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December 10, 2025 Read on page 6

Student Publication of Santa Monica College

Waves of Flags, Pepperdine Remembers 9/11

September 18, 2026 | Volume 129 Issue 1 | Santa Monica College December 10, 2025 | Volume 128 Fall Issue 6 | Santa Monica College

December 10, 2025

Staff Writers: Adrian Ibarra, Allison Hyun, Ashley Gomez, Victor Estrada, Caelen Perkins, Daniela Tapia, Jerritt Clark, Rebecca Merida, Patrick LoBuglio, Milo Ochoa Garcia, Diego Carrillo, Lisa Williams, Thia Doenges, Adelfo Aguilera, Marissa Matias, Elliot Leary

Staff Photographers: Guillermo de la Barreda, Andy Garcia, Juliana Frame, Jose Hernandez, Eojin Seo, Lisa Whitmore Jared Bojorquez, Demi Ramirez, Jiayi Jiang, Ruby Grossman-Sartain, Azael Rios Ramos, Azael Rios Ramos, Marshon Allen Gonzo, John Orihu, Masanori Aguayo, Christopher Conelly, Jason Purisima, Silke Eichholz Advisers: Sharyn Obsatz || Writing Adviser Gerard Burkhart || Photo Adviser Samantha Nuñez || Social Media Adviser

Cover: American flag at the Waves of Flags at the Pepperdine University 9/11 Rememberance Ceremony Alumni Park on Friday, September 11, 2026, Malibu, Calif.. 2977 American flags and 90 international flags were placed, one for each person who died on 9/11. (Tom Rosholt | The Corsair) Inside Cover: Santa Monica College (SMC) Corsair Helmets on top of a storage during a match against Compton College Coyotes at SMC Corsair Stadium, Santa Monica, Calif, on Saturday, Sept 7, 2026. SMC Corsairs won 56-16 against Compton College Coyotes in a non-confrece game. (Jordi Garcia Sosa | The Corsair)

December 10, 2025

Letter From The Editor One of the strangest parts of being a student journalist is that you’re expected to tell other people’s stories while still figuring out your own. This semester is my first as Editor in Chief of The Corsair, and now I’m somehow responsible for putting together an entire newspaper. I’m still learning how to lead a newsroom, how to tell stories that actually matter to the community around us, and probably most importantly, how much I still don’t know. The Corsair has a lot of new faces this semester, and for the first time, I’m working with a team where most of the editors are learning their positions as they go. Some of them have never edited a story and are only just learning how to manage a section or layout a page on Indesign. And I’m learning how to be Editor in Chief while all of this is happening. We’re all still learning, but a big part of journalism is learning how to recognize when a story is bigger than the people currently living through it. This month marks the 25th anniversary since the Sept. 11 attacks. Most of the students at Santa Monica College weren’t born yet or were very young when the attacks happened, and for many of us, 9/11 is something we only learned about in school. We know it through photographs, videos, interviews, and the countless stories reported as the events unfolded that journalists have preserved over the years. Without those journalists documenting what they saw and heard, so much of what we know about 9/11 could have been lost, forgotten or remembered very differently. Now, 25 years later, those stories are still teaching people about what happened and how it changed the country forever. We can also learn from the people who spent their lives telling stories and challenging people to look at the world differently. Gloria Steinem, who died on Sept. 2 at age 92, helped bring women’s issues into the mainstream as a journalist. Co-founding Ms. magazine in 1972, she created a publication centered around women’s experiences at a time when those stories were often overlooked. Her journalism wasn’t separate from her feminism, it was one of the ways that she fought for it. As a woman in journalism myself, I often think about the doors she helped open in this field for women like me. I can walk into a newsroom, take on the Editor in Chief role, and have my voice taken seriously in a way that women before us had to fight so much harder for. Just weeks before Steinem’s death, Dolly Parton also died at 80. Parton never called herself a feminist, and famously rejected the label, but many people, including Steinem, viewed her as a feminist icon because of the way she built her career on her own terms and used her success to help other women. In a 1987 issue, Parton was named by Ms. magazine as one of their Women of the Year. Steinem wrote, “If feminism means each of us finding our unique power, and helping other women do the same, then Dolly Parton certainly has done both.” That quote applies to journalism as well. Steinem used her voice to make space for other women, and that is part of the legacy I hope to leave at The Corsair. Obviously I’m not expecting to do anything on the scale of Steinem’s career yet, but I do want the writers and editors who come after me to feel like they have a stronger newsroom to build on. We’re all still learning. And I hope that what we learn becomes something people after us can build upon.

Editor in Chief

Sofia Kieser

December 10, 2025

Waves of Flags, Pepperdine Remembers 9/11 Written and Photographed by Tom Rosholt

December 10, 2025

NEWS

December 10, 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

Denmark flag placed with American flags at the Waves of Flags at the Pepperdine University 9/11 Rememberance Ceremony Alumni Park on Friday, September 11, 2026, Malibu, Calif..

