Volume 78, Issue 16 | www.elaccampusnews.com | Wednesday, March 16, 2022 | Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
Students fight for rights of pre-transfer level courses BY LEONARDO CERVANTES Staff Writer The California Legislature is considering a bill to end pretransfer level remedial education. The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and ELAC Senate opposed the bill to end English and Math unanimously, resulting in students forfeiting their right to take a pretransfer level English or Math course for the purpose of academic preparation. AB 705 requires colleges to increase the probability that students will be able to complete transfer-level Math and English within a year. Jeffrey Hernandez, current Academic Senate President, said, ”Students have a right to take courses that may help them. I benefited from a pre-transfer English course when I was a student at ELAC. “I know that these courses can help students. I don’t think that we should be requiring students to take a higher level of math if that’s not what our interested partners say is necessary for that degree or certificate.” Jeffrey Hernandez, current academic senate president, said The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has urged stakeholders to address COVID-19 related learning disruptions by providing students with access to a community college education by offering adequate English and Math courses to serve the needs of all students. It’s no secret that the pandemic has altered many students’ academic learning. The pandemic caused students
to adjust on the fly and some were math courses have increased across able to transition to online learning all ethnic groups. However, equity fairly quickly while others are gaps remain and are growing. One-year completion rates still struggling for a multitude of reasons like not having a stable for Black and Hispanic students wifi connection or limited space groups are increasing at a slower rate when compared to other to get work done. President Angela Echeverri student groups. “As of 2020, 64% of Filipinos said.“For Fall 2021, 47% and 50% of white of students students completed successfully transfer-level completed their Math 125 class, “Students have E n g l i s h c o u r s e s while Hispanics while online or a right to take only completed 43% hybrid classes only and Blacks students 41% of students courses that completed 31% of successfully may help them. these courses.” completed their “The numbers on class.” I benefited from transfer-level math “When we a pre-transfer courses are even create the program staggering as requirements for a English courses more Asians completed non-transfer degree 45% of such courses or certificate that’s when I was and white students supposed to help a student at completed 30% students get a job of their courses. ,we work with the ELAC.” Hispanic students industry.” only completed 18% “ We f i n d o u t of transfer-level from them what’s math courses and needed, the state Black students only counseling office completed 13%,” s h o u l d n ’t n e e d JEFFREY HERNANDEZ Academic Senate Echeverri, said. to overwrite President Within the that,”Hernandez Hispanic subgroup, said. South American The percentage students have higher of first-ime students successfully completing transfer- success rates in transfer-level level English and math courses English courses than Central within one year has increased American and Mexican student groups. over time. Within the Hispanic subgroup, From Fall 2017 to Fall 2020, there has been about a 17-point success rates in transfer-level increase for students passing a math courses for South American transfer-level English course and Students have increased over time, a 12 point increase for completion while rates have decreased for of a transfer-level math course Central American and Mexican within a student’s first year of student subgroups. All Asian Subgroups have enrollment. First-time students’ completion experienced increased success rates for transfer-level English and rates in transfer-level math courses.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TERESA ACOSTA
GRAPHIC BY ZASHA HAYES
News Briefs
Transfer Center Presents CSULA Day
Join us for an online event to meet with Cal State LA Representatives! On March 23 at noon. For more information email: transfer@elac.edu
ELAC Spring 2022 Scholarships
All applicants home college must be ELAC or planning to enroll, must have completed or plan on completing a minimum of six units. For more information check out @ elactransfercenter on instagram
Town Hall Series: Racial Equity and Social Justice
On Friday for a Town Series with Dolores Huerta who was been pursuing social justice and civil rights for more than 50 years. For more information check out @elachuskies on instagram.
