-creased need for sleep, diffi culty fi nish-ing tasks and feelings of hopelessness during winter months.

I usually can make it to Halloween but it started early this year. It seems that last stretch of rainy days really set me back.

However two weeks of Welbutrin and a few days of sunshine are pulling me out of the ditch.

When I get depressed ordinary tasks seem insurmountable.

Depression is like golfi ng with three sumo wrestlers using a golf cart with four fl at tires. There is still movement,

but not real fast or very far.I wanted to avoid taking meds this

year because I felt so good this past summer, but it was not to be. There was either fl unking out and feeling sor-ry for myself or taking the medicine.

There are natural treatments for seasonal depression like phototherapy where you use a special light every day to compensate for reduced available sunlight. At $250-300 I will wait for now.

Studies show that taking melatonin (found in the vitamin section) at a specifi c time every day helps.

Meanwhile, everyday get as much sunlight as you can ev-eryday because every bit helps. Force yourself to take a walk even when you don’t want to.

If you have these kinds of problems ev-ery time the sun s a y s

sayonara, get help. If it is mild, try the natural treatments. If it is debilitating, then see your doctor. Research S.A.D. for your self.

To friends of the depressed; sending out sympathy cards fi lled with kittens and bunnies can only do so much.

Encourage your friend to get help. Antidepressants are not “happy pills”. They help restore chemical balance to the brain.

In the future I will defi nitely look into natural treatments for S.A.D.

A natural solution beats spending over $60 every month for a medi-

cation only to later fi nd out that long term side effects include

“blurred vision, seizures, per-petual diarrhea, growth of

hair on the tongue and in some rare cases

death.”So, just how

rare and how much hair

are we talking

about here?

By L. John KingThe Advocate

Another side of coping with Oregon weather

OCTOBER 8, 2010

By John Tkebuchava The Advocate

MHCC President John Sygielski said the fi rst national community college summit held Tuesday in Washington, D.C., provided op-portunities for constructive discussions about how to remove barriers for current and future community college students.

“The summit achieved what it was intended to do,” Sygielski said.

As chairman of the Board of American As-sociation of Community Colleges, Sygielski at-tended the summit with the expectation it would al-low time to focus attention on the challenges U.S. community col-leges face, according to his e-mail Monday.

At the meeting, several topics were dis-cussed including the challenges the commu-nity colleges face, enhancing or changing na-tional and state policies and evaluating the teaching and learning systems.

Sygielski said Thursday all of the discus-sions covered are being summarized and will be sent to the 100 participants and at that time the group will create action to take to fol-

low up on the discussion points made during the breakout sessions. “Eventually there will be changes that will impact students,” said Sygielski, but “not in the near term.”

Although the summit was headed up by Dr. Jill Biden, the U.S. vice president’s wife,

Sygielski said he had an oppor-tunity to meet and have a

one-on-one conversation with Vice President Joe

Biden himself.On a related top-

ic, Sygielski said “a poorly-constructed study was unveiled on Monday funded by

the proprietary colleg-es and it provided some

chatter within the higher education communities.” The

study said respondents to a survey about community colleges reported recruiters are not being entirely up front with recruits about graduation rates, employment rates of graduates, and pass rates on certifi cation ex-ams.

“Most community college professionals, in-cluding some members of the Administration, dismissed the study as incomplete and unsci-entifi c.”

Sygielski returns from D.C. summit

By Mike MataThe Advocate

Maywood Park, MHCC’s satellite campus, sits nestled amid a bustling neighborhood in North-east Portland, on the corner of Prescott and 102nd Avenue.

It serves as a center for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, English as a Non-Na-tive Language (ENL) classes and community education classes. They recently added a library for students.

“We’re enhancing services there all the time,” said Kim Freeman, dean of economic and work-force development. “We’re really reaching out to Mt. Hood’s western community,” she added.

Branch coordinator Sergio Lopez said the li-brary is “the size of a normal classroom. We have several hundred titles, ranging from adult edu-cation, popular reading, kids and reference. We try to adjust to the needs of the campus.”

The classroom size is no impediment to the library’s productivity. Lopez said it has been suc-cessful since it opened its doors on Sept. 20.

“We’ve had a very warm welcome from stu-dents, staff and instructors. We’re operating as normal library, even two weeks after opening. We look to our populace’s needs,” said Lopez.

The library serves around 60 to 100 students a day, he said, depending on the class schedules and how often Lopez invites classes to the library.

Freeman said, “They (students) no longer have to go to Gresham (campus) to check out books.