Pepperdine’s annual flag memorial honors the dead from Sept. 11. Pepperdine University held its 25th annual Wave of Flags, honoring those killed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Nearly 3,000 flags line Alumni Park, each representing a victim. The ceremony’s keynote speaker was Chris Fields, a retired major from the Oklahoma City Fire Department, who served as a first responder during the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Fields stressed that strength is not pretending you’re okay. It’s saying you’re not okay and need help.

“The event’s purpose was to honor those who died and remember loved ones that we kissed goodbye, not knowing it would be for the last time,” Fields said.

Pepperdine University Senior Vice Chancellor Hung Lee was at his desk at Pepperdine when the Twin Towers collapsed. Lee had worked downtown New York City a couple of years before. Lee said he remembered feeling terrified as he watched people run down the street where he had once worked. Lee said Thomas Burnett, an employee of Pepperdine, was killed on Flight 93.

On Sept. 11, 2001, four commercial airliners were hijacked. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were both scheduled to fly from Boston to Los Angeles. The terrorists flew the planes into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. After the impact, both towers collapsed. A third plane, a Boeing 757 scheduled to leave Dulles Airport for Los Angeles, was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Another Boeing 757 was hijacked, and it is believed the target was the U.S. Capitol or the White House. Passengers on the flight fought back, and the airliner crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Fields also wanted people to remember Sept. 12 and the days following the attack. No one talked about what would happen after the funerals. Fields shared his struggles with anger following the Oklahoma City bombing.

“We remember families that had an empty chair at the table for 25 years,” Fields said.

Jillian George, 21, an international relations major at Pepperdine, spoke about the importance of community and remembering the individuals lost in the event. “I want people to know that people in my generation do remember,” George said. Kai Pruismann, 22, a finance major at Pepperdine, said he attended the ceremony because he felt it was important to unite and “bring people together. Take any opportunity to come together as a community.” “It was important to tell the next generation what happened on 9/12, the day after. Tell them how people came together. We saw neighbors hurting and coming together,” Fields said. “We should not need a national tragedy to remember we are human beings. We need to take care of each other.”

December 10, 202518, 2026 SEPTEMBER

Above: Bagpipe trio plays Amazing Grace at the end of the Waves of Flags the 9/11 Ceremony at Pepperdine University Alumni Park.

NEWS

Below: A prayer card tied to the pull of an American flag. P eople had the opportunity to pray for or write to a fallen loved one and place the card on a flag.

Pepperdine University Director of Student Veteran Affairs Eric Leshinsky gives the introduction of distinguish honnoree during the 9/11 Rememberance Ceremony at Alumni Park Pepperdine University Executive Vice President Phil Philips Presiding during the 9/11 Rememberance Ceremony at Alumni Park.

NEWS

December 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 10, 2026

SMC Board of trustees passes new annual budget SMC nearly closes college’s deficit with 2026-2027 budget, but school officials say more cuts are needed. Written by Patrick Conlon | News Editor Photographed by Guillermo De La Barreda After slashing millions of dollars from the college’s budget and cutting 45 full-time employees in June, Santa Monica College administrators say they have bandaged some of the college’s financial wounds by passing the 2026-2027 budget. During its monthly meeting in the business department building, the board of trustees voted unanimously to pass the college’s annual budget on Tuesday. The college is under increased pressure to balance its budget – an issue that has plagued the school for years – after it was placed on enhanced fiscal monitoring by its accrediting commission earlier this year. According to an email from Superintendent President Kathryn Jeffery to SMC faculty on Aug. 5, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges determined the college was “at-risk” fiscally on July 24 and notified the board on July 31. Jeffery’s email stated the ACCJC’s decision was “backward-looking,” based on the previous three years of financial reports, and did not account for actions taken this year, such as staff reductions. In a letter to SMC, the ACCJC warned that institutions that do not resolve their fiscal deficits within three years of being placed under enhanced monitoring “may be subject to adverse action by the Commission.” Chris Bonvenuto, chair of the District Planning and Advisory Council, which advises the trustees on financial matters, presented an overview of SMC’s finances and the proposed budget. He advised the board to pass the budget, which would effectively balance this year’s expenses. However, Bonvenuto warned the proposal would not address the college’s structural deficit of nearly $5 million for the following year. “We have stemmed the bleeding for a year,” Bonvenuto said. Current projections show the proposed budget would leave a roughly $300,000 funding gap for the year, which could be covered by state financial aid, he said. Without additional one-time funding from California or the federal government next year, Bonvenuto said the structural deficit would remain, requiring further cuts next year to fully alleviate it. Cindy Ordaz, SMC’s chief negotiator for the California School Employees Association chapter, said whether additional layoffs would be needed won’t be known until March 15, California’s legal deadline for notifying workers of termination. During her address to the board, Ordaz said the college’s two labor organizations – the faculty association and CSEA – were unified with the management association, which represents the school’s senior administrators, on several issues facing SMC. Ordaz said discussions with Peter Morse, head of the faculty association, and Jose Hernandez, a representative of the management association, have led to agreement on issues like the budget, labor relations, staffing levels and retention, accountability from management and student enrollment numbers. She said these issues were related and conversations about them shouldn’t be segmented. “If students truly come first, then the people and the infrastructure serving them have to be part of our fiscal strategy before the problems

