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May 2014 HCC
Did UCONN win fair and square or did they
cheat?
-Neil Knox Tainted Title
Is your internship a lucky break or are you
being taken advantage of?
-Sarah Springer Unpaid Internships:
Opportunity or Oppression
Page 12
Why Horizons Matters
-Ashley Seetoo
Faculty Expressions A rt Show Exhibit
-Brenna McIntyre
Page 10
Page 17
Page 7
Are feelings of shame affecting your life?
Find out about the dangers of it by reading
Shame Hurts By Nicole Lazariuk.
Page 5
100%
2
arts & entertainment
cont nts
e
Horizons Staff
Editor-in-Chief
David Weidenfeller
Advisor
Prof. Steve Mark
Managing Editor
Sherly Montes
Editors-at-Large
Emma Tecun, Nicole Lazariuk, Ashley Seetoo
Opinions Editor
Neil Knox
Online and Social Media Editor
Lindsey Baldassare
Staf Writers
Paul Chuvov, Steven Eszenyi, Olivia Hodge,
Alyxandra Irizarry, Monica Medina, Leslie Pizzagalli,
Sarah Springer, Desiree Swendsen
Senior Staf Writers
Sekinah Erskine, Franklin Jusino, Brenna McIntyre,
Stacy Shippee, Ashley Teare
Contributing Writers
Jay Lederman
Art and Design Directors
Vanessa Morales, Carolina Trinidad
Design Advisor
Prof. Andy Pinto
Front Cover Design
Carolina Trinidad
State Board Of Regents Responds To Security Concerns.............................3
BY NEIL KNOX

Criminal Justice Club Visit to Ground Zero
Memorial and the NYC Police Museums.......................................................3
BY PAUL CHUHVOV

Feeling Blu: An E-Cigarette Disaster.........................................................4
BY LESLIE PIZZAGALLI
Expectations vs Reality....................................................................................4
BY STEVEN ESZENYI
The Battle Against Obesity.............................................................................5
BY PAUL CHUHVOV

Shame Hurts.....................................................................................................5
BY NICOLE LAZARIUK
Can Textbooks Be Made Less Costly?............................................................6
BY PAUL CHUHVOV
Its a Legend-wait for it- dary Life.................................................................6
BY FRANKLIN JUSINO JR.
Unpaid Internships: Opportunity or Oppression?........................................7
BY SARAH SPRINGER
Get Fit!.............................................................................................................7
BY OLIVIA HODGE
Never Give Up Your Dreams...........................................................................8
BY SEKINAH ERSKINE
Tips to Transfer More Easily .........................................................................8
BY LINDSEY BALDASSARE
Can Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder?.................................................9
BY ASHLEY TEARE
Horizons Is Not A Joke..................................................................................10
BY ASHLEY SEETOO
Instagram Gone Wild....................................................................................11
BY OLIVIA HODGE
Brother Dans Travelling Salvation Show....................................................11
BY NEIL KNOX
UConns Tainted Title....................................................................................12
BY NEIL KNOX
Keep Your Kindness to Yourself...................................................................12
BY SHERLY MONTES
No Cash?.. No Lunch......................................................................................13
BY ALYXANDRA IRIZARRY
Beyond ArtistryPassion.............................................................................13
BY CAROLINA TRINIDAD
EB: The Quiet Struggle of Butterfy Children.............................................13
BY DESIREE SWENDSEN
Silent Shouts: A Confession of Abuse............................................................14
BY DESIREE SWENDSEN
The College Dropout......................................................................................15
BY SYLVIA TAYLOR
Closets Are For Clothes.................................................................................15
BY DESIREE SWENDSEN
The Underappreciated Treasure of HCC.....................................................16
BY BRENNA MCINTYRE 16
Painter Michael Peery Visits HCC...............................................................16
BY PAUL CHUHVOV
HCC Faculty Act as (A)Muse to Students.....................................................17
BY BRENNA MCINTYRE
The Daughter of Another Illustrator.............................................................17
BY SARAH SPRINGER
Poems Found in Issue 2 of Horizons..............................................................18
BY HORIZONS STAFF
Campus Haiku ...............................................................................................19
BY HORIZONS STAFF
Bologna Stew: A Lesson in Ingenuity...........................................................21
BY SARAH SPRINGER
Delzell Chili....................................................................................................21
BY NICOLE LAZARIUK
French Onion Chicken Recipe .....................................................................22
BY ALYXANDRA IRIZARRY
3
arts & entertainment
news
e
HORIZONS News
I
n response to public criticism from
one of its own college presidents,
the Connecticut State Board of Re-
gents for Higher Education has allocat-
ed $191,000 of its own money to pay for
security evaluations of all 12 Connecticut
Community College campuses.
The evaluations began in February of
this year, and as of mid-March were, ac-
cording to a Board of Regents offcial, 75
percent completed.
It was the publicity that [Manches-
ter Community College President] Gina
Glickman brought upon the issue that
prompted certain Board members into
action, said Board offcial Ahmed Beer-
mann. Beermann is the only acting Board
offcial dealing with the issue of campus
security pending designation of a new de-
partment at the Board. It is hoped that ap-
proval will be given to designate a Public
Safety Offce for the frst time in Board of
Regents history soon.
Manchester Community College was
the scene of an accidental shooting in
March of 2013 when a responding police
offcer, while performing a search of the
campus shot himself. At the time of the
shooting Manchesters campus was in a
full lockdown or Shelter-In-Place mode.
Offcers at the scene were responding to a
call about a gunman on the campus.
The Shelter-in-Place procedure is the
use of a structure and its indoor atmosphere
to temporarily separate individuals from
an outside threat. Participants are encour-
aged to stay indoors, close, lock, and stay
away from external doors and windows.
It is used primarily at schools but also has
been used in workplaces as well.
During the room to room search, al-
ready in its third hour, one of the offcers
carelessly allowed his automatic weapon
to discharge inside the school. No students
were injured but the incident brought out
the ire of the schools President.
Gina Glickman was quick to take to the
airwaves to criticize the existing policies
dealing with potential threats to campus
security. In the Record Journal she was
quoted as saying, Why have a sworn po-
lice force on campus if it is unable to act as
a sworn police force?
Glickman has also been at the forefront
of a movement that would allow for armed
security personnel on all community col-
lege campuses.
At that particular time the Board was
in complete disarray with the recent resig-
nation of Board President Kennedy. There
was very little communicating going on at
all regarding the campus security topic,
Beermann said.
The shooting at Manchester occurred on
the heels of the horrifc crimes committed
at Sandy Hook Elementary just a short six
months after, concern here at the Board
was on other things, Beermann said.
The issue was fnally addressed by in-
terim Board President Dr. Lawson. I dont
know how they did it but he and CFO
found the money somewhere and we put
the contract up for bid, hoping wed fnd a
security frm willing to do what was need-
ed for the amount we had at our disposal,
Beerman said.
Elhert Associates got the job and began
evaluations of campus security protocols
for all 12 of the Community Colleges here
in Connecticut this past February. They
will not only evaluate security responses
to actual physical threats on a campus but
will also look at the ways schools can se-
cure themselves better against natural di-
sasters as well.
We were fortunate enough to receive
a $1,000,000 grant from the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency (FEMA) for
just such occasions. After Hurricane San-
dy, as part of my own responsibilities,
thought it a good idea to be ready for any-
thing and I applied to them for the grant,
said Beerman.
The fnal report will be submitted to
the Board with recommendations. At that
time we will hopefully have a new Public
safety Department formed to address any
outstanding concerns.
The public safety procedures at HCC
have already been evaluated by Elhert, and
any recommendations will be available
in their fnal report. Whether or not these
evaluations will be made available for pub-
lic scrutiny has yet to be determined.
State Board Of Regents Responds
To Security Concerns
BY NEIL KNOX
OPINIONS EDITOR
O
n April 12, The Criminal Jus-
tice Club held a trip to the
New York City Police Mu-
seum and the 9/11 Memorial. The event
was organized by Mike Borges, Mari-
am Noorzad, and Kathryn Hanrahan the
president, vice-president, and treasurer
of the club respectively. Vern Krill, pro-
fessor of Criminal Justice at HCC and
advisor to the club accompanied the
group.
A bus drove the 25 people who signed
up for the trip to New York City and
dropped the group off a few blocks from
the Battery Park near the southernmost
tip of Manhattan island. We all walked
a few short blocks to the New York City
Police Museum, now temporarily locat-
ed at 45 Wall Street.
The New York City Police Museum
sustained great damage from Storm San-
dy on October 29 2012; the first floor of
the museum had four feet of water and it
is now being restored.
The temporary museum is just one
small room with a limited amount of ar-
tifacts. Noorzad was impressed by the
clothing that police-women wore back
in the 1960s when women were first
allowed to become policewomen. Some-
one recalled that about four years ago
there was a similar trip to the police mu-
seum and that it was more interesting.
9/11 Memorial and Museum
Noorzad said,The visit to the 9/11
Memorial reminded me of when the 9/11
event happened I was just a little girl in
school and did not fully understand then
what this was all about. We lived in New
Haven at that time, near the Coast Guard
base and near an oil tank farm, and there
was a lot of concern back then should
the oil tanks explode if also attacked.
The Ground Zero has two parts to it:
the Memorial and the Museum. This vis-
it was limited to the Memorial because
the Museum portion is not yet open.
The museum portion is scheduled to
open on May 21 2014 and many on the
this trip, including the writer, felt that
they had misunderstood the scope of this
visit and were disappointed. The weath-
er on that day was just perfect and being
at the memorial park was comfortable
although the atmosphere was of guarded
quiet reflection and sadness.
The Memorial portion are two square
reflecting pools set within the footprint
of where each World Trade building
stood surrounded by a park with about
400 trees occupying about half of the 16
acres site.
The footprint of each pool is about
one acre in size. Along the four edges
of each pool, about 200 feet long, there
are many large marble blocks with the
names of the 3000 people killed, in the
attacks of February 26 1993 and Sep-
tember 11 2001, inscribed and carved
through them. The reflecting pools con-
tinuously circulate water in a fountain
fashion except that the water just over-
flows the edges towards the center of the
each pool. The flow of the water creates
the sound of a loud waterfall.
After the museum opens, Tuesdays
from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. admission is free
starting on May 27 2014. U.S. student
admission, at other times, is $18.
Mike, the club president, kept us
all informed throughout the trip, and
no one was lost and we all returned to-
gether, noted Krill at the end of the
trip.
The Criminal Justice club meetings
are every other Thursday at 2 p.m.
Criminal Justice Club Visit to Ground Zero
Memorial and the NYC Police Museums
BY PAUL CHUHVOV
STAFF WRITER
The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.
DWIGHT EISENHOWER
Refection pool at the 9/11 Memorial visited by the Criminal Justice Club during trip to New York City.
Photo by: Paul Chuvov
4 HORIZONS News
A
notorious trend that has re-
cently swept the nation is the
increasingly popular elec-
tronic, or e cigarette. Teenagers,
young adults, and older adults have been
participating in the craze. The e-ciga-
rette is a device containing nicotine va-
por instead of the normal tobacco and
smoke of a typical cigarette. These elec-
tronic cigarettes were created in order to
provide a healthier and safer alterna-
tive to smoking. Little did the creators of
these devices know it would cause more
stress than help.
The electronic cigarette was released
in September of the year 2010. Since
then, the CDC released in February of
this year that over 200 calls each month
have been sent out to Poison Control.
These calls are regarding nicotine poi-
soning in children under the age of five.
Children are drawn to the sweet scent
of the vapor tubes used to refill these
e-cigarettes and end up swallowing the
liquid. Even more frightening, children
do not need to directly ingest this sub-
stance in order to experience symptoms
of nicotine poisoning. Inhalation of the
vapor and absorption through the childs
skin is enough to cause extreme illness.
Although the harm is not said to be
the product of one specific type of e-cig,
one thing is for certain: the liquid chem-
ical used in these electronic devices,
when exposed to the skin, becomes fatal
to children, and in some cases, younger
adults.
An abundance of people have become
part of the electronic cigarette infatua-
tion. Students at Housatonic are familiar
with these devices, and many of those
enrolled in HCC also have children un-
der the young age of five. Students who
have children are worried about the new
e-cigarette devices. Even students who
use and know those who smoke e-cigs
are concerned. What harm are they do-
ing to young adults if so many calls have
already been made to Poison Control?
Students were shocked to hear the
news of these poisonings. If children
were becoming severely ill by not even
consuming this substance, but only
absorbing it through their skin, is it
possible that is it harming the older
adults using it as well?
The answer to this question: yes. An-
other quite appalling piece of information
released by the CDC, located on the off-
cial government Centers of Disease Con-
trol and Prevention website (www.cdc.
gov), reports that although more than half
the calls made to Poison Control were
regarding children under the age of fve,
the remaining calls were all young adults
around the age of twenty and older. That
is around the age of most students and us-
ers of these electronic cigarettes. The use
of people smoking e-cigs is rising, and
poisonings related to electronic cigarettes
is escalating just as quickly.
