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@Campus_Current November 2024
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Biology class travels to study ecosystems around the world.
AACC student races dirt bikes in tournaments.
Three international students play soccer for Riverhawks.
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Dozens show interest in cheerleading club Waleska Cruz Features Editor
A new cheerleading club has attracted 60 potential members, an unusually high number for a student organization on campus. Cheerleading Club President Abby Loftus said she hopes the squad eventually will perform at the college’s men’s and women’s basketball home games. “My goal is to just hon-
estly make it something enjoyable for the girls on the team, but also something that’s enjoyable for, like, the people that attend the games,” Loftus, a first-year kinesiology student, said. “Great school spirit … a fun environment at those games, because I know really having a cheer team in high school brought much more of a crowd to those games, and so I’m hoping that maybe it will do the same thing here.”
Loftus started the cheerleading club with Vice President Annaliz Gonzalez and Treasurer Sophina Nunes to offer students—even those with no experience—the chance to cheer. The team will not be affiliated with AACC Athletics. The officers unveiled the club at the Student Involvement Fair in September, when 60 potential members, Continued on Page 3
‘Star Wars’ AI robot open to conversation Divine Mesumbe Associate Editor
Students like Jonathan Gallegos, a third-year mechatronics student, helped professor Tim Callinan build a robot inspired by “Star Wars.” Photo courtesy of Tim Callinan
Students collaborated with an AACC professor to make a robot that looks exactly like one in the film, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” Mechatronics professor Tim Callinan has collaborated with more than 20 of his students since fall 2022 to
build K-2SO, named after a droid from the movie. Callinan also cited B2EMO from the “Star Wars” television series “Andor” as another inspiration for the robot project. “I like to put stuff [like the robot] in the hallways [of the CALT building] because nobody knows we’re really around,” Callinan said. “Nobody knows what we do
AACC music professor Doug Byerly said the opportunity is on the level of Mozart inviting the students “to come to Austria for four days and sing with him.” “[It’s] a once-in-a-lifetime
Students will perform a musical adaptation of “Goodnight Moon” at Carnegie Hall in New York. Photo by Finch Cobb
Students to perform at NY’s Carnegie Hall Tomi Brunton Reporter
Thirty-five music students will travel to New York City in November for a fourday residency with a Grammy award-winning composer, culminating in a performance
at Carnegie Hall. Select members of AACC’s Concert Choir and Chamber Singers will join student and professional groups from across the country to learn from and perform with conductor Eric Whitacre.
President Abby Loftus (left) and Vice President Annaliz Gonzalez start a cheer club together. Photo by Finch Cobb
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here. So [I thought] if I could put a robot in the hallway to talk to students, it might get them interested” in the mechatronics program. “That’s really the whole point.” The robot uses ChatGPT Open AI to answer questions and have conversations with students, lighting up as it Continued on Page 3