They can check them out here and they’ll be shipped out a day later.”

Currently fea-tured in the li-brary is a display for Banned Books Week, highlight-ing books that were banned for their con-tent. Titles include “Charlotte’s Web,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Of Mice and Men” and “Catcher in the Rye.”

Lopez, a University of Oklahoma graduate, keeps in contact with other librarians at the Gresham campus through e-mail and instant messaging, especially when he is not around with other librarians and student workers need-ing guidance.

The library is open seven days a week: Mon-day-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

While the primary courses offered at May-wood are ESL and ENL classes, site coordinator Dorothy Bray said they also offer college place-ment testing on Tuesdays on a drop-in basis and will soon offer GED testing. There have been lots of additions besides the library, she said.

“There is now a student services represen-tative available for students on Mondays and

Wednesdays. Students can add and drop courses here. For the main campus, if they live closer to us, it is a major convenience,” said Bray.

There is a full-service bookstore on site where students can purchase any books or supplies re-quired for classes taken at the Maywood campus, Bray said.

The Community Skills Center, another ser-vice offered, is a place for students to hone their computer skills, and beef up their resumes with a 10-week, self-paced course designed to aug-ment their skills.

Kimberly Murray, the head of the Communi-ty Skills Center, said, ”They (community skills classes) are at your own pace, even if it takes you two or three days, or the whole 10 weeks. And you can start at any time of the year.”

Bray said people from all walks of life attend classes at Maywood.

“We have a huge diverse group here,” she said.

Sister campus experiences growth Maywood Park expands services offered to students

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Photos By Mike mata/ the advocate

Student Evan Mullen (le� ) begins work while branch coordinator Sergio Lopez, right, supervises at the new Maywood Park campus library

Image courtesy of sunsentinel.com

OCTOBER 8, 20104 SPORTS

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

The vibration of runners’ feet ricocheted off the ground Saturday as if a herd of cattle was stampeding through Bush Park during the 36th annual Charles Bowles Invitation-al in Salem at Willamette University.

MHCC team members agreed they couldn’t have asked for a better day — “not too hot and not too cold,” with a tint of grey overcast in the sky.

“It was perfect,” freshman Donnie Coul-son said.

Both the men’s and women’s teams com-peted in a division that was a combination of NAIA schools, commu-nity colleges, clubs and unattached runners. Unattached means that as long as you’re enrolled in college, you can enter certain colle-giate races as an “open-er runner.”

Twenty-six teams competed in the wom-en’s 5K run and 25 teams in the men’s 8K run.

The Saints women grabbed 18th place. Sophomore Amanda Faggard led the way, fi nishing in 19:36.34, which was good for 94th out of 239 runners. Among community college runners, she took 6th place out of 46 competitors.

Freshman Gabriella Diaz started the race even with Faggard, but fi nished short-ly behind with a time of 19:47.81, which was good for 101st, (9th out of community col-lege runners).

“We did really well against the other community colleges,” Coach Matt Hart said of the women’s team. He also said the women’s team is going to make its mark in the meets to come. “We are challenging for a trophy this year; it’s a work in progress. We have a couple of rookies and a few second-year girls. It’s a pretty good mix. We are ready to break through, and we’re kind of

excited about that,” said Hart.Hart continued to emphasize that his

athletes are using these meets to better their times, gain more strength and to pre-pare for the Southern Region Champion-ship and NWAACC Championship.

Coulson came into the meet with a mind-set of breaking 28 minutes, which he fell barely short of as the Saints’ top male fi n-isher: He posted a time of 28:00.64. “If I knew this course a little bit better, I would have fi nished in the high 27s (minutes),” he said just after the race.

“They told us it was going to be a fast course but it wasn’t as fast as I thought it was go-ing to be. I didn’t think we checked out the course well enough during the warm up.”

Coulson fi n-ished 202nd in a fi eld of 290 run-ners, which was good for 21st out of

48 community college racers.Why couldn’t Coulson break 28-minutes? “We got stuck in the fi rst mile going too

fast,” he said. A very satisfi ed Hart agreed with Coul-

son that his men came out of the gates too aggressively.

“Our guys went out very, very fast. Too fast,” Hart said. “They had to back off in the middle (of the race). They rebounded well at the end.

“That’s the disadvantage of having a young team. They made a rookie mistake.”

Next week Oct. 15 the Saints women and men travel to Oregon City to compete in the annual Mike Hodges Invite at Clacka-mas Community College. Teams competing are: Clark Penguins, Clackamas Cougars, Everett Trojans, Green River Gators, Olympic Rangers, SW Oregon Lakers and the Trea-sure Valley Chukars.