Recently, in Shelton, Connecticut, an
E-Cigarette store opened on Howe Ave-
nue. Shelton E-Cigs sells these vapor
dispensing pens in all different assort-
ments. Two Shelton residents and HCC
students disclosed their ideas on e-cig-
arettes. Mark Carotenuto offered a pos-
itive response when asked about elec-
tronic cigarettes and the Shelton E-Cigs
store: Its pretty cool. When I have mine,
I smoke signifcantly less, which is awe-
some. I feel that smoking is more of an
oral [fxation] rather than an addiction
sometimes, Carotenuto said.
Carotenuto personally smokes these
e-cigarettes and is friends with many stu-
dents who do as well. As far as the nic-
otine poisoning in children, Carotenuto
adds, Nicotine around children is def-
nitely not okay though. No matter what,
its just not right.
Johnny Goulart does not smoke elec-
tronic cigarettes, but he knew a pletho-
ra of information about them. Goulart
shared this information by saying, I had
no idea about all the nicotine poisoning,
but Im not surprised, seeing as though
the oil from the pens contains small doses
of concentrated nicotine. What I did know
is one drop of pure nicotine in some-
ones coffee can poison that person to
death.
Plus, the e-cigarette says on the box
to not take more than ffteen drags or so
an hour, yet kids go far beyond that, he
added.
From a medical standpoint, Ruth Du-
shay, a nurse practitioner at Yale New
Haven Hospital, is the mother of two
Housatonic students, including aspir-
ing nursing major Molly Dushay. When
asked about the e-cigarette situation, Mrs.
Dushay reciprocated by saying how she
thought it could potentially change the
smoking situation, but not anymore. It
seemed like an awesome idea to begin
with, but after hearing all these nega-
tive effects, it doesnt seem like much
of a change in comparison to tobacco
cigarettes,she said. Although this nurse
had high hopes for this product, hear-
ing about the injuries and harm these
e-cigs have brought transformed her the-
ory on these devices completely.
Ruths daughter, Molly Dushay, a
HCC student longing for a nursing de-
gree, following in her mothers foot-
steps, was extremely disappointed when
hearing the news. Dushay plans to work
with children in the future, and learning
about the multiple poisonings saddened
her intensely.
Overall, it was agreed by not only by
these students, but fellow Housatonic
pupils, to know your boundaries if you
choose to smoke these devices while
having or being around children. These
electronic cigarettes are filled with fruity
and sweet liquids that attract young kids
who could become severely injured by
simply breathing in the vapor. In the
future, the objective for sellers of this
product is to achieve child-lock packag-
ing for these devices. That is not the only
element of the situation that attention
should be drawn to. If students choose
to smoke these cigarettes, they must
take their own health into consideration
as well.
Feeling Blu: An E-Cigarette Disaster
BY LESLIE PIZZAGALLI
STAFF WRITER
The new hot spot for purchasing electronic cigarettes: Shelton E-Cigs, located on Howe Avenue in
Shelton, CT. Photo by Leslie Pizzagalli
A
t the beginning of the school
year, every incoming student
was wondering how their col-
lege experience would be. The amount of
work expected by students was defnitely
nerveracking. Just thinking about it in-
duced a headache. Now that it has been
a few months, some expectations might
have been a bit farther than they needed
to be. Many students were very worried
about whether they would pass all their
classes. Is this the case for everyone? Has
college lived up to the expectations of
other frst-year students so far?
Christopher Burns came into college
expecting the workload to be less than
that of high school but more challenging.
I dont have a teacher telling me assign-
ments every day, so I have to stay on top
of my assignments, he said.
Burns said he would make a sched-
ule change to college to help match his
expectations. He said, I would change
the class length and frequency. Instead of
class being an hour-thirty minutes, two
days a week, Id make it an hour, three
days a week.
Hannah Ornstein of mashable.com
listed a few common expectations about
the frst year of college that are nowhere
near reality. One of these is making
friends. Everybody is faced with the chal-
lenge of doing this with all of their high
school friends going to different schools.
Everyone starts college with a clean
slate, Ornstein said. Nobody has to carry
any past experiences around and nobody
knows anything about you. Its one of the
few chances to really remake yourself.
The problem is that making friends is
not as easy as it appears. Ornstein says,
The frst few weeks can be awkward.
The conversations can also be repetitive.
It is very diffcult to make new friends.
Now that we are well into the school year,
Im sure a lot of people can agree that it
took some time to build some friendships.
Not all students who attend college
live at home. For Housatonic, this is usu-
ally the case as it is a community college.
Some students who plan on transferring
may want to know what to expect when
they become a frst year student in a dorm
room.
Roddy Eskew, a student at Boston
University, lives in a dorm. I expected
it to be tough to get work done without
my parents making sure I do it. This is
the case, Eskew said. Getting work done
without any supervision is tough. Pro-
crastination levels may reach peaks and
you may fnd yourself doing assignments
well into the night. To keep from doing
this, try to keep a schedule and reward
yourself with a trip to the dining hall after
completing some work.
Eskew also pointed out something that
he predicted that ended up being false. I
signed up for a few 8 a.m. classes think-
ing it would be a good idea to get a jump
on the day. I regret that decision because
fnding the motivation to get up was diff-
cult, he said. Everybody operates on dif-
ferent schedules and it is best to fnd what
works for you. This could be different for
students who live at home. Waking up
may be easier in your house where it is
easier to go to bed at a decent hour.
All in all, college is a tough place.
Every student had a different idea what
it was going to be like heading into it but
as the year winds down, the reality of col-
lege has surely changed how some people
feel.
Expectations vs Reality
BY STEVEN ESZENYI
STAFF WRITER
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.
John Maxwell
5 HORIZONS News
N
utrition determines our ftness
to a signifcant extent. This is
not always apparent when we
are young, but becomes increasingly ap-
parent as we grow older. By then, often,
health avalanches into illness and the re-
covery of ftness can be diffcult, and even
a losing battle. What can we do about this
predicament?
One way to motivate ourselves to ad-
dress this problem is to always stay fo-
cused on what the U.S. Surgeon General
Richard Carmona said ten years ago in
March 2004: Because of the increasing
rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits,
and physical inactivity, we may see the
frst generation that will have a shorter life
expectancy than their parents.
In the same year Dr. Kelly Brownell,
professor at Yale university, published a
book titled Food Fight: The Inside Sto-
ry of the Food Industry and also found-
ed the Rudd Center at Yale University.
Dr. Brownell, a Rutgers university gradu-
ate, taught at Yale for about two decades.
A multidisciplinary course taught by him
was: The Psychology, Biology and Poli-
tics of Food. This course was videotaped
and still can be accessed on the Yale web-
site as part of the opencourseware move-
ment.
In July of 2013, Brownell left Yale
University after directing the Rudd Center
for 10 years, and accepted an offer to join
Duke University as the dean of the Sanborn
School of Public Policy. After 6 months at
Duke University, the January 31 2014 issue
of the Chronicle reported an interview with
Brownell where he said, ... probably in
April or May a strategic plan will emerge.
Hopefully the plan will include continuing
the promoting of the fght against the caus-
es of obesity (malnutrition) at the Sanborn
Center and new opportunities will permit
Yale and Duke universities to collaborate
on the fght For Our Health.
On the West Coast, from 1995, Dr.
Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist
at the University of California in San Fran-
cisco, has been tracking down the reasons
why children are also becoming obese.
Both Lustig and Brownell have identifed
that sugar is one major contributor to the
obesity epidemic.
Recently New York City Mayor Mi-
chael Bloomberg attempted to act on these
fndings by discouraging heavy consump-
tion of sugary beverages, but his initiative
was overturned.
Efrain Tirado, a business management
student at HCC, said, Fats are important
to eat. I dont think that the sugary bever-
ages like Sunny-D or Capri-Sun give us
energy.
Nyrasia Lomax, a general studies stu-
dent at HCC, looks at the nutrition problem
in a more comprehensive way and said,
People are lazy and use the elevator, stay
inside in air-conditioned places, and drive.
They should take the stairs, go outside, and
walk.
She then added, people in England eat
smaller portions. People say I am obese or
I have high cholesterol and resign to their
condition and just dont care. The fesh is
overpowering their better judgment.
I became aware of the food issues
from close family friends and my aunts,
added Lomax.
Being mindful about eating sugar is
diffcult. One reason for this is that on the
myftnesspal.com website there is a refer-
ence to a project on Facebook about the
249 (and counting...) names for sugar that
appear in the ingredient lists of packages in
the USA and Canada.
One outcome from the existence, and
proliferation, of all these names is: It
helps to hide the obvious name of sugar.
At the same time this makes it diffcult for
the consumer to fgure out the relationship
of these many names to sugar. For the com-
mon person, to be aware of all these names
is not a small task. Just imagine, each of
these names corresponds to an industry
which manufactures, advertises, and dis-
tributes these substances to the industries
that add the stuff to the foods, which
they produce that eventually reaches us,
the (informed or misinformed) consumers.
Fortunately for the HCC community
the Healthy Living Club was recently
reactivated by Debbie Green. The mis-
sion statement is: Health and wellness,
said Green. The HLC is a place where
students can seek the ftness goal and
where they can learn from each other
and at the events it organizes. This se-
mester the HLC had a gardening program
to grow vegetables at community desig-
nated land parcels. At the beginning of
each semester the members vote for the
day and time when the meetings are to
be held. The members of the HLC also
receive email reminders to Stay Health
Conscious and to Make Positive De-
cisions. The HLC can be reached at
mindbodysoul.hcc@gmail.com and on
Facebook at facebook.com/mindbodys-
oul.hcc.
The Battle Against Obesity
BY PAUL CHUHVOV
STAFF WRITER
Foods of Human Destruction?
W
e all feel shame from time to
time. Its said that the answer
is to let it go, but how?
Sleep comes hard when thoughts of
regret are creating the painful emotion
of shame. Just when you think you have
conquered it, it pops up again ruining your
peace of mind.
According to Indira Reddy, a counsel-
or at the Housatonic Counseling Center,
shame is hard to avoid and why we feel
shame can be different depending on our
cultures, religions, classes, genders, and so
on.
John Sopchak, Professor of Psycholo-
gy at HCC, agrees that shame differs from
culture to culture. Shame is a huge event
in the Asian culture and needs to be avoid-
ed as much as possible while other cultures
will just let shame roll off their backs, he
said.
However, we dont come into this world
flled with shame. Shame is not some-
thing that we are born with it is something
we learn, Reddy said.
Something as simple as a persons
grandfather not acknowledging something
a child has said can send the message that
the child is not worthy of attention. Even
if the child is misinterpreting the slight the
result is the same.
Reddy says if something like this is not
clarifed right away the child may get the
wrong idea and feel shame for not being
lovable.
Claudine Coba-Loh, Professor of Psy-
chology at HCC, explained in an email that
there is a huge difference between guilt
and shame that needs to be understood.
People feel guilty over something they
have done. Shame comes from how the
person sees themselves, their self-percep-
tion i.e. I am a horrible person...Shame is
at the core of the individual, it leads to res-
ignation and despair, she wrote.
Reddy says you can see it in a persons
face when they are down on themselves.
They may for example think Im not wor-
thy even to look good. No wonder when
a person feels shame they might decide to
isolate.
Isolation creates more problems be-
cause we dont get that sense of approval
and belonging we all crave. People who
isolate socially dont have that mirroring
experience of You look good today,...
you are left with nothing else so you draw
your own conclusions, Reddy said. She
says a person may think for example Im
all bad or How can God love me when I
have let him down?
It can be painful to admit to shame so
often people will try to just pretend they
are fne. What people will do instead of
dealing with shame is repress it, Sopchak
said.
Reddy agrees,. In my experience stu-
dents will fnd it diffcult to own up to the
emotion of shame because shame comes
with it a sense of having failed...for exam-
ple your Mom and Dads expectations,
she said.
Sopchak explained that we need to face
what is causing the shame: Repression is
a defense mechanism that people use when
they dont want to deal...Psychoanalysis
is used to bring the contents that are re-
pressed to the surface, this is called a ca-
thartic event.
Sopchak agrees with the need to get
things out, and said journaling can be help-
ful. Yes, that helps us to keep it in the
here and now and sometimes we are able
to work through it by writing, he said.
Its important to look at what is really
going on. As a counselor, Reddy guides
students to look at themselves and devel-
op self-awareness. She says healing is a
gradual process, though, that wont happen
overnight.
The shame will slowly begin to be
eliminated, Coba-Loh says, as the person
faces and corrects wherever possible the
behavior that caused the shame.
The person will start feeling bet-
ter about themselves as they address the
guilt, said Coba-Loh. We see the spiral
going upward as the individual is ridding
themselves of shame, ultimately raising
their self-esteem and confdence.
Talking to people seems to be the key to
conquering shame.
Tammie V. Smith from the Housatonic
Womens Center knows that sometimes
people dont want to admit to feelings of
shame and needing others. We are two
people, the people you see and the peo-
ple we are when we go home, Smith
said. We wear masks and try not to show
whats going on.
The Womens Center has an open door
policy and people come in all the time just
to sit, talk, and release. We have a coun-
seling center for the need to talk in privacy
and deal with any issues...our walls have
no ears., Smith said.
Its important that if you dont have
people to talk to that you seek counseling
or a support group, so you can see that
there are others going through the same
things as you. Housatonic has The Wom-
ens Center, The Mens Center and The
Counseling Center available to students if
you need somewhere to go and talk.