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OPINION
EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE CAMPUS NEWS
Booster shot unnecessary midway through semester
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2022
BY JESSE HERNANDEZ Staff Writer The Los Angeles Community College District is enforcing the COVID-19 booster shot. Students that are not up to date with the booster will not be allowed on campus. As of Tuesday, LACCD will require proof of full vaccination. This applies to any of the nine colleges within the district. To be fully vaccinated is now considered having both shots, and a booster along with it. Is it right to now consider that when many other districts are dropping mandates and other cities are dropping mask and vaccination mandates for their business ? Across the country, states and cities are dropping mask mandates for gyms, retail shops, restaurants and coffee shops, bars, nightclubs, theaters and family entertainment centers. Also included are offices, warehouses and events venues. K-12 mask mandates just ended as well this week . Vaccine verification is also no longer required for these places. Los Angeles county says vaccine verification will still be required for indoor mega events with 1,000 or more attendees, like concerts or sports games. So why is it that LACCD is keeping its new fully-vaccinated enforcement rule? I believe at this time, it would be fair to drop the
EDITORS iN CHIEF Annette Quijada Brenda De La Cruz MANGING EDITORS Zasha Hayes Daniella Molina ONLINE EDITOR Raymond Nava FRONT EDITORS Adonia Burciaga
OPINION EDITORS Luis Diaz Eduardo Sanchez NEWS EDITOR Breanna Fierro
mandates for two reasons. Other businesses in LA county are dropping most mandates. Second, reason the semester has already started, so a student who was taking a class on campus or a hybrid class, who was once considered fully-vaccinated with the two shots, is now no longer allowed to attend classes online or in person. If they wanted to start the mandate in the 2022 fall semester, it would give students more time to get boosted. It doesn’t make sense to do
that in the middle of the semester. Governor, Gavin Newsom said “We are moving past the crisis phase into a phase where we will work to live with this virus.” COVID-19 is not over. It will be back and maybe the next time it hits us with a surge, it will hit us harder than ever before. There is a surge again in the United Kingdom, South Korea and Hong Kong, especially here in the U.S. and in our city and county of LA and in the surrounding school
districts. If others are dropping mandates and feel like it’s not a problem right now, I believe LACCD should do the same. If it gets bad again and counties want to get more aggressive with the rules, we’ll see that happen again and again. With this booster rule going in effect , if a student is filing a medical or religious exemption, it must be accepted by the district. Approved exceptions will be based on whether a student has
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tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 90 days, regardless of vaccinated status or if not yet eligible to receive the booster shot yet. People should get fully vaccinated. It is the best tool against COVID-19. Companies advised people who are not vaccinated are not welcomed. Now, the rules have changed and changes are happening all across the U.S. When the rules are changing, everyone should be on the same page.
Gas prices harm commuting students BY LUIS DIAZ Staff Writer Gas prices have created barriers for students who commute to class. In the past weeks, Los Angeles’ gas prices
have increased drastically. This price hike has students who commute to ELAC facing the problem of being able to commute to school. In the past, gas prices were on average $3.50 per gallon and it has been steadily increasing.
This situation will only get worse in the following weeks. When gas prices started going up two weeks ago, people started seeing it as a problem. Students are concerned about the amount they will need to pay a week for commuting to school.
CN/ TERESA ACOSTA
TODAY’S ALARMING GAS PRICE SPIKE — Chevron’s gas prices now average $6 in Los Angeles County.
According to the American Automobile Association gas price map in Los Angeles County, the average gas price is $5.75 per gallon. Experts said Russia’s war with Ukraine and an increase in gas demand has contributed to rising prices. College students who have to commute to class have taken a hit from the increasing prices on gas. Some are forced to find alternative modes of moving from home to school. “It’s hard with these gas prices because I have to switch my method of transportation,” Juan Cruz, a student at ELAC who commutes to class from South Central Los Angeles, said. “This past week I had to pump roughly $65 to my car and it didn’t even reach [a]full tank My whole schedule would change because in the case of taking public transportation, I would need to wake up extra early to take the bus rather than get in the car and make it to school in 45 minutes,” Cruz said. Gas prices create barriers for students to be able to commute to class because of the distance they have to travel. Students already have to take into consideration the amount of traffic there is in Los Angeles and how long it takes a student to arrive at ELAC when driving.
They shouldn’t be worrying about whether they can afford it as well. It gets difficult when a student is working because students aren’t able to work as much because of their commitment to school. They don’t get as many hours at work and they work less which means they earn less. Having to take $60 each week in order to make it to class is tough during these times. My own commute to and from class has me putting roughly $70 of gas for a full tank. Higher gas prices are a problem for students who aren’t financially stable or for students who get an allowance from their parents. Amber Ramirez is one such ELAC student. “Students who don’t work or are financially dependent on their parents can create problems for themselves trying to commute to class every single day. With these gas prices, students will need to start using public transportation and learn different methods to get to class. If students get money from their parents it might not be enough to be able to fill [their gas tank] or even make it to half a tank.” Students are facing a crisis right now and the best thing to do is to find an alternative method of transportation.