Saints women finish strong, while men run too fast, too soon

"That's the disadvantage of having a young team. They made rookie mistakes."

Matt HartHead coach

Sophomore Amanda Faggard (above) � nished with a time of 19:36.34 during the Charles Bowles Invitational in Salem Saturday. (Below) Donnie Coulson, le� , just fell short of breaking his goal of 28-minutes (28:00.64) during the men’s 8K run Saturday in Salem.

Photo by Devin courtright/The Advocate

Photo by Devin courtright/The Advocate

"Our guys went out very, very fast. Too fast. They had to back o� in the middle (of the race)."Matt Hart, Saints men's and women's head coach

Finishing times at the Charles Bowles Invitational

Women Place Time

Donnie Coulson 202nd 28:00.64

Chris Newell 207th 28:05.52

Jonathan Butcher 221st 28:36.51

Troy Prettyman 253rd 30:25.28

Markus Hunter 265th 31:21.46

Men Place Time

Amanda Faggard 94th 19:36.34

Gabriella Diaz 101st 19:47.81

Amanda Smith 125th 20:17.92

Stacy Bird 127th 20:19.77

Jennifer Tina 205th 22:28.32

Holli Davis 206th 22:28.36

Jessica Davis 232nd 24:43.37

OCTOBER 8, 2010 SPORTS 5

photo by devin courtright/the advocate

Saints keep on rolling through competition in the South

By Chanel HillThe Advocate

The Saints volleyball team continued to dominate the Southern Region with anoth-er victory Oct. 1 against the Linn-Benton Roadrunners at home.

The Saints, who hold a per-fect record in conference play (4-0, 20-4 overall), swept the Roadrunners in three straight games (25-16, 25-17, 28-26).

Game three in the match proved to be a fi ght. The Road-runners, down two games, came out determined.

“I told the girls they would come out strong because they had nothing to lose. In that game, they got off to a great start,” said Coach Chelsie Speer. “Like I’ve said before, you never know, so we were on our toes.”

For the second game in a row, co-captain Kyra Speer and freshmen Devan Belshe

had double-digit kills (Speer with 10, Belshe 16). The co-captain said this accomplish-ment is not because of one or two players, but rather a team effort.

“Without Chelsie (coach-ing us) in the (background) or Rylie (Engelson) and Jenny (Gruelle) in the middle setting us up, we couldn’t have those kills. Everyone on the court does their job,” said the co-captain.

The Saints, who have been playing without their other co-captain, Haley Leithem, since her ankle injury at the Walla Walla Tournament this year (Sept. 17), continue to receive support from Leithem even though she’s unable to play alongside them.

“Haley is very vocal and loud,” laughed Kyra Speer. “We can always count on her playing a big role. She’s some-one we all feed off.”

With a perfect record in the South Region, the team pre-pares to play their rivals, the Clackamas Community Col-lege Cougars, tonight at home.

The team’s goal of going un-defeated in the region makes tonight’s match a marquee game. The Saints, who have already beaten every other team in their conference, must

get the victory tonight to keep their record perfect.

“Our goal is still there. We have to play all the teams we’ve played again, but fi rst we’ve got to get through Clack-amas,” said Kyra Speer. “We are working everyday and still giving 100 percent. There’s still a lot of season for us.”

In the past, coach Speer worried about her team being too hard on themselves and mentally losing focus. Now she is confi dent in her team and all they continue to do.

“We’ve never lost our confi -dence. The girls set a goal to go undefeated — by no means are they comfortable,” the coach said, “But we are defi -nitely excited about our record overall.”

Next weekend (Oct. 15-16) the Saints travel to Van-couver, Wash., for the Clark Crossover tournament where they will compete against teams from all four regions.

They are fi rst scheduled to play the Tacoma Titans, the number one seed from the West, in a 1 p.m. Friday start.

Later that afternoon, they play the Spokane Sasquatch (East) at 3:20 p.m. followed by a fi nal match at 7:40 p.m against the Bellevue Bulldogs of the North.

The Saints can't be stopped in Southern Region action, including 14 straight match victories dating back to last year

Freshman Devan Belshe had her way with the Linn-Benton Roadrunners Friday, Oct. 1, in a home match. Belshe � nished the evening with a match high 16 kills for the Saints.