Shame Hurts
BY NICOLE LAZARIUK
EDITOR
6
HORIZONS News
S
tudents generally agree that for
some courses the cost of text-
books is often very high. At
times students say that the textbooks are
not even used and that the teachers are not
satisfed with the textbooks. Does the stu-
dents point of view matter? Is the cost of
textbooks like a runaway train that can not
be stopped?
Many textbooks at HCC are expensive.
Why are they so expensive? Is there a way
to reduce their cost? Is anyone attempting
to reduce their cost?
Diahann Phillips, a student at HCC,
said,The price of the textbook was more
than half that of the tuition for the course.
The professor does not like the textbook
but just lectures. So far, this semester,
we actually used the textbook only three
times.
According to librarian Mark Gore,
one way of reducing the student burden
is to take advantage of the library. The
library has textbooks reserved for use in
the library for up to 2 hours at a time. For
popular classes several copies of the same
textbook are available, he said.
For Edwin Irizarry, Books are heavy
and I would like to have digital textbooks
on a device of my choice.
A University of Michigan study for
the high cost of the textbooks cited that
A Connecticut Board of Governors for
High[er] Education study (2006) revealed
that only 58 percent of that states faculty
were aware of the cost of the textbooks
they selected for their courses. The same
report, written by Nichols, among many
factors, cites two major reasons for chang-
es in textbook prices. One: ... the revision
cycle of three to four years common to
many books, regardless of whether or not
the previous edition needed updating...
because it limits the students ability to
purchase used textbooks. Two: ... addi-
tional instructional materials such as soft-
ware and workbooks bundled into text-
books.
Another reason in the Michigan study
is: ... many faculty members choose and
assign their textbooks with little regard to
the cost of the textbooks.
The report also explains that ...the
unusual separation existing between
those who choose the textbooks and those
who eventually pay for them contributes
to the rising costs of textbooks
Do the students speak up? Have the
students been heard? Should they be
heard? Do they want to be heard? If the
students want to be heard how can this be
done effectively?
Any student may attend the Student
Senate meetings every Thursday at 2:00
p.m. and make a motion to address the is-
sue to organize an HCC or an inter-com-
munity college representation effort to
have the students be represented at the
selection process to insure a reasonable
cost, re-usability, and initial quality for
textbooks.
The students at the Tacoma Commu-
nity College were heard, they initiated an
action through the student government.
Tacoma Community Colleges student
government helped pay to hire a special-
ist, Quill West, to help professors track
down low-cost alternatives to textbooks.
The discovery of public domain re-
sources suitable for community college
use needs to be encouraged. There also
must be a quality assurance that the work-
books are made with suitable and accept-
able paper quality for the intended use.
The existing production does not appear
to have the student usability factor con-
sidered or suffciently represented and
enforced. Is the proft motive unilaterally
driving the system?
Another factor is that in some cases
textbooks are highly illustrated contrib-
uting to the increase in size, weight, and
cost. Are all of the illustrations really
necessary?
Some of these consideration appear to
have been addressed by the Washington
State Board of Community and Technical
College. The board ... (SBCTC) has also
developed its own Open Course Library,
a project that assembled all curriculum
materials online for the 81 most popular
courses offered at Washingtons commu-
nity and technical colleges. And As part
of that initiative, the State identifed or
helped create online textbooks and class
materials for each course that could be
purchased for $30 or less. It is estimated
that the Open Course Library initiative in
the State of Washington ... saved students
at least $5.5 million to date.
Students who receive fnancial aid may
not feel the cost of the textbooks and may
not be looking for cheaper textbooks.
Teachers, if not asked, may not have
realized that there may be hardships for
some students when buying costly text-
books. It is a shame that tuition is only a
part of the costs. You have to plan for $200
to $300 dollars more for books, depending
on how many classes you are taking, said
Nicole Lazariuk, a student at HCC.
Marlene Kinchen, a theater major at
HCC, said: Textbooks are defnitely ex-
pensive. Colleges should fnd a way to
make less expensive and more affordable
textbooks for students. That will help the
students in fnancial area.
Thomas Kinchen, Marlenes broth-
er, said: This semester I am taking
four classes and I paid about $600
dollars for the books. Introduction to
theater cost $180, English writing cost
$120, Music History and Appreciation
cost $200, and Theater Directing cost
$100.
My own experience has been that
the art and theatre department teachers
seem to have more sensitivity about the
affordability of textbooks than teachers
of other disciplines although that can
easily be a direct consequence of indi-
vidualized personal life experiences.
A related issue ought also not be for-
gotten. Lab workbooks at times are print-
ed on paper that is diffcult to write on
with a pencil and does not erase well but
instead smudges creating a mess. Why
does this happen? How is quality and
suitability of paper accounted for? Such
carelessness is inexcusable; especial-
ly when the workbooks are also so very
expensive.
Can Textbooks Be Made Less Costly?
BY PAUL CHUHVOV
STAFF WRITER
Textbooks on the reserved shelves in the HCC library for use in the library for up to 2 hours at a time
awaiting checkout.
photo by: Paul Chuvov
I
f you could live to be 100 years
old, what would have had to do to
make your life perfect? Whats your
dream? What do you think 20 years from
now youll remember with fondness? In
the recent fnale for the show How I Met
Your Mother, one character, Barney Stin-
son, was focused on living the dream and
making life legendary. The character is
a terrible role model, a womanizing socio-
path who cares little for others. Despite
this he lives life to the fullest. So there is a
gem hidden in this. So we went around and
asked some students about their dreams
and what, in 20 years, will have made their
lives great.
Ashley Seetoo- I want to work for the
Rolling Stone.
20 years from now Ill be happy with all
of the friends I made.
Orlando Williams- Getting married is
one, having kids.
20 years from now Ill remember the
best part of today is my daughter.
Lisa Coppeto- Traveling the world,
meeting Channing Tatum and Bruno Mars.
Married Happily.
The best part of today shell remember
is seeing her best friend.
Dina Vidalis- Acquire all the knowl-
edge and wisdom in the world.
20 years from being a high school
dropout and being in college working to-
wards a degree I want.
Seana Nieves Travel I guess?
My boyfriend
Lauren Lukianuk - I dont think Ill
have a perfect life but Ill be happy if I
was content.
20 years shell remember- being
young and not having.... fexibility not
being tied down to a job. .
Ken Bran- I want to just have en-
joyed myself.
20 years from now. Ill be happy with
how Im pushing myself to be better.
Gabriel Jackson-If i lived to 100, itll
be perfect if I make myself happy.
20 years from now, he will remember
the experience.
Larry Learie- wants to be able to do
anything he wanted to do to make him-
self happy, skydiving, traveling.
Hell remember his friends and what
they did and how they hung out. Same
as in 20 years I guess
Barbara Hernandez- Living to 100
would be perfect, she said, if she was
getting to do everything she wanted.
20 years from now shell be happy fn-
ishing school, its a big accomplishment.
These are just a few dreams that fel-
low students have. With summer fast
approaching the people you may see
every day could be leaving to start new
lives: graduating or moving. You need to
Carpe diem (Seize the day). Whats your
dream?
Its a Legend-wait for it- dary Life
BY FRANKLIN JUSINO JR.
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of piece of mind
Ralph Waldo Emerson
7
HORIZONS News
W
hen Dave Fuller interned
with the political campaign
for Senator Joseph Lieber-
man in 2004, he hadnt quite realized the
fnancial burden he would be undertaking.
[The internship] was unpaid, he ex-
plained, and a long commute from Strat-
ford to Hartford, plus paying a monthly
parking pass. Work days were long, and the
work always piled up more than the offce
seemed to have room to handle.
Those parking passes in Hartford cost
him about $1000 for the four months he in-
terned, and while gas prices in 2004 were
lower than they are now, he had to pay
that, too. His forty hours of work per week
(the equivalent of most full-time careers)
and the length of his commute to and from
Hartford did not leave time for gainful em-
ployment in even a part-time job.
Yet Fullers hard work on this campaign
benefted him in the long run. I graduat-
ed in 2006, when Senator Lieberman was
seeking re-election. I was hired immediate-
ly after graduation for the campaign, he
said.
But not everyone who takes on an un-
paid internship is as lucky. In their Class of
2013 Student Survey, the National Associ-
ation of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
found that paid interns were twice as likely
to get jobs as unpaid interns. Having an un-
paid internship did not increase the chance
of getting a job over those students who
had no internships, either. Overall, paid in-
terns earned better once they got a job, too;
on average, over $16,000 more per year.
Currently, about half of the available
internships are unpaid, and two thirds of
interns had to take a second job in order to
continue their internship. Some unpaid in-
terns are fghting back on the grounds that
unpaid internships violate the Fair Labor
Standards Act. More than 20 lawsuits have
been brought against companies including
Gawker Media, Atlantic Records, Cond
Nast, and NBCUniversal and theyre
getting results. NBCUniversal has started
paying its interns, and Cond Nast abol-
ished its unpaid intern program for 2014.
Helping these interns is the Fair Pay
Campaign, a grassroots organization
launched in September 2013 whose goal
is to end unpaid internships, and build
an economy that works for everyone [by]
working with business leaders, partnering
with labor advocates, empowering students
and interns, and pressuring the Department
of Labor.
In addition to ending unpaid internships,
the Fair Pay Campaign promotes increas-
ing the educational beneft of internship.
Interns can do more than make coffee and
photocopy, their website states. Intern-
ships should offer real opportunities for
learning and professional development.
Housatonic graduate Liz Chueka, a for-
mer intern for a state representative at the
Connecticut State Legislature, had a simi-
lar experience. I had nothing to do a lot,
and the down time was frustrating. I read a
lot during down time, she said.
While some of her responsibilities
included on-the-job experience like
researching past bills, most of her tasks
centered around the banal offce manage-
ment work that no one else wanted to do:
copying, collating, sealing envelopes, and
answering emails.
Despite this, not all former interns
believe that unpaid internships are a bad
thing. Jamie Antonazzo, an Analyst in San
Francisco, California, thinks highly of the
unpaid internship she took on at Carnegie
Hall in New York City.
I loved the exposure to the classical
music scene in New York, Antonazzo
said. I made a number of valuable con-
tacts while I was there, and loved being
behind-the-scenes at such a prestigious
institution.
This love may have had something to
do with the work that Antonazzo was able
to perform at Carnegie Hall. Unlike Chue-
ka, Antonazzo had a better balance be-
tween menial offce labor and on-the-job
experience during her three months there,
like managing educational programs and
organizing events.
Antonazzo believes that both paid and
unpaid internships have a valuable place.
In certain felds that offer paid intern-
ships, these internships are paid because
the internship experience is essentially be-
ing used as a recruiting opportunity, she
said. In the case of unpaid internships in
nonproft or arts oriented felds, there are
many, many more qualifed people who
want to do those jobs than there are avail-
able positions, and it seems logical that
those internships would be unpaid.
Antonazzos internship was a forty
hour per week job, but at least it was paid
in college credit. Fuller agreed that col-
lege credit is a decent reward for unpaid
internships. Getting unpaid internships
compensated with college credit [saves]
the student and their family serious mon-
ey.
While unpaid interns like Antonazzo
do not directly receive a paycheck, the
credits from the internship save them
money on their college tuition and any
other expenses a course they might incur
(such as textbooks and school supplies).
In essence, it is very much like getting
paid.
Fuller now hires interns himself,
in political campaigns, local nonproft
work, and local online news sites. While
mostly unpaid due to the nature of the
work, he said that he tries to do what he
can to ease the fnancial burden. With
the political internships, I try to work
into the budget a bonus or small thank
you stipend for the hard work, he ex-
plained.
The fnal verdict on unpaid intern-
ships is still out; they can be helpful to
some interns like Antonazzo, who feel
that they were paid in experience and
college credit, and a fnancial burden to
others who have to pay out-of-pocket
expenses to perform free labor. With the
growing dissatisfaction amongst interns,
and the work of organizations like the
Fair Pay Campaign, only time will tell if
the unpaid internship will survive.
Unpaid Internships:
Opportunity or Oppression?
BY SARAH SPRINGER
STAFF WRITER
D
id you know that our school has
a gym? If so, how many of us
actually use it?
Ok, so it doesnt have a swimming pool
and basketball court like L.A. Fitness, but
unlike L.A. Fitness, HCCs gym is total-
ly free and it provides access to the same
workout machines as other gyms, including
the treadmill, which works on your cardio-
vascular ftness, the chest press machine,
which works on your chest, shoulders and
triceps, and the front lat pulldown, which
works your lats, biceps and middle back
. Our gym also has a locker and shower
room. All you need to enter this world of
ftness is your school I.D., and a change of
clothes, of course.
People work out/exercise for many rea-
sons. It may be to lose weight, tone up
the muscles, create that perfect body, or
the most important reason: to stay healthy.
Our school gym, located in Beacon Hall,
across from the evening division center, is
open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from
11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7
p.m. Zumba classes are also offered from
6-7 on Wednesday nights. There is also a
sign on the door that lets you know what
other times may be available. Think about
what times may be convenient for you to
stop by and visit the gym and get your ex-
ercise on!
When it comes to physical activi-
ty, some is better than none, and more
is better according to an article from
The Nutritious Source. While that bit
of information may seem obvious, how
many of us really act on it? Maybe were
just lazy, or maybe we feel that we have
more important things to do other than
exercising? Well, exercising is just as
important as anything you can think of.