happen, not after,” Ordaz said. Ordaz said the alignment between management and labor was surprising. “If you would have told me a couple of years ago that CSEA and the management association would be sitting at the same table finding common ground, I probably wouldn’t believe it, but here we are,” she said. As previously reported by the Corsair, CSEA filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the college earlier this year over unpaid contractually obligated wage increases. The complaint was settled days later after the college said they couldn’t afford to pay them. Morse, whose organization is engaged in ongoing contract negotiations with the college, opened his address by criticizing the board for not acknowledging workers’ importance to SMC the day after Labor Day. “Workers at SMC are tired, demoralized, and overburdened because of layoffs, cuts, poor communication, and a general lack of leader-inspired vision,” he said, describing morale amongst his members. Morse stressed the importance of remembering the effects this year’s layoffs had on workers, but added that his hope for the college’s future comes from the passion and drive of those who remain. Hernandez began his report by recognizing several members of the management association’s executive committee for their work in helping his organization manage the school throughout the year. He continued, echoing earlier statements from Morse and Ordaz to the board, reminding them that the loss of talent and community from previous staff reductions cannot be forgotten. “We cannot simply turn the page and pretend that everything reset, because a new academic year has begun,” Hernandez said. The board also approved interviewing and consideration of the hiring committee’s candidate, Candace Jones, for superintendent president to replace Jeffery, who is retiring at the end of the year. According to a Sept. 15 email sent to the SMC community by Vice President of Human Resources Tre’Shawn Hall-Baker, a public forum will be held on Tuseday, Sept. 22 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Orientation Hall in the Student Services building on main campus to meet the committee’s finalist. Funding for construction of the student housing project at SMC’s Bundy campus was also approved at Tuesday’s meeting. The college will contribute $126 million in bonds, part of the $250 million in bonds Santa Monica voters approved for the school’s construction projects in 2022. The project will house up to 746 students in 250 apartments. Michaels Student Living, the construction firm the board selected in July, has committed to a jointly developed schedule with SMC to complete the project before the start of the fall semester in 2030.

December 10, 2025

‘We have stemmed the bleeding for a year’

SMC Vice President of Business and Administration Christopher Bonvenuto addresses the Board of Trustees during a meeting on Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2026, at the SMC Board Room, in Santa Monica, Calif. Several issues, such as the funding for the student housing program and the President search, were addressed during the meeting.

SPORTS

December 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 10, 2026

Corsairs Defeat Com

Santa Monica College wins game a by 40 points in the seco

Written by Mia Whitlock | Photos by Guillermo De La Photos by Silke Eichho

T Guillermo De La Barreda | The Corsair SMC Corsair LB D’Anthoni Coleman carries the team flag into the field before their match against Compton College Coyotes. The Corsairs beat the Coyotes 56-16.

he Santa Monica College Corsairs came out scoring early in a football game against the Coyotes from Compton College on Saturday, Sept. 5. Before the game, SMC head coach Kelly Ledwith mentioned wide receiver Amir Smith as someone to look out for. “He had a good game last week but nobody really saw it but coaches,” Kelly said. “I expect to see him get the ball today and have some flash plays.” In their first possession, the Corsairs were able to get down the field and starting quarterback Pierce Clarkson found Smith in the center of the field. Smith ran 20 yards into the end zone to put the Corsairs on the board. In a post-game interview, Smith said the first touchdown felt amazing. “I didn’t think I was gonna get the ball, but I got the ball so, shoot, I’m happy,” he said. After kicker Jack Malloy completed the extra point, the Corsairs jumped out with an early 7-0 lead. In Compton’s first possession of the game, SMC forced a fourth down punt which gave possession back to the Corsairs on the 43-yard line. From there, Clarkson switched back and forth between feeding the ball to running back Dylan Franklin and throwing it to wide receiver Braydon Sanford. In the span of one possession, Clarkson looked to connect with Sanford on his route twice, one of which resulted in a first down. In the same possession, Franklin got the ball three times which contributed to another Corsair first down. Franklin ended the game with 69 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The 6’1 running back is fast and knows how to get past defenders. “It’s kind of natural, but I had to work on my speed over the off season. I ran track, I tried to get my speed up, you know. To get to the next level, D1, you got to be fast,” he said in regard to his speed. After a few runs and completed passes, including an offsides penalty by the Coyotes defensive lineman/linebacker, Christian Kingsbury, the Corsairs used the first down to their advantage. Clarkson found Smith near the sideline and Smith faked out three Compton defenders for an 8-yard run into the end zone. This would be Smith’s and the Corsairs’ second touchdown of the game.

Guillermo De La Barreda | The Corsair SMC Corsair WR Braydon Sanford (1) runs with the ball as Compton College Coyotes’ WR Tyler Esqueda-Johnson (12) tries to bring him down during their game.