OCTOBER 8, 20106 SPORTS

MHCC VOLLEYBALL TWINS: MIRROR IMAGES OF SUCCESSBY LAURA KNUDSON

THE ADVOCATE

MHCC VOLLEYBALL TWINS: MHCC VOLLEYBALL TWINS: MHCC VOLLEYBALL TWINSMHCC VOLLEYBALL TWINS: : MIRROR IMAGES OF SUCCESS

Photos by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

Demi

Devan

OCTOBER 8, 2010 SPORTS 7

What’s better than one talented freshman volleyball recruit joining a team in the run-ning for an NWAACC cham-pionship? Two, of course – the Belshe twins.

Roseburg twins Demi, a 5-foot-10 middle blocker, and her twin sister Devan, a 5 - f o o t - 8 o u t s i d e

hitter, joined the Saints this season.They’re not the fi rst Belshes to

attend Mt. Hood and play volleyball. They’ve followed in the footsteps of their older sister, Brittney, who played during the 2005-06 season for assistant coach Chelsie Free-man (now Chelsie Speer), the cur-rent head volleyball coach. Speer often experiences “deja vu” because of the similarities between Devan and Brittney. Speer has known the Belshe family for a long time. She’s watched the girls grow up and de-velop into young women with a great work ethic brought on by their abil-ity to “push each other without tak-ing it personally,” said Speer.

The transition from high school to college has been relatively easy for the two. However, living with one another certainly lessens the homesickness factor after leaving the nest. The twins are also room ing with Natalie Dwight, a 5-foot-8 outside hitter who, like the twins, attended Roseburg High and has played with the girls since seventh grade. Dwight was encouraged by the twins to contact Speer; from there, everything fell into place.

Both sisters earned hardware during their reign at Roseburg, a team that traditionally has success at the 6A level of competition.

In high school, Devan received fi rst team all-league honors during her junior and senior campaigns, while Demi was second team all-league her junior year, and fi rst team all-league her senior year.

On top of receiving scholarships, Mt. Hood was overall appealing to the duo. They have “the best team chemistry” and “they (athletics) come to-gether as a family,” said Demi. Both sisters stress how privileged they are to get the opportunity to play for a college team, especially since it means they can stay to-gether.

Among the perks of having someone there who always has your back, Devan explained how it’s “normal” and also “annoying” to always be compared to one another.

Contrary to Devan’s pet peeve, Speer pointed out how different the girls are, especially in their style of play. Speer describes Demi’s strengths as being passionate and outgoing, which helps to lift the team’s spirits. “She

MHCC VOLLEYBALL TWINS: MIRROR IMAGES OF SUCCESS

"(they) push each other without taking it personally."

Chelsie Speervolleyball head coach

MIRROR IMAGES OF SUCCESS keeps the team alive,” said Speer. Devan, on the other hand, maintains composure and leads by example. She is “quiet and to the point. She gets the job done,” Speer said.

According to Speer, the team’s biggest weakness is losing confi dence. Nevertheless, their impressive record of 22-4 allows the girls to hold their heads high. Speer says that although the girls have the right to be confi dent in their record so far, it does not guarantee an NWAACC title and they work on their skills everyday. When facing mistakes, Speer said, “I want to see us respond with our heads up and not get down.”

So far the team has spent the season working on that. Demi points out that they are coming together on the

court and focused on staying constructive, rather than the “lapses” in their play. De-van said that one of the team’s goals is to have a “good mental perspective.” “We don’t play down to another team’s level,” Demi added.

Individually, both girls have areas they are working to im-prove. Serious weight training is new to them. Despite this, they are embracing the dedi-cated atmosphere and work-ing on getting stronger. Demi plans to improve on her verti-cal jump and Devan is working on a stronger block and “learn-ing all I can about the game,” she said.

Plans to continue playing volleyball are evident in both of their lives. Demi plans to coach one day and both women are eager to move to the next level. For now, they are just working on improving their skills and enjoying the team. Demi said they are attempting to “soak everything in while we can.”

As for their educational fu-ture, Demi would like to attend Oregon State, Hawaii Pacifi c or a California university to follow her dream of becoming a high school health and P.E. instructor.

Devan is taking core classes plans to attend beauty school to become a hairdresser. She was unable to get involved with the Mt. Hood cosmetology program due to the demanding volley-ball schedule. The sport con-sumes her focus for now. She is unsure about where she wants

to transfer and said, “It all depends on what opportunities come my way.”

The Belshe sisters know that one day they will have to take different paths in life. The very thought saddens them as Demi said she has never been without her sister. Both plan to pursue volleyball for as long as they can. De-van summed it up for both of them when she said, “I love volleyball. It’s never going to be out of my life.”