Nutri Strategy states: Regular ex-
ercise can help protect you from heart
disease and stroke, high blood pressure,
noninsulin-dependent diabetes, obesity,
back pain, osteoporosis, and can im-
prove your mood and help you to better
manage stress. They also mention that
experts recommend that you do 20 to 30
minutes of aerobic activity three or more
times a week and some type of muscle
strengthening activity and stretching at
least twice a week.
One of our students here at HCC,
Smeralda Bruno, has recently started
working out at our gym, and she loves
it! She says, I just started a few weeks
ago and I come here every week for at
least two hours. The machines are good
and I cant wait to see results.
How convenient is it for you to have
a gym right in your school? Thats right,
VERY convenient. Just think, after
youve finished your delightful meal in
the cafeteria, you can go right on over
to the gym and burn what ever fat you
may have gained. Or, after leaving that
stressful class, you can swing on by the
gym and work all that stress off. Your
body will be winning both physically
and mentally.
It may help to have a partner there
for support, so maybe suggest to one of
your classmates or a friend who attends
HCC to join you. Dont let an opportu-
nity like this go to waste! Visit the gym
and get fit.
Get Fit!
BY OLIVIA HODGE
STAFF WRITER
Get your stomach, arms and legs ready for the summer! Here are just a couple of the machines out of
the many that are available.
8
arts & entertainment
news you can use
o
HORIZONS News You Can Use
F
or many students at Housatonic
this month, like Timothy Mc-
Dougald and Simone Buster,
theres cause to celebrate as they prepare
to receive their diplomas at HCCs gradua-
tion ceremony on May 29, 2014. And even
though they have fnally accomplished
their goal of getting a college degree, the
journey has not been without sacrifce.
Timothy McDougald, a Human Ser-
vices major, works as a case manager at
a non-proft agency, and says hes ready
to keep looking ahead. When he went to
high school in the 80s, going to college
wasnt even a thought. When he graduated,
he joined the military and then made his
career working in retail and customer ser-
vice. But it wasnt until the economy took
a shift several years ago, and his company
downsized that he started thinking about
furthering his education.
He was a manager at a department
store and his company was part of a
merger.
I was told I could take a pink slip or
keep my job at a lower pay rate, Mc-
Dougald said. He decided that he didnt
want to work his same job for lesser
pay and left. He then started hunting for
jobs. He had 20 years work experience,
but every employer kept telling him he
needed a degree to back him up.
It was a turning point in his life.
Thats what inspired me to get my de-
gree, McDougald said. He enrolled at
Housatonic in 2006, and his outlook on
education changed. He was encouraged
by Ms. Mary Eady, a counselor at HCC
to go after his dreams.
She told me youre never too old, and
to read something every day, whether its
a paper, magazine, or a bible verse, Mc-
Dougald said.
Once he got settled in at HCC he was
glad that he conquered his fear of school.
One of my English teachers made me feel
good about my writing and encouraged me
to write more, McDougald explained.
The teachers at HCC have been great,
he added.
When he thinks about walking across
that stage and getting his diploma hes
overjoyed. Im kind of excited because I
never thought school was my thing, Mc-
Dougald said. And even though hes had to
prioritize his life and try to fnd the balance
between his church, job, family life, and
school, hes glad he stuck with it. A win-
ner never quits and a quitter never wins,
McDougald said.
Knowledge is key in this day and
time, McDougald added. And hes decid-
ed not to stop at HCC. Hes got big plans
for the future and will be enrolling at Uni-
versity of Bridgeport to pursue his bache-
lors degree. It feels great, McDougald
said.
And for Simone Buster, who is majoring
in Early Childhood Education, shes just as
excited as McDougald. She has been on
her grind as a student, working adult, and
mom. It took some time to get there, but
for her getting a college degree is a dream
come true. Her advice to other students is:
Keep going, dont get deterred!
Ive been here for seven years, since
2007 when I was frst pregnant with my
son, and its been a long road, Buster
said. But fnally Im here and Im almost
done, she added. For her one of her big-
gest obstacles in college has been math.
Its one of the things that was very, very
hard for me, Buster said. Its scary and
something I dread, she added. But she
knows that having an education is import-
ant, so that has motivated her to keep going
and not give up.
Nowadays theres a lot of different re-
quirements for certain jobs and the expec-
tations they have of people, said Buster,
Its not the way it used to be before. You
have to have a high school diploma just to
work at McDonalds, she explained.
She attributes a lot of her success at
HCC to having a great family support sys-
tem.
But she cant wait to graduate and start
the next phase of her life. Im starting my
bachelors this summer right after I leave
HCC, and Im looking to get my Masters
degree after that.
She wants to be an advocate for the
safety and education of children and their
futures. I want to focus on the adminis-
trative aspect of education and how to be
a director, and maybe even get my PhD,
said Buster. I also see myself taking over
my familys business.
She encourages other students to take
as many classes as they can so they can
get it done quicker. That was the mistake
I did, [was] taking one class here and one
class there, Buster said. But in the last
two years she started taking more classes
and that helped her fnish quicker. Dont
get too frustrated, Buster added. Noth-
ing thats worth it is going to be easy, in
the end all the hard work is going to pay
off.
And nobody knows that better than
HCCs very own Professor Robin Avant
(formerly Curry). She was once a stu-
dent at HCC where she got her Associ-
ates degree in Biotechnology/Clinical
Laboratory Science in 2003.
HCC was not only my foundation
in education and in the work field, but
importantly it was my launching point,
Avant said.
After she graduated HCC, she went
on to get her bachelors degree in 2006,
and her masters degree in 2008 at Cen-
tral Connecticut State University in
Bio-Molecular Science. I didnt have
family support pushing me or creating
paths to take, I did it alone but with the
support, guidance and faculty of Housa-
tonic Community College, Avant said.
Use all of the resources that are avail-
able to you and know that you are not
alone.
Avant is now a full-time instruc-
tor of Biology/Molecular Biology at
HCC, which shows that hard work real-
ly does pay off. Without HCC I believe
my foundation wouldnt be as strong
and structured as it is, Avant said.
For any student reading this who
may have been contemplating giving
up because the road seems hard, let
these three graduates of HCC inspire
you to keep on going. Never give up
on your goals or ambitions, Avant
said.
Tough times dont last forever, only
tough people do, she added.
Never Give Up Your Dreams
BY SEKINAH ERSKINE
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
S
ome students are going to be
transferring to a four year school
after HCC. Choosing the perfect
school can be the most stressful thing to do
especially when you have work and home-
work that has to be done.
If you didnt do so well in high school,
it is ok because four year universities dont
really look at high school grades. They
look at how well you did in community
college, which is a huge relief.
On Facebook, Horizons conducted a
poll to see what students at HCC think is
the most stressful. Most of the students
thought that it was transferring and seeing
what credits could transfer and what credits
will not transfer. One student on Facebook
said that Southern Connecticut State Uni-
versity wouldn`t take all of their credits. At
a transferring workshop, Marilyn Wehr, the
colleges transfer counselor, gave a presen-
tation on how to make transferring easy. It
shows a list of the schools that take HCC
credits, including most state schools and
some private schools. I got really lucky
when I applied for Eastern Connecticut
State University took all my credits from
HCC and Gateway.
Most state schools will have a transfer
evaluation on the portal for their school.
But it also depends on what school you
are transferring into. Im a journalism ma-
jor but I put the department down on my
application. I put English instead. For En-
glish, they wouldnt take any of journalism
credits instead of having 46 credits I only
had 15. When I switched majors to a com-
munications major they took all my cred-
its. Look at the degree evaluation for each
school that you want to apply for to make
that sure they will take your credits.
Making sure that you ft in the school
is always going to be one of the main fo-
cuses for a student who is transferring. If
a person doesnt feel like they belong, they
are not going to enjoy being at the school.
The school can say anything that they want
to sell the school to you, but its up to you
whether or not you feel like this is some-
thing that you can be a part of. To tell if
you ft into a school, you should make sure
that you are going to a school that is more
geared towards your major.
Another way to see if you ft, if you feel
comfortable there by taking a mock class
or even talking to some people that went
to school and see what they think about the
school. A mock class is where you choose
a class in your major and go through the
class just like a class you take now to see if
it would be something that would intersect
you. Everyone is going to have different
experiences at different schools.
Universities have a day where students
and parents can go to talk to teachers and
counselors and have parents talk to other
parents about how they felt about their kid
going to go that school. This day is some-
times called Admitted Students Day. This
is a day were students that are thinking
about going to the school can take a mock
class. Parents can talk to other parents that
have children that go to the school can get
information on how they feel the school is.
I went to the one at Eastern Connecti-
cut. The classrooms are small, which
means you would have a small class just
like HCC. But you can get more out of be-
ing in a small classroom then if you were
at Uconn and having more than 30 students
in a class. One of the benefts of having a
small classroom is that you can get more
help working one on one with the professor
instead of being in a large classroom with
200 students and the professor not even
knowing your name.
Another reason that I know that East-
ern was for me is because the counseling
and advising center help me step by step
in getting all my classes and registering for
my classes. I had a Skype meeting with the
transfer counselor at Eastern and she show
how I register for class, check my fnancial
aid, and check the status of my housing.
Everyone at Eastern took the time to an-
swer my questions and make should that I
fully understand.
I have had conversations with stu-
dents that are thinking about transferring
and for them one of the most important
things is how much money the univer-
sity is going to give them. And I know
for everyone, money is going to be one
of the main focuses on why they choose
that school. Look at colleges that you
can afford and that is willing to give you
enough money to pay for school because
no one wants to take out student loans be
in debt for a long time. There is people
that have to pay back over $100, 00 in
student loans when you can get the same
thing at a school that is less expensive.
Scholarships are good to have because
its you pay for school. If the school
doesnt give you enough money talk to
the school about how you can get more
money. School also has student employ-
ment so instead having to travel if you
are living on campus you can work in
walking distance from your class.
Transferring can be the scariest
thing but knowing that you dont have
to go through it alone is one of the best
feelings.
Tips to Transfer More Easily
BY LINDSEY BALDASSARE
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. John Maxwell
9 HORIZONS News You Can Use
T
hat old clich, absence makes
the heart grow fonder is one
people in or entering into long
distance relationships often hear from oth-
ers after explaining their circumstances.
While the sentiment is sweet, the person
is usually doing a silent eye roll, thinking
something more along the lines of yeah
right.
I just know itd never work for me,
said soon-to-be graduate Nick Antosh, not-
ing that even moving across the state posed
too diffcult an obstacle in a past relation-
ship. Antosh also added, Long distance?
I mean, thats tough stuff. I need that re-
assurance of seeing each other every day.
While onlookers may not be rooting
against these couples, most certainly arent
expecting them to succeed. Is this common
view merely being realistic, or is possible
that being miles away from ones signif-
cant other can actually strengthen the re-
lationship? Personally, I think it varies
based on circumstances, but maintaining
a healthy relationship from a distance is
certainly possible, and can absolutely be
benefcial.
Long-distance relationships have long
remained unexplored, one reason being
that the overarching public opinion paints
them to be scarce and abnormal. A range
of past studies have revolved around how
those in LDRs cope with issues like stress
and jealousy, rather than the ways in which
these types of relationships can actually
prevail over those that occur between peo-
ple living in close proximity.
Recent statistics as per the Internation-
al Communications Association state that
25-50% of college students are currently in
long-distance relationships and an estimat-
ed 75% have engaged in one in the past.
Couples for which physical distance is
a factor have actually been proven to forge
stronger connections as a result of the con-
stant, more meaningful communication the
geographical distance results in, accord-
ing to a July 2013 article in the Journal of
Communications.
In the Journals featured study, dating
couples in long-distance and geograph-
ically close relationships reported their
daily interactions across all media out-
letsface-to-face exchanges, phone calls,
video chat, text messaging, instant mes-
senger, and email, for a week-long study
by Jeffrey Hancock, Cornell University,
and Crystal Jiang, of the City Universi-
ty of Hong Kong. Drawing a comparison
between the two types of relationships re-
vealed that long-distance participants felt
a greater sense of intimacy as a result of
communications leaning more toward full
disclosure than normal couples.
For many soon-to-be college students,
the dilemma of whether or not to attempt
a LDR with their high school sweethearts
is a pressing issue; some agree to part
ways before going away to school, others
aim to make it workwhether or not the
latter are successful relies on a number of
factors. Student Kristen Gispan said mov-
ing away from home for college saved her
relationship with her long-time high school
boyfriend.
The distance was a blessing in dis-
guise, lame as it sounds. Living in such
close quarters, seeing each other everyday,
we isolated ourselves from our friends,
and that proximity allowed us to take each
other for granted. Once I moved North for
school, we still talked every day, but we
appreciated that time more.
Gispan said that the miles between
them put an end to the constant bickering,
and forced the couple to learn to resolve
confict with honest conversations, rather
than yelling to be heard. She and her part-
ner are back living within close range, and
going on fve years now.
While LDRs can be diffcult, even
sometimes draining, face-to-face interac-
tions on a constant basis pose a plethora
of issues on their own. Do you remember
coming home from school as a child and
your parents asking, how was your day?
