Complete up to the minute coverage every day. Read more on www.heysocal.com. More Latinx students attend California colleges, graduation gaps remain
Southland water supplier declares drought emergency, urges conservation
Go to ElMonteExaminer.com for El Monte Specific News Local. Relevant. Trusted.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 - NOVEMBER 17, 2021
VOL. 10, NO. 43
New app, SoundMind, brings music and visual therapy to those who need it most Veteran and San Gabriel Valley resident team up to create unique therapy space Jordan Green jrgreen16@apu.edu
E
ven before crossing paths, Brain Femminella and Travis Chen both had a passion for addressing mental health. Yet, they had different motives for doing so. Chen, who was born and still lives in Arcadia, grew up under constant pressure. Raised in an Asian American community, he explains that an intense focus on education — particularly on college applications, AP classes, SAT scores and so on — created a "stigmatized" environment. He learned the importance of meditation through his upbringing, and when he attended the University of Southern California it was meant to be a refresh; a period of time where he could focus on personal fulfillment. Yet, tragedy struck his sophomore year. While reading a new edition of The New York Times he recognized a name, a childhood friend who was currently attending a university on the east coast.
SoundMind COO Travis Chen (left) and CEO Brian Femminella (right). | Photo courtesy of SoundMind
Unfortunately, the words he read unveiled the horrible truth that Chen's companion took his own life. "From that moment on I knew I wanted to do something in regard to mental health," Chen said. "When
I found out, it was the first time I checked into my university's Health Center. It was just devastating to experience loss and to see so many people suffering." It was an opportunity for him to address a deeper
issue that affects millions of people across the world, including himself. And through this pursuit, he connected with another USC student in Femminella, who at the time was majoring in intelligence,
cyber operations and political science. Before that, though, Femminella joined the military at 17. He also faced a tragedy with a personal friend, who lost a majority of his memory after a training
accident overseas. And beyond this personal incident, Femminella also noticed several of his fellow soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. That was enough influence for him to begin conducting research on the connection thanatosonics — the relationship between sound, violence, and the human relationship — has with PTSD, among military officials. And more importantly, to fulfil the desire for a platform in which those people can obtain therapy. "I saw this need for change and a different approach to addressing mental health. And I decided I wanted to be a pioneer and an innovator for that change. I wanted to bring a team together to create technology that can help people within the space, especially for current and former soldiers who don't have a lot of mental health outlets" Femminella stated. See SoundMind Pg 13
California fast-food workers protest alleged unsafe working conditions By City News Service
F
ast-food workers held a statewide strike Tuesday, staging rallies outside McDonald's locations in Monterey Park, South Los
Angeles and Hollywood as part of a protest against allegedly unsafe working conditions and to demand passage of Assembly Bill 257. Workers at the Monterey
Park McDonald's recently raised the alarm about sewage flooding the kitchen. Striking workers spoke out in favor of the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act,
which would establish a Fast Food Sector Council to give workers a voice in setting minimum standards across the industry. The council would be made up of workers, corpo-
rate representatives, franchise operators and state officials charged with developing standards on wages, hours and other working conditions related to worker health and safety.
The bill, if passed in its current form, would cover fast-food restaurants with 30 or more establishments nationally that share a See Fast-food workers Pg 9