Photos by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

Twins Devan (le� ) and Demi Belshe lean on one another for support a� er a Linn-Benton match Oct. 1.

OCTOBER 8, 20108 LIVING ARTS

By Jessica PetermanThe Advocate

“Wonders of the Autumn Sky” displayed Monday what is seen in our galaxy this time of year in a virtual walk through at the MHCC planetarium.

The planetarium just looks like a classroom, with auditori-um style seating for 70 people. But as the viewers look up, they observe a high spherical ceil-ing. This vaulted ceiling is used to emulate the sky by project-ing stars, planets, and galaxies realistically for the audience.

Pat Hanrahan, the plane-tarium director and astronomy instructor at MHCC, shows spectators the constellations of the night sky. He displays up-close pictures of planets, some of which he took from his own telescope.

Hanrahan also includes many facts and stories related to astronomy to get your mind wandering; he also encourages questions. The show is intimate and interactive; the audience can ask questions whenever the need arises.

Asked whom the shows are geared toward, Hanrahan re-plied, “We try to have it so (the

shows) cover all age groups. You’ll notice when I talk about the stars I use very general terms so everyone can under-stand.”

Many fi fth-grade classes take fi eld trips to the planetarium to get energized about studying astronomy. “There are people that come in here that have fond memories of coming here when they were little,” Hanra-han said.

There is a different show playing at the beginning of each month. Next month’s show is about the lifetime of a star. Ad-mission is free for all students and $2 for non-students.

By Jessica PetermanBy Jessica PetermanBy Jessica PetermanBy Jessica PetermanThe AdvocateThe AdvocateThe AdvocateThe AdvocateThe Advocate

Sky” displayed Monday what is Sky” displayed Monday what is Sky” displayed Monday what is Sky” displayed Monday what is seen in our galaxy this time of seen in our galaxy this time of seen in our galaxy this time of seen in our galaxy this time of seen in our galaxy this time of seen in our galaxy this time of year in a virtual walk through year in a virtual walk through year in a virtual walk through year in a virtual walk through year in a virtual walk through year in a virtual walk through

REVIEW: Autumn Sky

By Jessica WintersThe Advocate

As the sounds of numerous instruments and voices spill from the classrooms of the Performing Arts Department, Taryn Zickefoose makes her way down the hall, softly singing a vocal warm-up as she approaches Room 2138 to set up her drums.

Zickefoose is the drummer for Genesis, MHCC’s vocal jazz ensemble. Genesis has won numerous awards through the years performing at many jazz festivals and conventions.

“This year we are going to New Orleans, which will be fun. We are going in January, so we have been getting ready for that,” Zickefoose said. “We’ve been working really hard.” They started practicing Sept. 7, two weeks prior to the start of fall term classes. They practice fi ve days a week for two hours per day.

Hailing from Edmonds, Wash., Zickefoose started playing the drums when she was in fourth grade. “This will be my 12th year,” she said. This is the start of her third year playing for Genesis. Two years ago she heard that Genesis had a spot open for a drummer. She auditioned and joined the ensemble. She then moved to Oregon to become a student at MHCC.

Zickefoose said, “I am getting my general stud-ies with music emphasis, and then I am going to do pre-med. Totally switching, but I like two areas.” Though she may intend to switch fi elds of study, she doesn’t plan on leaving music behind. “I’ll prob-ably keep playing for fun and playing for church,” she said.

Zickefoose has a few students to whom she gives drum lessons. “I teach,” she said. At this point, she gives lessons at MHCC.

She enjoys classic jazz, vocal music and Ella Fitzgerald. Of her biggest musical infl uences, she said, “I really like Jeff Hamilton. He is probably my favorite.” Hamilton is an American jazz drum-mer who has played with many famous musical fi g-ures in jazz. He also co-formed the Clayton-Hamil-ton Jazz Orchestra, and plays in the Jeff Hamilton Trio.

Besides playing the drums, Zickefoose also plays the piano, sings, and is teaching herself how to play the guitar. She likes to travel and go on road trips, especially back to her hometown of Edmonds to see family and friends. She also volunteers at Legacy Emanuel Children’s Hospital.

“I like to read. I am really involved at church,” she said. Zickefoose goes to Solid Rock, a rapidly growing church in Portland, where she often plays the drums for musical worship.