That kind of question doesnt leave much
room for a thoughtful response, but rather,
the robotic, formulaic, good or okay. Just
like whats up or how are you, these ques-
tions reinforce the habit of cursory com-
munication.
Often times couples who see each other
on a daily or regular basis ask each other
generic questions to fll the silence with
small talk, which can grow stale pretty
quickly. What Ive found through personal
experience, and recent studies have prov-
en, is that long-distance couples engage
in a signifcantly lower amount of superf-
cial chit-chat. After all, distance can be an
enormous barrier, and something must be
done to compensate for having to interact
through text-based, electronic and mobile
media; being so eager to catch up, LDR
couples usually just want to skip to the
good stuff.
Dr. Ben Michaelis believes relation-
ships that are forced to become long-dis-
tance for a defned period of time (e.g.,
because of time-limited school, economic
or military commitments) generally do
not fall into the fantasy trap because they
are actually very much based in the reali-
ties and practicalities of life. As a clinical
psychologist, I have actually seen these
types of relationships thrive. His formula
for success can be found in a recent Huff-
ington Post article, Why Long-Distance
Relationships Never, Ever Work (Except
When They Do).
While I cant speak for those who
have started relationships from afar with-
out actually meeting in person, Ive done
the long-distance thing twice. The frst
was when I initially went away to college
freshman year, which was a nightmare.
Something thats entirely crucial to any re-
lationship, distance or not, is trust. If you,
or your partner, cannot trust each other
to be faithful and honest, there is simply
no way to maintain a healthy relationship
from afar.
Obviously, its easy to blame these
kind of break-ups on the distance, but the
inability to properly communicate with,
voice concerns to, or rely on a partner is a
clear red fag for those looking to maintain
a current relationship or follow through
with a newly budding romance.
With a foundation of trust frmly estab-
lished in my current long-term relation-
ship, were making the distance work for
us. Going from living under the same roof
to living 16,000 miles apart has certainly
been a daunting task. Theres no escaping
the fact long-distance means having to
sometimes miss out on major life events
of a partner, or dealing with the day-to-day
reminiscence of times when we could actu-
ally make dinner together in person, rather
than seeing each other through a screen
on video chat. However, the distance
has ultimately strengthened our relation-
ship.
We have been fortunate enough to
have frequent visits and vacations togeth-
er, which isnt always a possibility for all
couples. But, there are some things all cou-
ples can do, ones that are rarely done in
short-distance relationships like surprise
gifts or letters via snail mail. Hand written
notes or cards tend to be much personal
than say, a text message or an email (do
people even use email for regular commu-
nication anymore?).
When you actually have to sit down and
write something other than a simple hey,
the effort and thoughtfulness defnitely
dont go unnoticed by the partner on the re-
ceiving end. And, the messages dont disap-
pear into cyberspace after a period of time, so
theyre there to save and look back on. Isnt
that nice?
Not only does a LDR help couples treasure
the little things more, but all time together is
infnitely more valuable; even the most mun-
dane activities together become exciting. If
youve been saving for a new pair of shoes for
months and youve fnally got enough cash to
afford them, isnt that far more rewarding than
if you always got what you wanted from the
get go? Isnt it true that you take much bet-
ter care of what youve had to work hard for
than whats been simply handed to you? Think
about that in the context of seeing a partner.
Im sure the majority of people experience
a level of happiness upon seeing their signif-
cant other, but to what extent? I know I didnt
get those happy jitters every time we talked
when I knew my S.O. would be there after I
got home from school or work every day. Self-
ies, Snapchats, and food photos are a whole lot
more enjoyable now, too. Voicemails become
cute and endearing, rather than annoying clut-
ter on a phone. Best of all, though, is long-dis-
tance couples always have something to look
forward to.
Indeed, our culture, emphasizes being
together physically and frequent face-to-
face contact for close relationships, said Ji-
ang, but long-distance relationships clearly
stand against all these values. People dont
have to be so pessimistic about long-dis-
tance romance. The long-distance couples try
harder than geographically close couples in
communicating affection and intimacy, and
their efforts do pay back.
Can Absence
Make the Heart Grow Fonder?
BY ASHLEY TEARE
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Photo by Ashley Teare
Visit HCC Online!
Curious about the services, courses, and programs at HCC? Go to http://www.hcc.commnet.edu, the colleges home page. From there you can
navigate the various departments, search for courses, or follow links to other useful sites, such as MyCommnet and the HCC Foundation.
10 HORIZONS Opinions
T
o those of you reading this, I have
a serious question to ask you.
Do you think this newspaper is
a joke? If you say no, well, I completely
agree with you and I appreciate your loyal-
ty. If you say yes, here is my answer to that:
The HCC school newspaper should not be
taken as a joke.
This paper provides students with im-
portant information about HCC and the
surrounding community. It is more import-
ant to you the students than you might
think. Blah...Blah...Blah, yes youve heard
it all before. Seriously though, WHY is it
important?Now, I dont know about you,
but I actually learn a lot from this paper.
Whether it be about the school, health is-
sues, entertainment, most of all the person-
al experiences and advice shared in each
issue.
In our last issue, for instance, Neil
Francis wrote an article about Governor
Dannel Malloy visiting HCC in hopes of
gaining support for the new Go Back To
Get Ahead program. This program affects
past students who for one reason or another
had to stop, but this program allows them
to come back to school with added incen-
tives.
Sarah Springer wrote an article about
the Housatonic Evening Division in Bea-
con Hall, informing students that its open
daily as well as every night and on week-
ends when classes are in session. She clear-
ly stated that many students dont even
know about its existence or what services
it offers, so she provided valuable informa-
tion about it.
Articles like these provide students
with answers to questions they might have
or, not know how or where to fnd the an-
swers. The Horizons staff works hard FOR
the student readers, yet many student read-
ers dont realize that. We strive to get the
faculty, staff and students more involved
in their college, and make them realize its
more than just a community college. Our
staff writes stories about events that are
happening on campus and extreme chang-
es that can infuence them. I want students
to know what is happening here and keep
them informed about any situation that
goes on.
Some articles even talk about life
changing situations or things that we dont
even realize we do. Ashley Teare wrote an
article about the benefts of procrastination.
Who knew procrastinating could be a good
thing ? I know I didnt. Many people that
I asked didnt know either.Franklin Jusino
wrote a very personal story about his past
and how it changed him.
We put ourselves and our personal ex-
periences out there to help give the read-
ers a better perspective on life and the
hard times weve encountered. Its not
okay to put down something someone puts
their all into without having even read the
story. Over the past few semesters, hav-
ing been a part of the Horizons staff, Ive
noticed that many students are not taking
this newspaper seriously. Ive seen papers
being made into paper airplanes and be-
ing thrown around the cafeteria, and Ive
witnessed people throwing out the paper
as soon as its been handed to them with-
out even taking a glance at it. How would
you feel if you handed in an essay youd
worked very hard on to one of your profes-
sors then watch as he or she made a paper
airplane out of it or just tossed it into the
trash? I believe youd have an issue with
that, wouldnt you?
Jordan Crego, full-time student at HCC,
has not read any of the issues of Horizons.
She said she does not like to read news-
papers in general because of how negative
they are, Id like to see more positive
things in the paper like things that happen
in the community, Crego said. When
there IS a positive thing in the community,
theres only a short little paragraph about
it, Granted, when I started taking the Pub-
lications 1 class with Professor Mark, I
had no idea HCC even had a newspaper.
But after being involved in the process
for sometime now, witnessing the work
that goes into it, Ive realized that
theres more to it than just a school
newspaper.
I enjoy writing for this paper and get-
ting my thougghts and opinions out to the
public. I feel like Im a part of the commu-
nity and I want students and staff to know
whats going on in the world as seen through
my eyes. Everyone deserves an answer to a
question they have and I try my best to get
the answers. Matthew Christman, an HCC
student, shared his thoughts with me about
Horizons and gave me some words of wis-
dom regarding why he feels students may
not want to read the paper.
Christman talked about some people
nowadays having short attention spans,
anything that doesnt keep their interest
isnt worth reading/doing.Its like people
today are so used to instant gratifcation
that they think anything that takes more
than ten seconds or requires any effort isnt
worth doing, Christman said. Which is
ridiculous because so many of the trials
in life wont come easily, and good things
come to people who work hard. Personally
I think that important information is out
there and smart people are the ones willing
to put the work into learning it. I wouldnt
change Horizons at all, but there are things
you can do to make it more appealing to
the demographic youre trying to reach,
he added.
I completely agree with Christman on
the more appealing proposal, and our
graphic design team is doing their best to
create a better looking paper.Working for
a newspaper or magazine is my career
choice and I want to continue my journey
in Journalism and make the best of it. To
be honest, it really gets me upset to see our
hard work and time being thrown away
and tossed around like it means absolutely
nothing. How can some people really not
care about what goes on around them? If
thats the case, dont care on your own
time and dont treat other peoples hard
work like its garbage.
Dave Weidenfeller, the Editor-in-Chief
of Horizons, has been working with the
Horizons staff for a few years now, he
shared some insight on what the paper
means to him.Horizons became a very
big part of my life. The paper gave me an
academic goal that I could be proud of.
Its been my life for about 4 years. I wish
more students would take it seriously, not
just by reading it, but by participating with
submissions, opinions, or information on
the clubs they are a part of, Weidenfeller
said. Its a very important part of the col-
lege community. Its a way for students to
communicate in a different way than what
theyre used to and its a creation, not just
for the publications students but for any-
one. Its one of the only classes that you
actually do what youre learning in. It also
helps communication skills so students are
able to ask questions and its an important
skill set to use anywhere.Weidenfeller
also stressed that he is very proud of what
the Horizons staff has done and where its
going in the future.
Sherly Montes, the Managing Ed-
itor of Horizons, plans on taking her
journalism dreams and making them
come true. Montes expresses her
feelings on her experiences working
as a Horizons staff member.Having
the opportunity to infuence others and
what they read is powerful. Writing for
the paper gives me a voice and allows
me to empty my mind in a way that
hopefully attracts others to what Im
saying, Montes said. Writing for an
audience is always intimidating, but
its also really cool, especially when
others actually approach you about
what you wrote.Why should our
dreams and hard work be disrespected
without even the tiniest bit of acknowl-
edgement? What if your hard work
and efforts were being put down every
time you felt proud of them? All of us
have dreams that we want to come true.
Not having my work taken seriously is
basically like being criticized for it.
Henry Schissler, sociology pro-
fessor, has taught at HCC for about
15 years now. He has read every is-
sue of Horizons and enjoys reading
it.[Horizons] has diverse topics and
interesting, well-written articles,
Schissler said. I think people should
read Horizons because theyll learn
about things around campus and stu-
dents would be better informed and
connected to the school, he added.
If only everyone could understand
and see this for themselves. I take
what I do seriously, and if other peo-
ple dont, then why should I? What
would the world be without news?
What would a college be without
people there to get important infor-
mation about things that are hap-
pening? No one would know what
to do or where to turn.If you were to
give me something you worked real-
ly hard at putting together, I wouldnt
throw it down and stomp on it. I
really want people to show my work the
same respect I would show them.
Horizons Is Not A Joke
BY ASHLEY SEETOO
EDITOR
Spotted in the Beacon Hall cafeteria: Turning someones hard work into paper airplanes.
Photo by Ashley Seetoo
11 HORIZONS Opinions
Instagram Gone Wild
BY OLIVIA HODGE
STAFF WRITER
Y
ou know what really grinds
my gears? Instagram! Okay,
maybe not Instagram as a
whole, but some of the things that get post-
ed really gets on my nerves. Instagram is
one of the most popular social networks
available these days. It is an app that you
can use to follow peoples life journeys or
experiences/adventures, which they ex-
press through pictures. Now it has gotten
way out of hand.
Theres never really a safe time for me
to scroll through my timeline. Theres al-
ways someone giving shoutouts, asking
for likes, setting thirst traps (posting
promiscuous pictures to gain likes) or
participating in daily IG games such
as: Like this post for (whatever non-
sense they choose to do at the moment).
My favorite, sarcastically speaking of
course, is the Group Rate. This is when
someone screenshots a picture from some-
one who is participating in the game and
reposts it onto their timeline, along with a
number from each person of the group, on
a scale of 1-10; 1 being the lowest. A lot
of embarrassment and arguments have bro-
ken out because of this game, yet people
continue to do it.
You know what annoys me the most?
Good Morning posts. Someone would
post something that goes like this; Like 5
pictures for a Good Morning. Im like,
are you serious? And people really go
through with it and click the heart under
their pictures. After they like the picture,
the person who made that post screenshots
a picture of the other person and writes
Good Morning. Thats it!
Its annoying seeing a bunch of random
faces on my timeline. First of all, Im not
following you, so why am I seeing your
pictures? Well, unfortunately, there are
people who have that much time on their
hands, to sit around and screenshot a thou-
sand pictures daily. Now, whats the pur-
pose of a shout out? Usually, it is so that
the person who is getting this display of
recognition will gain more followers by
way of the person who is doing the actual
shout out. Some pages are available to the
public, while others need to be approved
before they can gain access to the pictures.
I dont know about you, but I wouldnt
want hundreds of random people staring at
my pictures all day because there are some
real creeps out there who like to just stare.