With 5 minutes left in the first quarter, the Coyotes weren’t able to gain yards against the Corsairs’ defense. By the end

December 10, 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

SPORTS

mpton College 56-16

against Compton College Coyotes ond game of the season.

|| Assistant Sports Editor Barreda || Photojournalist olz || Photojournalist of the game, the Coyotes had an average of -0.4 yards gained per rush. Linebacker D’Anthoni Coleman made multiple tackles throughout the game, and didn’t give the Coyotes offense the chance to gain yardage. In a postgame interview, Coleman noted his mindset on defense is “see the ball, get the ball. I don’t want them to score out there, which they did today. That’s because I wasn’t out there,” he said. Coleman has been playing football since he was 8 years old, and led the team in tackles with three solo tackles and seven total.

Silke Eichholz | The Corsair SMC Men’s Football Corsair linebacker DeAndre Slack (41) waits in a defensive position during the game.

At the end of the first quarter, Franklin got the ball inside the one yard line, and 8 seconds into the second quarter, was able to finish it with a run down the middle, giving SMC their fourth touchdown of the game. “[My] favorite part of defense is probably like the big hits, the celebration, and just knowing your teammates are just happy to see you win,” Coleman said. The Corsairs celebrated their teammates’ accomplishments, and controlled the rest of the second quarter, putting SMC up 49-0 going into halftime. Compton scored their first touchdown in the third quarter. On the first try for the 2-point conversion, the Corsairs had a minor slip up that resulted in a penalty which allowed the Coyotes a second chance for the conversion, putting the score at 49-8 going into the final quarter. Late in the fourth quarter, the Coyotes snagged one more touchdown with a two-point conversion, bringing the score to 49-16. By this time, more personnel were entering the game. With 1 minute and 55 seconds left, the bench erupted with energy after freshman wide receiver Isaac Andrews caught the ball at the 30-yard line and ran into the end zone. Following Malloy’s final completed extra point, going 8-for8, the Corsairs were up by 40 points. “[I] kind of outgrew the nerves in high school, I’d say,” Malloy said when talking about what goes through his mind before kicking for an extra point. When the game was down to the final 56 seconds, SMC recovered one last fumble from the Coyotes which allowed the Corsairs to let the clock run down. The Corsairs won with a final score of 56-16. SMC will next play at Victor Valley College on Sept. 12, at 5 p.m.

Silke Eichholz | The Corsair SMC Men’s Football Corsair and wide receiver Amir Smith (6), runs with the ball as Compton College Coyotes’ Nasir Jenkins (7) tackles him during their game.

SPORTS

December 10, 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

Pirates Sink to Corsairs SMC takes out OCC in three straight sets.

Jason Purisima | The Corsair Santa Monica College (SMC) Corsairs Women’s Volleyball Outside Hitter, Opp Quinci Wilder (14) excited after a point during a game against Orange Coast Pirates in Santa Monica on Friday, Sept 11, 2026. Corsairs win with 3 straight sets .

Victor Estrada | Sports Editor

he Santa Monica College Corsairs triumphed against the Orange Coast College Pirates on Friday night, improving to 7-1 on the season while remaining undefeated at home. Taking the win in three sets, the Corsairs showcased their depth and unity as players throughout the roster contributed to the win led by State Players of the Week, Mia Whitlock and Quinci Wilder. Head coach Christain Cammayo went deep into his bench during the match. He emphasized that this team’s beliefs begin with winning and losing together. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think they could do it,” Cammayo said. The first set started with Whitlock helping the Corsairs build a 17-10 lead. The Corsairs men’s volleyball team was in attendance, cheering from the stands for every point scored by the women. Alessandro Niculesu, a player for the men’s team said to his teammate who was joining in late on the action, “Mia just dominated them,” he said. The Pirates went on a run to cut the Corsairs’

lead to three points, bringing the score to 20-17. The Corsairs responded by scoring five points straight to close out the set 25-17, with libero Emely Costanza delivering the final point with an ace. SMC carried the momentum into the second set, coming out with an 8-1 lead, forcing OCC head coach Susie Packard to call a timeout. Cammayo then brought out the reserves, rotating players from his bench into the match. Libero Ava Salamasidis checked in and recorded two aces, while outside hitter Olivia Kilpatrick recorded two kills for herself. The Corsairs cruised through the second set 2513, taking a 2-0 lead. The Pirates began to show some life in the third set as they gained their first lead of the night, scoring to put themselves up 10-9. The Corsairs were forced to call their first time out after a kill from middle blocker Ava Olburg, who put the Pirates up 18-14. After the timeout, Wilder responded with a heavy kill.“We were down and we needed something to

pick us up,” she said, “Lucy set me up perfectly and it was tunnel vision from there.” Whitlock came in as a vocal leader on the court for her team. Starting the game as an outside hitter, she checked in as libero in the third set. Cammayo praised her versatility and leadership. “Mia is a pure growth mindset person, she’s able to contribute in every position,” he said. “ Sets the tone for the team with a leader like that.” The third set remained close toward the end of the match with OCC calling a timeout after the Corsairs cut the lead down to one point, putting the score at 18-19, Pirates up. Middle blocker Anna Hocket recorded a kill of her own to tie the set at 24-24. Middle blocker Allison Cumming and setter Lucy White scored the final two points to close out the final set 26-24. The victory came two days after falling to Long Beach on Wednesday night. The Corsairs will return home for their next matchup against Los Angeles Mission College at 5:00 p.m. on Sept. 16.