A drummer among vocalistsTaryn Zickefoose started playing drums in fourth grade and is entering her third year as the beat behind Mt Hood's vocal jazz group Genesis

Photo by Devin Courtright/The AdvocateGenesis drummer Taryn Zickefoose rehearses in the performing arts center on Wednesday.

The MHCCplanetariumlights up the fi rst Monday of each month

OCTOBER 8, 2010 LIVING ARTS 9

Of fl ocks

By Kylie RogersThe Advocate

“Of Flocks & Solitude,” a col-lection of paintings by Or-egon native S.L. Donaldson, is on display at the Fireside Gallery in the College Cen-

ter through Oct. 28. Stephanie Donaldson, who signs

her work as S.L. Donaldson, hails from Coquille, located approximate-ly fi ve hours southwest of MHCC.

Donaldson contributed to several group exhibits throughout this year. Her newest solo exhibit was mostly inspired from a book called, “Jona-than Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach.

“I had been working on some paintings for a local art show featur-ing coastal birds and as I began one of the gull paintings the book came to mind. I hadn’t read it in a long time and was struck by its metaphorical signifi cance,” said Donaldson via e-mail.

This is only the second time she’s shown her work in the Portland met-ro area.

“Compared to the Southern Or-egon Coast, the venues tend to be larger, frequented by a greater num-ber of people, and more accepting of cutting-edge, experimental art,” she said.

“This is a full-time career. I am quite realistic about being an artist; very few artists ever end up being the next Cezanne or Picasso, but I would

like to create art that is shared, ap-preciated, and provokes thought and discussion,” she said.

The pieces on display at the Fire-side Gallery were based from a group of paintings originally picked to sub-mit to MHCC as part of the applica-tion process.

“I built upon the core group by adding paintings that refl ected a similar style and were still true to the direction of the show,” said Don-aldson.

As well as working with acrylic and ink, Donaldson also works with watercolor, pastels and pencil.

“As an artist, you hope that the work resonates with the audience. By nature, we are fi ckle about what appeals to us, but I also know what it is like to be looking at a painting and have it absolutely captivate you,” Donaldson said.

Southern Oregon artist depicts nature in the Fireside Gallery

Photos by Mario Rubio/The Advocate

OCTOBER 8, 201010 LIVING ARTS

By Anevay TorrezThe Advocate

Nicholas Restaurant, a fam-ily owned and operated eatery in downtown Gresham, is roman-tic, scenic, and quaint enough for a candle lit dinner or a friendly lunch.

Lebanese food, gyros and vegan food is served at this restaurant that’s been open since March. If falafel is a favorite of yours, go there and have it covered with tzatziki as an appetizer.

The food is decorated and pre-sented in a manner that doesn’t deceive you. The food is just as de-licious as it looks. What you see is what you get.

A great way to try this authentic type of food for the fi rst time is to just go there and try it. There’s nothing to lose, but everything to gain when it comes to getting your moneys’ worth.

Students watching their wallet empty every day from eating out for lunch should try Lebanese cheese pizza for $5. It is 100 percent mozzarella cheese baked on dough and layered with sesame seeds, and it’s really

fi lling. The service is great and as their sign

says, “Come as guests, leave as family.” It’s a refl ection of their service because you are treated like family: greeted with a smile from the time you enter the doorway until the moment you leave. This defi nitely has to do with the restaurant’s atmosphere being relaxed, inviting and chill. You’re not rushed to eat your food so someone else can take your table; instead you’re welcomed to order more food, sit and visit.

It’s clean, convenient and cultural from top to bottom. The restaurant may be small but the decoration and creativ-ity of the inside causes people passing by to walk in and see what it has to of-fer.

Try Nicholas’ — it’s a great way to surprise your tastebuds with something out of their comfort zone.

The chain of establishments have been around since June,1986 by Nicholas and Linda Dibe with one located in downtown Gresham on 323 N Main Ave. Also located in Portland on 3223 NE Broadway as well as 318 SE Grand Ave. All three locations are open Monday–Satur-day 11 a.m.–9 p.m. and Sunday noon to 9 p.m.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Family owned restaurant makes good in downtown Gresham

By John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

Niall Griffi ths, one of two Welsh writ-ers to speak Wednesday on the MHCC campus, said a highlight of his work is seeing his work published. “Acceptance is so exciting,” said Griffi ths.

Griffi ths and Chris Keil spoke in the Town and Gown Room Wednesday. Keil was third to take the stage after two short introductions by author Ceri Shaw and MHCC’s English instructor Jonathon Morrow, who are also natives of Wales.