What some people seem to forget is
that their likes mean nothing in the
real world. Once you remove that fil-
ter, what do you have left? I feel that
people are basing their sense of self
importance on the amount of likes
that they get on their pictures. People
have become so self-conscious, that
they go to the extreme by offering shout
outs in exchange for likes on a cer-
tain amount of pictures. My timeline
has become so overcrowded with so
many random faces, that it takes away
from me being able to see posts from
people I actually do know. My solu-
tion to this annoyance? Unfollow the
people who post these irrelevant pic-
tures. I dont even know how I ended up
following them in the first place.
G
overnor Malloys drive by
visit to HCC earlier this se-
mester reminded me of an old
time southern church revival without the
after picnic. Some pomp, a dash of fan-
fare, but very little of circumstance. Even
a bit of reverence was asked for, the only
things missing were the alleluias and a few
amens. After I walked out, I felt restored,
renewed, totally convinced that politicians
still consider most of their constituents to
be either complete fools, or totally out of
touch. I could hang on to my distrust of all
things political with a newly charged fer-
vor.
Sitting second row center aisle (great
seats for a concert), I paid close attention
to what was said by all the parties involved
and couldnt help leaving the Events Cen-
ter scratching my head, and more than a lit-
tle confused. What was the message? What
did I just hear? Toto? Ive got a feeling
were not in Kansas anymore.
Now, granted this was the frst time Id
ever attended a political event / press con-
ference so I wasnt familiar with protocol
however, I was a bit taken back by the def-
erential treatment given a politician. We
were all asked, quite nicely I might add ,by
our school president to stand when Malloy
entered the room. No disrespect intend-
ed but, hes a human right? Just like you
and me. So in walks the gov and I found
myself a bit reluctant to stand up (see frst
paragraph), so I compromised and came
halfway out my chair before an invisible
hand pushed me back down into seat. I
settled in for the show. Several opening
acts softened up the room for the headlin-
er. One poor fellow, a recent graduate of
HCCs manufacturing program, was no
sooner at the mic before he got the long
hook, sorry son the governors in a hurry,
sit back down. Poor guy was a nervous
wreck before the proceedings, they prob-
ably did him a favor yanking him the way
they did, I would have hated to have seen
him have an accident on the govs shoes.
No, I take that back. Next up, the Gover-
nor of the great state of Connecticut, or
was it Stephen Colberts doppelganger?
Good Morning everyone, thank you all
for coming and blah, blah, blah, thank you
all for attending and hey, spread the word!!
Now heres the great Mayor Bill Finch to
further complicate what I just said to you
all. Finch didnt disappoint. Nope he was
spot on. Except he said, Yada Yada Yada,
blah, blah.
Okay, Im being too vague and obtuse
and a tad disingenuous (see frst paragraph
again). Some things of importance were
said, especially if you were someone NOT
in the room that day. That hard sell wasnt
meant for me or any other student here at
HCC. It wasnt until a little while later af-
ter Id had some time to digest what Id
heard that I realized I was just a prop,
a cardboard cut out, a body for the news
cameras and reporters. Malloy spoke for
approximately ten minutes cleverly trying
to disguise the fact that the CSUS is look-
ing at a budget defcit of over $43 mil-
lion, never once mentioning the fact that
this new initiative of Go Back To Get
Ahead is designed to help make up some
of that budget defcit.
Thats not the insulting part. While do-
ing so he managed to slip in a comment
about a tuition increase for current stu-
dents, thats right, you here in this room
right now are going to pay more. And, just
in case that didnt sting enough, students
who have been out of school will be given
free classes when and if, they come back.
Sorry folks, you guys arent the target au-
dience but, I appreciate you all being here
anyway. And by the way, No questions,
unless youre with the press. Thank you
all so much for coming, and dont let the
door hit you on the way out. I checked my
pockets to see if my wallet was still there
after hearing all this good news, delivered
with such sly political doublespeak.
So, Malloy came to OUR school to
tell us that WE will pay more, while for-
mer students will be offered a two for one
deal to come back to school. And if they
hurry and act immediately as soon as the
phone lines are opened at Charter Oak the
state will send them two free Chia Pets
of their choice ( see frst paragraph once
more). How does that make you feel? It
didnt sit well with me either. You guys?
Well youll be receiving a bill in the mail
to cover those increases in your tuition.
Oh, by the by, its not so much we want
those folks to come back to school to earn
the degree that they really want, we hope
theyll help to fll the vast shortage of
manufacturing jobs now available here in
Connecticut. Theres some more confu-
sion. Fast talker our governor is, come
on back to school and well give you a
free class for every two you register in,
but unless youre looking for a job in the
manufacturing market there really isnt
much we can offer you when you gradu-
ate. Oh man, political doublespeak spo-
ken by a true saloon poker player. Youve
got to admire whoever puts these little
speeches and gatherings together. Lets
stage it at a college campus, fll the room
with current active participating students,
drop this little diddy on them, theyll be
paying more than in the same breath offer
those out of school the type of deal that
sounds like some late night television in-
fomercials. No questions please, unless
youre with the press. You see, were
ready for the press, but you guys? No..
no...no.. cant take a chance someone will
get angry and bring up the bad news.
When both Malloy and Finch were
done peddling the wares they sat directly
in front of me. I mean directly in front of
me. My mother raised a gentleman, so I
kept my tongue and probably my seat at
the festivities but, I found myself search-
ing the backs of both men looking for the
strings that make these people dance. I
didnt see any, but my eyes are going, and
I was sure they were there somewhere.
Come on back to college and fnish
that degree. Why? Well because that de-
gree will help you get a job in the manu-
facturing market. What? You dont want
to work in manufacturing? Well Con-
necticuts manufacturers are hounding my
offce relentlessly to get those job vacan-
cies flled. There are thousands of jobs
available in manufacturing. Oh. you want
a journalism degree, a nursing degree, a
teaching degree? Well as I said, no ques-
tions unless youre with the press. Toto?
How do we get back to Kansas?
Brother Dans Travelling Salvation Show
A Lesson In Political DoubleSpeak
BY NEIL KNOX
OPINIONS EDITOR
Malloys Doublespeak at HCC
Photo courtesy Neil Knox
Visit HCC Online!
Curious about the services, courses, and programs at HCC? Go to http://www.hcc.commnet.edu, the colleges home page. From there you can
navigate the various departments, search for courses, or follow links to other useful sites, such as MyCommnet and the HCC Foundation.
12 HORIZONS Opinions
D
oing something for someone
else without asking for any-
thing in return has always been
a feel good thing to do. Living in our
society today and being as self-centered as
some people tend to be makes me wonder
whether people perform Random Acts of
Kindness (RAKs) out of the kindness of
their hearts, or if theyre doing it to get at-
tention and recognition from others, which
would defeat the purpose. The real random
acts of kindness are the ones you never
hear about.
Growing up I was taught that no mat-
ter how much or how little you have, we
must consider the next mans struggles,
said Samantha Montreal, an everyday
RAK doer who was featured on the Ran-
domActsofKindness website.
It is your duty to help them and there
is a specifc way to go about it. You just do
it. Do it, but never speak of it, she added.
Yet in these last few months, Ive no-
ticed that random acts of kindness has
become a bit of a fad. It has even become
a popular hashtag on Instagram #ran-
domactsofkindness and its used to either
post a picture of a random act that someone
is performing, or a picture of an act that
was performed for a person by someone
they dont know. I can understand why
someone would want to post a picture of
a RAK that was done for them. It makes
most people feel happy and theyd want to
share it with their friends, but why on earth
would post a RAK youre about to perform
on social media? This, again, just defeats
the purpose! Doing a kind act for someone
is admirable, it sets a fne example but,
wouldnt it be more fulflling if you kept it
to yourself. Being selfess. If youre shar-
ing it on social media then youre probably
just looking for a good job! and a pat
on the back from your friends. When did
doing the right thing become this popular
notion that others want to do just to be no-
ticed?
Some celebrities have jumped on board
as well and have performed random acts of
kindness for those around them and posted
it to Instagram.
Willow Shields, who plays Primrose
Everdeen in The Hunger Games series,
was one of the frst ones I noticed on Insta-
gram that started performing random acts
of kindness and posted the evidence for her
fans to see. Shields has posted pictures of
things like taping money to a bench in front
of a bus stop so that other people would
have enough for bus fare, and she said she
paid for about fve or six cars behind her
at a toll booth along with a picture of the
toll booth.When I frst saw this, I didnt
think anything was wrong with it, but as I
let it sink in I found that everything about
it was wrong. Some could easily question
Shields intentions. Could it be that she was
trying to encourage her fans to be kind to
others? If so, I think word of mouth would
suffce. Posting a picture or multiple pic-
tures of yourself that indicate just how nice
you are doesnt send the right message, it
makes me wonder if she just wanted fam-
ily, friends, and fans to shower her with
praise and post comments about how good
she is, publicity seeking, perhaps?
People who faunt their kindness
and niceness are attention seekers, said
Kevin Fontan, an HCC Student, Theyre
either doing it to receive a kind act in
return, or to feel good about themselves
.And yet there are those who truly are
kind and do things for others just to make
them smile.
A random act of kindness that the late
Paul Walker performed and kept a secret
was featured in US Magazine after the
sales associate of a jewelry store, Irene
King, came forward with the story after
Walkers death. According to King, the
Fast and Furious actor witnessed an Iraqi
veteran and his fancee looking through
engagement rings at a jewelry store and
overheard the young couple saying they
couldnt afford the ring they liked. Walk-
er stepped in and asked King to put the
$10,000 ring on his tab. He asked for
the employees to keep his identity hid-
den, and walked out the door, said King.
While Walker was recognized for do-
ing other charity work and good deeds,
this one will stick with me the most. He
performed a RAK that nobody knew
about and when it fnally came out, it
didnt come from his mouth, or his Insta-
gram account.
For those who dont know, theres a
whole day, and a national RAK week
which is dedicated to performing random
acts of kindness for strangers, and while
I commend the efforts of the organiza-
tions who put these things together, why
should we wait for these days to come
around in order to be nice to other peo-
ple? Do we really need a specifc day to
do good and honorable things like hold
the door open for someone? Or give up
your seat on the bus for an elderly per-
son? Shouldnt we naturally be kind to-
ward those around us every day?
Keep Your Kindness to Yourself
BY SHERLY MONTES
MANAGING EDITOR
A
nother national basketball title
recently for the University of
Connecticut, ho-hum. Its not
the fact that they managed to pull this off
having started the tournament as a huge
underdog that interests me. Its the way
that UConn. manages to fnd their way to
successive title games thats more intrigu-
ing. Basically, they cheat.
Come on, calm down, take a deep breath
and lets get real. And lets get it right.
What in the name of student-athletics does
a big-time college basketball program, es-
pecially one known for rotten academic
achievement, have to do with college?
Its not so much about the how: its
more about the who they cheat and the
why they do it. Money drives many things
in this country, almost everything when
you stop to think about it, but, in college
sports where young men and women are
supposed to be instructed in the right way
to do things, just seems a bit inappropriate,
dont you think? No? Then stop reading
this right now.
UConn was banned from last years
competition because it failed to meet the
minimal academic progress rate (APR).
The APR is a simple metric that measures
whether a teams athletes are in good ac-
ademic standing. Whats more important
to a learning institution like UConn? The
money brought into the school from spon-
sors and television or the competency of
the students that leave it?
I would think as a parent it would be
what my child is taking with him into
the real world as opposed to a few brief
feeting moments of fame accomplished on
a basketball court that should matter most.
So many of todays college athletes never
do make it to the pros, failing at that they
have to fall back on what theyve learned
and earned at school to make their way in
the world. As a result, many fall fat be-
cause their academic progress was never
really the important thing to the schools
trusted with educating them and turning
them into living, breathing ready for the
world adults. Instead they see how the
alleged real world operates behind the
scenes. Coaches turn a blind eye to aca-
demic failings, and instructors grade on a
curve that would make any major league
pitcher envious.
Division 1 basketball, like Division 1
football, remains predicated on fraud f-
nancial, academic and social, the last in the
form of the expensive, relentless recruit-
ment of young, minimally educated and
predominantly poor kids to empower our
colleges to win ball games. The legitimate
higher education of these recruits is not
a matter of precedent, but accident. And
if the kid doesnt make it as a pro and
thats the overwhelming majority he
will be returned, uneducated, from where
he was recruited and to his own devices,
que sera, sera. No college student is sup-
posed to peak at age 21 or 22. But for what
will be the start of social, fnancial and
familial success for legit students, serves
thousands of athletes as their Finished
Lines.
So back to Kentucky verses the Hus-
kies in this years NCAA Championship f-
nal, both universities that have exhibited no
shame in manufacturing big-ticket basket-
ball programs that allow their full-schol-
arship recruits to front for the school as
student-athletes. UConn-educated and
graduated basketball coach, Kevin Ollie,
as a representative of the States namesake
university and a school that in 2012 was
sanctioned for gross academic negligence,
is so painfully defcient in fundamental,
spoken grammar its painful to listen to,
let alone ignore. I have to wonder if Ol-
lie, who played for UConn, and, with a
new deal that will pay him roughly $1.3
million per plus perks, is the third-highest
paid state employee (behind UConn wom-
ens coach Geno Auriemma and UConn
football coach Bob Diaco), might consider,
if only for the future sake of his recruits,
to work on that. Its criminal. Criminal in
theory, in the planning, in the process and
fnally in the practice. And its duplicated,
worsened and loopholed here, there and
everywhere.