SPORTS

December 10, 202518, 2026 SEPTEMBER

Jason Purisima | The Corsair Santa Monica College (SMC) Corsairs Women’s Volleyball Outside Hitter, Quinci Wilder (14) with a spike .

Jason Purisima | The Corsair

Corsairs Women’s Volleyball Libero Isabella Maria Aragon (11) (left) and Setter/Libero Emersyn Angelina Ebel (7) (right) with a serve receive .

Santa Monica College (SMC) Corsairs Women’s Volleyball Outside Hitter, Quinci Wilder (14) and Middle Blocker, Anna Hockett (8) jumping to block the ball .

CULTURE

December 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 10, 2026

SMC art professor finds strength in community after losing her home SMC art professor Terri Bromberg charts a path forward with support from colleagues and students after losing her home and art in the Palisades fire. Written by Patrick Conlon || News Editor The glass fusing process differs greatly from glass blowing; blowing is immediate and physical, while fusing requires meticulous placement of smaller glass pieces to create a mosaic before fusing them in the kiln. Surrounded by the adult students in her community education summer fusing class, Professor Terri Bromberg contrasts blowing with stone carving; she teaches all three. Bromberg calls blowing an “art sport” with a steep learning curve; it takes minutes, at most hours, while stone carving can take weeks, sometimes months, she says. To make glass fused artwork, the sum of the parts must be greater than the whole, and like stone carving, it can take a long time. After losing her home and decades worth of her artwork in the 2025 Palisades fire, Bromberg and her family were left emotionally devastated and without a home. But the outpouring of support from her community of colleagues and students at SMC, Bromberg says, helped them through it. Bromberg first moved to the Palisades after marrying her husband Bruce in the early 1980s. After he died in 2023, one of her two adult daughters, her son-in-law and their dog, Chrys, moved in with her. Bromberg requested her family members’ names be withheld because of concerns about scammers targeting fire survivors. She lived with her children for roughly two years before the fire broke out on Jan. 7, taking the home Bromberg and her husband had shared since 2005. Bromberg said the date remains stuck in her head; while she was teaching a drawing class, a student told her, “Look what’s happening up by your house.” When Bromberg turned on the news, she recalled seeing billowing smoke rising near her residence. She told her class to keep drawing, and that she had to leave immediately. “I got stuck on Sunset Boulevard for four hours in gridlock with the ash and the smoke, and people directing traffic said, ‘The fire’s coming this way. If you see flames, just get out of your car and go the other way,’’’ Bromberg said. Returning to SMC after the Los Angeles Fire Department redirected her, Bromberg called her daughter and learned the same had happened to her kids. She said her family loaded Chrys and a few belongings into their car, headed down the mountain access road from her house, and then were sent back due to traffic. A few hours later, after watching the town burn around them through their windows and on the news, they tried again. By this time, first responders had brought in bulldozers to clear the abandoned cars so EMT’s could reach those stranded, and her family was able to safely evacuate.

Courtesy of the artist: Terri Bromberg Photo of glass art, “Compass: Finding Our Way.” Glass elements represent things from the past, and looking to the future. Mixed Media: glass, wood, metal and found objects.

Once Bromberg was reunited with her family, they had to figure out where they would stay. She said that having spent decades building a community at SMC — enrolling as a glass student in the mid-2000s, then being hired as a teacher in 2008 — paid off; Bromberg received countless texts and calls from her students and colleagues offering support and a place to stay. Bromberg introduced her friend, Judith Davies, who’s been taking Bromberg’s classes since 2014. Davies said she called Bromberg the night of the fire and offered her the spare apartment in the complex she owned in Ocean Park. She recounted saying to Bromberg, “I know you have places to go, but if you need this place next door, just know that it’s always open.” Bromberg’s daughter, son-in-law, and their dog stayed in Davies’s apartment for weeks after the fire. Denise Bachman, who lives a few blocks from SMC, said she’s been enrolled in Bromberg’s classes for over 10 years, and contacted her as soon as she saw the fire on the news. Bachman remembered texting her while Bromberg was stuck in traffic trying to reach her kids, telling her, “Get out as soon as you can and come to my house, and you know, just stay here, and we’ll watch the TV, and if you can go home you can go home.”