Keil talked about his second novel, “Liminal,” which tells the tale of an arche-ologist in search of his son who disap-pears when traveling abroad to Greece.

As Keil read an ex-cerpt from his book, his knack with the English language became increasingly apparent as he described in beautiful detail the landscapes and hubbub of Corinth, Greece.

Award-winning novelist Griffi ths took the podium to talk of his sixth book, “Runt.”

It’s an at times chaotic story that paints the portrait of a troubled teen who, accompanied by a broken speech

and “spiritual” visions, endures the vio-lence and grief that surrounds him.

Griffi ths, who spoke in the likeness of the protagonist to capture his character, read speedily through the piece, display-ing his ability to create and immerse the audience into the depths of his unique and intense characters.

After the readings, the audience was invited to ask questions and offer any thoughts they had for the authors.

Asked about in-fl uences, Griffi ths (despite “never hav-ing any books in the house”) graciously mentioned his grand-parents and “second wave” punk as key in-fl uences.

Keil also mentioned both music and fi lm as signifi cant infl uences for his works.

Asked what ele-ments from their

homeland they incorporate into their works, Griffi ths remarked with a chuck-le, “The gloominess, the depression and the misery.”

Keil and Griffi ths, as well as other well-known writers, will participate in various Wordstock events that run Wednesday through Sunday in Portland. For more information, go to www.word-stockfestival.

Hailing from Wales, writers ignite creativity

From le� , Chris Keil and Niall Gri� ths pose outside the Town and Gown Room a� er telling their stories to MHCC faculty and students Wednesday.

Nicholas Restaurant is located in downtown Gresham.

Chicken shawarma sandwich plate fresh out of the kitchen.

How is Wales re� ected in your work? "The gloominess, the depression and the misery."

Niall Gri� ths

Award-winning novelists visit MHCC campus

photo by mike mata /The Advocate

photo by jon fuccillo/The Advocate

photo by Anevay Torrez/The Advocate

OCTOBER 8, 2010 NEWS 11

Shelby SchwartzThe Advocate

The MHCC Learning Success Center has evolved with online tutoring, join-ing more than 30 Oregon and Washington colleges.

Lance Lannigan Lab coordinator and technology skills specialist said, “We are really excited because we don’t offer tutoring on the weekends, we have lots of drop-in tutoring, but there are specifi c tutors that are only there on certain days,” Students can access the online tutoring website, titled Northwest ETu-toring, from any computer at any time, though the tutoring website does have specifi c times when tutors are available.

To access the website: fi rst go to the Mt. Hood website, then fi nd ‘Quicklinks’, once you fi nd that scroll down to ‘online tutoring’ this will take you to Mt. hood’s page for NW eTutoring.

The fi rst time you visit you’ll be required to use your student ID for the login and password. Once you login you will be required to change your password.

According to Lannigan, the eTutoring offers another level of tutoring, with more options. It also offers subjects online that aren’t available in the Learning success center.

The tutoring site offers three different types of tutoring, the online writing lab, Live tutoring and offl ine questions.

“The online writing lab is one of the main features of the site,” Lannigan said.

In the online writing lab students fi ll out a form telling about the assign-ment and attach their writing assignment through a message on the website. When tutors log on, they take a fi le from the top of the list to make edits and give the student help. Students should get a response in 24 to 48 hours.

The live tutoring is chatting back and forth through messages on the site, like an instant message. When no tutors are available, or a specifi c tutor is not online, students can leave a specifi c offl ine questions and get a response within 48 hours.

“There are some subjects we don’t offer in the Learning Success Center or certain tutors are busy when students need help, so this is a great option where someone can go online and connect with a tutor,” Lannigan said.

Some subjects the site offers that the Learning Success Center does not are Medical Coding and Web development.

“Anybody can do this (online tutoring) from home, but if they have questions they can come in the lab and I can walk them through it if it’s their fi rst time using the program,” said Lannigan.

The Learning Success Center is located in the upper level of the library. They offer many tutoring subjects and also have a lab where students can re-ceive help on assignments, or work on computers. The hours are Mon – Thurs 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays. The center is not open on weekends.

By Yuca KosugiThe Advocate

The Career Planning and Counseling Center (CPCC) and Learning for Success Center are joining forces to offer Student Success Seminars through-out the school year.

“The point of these seminars is to help students reduce their stress,” said Larry Gilius, Learning Success coordinator.

There are more than 40 seminars scheduled fall quarter, and the seminars vary from time manage-ment to career building skills.

Both career-based seminars and education-based seminars are offered.