Breaking post-quarantine routine difficult BY RAYMOND NAVA Staff Writer Getting back into prepandemic routines is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get back into. The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic effect on how people and for some this completely reshaped their daily routines. When the pandemic hit, we all went into lockdown mode. People started to work from home. Children and college students attended classes online, and everyone stayed at home. Everyone had to adjust to the new circumstances from the pandemic. Before the pandemic and lockdown happened, I would not go out that often. The months in lockdown were akin to how
I spent my summer and winter breaks, cooped up inside my house. Taking classes online was something that was definitely new. Online learning at East Los Angeles College during COVID19 were lectures via Zoom. The transition was seamless and something that worked very well. It was more preferable than the other forms of online classes, where there was no virtual lecture available. Learning without a lecture is almost impossible for me, which is why the change to learning online through Zoom wasn’t that difficult. After spending about two years attending online Zoom classes, it actually feels like transitioning back to in-person classes is going to be a big challenge.
Before the lockdown, leaving home and going to the campus in the spring and fall every week was like a rhythm. The two years since March 2020 have been the longest I’ve ever experienced just staying home. I’ve grown so accustomed to just staying home and online classes that the thought of having to leave to go to campus feels almost like an inconvenience. I’m sad that this happened, as a good portion of my college experience has been from home, and I miss how things were before the pandemic, even though it’s hard trying to get back into how things were. The few times where I’ve had to return to the campus felt like a huge learning curve to get back into the habit. This also goes for those who
are transitioning back to working in person full time. My mother has been mostly working from home since the pandemic. Over the past year she’s been slowly making that transition back to working at her office full time. Work and learning from home became a habit thanks to the pandemic, and this has been a habit that’s been molded for almost two years. One of the things that makes it hard to get back into the old habit is the convenience and comfort of home. There’s so many times where I just don’t want to leave and I’ve become so comfortable with just staying inside. It’s really difficult for me to adjust to getting up in the morning, getting dressed and leaving every day when I have
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class. Even for other things such as going to doctors appointments or shopping for new clothes, I just want to stay inside after spending two years hardly doing any of that. This experience is just one of many that has arisen since the pandemic. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 is not just the health impact, but the societal impact as well. The changes in everyone’s daily lives are always going to be different. For some, they can easily get back into the old habits before COVID-19. For others, including myself, I find it may be a hard routine to get back into.
FEATURE EDITOR Alma Lizarraga ARTS EDITOR Gabriela Guitierrez SPORTS EDITORS Nick Tercero SOCIAL MEDIA Teresa Acosta COPY EDITORS Luis Castilla Juan Calvillo CARTOONIST Max Miranda STAFF WRITERS Jonathan Bermudez Leonardo Cervantes Jesus Hernandez Beatriz Garay Miguel Dominguez ART DIRECTOR Steven Adamo ADVERTISING Stefanie De La Torre ADVISER Jean Stapleton
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News
EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE CAMPUS NEWS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2022
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Scholarships lack student applicants BY EDUARDO SANCHEZ Staff Writer
Applying for multiple scholarships is made easier through the Los Angeles Community College District’s website, which groups similar applications and carries over responses to other applications. Magaly Gonzalez of East Los Angeles College’s financial aid office was a guest speaker at Thursday’s Business Club meeting. The meeting focused on the process of applying for scholarships via the online applications. The Scholarship Manager website was designed to integrate similar scholarships into one application. This helps students apply for multiple scholarships. “The more applications you do, the easier it becomes to apply and the less time you will spend,” Gonzalez said. Along with asking for personal information, scholarship applications consist of two to three essays each. Once a response is saved, it will transfer over to other applications that ask a similar essay question. Because the website allows only 45 minutes per session, students are recommended to write their essays
on separate documents before copying and pasting their developed responses. Students are encouraged to apply, even if they do not fully meet the criteria, as some scholarships have loosened their requirements in the past. A previous scholarship required participants to have conducted research but because research was not offered on campus, the award was opened up to students in similar science, technology, engineering and math majors. Some students who had not applied to this specific scholarship are awarded the money due to the lack of participants. “We’re trying to make sure that somebody gets awarded because otherwise nobody is going to get awarded and that sponsor money is going to go away,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said a student with a 2.8 grade point average applied for a scholarship that required a 3.0 GPA. Due to the low number of applicants, the student was able to receive the award. Students should read through the criteria asked before starting on an application regardless. This allows students to prepare before starting on it. The more professional an application is, the better chance a student has at obtaining the scholarship. Resources offered to students on
CN/EDUARDO SANCHEZ
JUST SCAN THE CODE—Business club president, Maple Duong, shares the scan code for the scholarship application website.
campus include the ELAC Reading and Writing Center as well as the Financial Aid Office, which is open at the lab until 6pm with an appointment or via Zoom. Students with additional questions regarding applications can email fa_scholarship@elac.edu.