December 10, 202518, 2026 SEPTEMBER

CULTURE

Bromberg recalled spending the first night with Bachman watching the fire line advance in shock, constantly checking where it was, before it engulfed her home the next day. Bachman recollected standing outside her house the night of the fire, watching it surge through the mountains, “I thought, ‘Should I be panicking now too?’ Because if it jumps the freeway, we’re next.” On the same day she learned her home was gone, Bromberg says the question of rebuilding was answered. After buying some essentials at Costco while standing in the parking lot with her family, Bromberg said her daughter told her, “I can’t go back and live up in the hills. She says I can’t do it.” Bromberg said she understood the trauma her family went through trying to escape from the fire. Later that week, while she stayed at Bachman’s house, she saw a realtor’s tag hung from the front doorknob advertising a new house on the market. That house is now where Bromberg and her family live. Bromberg stayed with Bachman for a few weeks after the fire until Mandy Altman, another long-time student-turned-friend, invited the Brombergs to stay at her house. Altman’s Mar Vista home would be vacant for the following month, while she was on vacation with her family. Bromberg said when the Altmans returned, they insisted she and her family stay as long as they needed. From the time she first learned of the fire through her moves from one student’s house to another, Bromberg said she continued teaching, never missing a day. With support from her students, financial aid from the SMC Foundation and a GoFundMe campaign started by her longtime friend and colleague, Professor Emily Silver, Bromberg was able to continue doing the job she loves. “We started it within 48 hours of her house burning down, and I believe we met the goal in under a week. The art world in LA is really amazing, and people really stepped up across the entire city to support other artists that were deeply impacted,” Silver said. As of mid-August, Silver’s GoFundMe campaign has raised $29,704 from 174 donations, greatly surpassing its $20,000 goal. Professor Silver, who was made art department chair in June, said she’s known Bromberg for 15 years; over that time, they have taught sculpture together and shared an office. She said they’ve grown to be more than colleagues — close friends. In April 2025, Bromberg sold her property, purchased her new home in Santa Monica and moved in with her family. She said her new residence needed repairs due to its age and neglect, but she’s happy there with spare rooms for her kids and glad to have an art studio again. Looking to the future, Bromberg says she hopes to teach for another 10 years; despite losing a lifetime’s worth of art, she’s excited to debut her new collection at the upcoming SMC Faculty Art Exhibit at the Barrett Gallery on Oct. 13. Bromberg said she’s always creating and has taken pieces of rubble and scraps from her destroyed artwork and home to reconstitute into new artwork. She said, “My new work is about resilience and recovery and moving forward.”

Courtesy of the artist: Terri Bromberg Photo of glass art, “Fire Storm.” Wind driven fire storm burned in Pacific Palisades. Home destroyed on January 8, 2025. Fused glass out of the ashes of the burned house and studio.

CULTURE

December 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 10, 2026

From Caring for Others as an ICU Nurse to Rebuilding Her Own Life

Nursing Professor Bonnie Flores, center, stands outside of her office on Santa Monica College’s Bundy Campus, July 22, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif.

After decades spent caring for patients and students, SMC nursing professor Bonnie Flores is rebuilding after losing her Malibu home in the 2025 fires. Written and Photographed by Nathan Hanson

rofessor Bonnie Flores, the assistant program director for Santa Monica College’s nursing program and an intensive care nurse at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles, was confronted with death on a daily basis at the height of the pandemic. Flores is no stranger to crises. When the United States was ravaged by COVID-19, it was frontline workers like her who kept the wheels of our society in motion. Then came January 2025. Her life — and the lives of tens of thousands of Los Angeles County residents — was completely upended when two massive wildfires tore through Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and surrounding areas. The fires displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed an estimated 16,000 homes and businesses. According to law enforcement, the Pacific Palisades Fire was the result of a “holdover fire”—a phenomenon in which flames continue to smolder underground in a root system long after the surface blaze appears to be out. It first originated from the Lachman Fire, which broke out in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2025, as a small 8-acre brushfire before becoming fully contained. “The Jan. 7 fire was not a rekindle or due to failed suppression, but the reactivation of an undetectable holdover fire under extraordinary wind conditions,” Ronnie Villanueva, LAFD interim Fire Chief said. For Flores, the loss went far beyond the structure itself. “We lived in that house for 23 years,” she said. “We brought both of our kids home from the hospital to that house, and we raised them there. It’s actually the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere in my life. That felt like my first real home,” she said.

The previous year leading up to the fire was full of its own personal hardships for Flores, too. Both of her dogs had passed away — one of whom died on her birthday — followed by the death of her mother, whose belongings Flores had just moved to their home in Las Flores Canyon. Nothing survived. “I don’t have any of her jewelry,” she said, continuing moments later with a more sarcastic tone: “We had planned to scatter their [the dogs’] ashes.” She paused for a moment, smiling, “Well, they’re scattered… probably at the dump now!” “I mean, I was never not functioning; I’m a high-functioning person,” she said. “I woke up the next day making all the phone calls to get everything organized. I wasn’t hiding in a corner.” Cathy Morrison, a financial consultant and longtime neighbor and friend of Flores, whose home was also destroyed in the fire, is driven by the same call to action. “Bonnie and I are cut from the same cloth,” Morrison said. “Every day was a fight, whether it was insurance or finding a temporary home. It seemed like nothing came easily for us in this whole process.” Everyone enters into these periods at different stages of grief. For both Morrison and Flores, jumping headfirst into action became the only outlet to cure their depression. “You just have to put yourself to work,” said Morrison. “I remember my kids kept saying, ‘Can you not do something related to the fire for just one day?’ And I said, ‘If I don’t do this, nobody else will.’ It falls on me.”