Each session is 50 minutes long and is conducted at various times and places, by either staff from the Career Planning & Success Center or the Learning for Success Center. The seminars are informal and

people can drop in without prior arrangements.“We try to make them bite-size,” said Malcolm

McCord, CPCC counselor. “Students who can go out and fi nd all the resources are the ones that are more successful,” said McCord.

Although these seminars are attended mostly by MHCC students, community members can also join the sessions.

“We highly encourage every student to try one of these seminars,” said Gilius, “I think most people who come usually come again.”

One seminar Gilius mentioned is the “Yes, You Can Do Math” open house, which takes place on Wednesday from 12:10 p.m. to 1 p.m. in AC 3300. The entire tutor center (above the library) will be closed for the event. Free refreshments will be available.

Toward the end of the quarter, many seminars

are offered, such as “Understanding Test Anxiety” and “How to Succeed on Tests” (which usually get swamped by students who are gearing up for fi nals, McCord said).

Students may benefi t the most from the semi-nars on how to study better, such as “Your Learn-ing Style,” The Key to Better Study,” “Better Test Scores With Better Study” and “Study Smarter, Not Harder”.

There are some sessions like “Succeed in College While Raising a Family” and “Coping With Depres-sion” that students, faculty and community mem-bers may fi nd helpful, according to McCord.

“How to Write a Resume,” “Green Careers” and “Effective Interviewing” are seminars geared to help people with job hunting.

The full list and schedule of seminars can be found at www.mhcc.edu/lsc.

MHCC offers online tutoring to accommodate students

Learning Success SeminarsYour learning style: The key to better study

Better test scores with better notes

Yes, you can do math (open house)

Green careers

How to succeed on tests

Mon. Oct. 11 12:10-1 p.m. AC3313

Tues. Oct. 12 4:10-5 p.m. AC2307

Weds. Oct. 13 12:10-1 p.m. AC3300

Weds. Oct. 13 12:10-1 p.m. AC1152

Weds. Oct. 13 4:10-5 p.m. AC2307Thurs. Oct. 14 1:10-2 p.m. AC2307

Seminars available to students for extra help with classes

Ease of access expected to help those who may not be able to go to Learning Success Center on campus

12 THE FLIPSIDE THE ADVOCATEOCTOBER 8, 2010

TuesdayPartly Cloudy62o F

MondaySunny61o F

SundayShowers58o F

SaturdayShowers60o F

WednesdayPartly Cloudy59o F

7Day

Forecast

ThursdayShowers58o F

FridayShowers58o F

Dont forget to register to vote!

Get a taste of Gresham's Lebanese restaurant

Page 10

• Oct. 12 is the registration deadline for first time Oregon registrants for the Nov. 2 General Election.

ONLINEONLINEONLINE

• You can register online if you have an Oregon driver's license, permit or ID number issued by the Oregon Dept. of Motor Vehicles.

• You must be at least 17 years old to register and 18 to vote

• Ballots will be mailed to registered voters on Oct. 15

Look forward to

more election updates and news in our next issue

NOW - OCT 29 Baltimore artist Doug Forrest has a showcase on display in the Visual

Arts Gallery celebrating his 25 years as a graffi ti artist. Forrest's interest in graffi ti peaked when

he was young as the result of discovering skateboarding, hip-

hop music and movies.Plenty of references

are made in his work towards his years as an "old skool" artist using his surroundings as his canvas and needing his

skateboard as an escape from the graffi ti police.

Political ForumStudents, staff, faculty, administrators and community members are invited to attend a political forum Monday called ‘What’s up with the Tea Party?’ hosted by political science instructor Janet Campbell.

The forum will have a short overview and history of the movement and the rest of the time will be spent in open discussion with questions and answers. The event is 4 to 5 p.m. in Room 1005. To contact Campbell, call 503-491-7430.

The MHCC forensics team won awards Monday in both of their debate categories at the Greater Portland Parliamentary League Tournament in Longview, Wash.

The categories were National Parliamentary Debate Associa-tion and International Public De-bate Association and MHCC won a number of speaker awards.

In Open NPDA Debate, Jeff Lewis and Zach Nicholas won the title. In Open IPDA Debate, Rob Sepich earned the title; also com-peting were Ryan Rhodes, Dalton Hellman and Kevin Craig.

For speaker awards, Lewis took the gold as top speaker in NPDA Debate and in IPDA De-bate. Sepich was fi rst, Hellman 2nd, Rhodes was 5th, Craig was 8th and Jordan Bradford took 10th place.F

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