Gonzalez warns applicants to keep in mind the criteria until the day of the award. In order to be awarded the scholarship, students must meet the requirement of units asked. Classes that start halfway through the semester count as they are
counted as part of the semester. If a student drops a class late after applying and becomes short on the number of units, they will be unable to receive the scholarship. Students who are part of the California Promise Grant are not prevented from applying to
scholarships. Even if students are in their last semester at ELAC, they are still eligible. There are plenty of scholarships based for transfer students. Students who are not receiving financial aid are encouraged to apply for scholarships as well. Current scholarships can be accessed through the ELAC student portal via the scholarships page. Once logged in again, the website routes to the district scholarship application page. The keyboard search bar can be used to filter scholarships and narrow them down by major or by college. It is important to remember the name of the scholarship as once an application is clicked, the page will reroute to the homepage, where all the scholarships are listed. Students will have to scroll down until they find the scholarship before they can begin the application. The current deadline for scholarships is March 20. Scholarship acceptances will resume with new applications for the upcoming semesters. Additional scholarships that have different deadlines can be found on the Financial Aid page on the ELAC website. Students can also ask the department of their majors for other scholarships they might handle.
East L.A. Women’s Center defines gender oppression
Other parts of the roots system, Arévalo said, includes isolationism, Staff Writer meritocracy and racism within our culture. Arévalo used self defense courses as an example of how Case Navigator for the East Los they’re targeted to women. “Because we expect women to be Angeles Women’s Center Claudia vulnerable, we end up seeing this Arévalo spoke Saturday during play out in a very specific way in a virtual workshop regarding our society. We expect men to be the roots of gender perpetrators, that’s oppression. the same concept— A r é v a l o so part of this is discussed the “Let’s stop making destroying both of importance of those ideas, not just violence passive using an umbrella one.” term like “sexual and talking about it “All of these things violence” when are interwoven in the like it’s the women discussing gender roots. It’s not that oppression. who is somehow men are immune “There’s so many from these things, it’s responsible...” different ways that just that statistically sexual violence it’s not as prevalent occurs, but it’s an to happen because umbrella term for of how we have any kind of sexual our ideologies and behavior, action CLAUDIA ARÈVALO cultures in place,” or contact.” An Case Navigator at ELAWC Arévalo said. important aspect, Continuing the Arévalo adds, is metaphor, Arévalo the lack of consent compares the trunk of the tree from the victim of the violence. To b e t t e r d e s c r i b e t h e to the support system for these complexities of this issue, Arévalo ideologies. From our media and uses three different parts of a tree communication, to our education as a metaphor to describe the systems, laws and language— all history of sexual violence and how play an important role in keeping these systems of oppression in it continues. “The roots, what are the place. “Let’s stop making violence ideologies? What are these belief passive and talking about it like systems that have led us here it’s the women who is somehow today?” Arévalo asked. “It starts responsible by putting her as the with concepts like Patriarchy, first subject.” When some of the above structures culture... how your structures in are in place, Arévalo said that the your life and the belief-systems outcomes are the “fruits” of the tree, behind those structures work. issues like the gender wage gap, How these things are structured comes from how we believe they forced marriage, feminine, sexual harassment, genital mutilation and should be.” Arévalo described the patriarchy mass shootings. Arévalo shared graphs that as the belief that male societal dominance is the “default” or that demonstrated how, without access they’re the better of the sexes. to proper care, the Covid-19 “Patriarchy is a very complicated pandemic made matters much concept on its own, but when we worse. “Because we were shutting refer to ‘destroy the patriarchy,’ down, access to the public world we’re referring to specifically this and really isolating our private world, we saw who suffers when part,” Arévalo said. those things happen,” Arévalo said.
BY STEVEN ADAMO
CN/GABRIELA GUTIERREZ
MENTOR MONTH —Cristina Frias and the ELAC Theatre Department at the Proscenium theater as they thank Christy Sandoval for being a mentor month guest speaker.