December 10, 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

CULTURE

Flores had never experienced true depression until after the fire. “I have had things that have made me sad, of course,” said Flores. “But this was the first time in my life I’ve actually been depressed…When the house burned, I saw it on the news and cried. I allowed myself about eight hours to grieve, and then I went to bed — didn’t sleep — and just thought, ‘Okay, what do I need to do?’ I started planning: call the insurance company, call the bank. I started making a list. The first task at hand was finding a new place to live. For about a week, the family stayed at an Airbnb in Marina del Rey, a coastal neighborhood south of Malibu. Eventually, they secured a fully furnished house in Calabasas, and although it’s safe and comfortable, the space still feels sparse. “I’ve never moved into a place with so few belongings — even when I went to college, I had more stuff,” she said. To cope with the depression, she discovered that staying active — whether it was going to the grocery store one day or attending a Pilates class the next — was what carried her through. “I realized I have to do something every single day to get out of the house,” she said. “I had to force myself into a routine; otherwise, I’d just wallow in misery.”

Flores had fully embraced her role as a stay-at-home mom during this period, boasting about the multitude of things that collectively turned her house into a home. “We had something like 40 fruit trees on our back hill, and I’d buy organic food and make baby food,” she recalled fondly. “I really dove into being a mom.” Around the time her daughters started preschool, Flores realized she was going to need to forge her own identity. “I can’t live just for my kids ‘cause they’re going to move out some day,” she said. As she reflected on her future, she tried to hone in on a profession that would allow her the flexibility to be present for her kids. After some deliberation, she decided on nursing, a decision that felt somewhat natural to her considering she comes from a long line of nurses: aunts, cousins, and even her own mother. “I always wanted to do it anyway,” she said. Due to its proximity to her home in Malibu, SMC became Flores’ next step into her new career.

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“She… goes into hyperdrive until she gets stuff done, day in and day out,” said Morrison. “She’s got more fire and gumption than anyone—that’s what I love about her. Whatever she does, she gives 110%.” Long before she ever stepped foot into an ICU or envisioned a career in academia, she spent her formative years channeling all of her energy towards an aspiring career in the entertainment industry, regularly booking commercials and voiceover gigs in Hollywood. It began to take its toll, though, and by the time she was in her 30s, the stifling demands from auditions had become too stressful to manage. Her life had fully coalesced around the natural trappings of family life: She married her husband, Chris, became pregnant with their two daughters, and by 2002, they had moved into their comfortable, Spanish-style home near the cliff’s edge in Las Flores Canyon, just outside the city limits in unincorporated Malibu.

A wall of papers and letters hanging inside Professor Bonnie Flores’ office on Santa Monica College’s Bundy Campus, July 22, 2026 in Los Angeles, Calif.

A banner reading “Celebrate Nurses” hangs above the entrance to the Health Sciences Department faculty offices at SMCs Bundy Campus on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.

OPINION

December 2025 SEPTEMBER 18,10, 2026

9/11 — 25 Years later

Jerritt Clark with brothers Kenny and Bryan and sister Meggin pose for a photograph in the South Tower observa-

Photo by mother Susan Jones

tion deck at the World Trade Center on July 29, 1989 in New York City, New York.

Why is the day that brought us all together now tearing us apart?

Written by Jerritt Clark

couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. The sky was blue, the weather was perfect and I was standing on a golf course on the south shore of Long Island. I was getting hungry and luckily for me, Mike was about to pull up and ask what we wanted for breakfast. I wasn’t playing golf however; I was renovating Timber Point Golf Course as part of a construction crew that my father Gil Simmers had organized to complete the county-run course refurbishment, and Mike was our site supervisor.

I was at the World Trade Center two days prior with my friend Kristin who was a student at FIT in Chelsea. We were marveling at how unique New York was as a city and how the buildings were so iconic with no other city skyline in the world having even come close. Imagining one of the towers that I had just been standing under filled with smoke and fire from what was believed to be a small Cessna-sized aircraft was incomprehensible. It wasn’t just one of the towers, though.

Sausage, egg and cheese, salt and pepper, ketchup, with orange juice and a bottle of water. I had the same breakfast order every day and today was no different — or so I thought. As I was leaning on the driver’s side door giving Mike my order, the radio inside his pickup truck played at a very low volume and I heard something coming across the radio that I thought I must have misheard. I asked him to turn the volume up and the radio host repeated himself. Reports had just come in that a small plane crashed into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