Heck, half-and-half, while pathetic,
would be overly optimistic, wouldnt it?
Or are full scholarship college student-ath-
letes supposed to peak in life at 21, while
regular, genuinely educated college stu-
dents are supposed to be just getting
started? With many state colleges facing
budget shortfalls Governor Malloy has
found a way to direct the fow of a billion,
yes, a billion dollars over the course of the
next ten years to use for recruitment pur-
poses. These national titles dont hurt that
agenda, the underlying message being giv-
en hurts the players and any student who is
aware of how they go about their recruiting
young undereducated poor kids to come to
their school. And just to assure that the un-
derlying agenda is all about winning at any
cost heres a small sampling of one student
recruited to play just this last semester at
UConn. In that Saturdays game against
Florida, CBS announcer Jim Nantz, casu-
ally brought our attention to a player en-
tering the game. Lasan Kromah has just
entered the game for the Huskies, Lasan
is a graduate student by way of George
Washington. He was a 1,000 point scorer
from his years at GW.
So what exactly does that tell you? Kro-
mah, an undergrad at George Washington,
also found time to play for its Division 1
basketball team, then having enrolled as a
graduate student at UConn- with a year of
eligibility left-has found the time from pur-
suing his masters to play basketball? Any-
things possible...I suppose. Nah, Im
not buying it. Who are they cheating? The
vulnerable kids recruited. The parents of
those same kids. The society they will be
forced to live in when the pros dont come
knocking. The local Connecticut athlete
who dreams of one day playing at UConn.
Its a sad commentary on the current state
of college athletics.
UConns Tainted Title
The Shame Of College Athletics
BY NEIL KNOX
OPINIONS EDITOR
The real random acts of kindness are the ones you
never hear about.
Its not so much about the how: its more about the who
they cheat and the why they do it.
Visit HCC Online!
Curious about the services, courses, and programs at HCC? Go to http://www.hcc.commnet.edu
13
W
hats better than grabbing a
bite to eat from the cafeteria
before class, besides having
the money to pay for it? If youre like me,
then cash is something you almost never
have on you because you live and die by
your debit or credit card. Being the debit
card junkie that I am, I almost never make
a purchase at the HCC cafeteria. Why?
Because the school cafeteria isnt set up to
accept them. Devastating, I know. Im not
sure about anyone else, but when I fnd out
a merchant doesnt take cards, I go through
something similar to the 5 stages of grief
give or take a few. First, I am in complete
denial, No, theres no way that they are
cash only! Then, I head straight to anger,
What do you mean you dont take cards?
WHO DOESNT ACCEPT CARDS?!As
of late though, Ive skipped right over bar-
gaining and depression and headed right
for acceptance.Yes, its beyond annoying
that the cafeteria doesnt accept cards and
I might have to starve until after class but
Ive learned that its for a pretty good rea-
son.
Merchant services dont come free and
they sure as heck dont come cheap. For
merchants, credit card machines mean pay-
ing a fee, typically a certain percentage of
each sale. To recoup that loss, they hike
up the prices of their goods which means
that the customer is paying more for the
same thing that they have always gotten.
So my $2.00 container of shoestring fries
thats practically overfowing with un-
salted goodness, waiting to be smothered
in ketchup, might increase by a dollar or
two. Which of course doesnt sound like
a lot by itself but add a marked up drink
and a higher priced sandwich and youve
easily spent over $10.00 on a meal when
you could have headed to McDonalds and
assaulted the dollar menu. If they continue
with this cash only nonsense Ill have to
just be accept it even if I roll my eyes every
time I reach into my wallet for something
other than plastic, and if they raise the pric-
es Ill gripe about how much money I have
to spend to get a bite to eat on campus.
In a perfect world I would be able to use
cash or card wherever I wanted and busi-
nesses would just eat the cost but unfortu-
nately I dont live in such a mythical land.
So, if its not broken, dont fx it, I like
many others will complain regardless.
No Cash?.. No Lunch
BY ALYXANDRA IRIZARRY
STAFF WRITER
HORIZONS Opinions
A
rt can mean so many things to
everyone; however, the mean-
ing of art is unique to an artist.
It is often described as passion. Inevitably,
passion than becomes the driving force be-
hind everything that surrounds us.
As I listened to Everett Raymond nar-
rate his life as an artist, the one thing that
kept resonating with me was the passion
with which he spoke. Many times through
out his dialog he said, I did it, because I
love it. His drive was passion. Perhaps,
he would have not been as successful if
he were solely interested in what he could
reap fnancially. Art was, and is a form
of learning and expression for him. I am
dumbfounded with the amount and di-
versity, I may add of individuals he had
the opportunity to spend time with. Just
think about how much he learned and how
those experiences are embedded between
the hardened layers of paint in those por-
traits.
His technique is fantastic, and certainly
refects a great deal of passion as well. It is
amazing how much time he spent studying
his subjects. Chances are, he probably got
to know them better than anyone else that
had ever come close to them, why? Be-
cause he was passionate about what he did
and wanted every portrait not only to speak
of him as the artist but of the individuals as
well. He wanted them to be remembered.
This experience has ignited the passion
in me to pursue what I loveart more
than it already is.
Beyond ArtistryPassion
BY CAROLINA TRINIDAD
HORIZONS ART AND DESIGN DIRECTOR
I
magine what it would be like if
every time you walked, the skin
on your feet would blister and fall
off. Imagine sitting down and having the
weight of your body cause almost all of the
skin on your backside peel off leaving raw,
exposed fesh.
There is a disease called Epidermolysis
Bullosa (EB) which causes this nightmare
to become a reality. According to infor-
mation given by Debra.org, it is a genetic
disease that 1 out of 20,000 babies are born
with. It is caused by a genetic mutation that
makes skin very fragile and infuences the
connectivity between the layers of skin.
Those affected by it are often known as
Butterfy Children because their skin is
as delicate as the wings of a butterfy.
Everyone has experienced a scrape
from time to time, or gotten burnt after tak-
ing dinner out of the oven. Remember that
sting you felt in the shower as that scraped
knee made contact with the water for the
frst time? Now think of how it would feel
if that annoying little sting now advanced
to nearly your entire body. Bathing be-
comes pure torture, a tight loving hug is
now impossible, even running around out-
side would be thought of as a miracle.
An article on the Genetics Home Ref-
erence website as well as Debra.og explain
that there are different severities of the
disease ranging from slight blistering and
peeling to a debilitating disease that leads
to death before the age of 30.
Geri Kelly, Nurse Educator from DEB-
RA (Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa
Research Association) explains that there
are four different types of EB. These types
would be Dystrophic, Junctional, Sim-
plex, and Kindler. The types are defned
by which proteins are affected by a genetic
mutation in any of 18 genes that are linked
to the disease. There is no treatment or cure
for this disease. Those who have it undergo
constant bandage changes, often from head
to toe where much of the skin can be peeled
off in the process. Antibiotic ointments are
used to prevent infections and blisters are
lanced and drained. Painkillers can be used
to reduce the constant pain but still hard-
ly makes a dent in their everyday lives.
Kelly explains that EB can often cause
damage to other parts of the body as well.
It can be diffcult for people with the dis-
ease to eat because they get blisters in
their mouths and throat from chewing and
swallowing so a feeding tube can be used
to supplement their nutrition. Scarring can
close off their esophagus causing patients
to need multiple operations a year just to
re-open the passageway.
Debra.org explains that much like burn
victims, the skin that takes the place of the
damaged skin is very tight and can cause
hands and feet to mitten, meaning that
their fngers and toes fuse together. Worst
of all, many cases of EB can cause skin
cancer that eventually becomes fatal.
There are many misconceptions about EB
and truly understanding the disease.
Kelsey Dashiell, Program Manager
from DEBRA strongly expresses her con-
cern that many people believe the disorder
is contagious. She explains that as children,
the patients often experience bullying as
well as many parents who believe that their
children will catch the disease. This leads
to isolation for the child and their families.
Kelly adds, another issue we run into
is that many of the parents are accused of
physical abuse. We have worked with DCF
on cases where people had thought that the
parents were harming and even burning
their own children. One case was so se-
vere that after the child had died naturally
from EB, the police had put up police tape
and set it as an investigation because the
childs wounds were so severe it looked
like they were murdered. The family had
done nothing wrong but they were treated
as criminals and are still looked at that way
by their community even though they were
innocent.
In the documentary, The Boy Whose
Skin Fell Off Johnny Kennedy had grown
to accept his death. In the last year of his life
he flmed the documentary to show what it
is like to live with EB. He had grown to
a point where he had not only welcomed
death and made peace with it, but he saw
it as a relief. Most people would consider
this to be crazy, but after seeing what he
went through, you fnally understand why.
An entire life spent in constant agonizing
pain like he did, to have such a severe form
of EB (Dystrophic), his solace was the be-
lief that after he passed away he would be
right up there with the angels, no longer
suffering. No one should have to feel this
way, regardless of how understandable the
circumstances may be.
Just because this is known as an in-
curable disease does not mean that it is
impossible to help. Raising awareness is
the frst step. The programs for EB lack
funding because so very few people real-
ly understand the disease or even know
it exists. DEBRA is a beacon of hope for
those diagnosed. Not only are they re-
searching a cure and treatment, but they
help countless families in the meantime.
Dasheill states, My goal is to give these
kids the best quality of life as possible
with the resources we have. They help
provide families with bandages and oth-
er medical assistance, grant wishes to
the children with EB and have functions
where patients from all around can come
together and see that they are not alone.
Getting involved is as easy as going to
Debra.org and clicking the take action
button.
I will also be hosting an event at
Two Boots Pizza this summer where
there will be a live venue. Performers
are welcome to join and tickets will be
sold through the DEBRA website. All
proceeds will be given to DEBRA and
all further information will be updated
through the
DEBRA- Two Boots Fundraiser
page on facebook and on the Debra.org
website.
EB: The Quiet Struggle of Butterfy Children
BY DESIREE SWENDSEN
STAFF WRITER
Horizons is on facebook!
Visit the Housatonic Horizons facebook fan page to read the latest about whats going on at HCC as well as articles you
wont fnd in the paper, and
to send us links, comments, and suggestions.
14
HORIZONS Self Refections
T
his is the frst time I have ever
brought this subject to light,
outside of a psychiatric facility.
Time goes by, and it can be hard to realize
that I was once a victim of anything. Mem-
ories are repressed for years at a time and
resurface at the worst possible moment.
Even if Id try to speak it, the words dont
come. Sentences grow vague and full own-
ership is never taken of the situation. It
wasnt until I sat in a group therapy session
in a mental health facility for self harm and
suicidal ideation that I fnally spoke up.
Staring nervously at the foor, clutching
a stress ball with all my strength, it hap-
pened.
I...I um...well when I was younger I
was sexually abused. It happened multi-
ple times throughout my life by different
people, both men and women. So no, its
NOT why Im a lesbian but after my last
relationship I am seeing how much what
happened really destroyed my life. Those
few seconds of courage that I ripped off
like bandaid just hit me in one foul blow.
At that moment I knew I could no longer
take back what was said. The control was
now taken away,and I was subjected to
judgement but worst of all, questions.
Nothing seemed more upsetting than
my psychiatric evaluation upon entering
the facility. I remember the nurse asking me
the question, have you ever been sexually
abused or assaulted? I had been asked this
in therapy before, but not once did I ever
tell the truth. This time I sheepishly nod-
ded my head and gave one word responses.
Her alarming response made me feel like
an idiot. Did you press charges? Did you
tell someone? Why didnt you say any-
thing? Do you want to still press charges?
It was like I swallowed my tongue. Clutch-
ing my arm and digging my nails into my
skin while holding back tears as always. I
choked out an I dont know, I was just a
kid. It was mostly family. It was so many
years ago. I just...I really dont want to talk
about this anymore. And suppressing my
rage when I heard her tell another nurse
what happened right in front of me as if I
wasnt there.
Despite the awful experience I just had
to force myself to work through it. I knew
that I was there to get help and being sex-
ually abused destroyed so many aspects
of my life. I couldnt heal until I fnally
spoke my life long secret. Prior to this my
ex-girlfriend was the only one who knew.
Being my frst, so many issues came about
regarding sex. The worst by far would have
had to been the night terrors of being raped
by the closest person I had in my life. From
that moment on I felt destroyed. I couldnt
sleep and when I did I woke up in panic
attacks an hour or so later that kept me up
until about seven in the morning with an
eight oclock class. It became a nightly
routine of falling asleep by midnight, wak-
ing up one to two hours later screaming in
my sleep, running into the bathroom and
sitting on the foor, clawing at my skin with
my nails until my girlfriend eventually
swooped in and made up a story to calm me
down. I hated myself for it and for not hav-
ing better control. We both failed our class
and I was kicked out of my dream school.
It still wasnt until almost a year later that I
fnally sent her a text explaining the times
I had been abused and assaulted, ranging
from full molestation as a child to being
cornered in an elevator at fourteen while
the clothes were being tugged off of my
newly matured body. People ranging from
close family members, drug dealers, alco-
holics, and random strangers abused me.