Latino acting styles fight mistreatment BY GABRIELA GUTIERREZ Staff Writer
East Los Angeles College’s Theatre Department, in partnership with Center Theatre Group, held a free workshop for students to learn about the acto acting method, while simultaneously teaching about the history of El Teatro Campesino. Guest speaker Christy Sandoval “is a multi-disciplinary artist, artistic producer and arts educator,” ELAC Theatre Arts Department instructor, Cristina Frias said. Sandoval is also a member of and actress with El Teatro Campesino. The one-of-a-kind theater company El Teatro Campesino, founded by Luis Valdez in 1965 in Delano, California, was created out of desperation and frustration. The goal of the company was to highlight the mistreatment farm workers faced at the hands of their employers through the art of acting. El Teatro Campesino’s famed 15-minute skits, or actos, were meant to be thought-provoking without being overwhelming. They were meant to hint at bigger issues and encourage the audience to act
on behalf of the oppressed. The use of humor and exaggerated movements were the theater company’s go-to tricks. Humor made the skits entertaining enough to capture the audiences’ attention, making the actual message of the skits easier to grasp. The creation of characters through dramatic gestures gave the humble farm workers the edge they needed to get people to easily understand what they were trying to say, without necessarily saying much. “The actos had to utlilize tactics that were effective, direct and explained a lot very quickly,” Sandoval said. The skits were successful in large part because the performers mistreated farm workers themselves. They took out of their own personal experiences and brought the level of authenticity necessary for the skits to be effective and believable. The skits were aesthetically rough around the edges because as farmworkers, the performers were not professional actors. The actors were performed at townhalls, the backs of flatbed trucks, or just about anywhere else they could find. “The early actos were performed outside. To this day the actos can be performed anywhere. They are
meant to be a kind of guerilla-style theater. If you are drawing in a crowd, the physically heightened style helps capture the audience,” Sandoval said. The actos’ performance style, still used today, is composed of five crucial elements: 1. They illuminate specific points about a social or political problem. 2. They express what people are feeling. 3. They satirize the opposition (power structures). 4. They hint at a solution. 5. They inspire people to act. “What is the problem? What is the change we need? Who needs to be a part of it? Who is stopping the change from happening? Who should we make fun of to really get the message across that change needs to happen?” Sandoval said. Actos today have evolved but are not much different from earlier acto performances. Actos are still used as political weapons that aim to bring justice to an oppressed group of people. However, actos have evolved and can be used to address smaller causes as well, whether there are an oppressed people or not. “When you are tackling an acto [or] any social or political problem, [...] most of the acto is about how
can you reverse that? How can you change the dynamic so that there are less people on top holding the power and more people that rise up from the bottom and gain more power in the situation?” Sandoval said. Frias, who attended the meeting along with her students, took advantage of their current rehearsal space at the ELAC Proscenium theater. Midway through the workshop, the students stood on the stage and Sandoval guided them and the zoom audience through a series of movements. “As you are walking, I want you to imagine as if a rope is tied to your chest. Then, someone is pulling that rope and that is what is leading your movement,” Sandoval said. The students waved their arms up and down like eagles, moved their spines like serpents and twisted their cores like hurricanes. They walked in circles across the stage, moving fast when Sandoval said fast and moving slower when she said slower. The movements were exaggerated to give the students and audience a sense of what acto performances were like and what they required. The calendar for more mentor month events can be found on elactheatre.org.