By the time Mike returned with our breakfast, the second tower had been hit. The confirmation of a second plane hitting the second tower sent shockwaves through the world. Speculation began. How could both towers have had planes accidentally crash into them? Were the pilots both suicidal? Terrorism didn’t cross our minds. Then the news began to sharpen. The descriptions of the two planes were now much more accurate. Two commercial planes had flown into both towers. Breakfast finished, and we headed back to

work, but we were fixated on the reporting we had listened to, and everyone mved at a snail’s pace. We couldn’t turn on the news and watch it on TV. We had to go off the descriptions we were hearing on the radio. We had Nextel phones without internet browsers to Google images or videos. In 2001, that technology hadn’t made it to the mainstream yet and certainly wasn’t going to be found on the cellular devices of construction workers earning $15 an hour. Before long, Mike came rushing back in his pickup with the latest news; the Pentagon had been hit and reports of several other planes missing were starting to flow through the airwaves. It was announced that U.S. airspace was being shut down and all planes were ordered to be grounded until further notice. We believed this was the easiest way to weed out which planes still in the air were hijacked and help the U.S. military narrow down which of them might still be a threat. At that moment two F-15’s roared past us and were headed at supersonic speeds

December 10, 2025 SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

OPINION

directly at a small plane that was flying westward along Fire Island on Long Island’s south shore. The sound of their engines was deafening. We watched as the fighter jets flew head-on at the small plane, blew past it and looped in the sky before pulling up behind and to the side of the plane. Was this another hijacked plane? Fortunately, no. They escorted the plane towards Republic Airport in central Long Island, and I’ve always wondered if that pilot knew how close he was to being evaporated right in front of us. The rest of the day played out in ways that none of us could have ever imagined, even in our worst nightmares. The towers collapsed 30 minutes apart from each other, and none of us could picture what the radio was telling us. What do you mean they collapsed? Part of them? The whole thing? Where did they land? How much of the buildings are still standing?

Eventually, I left the construction field and got a job working in a local watch and jewelry shop on Maiden Lane and Broadway in lower Manhattan, just one block from the World Trade Center. I was hired as the watch service manager, and during my first month at work I spent the entire time organizing the backlog of customer repair jobs that were never picked up. Some of them were hundreds of dollars’ worth of repairs where customers either didn’t have the money to cover the repair; others were just forgotten repairs, but the vast majority were watches that were dropped off before 9/11 for repair whose owners had perished in the attacks. It was a very solemn duty to try to get in touch with loved ones, family members, coworkers, or friends of those to whom these watches belonged.

I could just imagine a young boy having lost his father, growing up wearing his dad’s watch every day as a reminder of him, and I felt it was my job to give him the opportunity to do so. Many of them were picked up, but dozens remained when I left my position a year later. For months we listened to various pitches and reports on how the People immediately sprang to action, my father included. The con- WTC would be rebuilt. It’s been 25 years since that clear Septemstruction company he ran had tons of large machinery that could ber day. The new WTC stands strong, an icon in its own right, but help. He and the company owner, George Guidi, went down to no matter how it was rebuilt or how long it has been, there will the yard, grabbed two dump trucks, a big crawler loader, which is always be two unfillable holes in the heart of lower Manhattan. a type of bulldozer, and a Caterpillar 988 eight-cubic-yard rubber-tired loader, also known as a payloader, and headed to lower As someone who lived in New York for 34 years of his life, 11 of Manhattan. them in NYC, I will always consider myself a New Yorker. I’ve been out of New York for 10 years now, having relocated to Los They weren’t hired. They didn’t get a call for help. They simply Angeles in 2016 but there has not been a single time I’ve gone knew that there were millions of pounds of rubble and people back that I look at lower Manhattan and don’t think about what it would be trapped underneath. They spent the next two days there used to be. helping in the recovery efforts. The feeling that something is missing remains present inside me 25 years later. That something for me was a couple of buildings That is what New York became in the weeks and months to follow that I enjoyed visiting. I can’t imagine if that “something” had and for the most part, America as a whole did the same. Our difbeen a someone. ferences didn’t seem to matter. We were united. It is the one time I was fortunate not to lose any loved ones or friends that day and in my life where I can say it felt like every single American put the yet, when I browse Instagram like I have this week, watching and collective whole ahead of ourselves as individuals. listening to the testimonies of those who did lose family members, I often check the comments and am horrified by some of the When I finally saw the rubble that was strewn across multiple city things I read. blocks, I couldn’t believe it. Two of New York’s biggest icons were The anger I feel when someone peddles false claims of implosions gone. It looked like something out of a Hollywood post-apocalyp- and controlled demolitions is something that, I feel, will never tic movie. I had idolized these two buildings my entire life. They leave me. were more New York than the Yankees. They were more New York The youth of today weren’t alive when these attacks happened. than Wall Street. The World Trade Center was a twin-towered They don’t feel the emotion we all felt that morning and the weeks, global beacon of New York wealth, business, success and power months and years to follow, and so it’s hard to blame them for that stood strong, like two guardians watching over the city. their ignorance. It wasn’t until I arrived home around 4 p.m. that I could finally see what I had been hearing about all day. The horror played repeatedly on my television, and I sat and watched for hours on end. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

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Guillermo De La Barreda | The Corsair

December 10, 2025

Corsair ST-K Joaquin Garcia warms up his kicking during their match against Compton College Coyotes on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, at the SMC Corsair Stadium in Santa Monica, Calif. The Corsairs beat the Coyotes 56-16.