Tuesday November 24, 2009
Serving San JosĂŠ State University since 1934
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SPORTS
OPINION
WACâs worst to square off Saturday Page 8
Volume 133, Issue 44
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A&E
A personal account of a foreclosed home Page 7
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Newest âTwilightâ movie underwhelms Page 5
AmeriCorps students aspire to bridge borders By Suzanne Yada Staff Writer
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[ Chad Ziemendorf / Spartan Daily ]
Jamie Fisher (left) prepares to work with her second group of students on Nov. 14. As an Americorps volunteer, Fisher gets a new group of students to work with every class period at the ACE Charter School in San Jose.
he loud chatter of about 40 middle-school students reverberated in a church meeting hall next door to their charter school. The students were restlessly waiting to be dismissed from their homework period at the room inside San Joseâs First Apostolic Church. But they werenât going anywhere until they calmed down, said junior packaging major Jamie Fisher. Fisher is helping tutor students from ACE Charter School, a small middle school that began two years ago to help underperforming students reach gradelevel standards, according to the schoolâs Web site. âItâs definitely a different experience than any other volunteer work Iâve ever done,â she said. âItâs very demanding. It takes a lot of time and energy out of you.â The school is so small it had
to make arrangements to use the room in the church next door for tutoring, Fisher said. Fisher is a first-time AmeriCorps member, a federally funded service program with a number of projects around the nation, according to its Web site. AmeriCorpsâ service projects range from educating the community about health, tutoring at struggling schools and helping low-income families out of poverty, according to its Web site. AmeriCorps has been on the SJSU campus since 2002, said Jeff Russell, the member development coordinator for AmeriCorps. The Bridging Borders AmeriCorps Project is SJSUâs AmeriCorps service program that works with other community organizations to help immigrant families in Santa Clara County, Russell said. First-time challenges Fisher said she had helped tuSee TUTOR, Page 2
International students UPD official says SJSU has little gang violence find meaning of Thanksgiving A By Alicia Johnson Staff Writer
By Dominique Dumadaug Staff Writer
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pending time with loved ones at a big dinner is how some SJSU students spend their Thanksgiving holiday. For students living at the International House, Thanksgiving takes on a different meaning. âFor me, itâs just like a big dinner with turkey,â said Magdalena Wierzbolowicz, a junior double major in accounting and finance from Poland. Jonny Mowlem, a junior double major in business management and marketing from Scotland, has heard about the business side of Thanksgiving. âMy perception of it before I came here was actually that it was the second-biggest thing behind Christmas,â he said. âBut Iâve been told in terms of sales and that type of thing in the business sector, itâs actually bigger than Christmas. âThereâs more purchasing and buying and there are bigger sales days.â Ebony Flett, a tourism and event management student from Australia, said she can see the traditional side of the holiday.
âItâs a real family sort of thing,â she said. âEveryone gets together and gives thanks for everything that they have.â For foreign students that donât regularly celebrate Thanksgiving and are away from their families during the holiday, they find other ways to spend their time. âFor Thanksgiving, since weâre staying at the International House, weâre going in a group of 25, which is a third of the house, to San Diego,â Mowlem said. âHopefully, the weather is good, but I heard its better in April. âWeâre going to visit a few people down there as well and go to the zoo, the water park, I think its called water world (Sea World),â he said. âAnd go on a road trip and basically hang around San Diego.â Wierzbolowicz, one of the 25 people going to San Diego, said the group will be leaving on Wednesday and will be coming back Sunday. âWe are renting cars and traveling,â she said. âWe plan to connect to L.A. because some people still havenât seen L.A.â Mowlem said the reason for the five-day road trip to San DiSee HOLIDAY, Page 2
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[ Michelle Gachet / Spartan Daily ]
An art piece by SJSU alumus Adam Coldwell at the Industrial Studies building on Thursday.
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rority house, but doesnât know the markings of any gangs. âThereâs obviously parties around campus and toward the evenings, or thereâs people that are walking the streets at night, but we donât know if theyâre students or not,â she said. âThey tend to get violent if they are not given access to some of the parties that happen to be around campus. And weâve been noticing that lately.â Tran said when violence breaks out at a party, they usually call the police. San Jose Community Services Supervisor Mario Maciel, said San Jose is one of the safest cities in the Bay Area. âI havenât seen any major trends forming,â he said.
He said most incidents occur at parties thrown by SJSU students, but those are isolated incidents. âA college student probably is not a gang banger,â Maciel said. Laws said gangs have not been a problem on campus. âThrough directed enforcement by the university police and by the city police department, we were able to essentially make the Barrio Williams Street gang something that was no longer of concern to the university,â he said. Laws said UPD officers have reported seeing graffiti tagging that is associated with that gang, but no other activity has been associated with the Barrio Williams See GANGS, Page 3
San Jose art culture may be on the rise
Spartan Daily Blogs
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side from graffiti tagged on the walls of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, little gang activity has penetrated the SJSU campus, said a University Police Department official. UPD Sgt. John Laws said night patrol has seen graffiti markings from the Barrio Williams Street gang whose presence has been almost nonexistent since the midâ90s. âWhen we do have something thatâs gang related itâs generally going to be something in the library, or something off campus,â Laws said. âFor a couple of years we were having some gang activity in
the teen center on the third floor of the King Library. âIt took a lot of directed patrol on the part of the library security staff and the officers working in the King Library to minimize and diffuse that problem.â Anh Thu Tran, a junior hospitality and management major, said she has not seen any gang activity on campus. âAround my old neighborhood, yes, my brother has been jumped twice at Independence High, but around campus I havenât heard much about any gang violence,â she said. âIâm not here on campus often. Iâm here for classes, then I leave.â Tran said she has noticed graffiti tagging on the fence of her so-
an Jose is not a dense urban area and the widespread cityscape has made it challenging to create a popular art scene, said a SJSU art technician. Shelby Smith, a ceramic and glass technician, said there is an art scene emerging in San Jose. â(The) South First Fridays event has been great to help the San Jose art scene become more popular,â he said. âThe event has encouraged people to come out and support the arts.â South First Fridays is an
event that happens on the first Friday of every month in the South First Area of downtown San Jose, according to the South First Fridays Web site. The South First Area district is the area south of San Carlos Street, between Market Street and Second Street, according to the City of San Jose Web site. The district is San Joseâs visual arts and entertainment district, according to the San Jose Downtown Association Web site. Jonathan Yao, an SJSU alumSee ART, Page 4
The Spartan Daily will not be printing on the following days:
Nov. 25, 26, 30 Our next issue will hit the stands
Tuesday, Dec. 1