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Features
EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE CAMPUS NEWS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2022
Theater Arts Department to perform ‘The Birds’ First live in-person performance in two years masks off for makeup. Pellegrini said performing with a mask on was like training for the Olympics at a high altitude. “If we could do it with In its first production in the masks on, we’re gonna be golden,” Black Box Theater in two years, Pellegrini said. the Theater Arts Department adapts The play features many Aristophanes’ 414 B.C. Greek play puppeteered birds designed by Will “The Birds” co-directed by Vanessa Pellegrini and built by students. Pellegrini and Joseph Darby. Each took about three weeks to Pellegrini said after two years of make and another week to tweak. remote learning, she wanted to do Pellegrini said “The Birds” covers something that could not be done escapist themes. “Aristophanes was on Zoom. talking about getting away from “The Theater Earth and going Arts Department to a better place,” has not stopped Pellegrini said. Because “The Birds” since we “It begs the went online,” is the department’s q u e s t i o n o f Pellegrini said. whether humans “We continually first show back in the c a n e v e r n o t p r o d u c e Black Box Theater, it b e g r e e d y , ” two shows a Pellegrini said. semester.” is also the first time it T h e v e r s i o n This is the the play the will be selling tickets of d e p a r t m e n t ’s Theater Arts first show where Department is for its shows. everyone on performing is a the production 2021 adaptation team is back by Gabriel Vega in-person. Pellegrini said many Weissman and Brian Reno. She of the students in the upcoming said the original play addressed the play have never been in a show politics of the time which is why it before. “This is exciting. We’re does not translate well for modern building back with some fresh audiences. faces,” Pellegrini said. “They just take what he Pellegrini said the cast has not (Aristophanes) had and then totally rehearsed the play without masks. make it referenced to today,” “It’s a very physical show so we get Pellegrini said. “What I love is in winded,” Pellegrini said. “They’ve the beginning of the play, they say, definitely gotten in shape doing ‘This is like SNL meets mad libs.’” this show because there’s a lot of The 2021 adaptation of “The movement, but we have to keep our Birds” uses famous people as standmasks on the whole time.” ins for characters in the original. The cast has undergone regular Pellegrini said the department COVID-19 testing and must have swapped out those famous people a negative test in order to take their for others they felt were more
BY LUIS CASTILLA Staff Writer
CN/ZASHA HAYES
IM-PECK-ABLE—Director Vanessa Pellegrini displays one of the puppets custom-built for the production of “The Birds.” relevant to their community. Because “The Birds” is the department’s first show back in the Black Box Theater, it is also the
first time it will be selling tickets for its shows. “The Birds” will be performed in the P2 Black Box Theater at 8
p.m. on Friday, Saturday and March 24-26. The show will have matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and March 26. Tickets cost $8 for
ASU members, $10 for general admission and $12 at the door and are sold at www.elactheater.org.
Ireland comes to ELAC through ELAC offers immersive classes pathways to
law school BY ADONIA BURCIAGA Staff Writer
CN/TERESA ACOSTA
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MAGIC MODULE—Founder and director, Dr. Niamh Hamil, explains some of the coursework for the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland.
STUDY ABROAD,ONLINE—Student and faculty are given
information for a virtual study abroad program that aims to be the first step for students interested in studying abroad.
CN/TERESA ACOSTA
LUCK OF THE IRISH—Dr. Hamil explains that St. Patrick was not Irish, but was actually British, a fact most attendees did not know.
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Representatives from Santa Clara University School of Law (SCUSL) reached out to East Los Angeles College students through the Pathway to Law School program to show students law school is attainable. ELAC’s Pathway to Law School program had two guest speakers from SCUSL on Tuesday SCUSL provides different events such as admission fairs and campus tours for students who are considering law school. They are collaborative with other top law schools in California. Annemarie Scott, a SCUSL Admissions and Financial Aid counselor, said “We want law schools to [be] accessible and not be a mystery. Also not having students looking at Reddit for answers.” SCUSL helps students prepare a career plan and pairs them with mentors. The staff ensures that students are reaching milestones such as helping students create career portfolios to help them excel after law school. The milestones are reached by getting internships in different types of law. They offer preparation courses and have an office dedicated to preparing students for the bar exam. Scott shared statistics of how well students do on the bar exam after attending SCUSL, considering it is hard to pass in the state of California. Each specialty at SCUSL has
a clinic program to prepare each student on the type of law they want to practice. Bryan Hinkle, SCUSL’s Assistant Dean, said it’s great this connection exists to remind students they’re on the right path to becoming attorneys. It’s especially important in areas where the government lacks representation. “Law schools really prepare students to make changes,” Hinkle said. Rather than a formal presentation, both guest speakers opened the floor to questions from ELAC students. Law schools such as SCUSL are open to any major as long as students excel in an academic setting. Both guest s p e a k e r s made sure to emphasize students at law schools can practice different types of law. Students don’t have to limit themselves to one kind of law. T h e representatives said multiple things are considered when it comes to scholarships.Such considerations are how well students perform in undergrad, if students are a part of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)of an underrepresented group and how well they perform in the LSAT. Their scholarships range from $10,000 a year to full tuition. Hinckle said students should challenge themselves to become better writers. He said it is normal for students to perform unsatisfactorically at first in community college courses, but later perform well in upper-division courses.
Santa Clara University School of Law helps students prepare a career plan and pairs them with mentors.