Up until this past month, I had no choice
but to communicate with many of these
people regularly, playing naive like I sim-
ply didnt remember. How could a three
year old remember the suffocating feeling
of being held down to that foor and staring
at a picture of winnie the pooh, trying to
break away. Or how about a six year old
remember that fun game that forced her
to get down on her knees and perform oral
sex because thats what the big kids do?
Or the night that family member came to
visit my dying mother and instead spent a
good chunk of time squeezing my arm to
make sure I didnt leave, running his fn-
gers through my hair telling me I looked
just like my mother and continuing to
feel up the rest of me. Coming from the
same man that told me that women were
only good for sex and money and once
they were used up you threw them out
and found a new one. I was pressured to
never tell anyone by the sheer fact that my
mother was dying of cancer and that she
couldnt handle the stress and I would be a
horrible person for upsetting her in the last
moments of her life.
There are many reasons people keep
quiet. Whether it be fear of the other per-
son, blame on themselves, not wanting
to destroy their family dynamic, or even
just the pain of facing those questions of
why didnt you do anything?. When I f-
nally shared my story in group, two men
of all people spoke up. I was shocked to
hear their experiences as they held my
hand and reassured me of everything I
questioned of myself. Through it all, one
common phrase is said over and over and
over again, Dont blame yourself See
in my mind I almost scoffed at this like,
Well no s***, Sherlock! Obviously it
wasnt my fault, I was a kid. I wasnt to
blameHonestly, it wasnt until earlier to-
day that I realized what it meant. I never
once blamed myself for what they did,
however, not a single day has passed that I
havent blamed myself for how I reacted. I
was ashamed for not getting help and I still
hate myself for being such a coward that
Im only speaking out now that I have basi-
cally ran away from everyone in my life.
I analyzed everyone and everything except
asking the one question; did what happen
make me do this? I was abused at three
years old and then began a lifelong hab-
it of compulsive skin picking that I will
admit persists to this very moment and
leaves my skin covered in small round
scars. The events following the multiple
instances at 13 and 14 years old involved
a long battle with an eating disorder and a
nine-year struggle with self injury and sui-
cidal thoughts. I acted out in my relation-
ship and panicked whenever my girlfriend
simply wasnt in the mood because I was
convinced that not having sex meant that I
wasnt good enough. I had an abnormally
active sex drive by the time I was seven
years old before I even really knew what
sex was. I was intrigued by it to the point of
even watching porn as young as nine years
old and conversing with strangers. Yet the
thoughts and the actions were completely
different things. Simply making out with
a boy in high school brought me to tears,
fnding myself throwing up after and feel-
ing like a cheap whore and wanting to kill
myself desperately.
Getting to close with anyone just could
not happen. I avoided social situations,
spent every lunch period in the nurses of-
fce compulsively weighing myself three
times a day, withering down to 95 lbs and
taking control of myself and my life with
food. The voice that drove my eating dis-
order and self injury seemed to be awful-
ly similar to that of the man who abused
me in the back of my moms house. It all
culminated into that one simple solution.
The frst person who abused me was over-
weight, I looked at overweight people with
fear and disgust and couldnt let it happen
to me. Then the embedded impression that
if I wasnt beautiful and sexually attractive,
that no one would want me. I was already
invisible.
Even now at 21 years old with the
mouth of a sailor I still have to struggle to
be heard on a daily basis. If I was beauti-
ful, people would care. Most importantly,
if I could match the pain I felt on the inside
with physical pain on the outside, it made
what I felt real. I wouldnt have to scream
for attention, I wouldnt have to repeat my
story. I wouldnt have to beg someone to
listen to me and understand. If someone
could look at me, see my scars, see my
bones, see those hollow eyes, they would
know what I was incapable of saying. They
would know that I was in pain, I was bro-
ken. Something happened that wasnt okay.
I didnt have to tell them. They could see it.
That thought resonated in my mind for al-
most a decade of my life. Im not going to
lie; it is still a struggle that Im trying to
fgure out as I go. At one point the line has
to be drawn. Thinking this way served a
purpose but that purpose did not serve me.
I was slowly killing myself physically and
emotionally and using anything I could to
stop the pain. I lost everything I had ever
wanted and at one point had to just have a
reality check. Self injurious behavior only
benefts the person who made you feel it
was necessary. By hurting myself it gave
the abusers a permanent place on my body
and in my life. I thought that I was help-
ing myself and in reality I was letting them
control the level of success I could achieve.
Through recovering I have connected with
amazing people. Complete strangers that
had given me messages of hope that kept
me going. Realizing how much I had to
live for and how successful I could be. I
chose to embrace what had happened and
direct my energy into helping others from
all walks of life.
The key to all of this and the driving
point behind this article is the fact that
more people experience abuse than we re-
alize. The fact that no one talks about it is
such an issue that even Kathy Griffn has
a joke about it. Im sure Im not the only
one that has listened to someone make a
rape joke or use it in the wrong context
and desperately wish you could punch that
person in the face while biting your tongue
and walking away. It is not okay. Sexual
abuse is a topic that isnt warranted the re-
spect that it should really get. Until today I
have been one of many that has kept quiet
nearly her entire life, afraid of ridicule and
not fnding the words to say, causing my-
self mental and physical pain rather than
just reaching out to another person. Over
the past few months I have had a couple
of friends confde their experiences with
me and made me realize how many people
around me could understand what I went
through if I stopped treating it as a taboo.
Its okay to speak up, to confde in some-
one, to look for outside help.
The experience has lifelong effects
that cripple an individuals way of living
Silent Shouts: A Confession of Abuse
BY DESIREE SWENDSEN
STAFF WRITER
It is time to break the silence
I never once blamed myself for what they did,
however, not a single day has passed that I havent
blamed myself for how I reacted.
15
HORIZONS Self Refections
forever. Their perspective will never be
the same. However, it is not hopeless
and there are ways to help. I personal-
ly would never turn down anyone who
wanted to confde in me. After eighteen
years, this is the frst time my voice has
been heard. I am scared, and I dont
know how anyone will react. My only
hope is that at least one person will
be able to connect with my story and
find it helpful. Perhaps they will even
be reminded that there is a lot more
to life than what happened and from
here on out you can be the author of
your own story.
If anyone has any questions or needs
any assistance they can go to rainn.
org to access help or call their hotline.
There is a group in the works with HCC
Counselor Linda Wolfson and me work-
ing to begin a school-wide group where
members can feel safe in confding in their
experience and overcome the negative
effects in a positive environment. Feel
free to contact me on facebook or
contact Linda Wolfson in the HCC
Counseling Center for information next
semester.
I
was that girl who dominated high
school. I was a permanent resi-
dent on the honor roll list, and I
was involved in multiple school groups
and activities. Freshman through se-
nior year was very predictable. It was
expected that I go on to college. I was a
shooting star. I graduated at the top of my
class and went on to college at my frst choice
school, the University of Connecticut, with
scholarships and amazing recognition.
High school was nothing compared to
what college ended up to be. I wasnt as
prepared as I thought I was for this next
step. Educationally, I was exactly where
I was supposed to be. Mentally, I was
immature. I got distracted by the seem-
ingly infnite amount of freedom I had
because I lived on campus. College life
was like a huge gym. We all had paid our
membership fees, but not all of us were
putting in the work that would get us ft.
I was very preoccupied with my social
life. Much like most students, I made
plenty of friends,and we were at all the
parties on weekends. I was rarely at the
library, or in an acceptable study envi-
ronment. I lost sight of my purpose and
my goals of being at school in the frst
place. Consequently, my grades suffered
horribly and by the end of my third se-
mester I knew I wasnt going to make it.
I dropped out of school because I missed
the deadline for my fnancial aid. It was as
if I was an entirely different person than
the one my dad had dropped off in August
2008 as a new and fresh student. Originally
dazed by the shining opportunity that this
place held for me, now seemed so foggy,
dim, and distant. My heart cried feeling as
if everything I had worked so hard for was
now completely gone. I had blew it. I let
everyone down, especially myself. What
was I supposed to do now? It was the abso-
lute worst feeling I had ever felt in my life.
For the next few months I walked around
feeling heavy, like I had eaten three
pounds of rocks. I was miserable, I didnt
want to get a job, I didnt want to do any-
thing that would allow my brain to accept
what I had done. I realized that I had to
get over the outcome of the decisions
that I had made, due to my lack of good
judgement. I had to live my life and not
allow this failure to ruin me or rob me of
any future educational success. Moving
on was very hard, but I realized that leav-
ing school was not the end of the world.
I ended up getting a job in an attempt to re-
gain stable footing on a positive path. I was
doing well, but my presence at home was
creating confict between my father and I.
He had always been a diffcult man to be
around, but his evident disappointment in
my mistakes made our relationship unbear-
able. Home life as a 20 year old college
dropout was feeling more and more like hell.
As a desperate attempt to regain my sanity I
reached out to my mother. I ended up leav-
ing the home I had known my entire life,
and movedwith her to Savannah, Georgia
for a new start. I was terrifed and excit-
ed with the feeling of opportunity all over
again. Life changed very quickly. Before I
knew it I had established stability in Sa-
vannah with my new boyfriend. After 2
years of being together my boyfriend and
I were blessed with a precious daughter.
Becoming a mother was the scariest
thing Ive had to go through. Every day
I was introduced to new and more dif-
fcult challenges. Past struggles seemed
so insignifcant to the ones I had now.
Every thought I had now was about the
best possible way to provide for my
daughter. Unfortunately, my relation-
ship began to fall apart after 3 years
of being together and we separated.
If I were asked as a high school graduate
where I thought I would be in 5 years. I
would have said I would be a college
graduate with my bachelors degree in
biology. I would have never thought
that I would be a college dropout that moved to
Savannah, got pregnant, left her daugh-
ters father, moved back home, and en-
rolled in community college. Life has
taught me many things, the main thing
being to not expect your life to fol-
low some predetermined schedule.
Dropping out of college ended up help-
ing me grow up. I had a lot of time to
straighten out my priorities and gain a
solid, adult perspective on decisions that
I make. I moved back home and enrolled
in Housatonic Community College. Im
ready to do this from start to fnish and
give it everything I have this time around.
Failure is just an opportunity to knock it out
the park to make everyone forget about you
striking out. Life goes on and creates new
opportunities for success.
The College Dropout
BY SYLVIA TAYLOR
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
L
GBT issues have been a hot top-
ic the past few years. With the
controversy regarding LGBT
equality, many opinions that were once
kept quiet are now being well versed. Ei-
ther way you spin it, someones feelings
are going to be hurt. Having such an open
minded family, discrimination was some-
thing I was able to avoid for a long time,
other than a occasional teasing and a cou-
ple lost friends throughout high school.
That was of course, until I fell in love
my freshman year of college with a girl
who was still in the closet. The pain not
only devastated the person I cared about
the most in front of my own eyes, but tor-
mented us both and our relationship.
Now, lets paint a picture. Three years
ago I noticed this breathtaking girl sitting
at the table in front of me in the cafete-
ria of a private environmental college in
Maine. Out of every single person I met
she was the only person I was too nervous
to talk to. This straight girl had the at-
tention of three other people at the time
and I, this horrendously awkward girl,
was the least likely contestant.
After a month of being mocked for
my feelings by everyone, I had won her
heart. We became that cute couple that ev-
erybody awed at as we walked by. On
campus we were on top of the world, we
moved into the same dorm and spent ev-
ery second growing closer to each other
until the day came when we moved back
to our home towns on opposite sides of
Connecticut. We managed our visits un-
til the day her older sister revealed our
relationship to her highly religious and
prejudiced mother. All went to Hell, for
lack of a better term. For weeks she was
put down every single day, told how her
entire life was a sin and that she would
never be accepted. Until the day she used
her mothers exact words against me to
end our relationship. For months we spent
our nights in tears trying to communi-
cate, wishing things could be different.
Personally, not really having any parents
around after my mom passed away, I had
diffculty understanding her situation.
Family bonds were something that just
didnt register in my mind. The family that
raised me didnt accept anything about me
other than my sexuality, oddly enough. So
despite trying to be patient, I found myself
getting frustrated and beginning to resent
the fact that she couldnt just say, Screw
it! and not care what they thought about
her. Its still something I struggle with,
years later that caused confict between us.
We snuck around for over a year in an
on again off again relationship and no mat-
ter how hard we would try to stay apart,
the second we saw each other there was no
denying our feelings. For months Id visit
her at her oldest sisters house and have to
spend hours hiding in one room or another
while her parents stopped over the house.
That is until an awkward visit ended with
a face to face confrontation with her dad
who stormed away, slamming the door be-
hind him as I tripped down the stairs in
his wake. He later spent the entire night
texting both her and her sister ranging the
full anger spectrum from her being dead to
him, to him no longer caring who she was
with as long as it wasnt me.
I responded with a long letter to him
fnally standing up for myself which end-
ed his harassment towards me. We were
able to openly see each other for the frst
and last time this past December where
we celebrated our own holiday. We com-
bined Thanksgiving and Christmas as well
as celebrating the memory of my grand-
mother who had just passed away. Little
did I know that this would be our last time
seeing each other.
When she returned home, her mother
began to torment her on a daily basis to
the point of mental abuse. Day after day
she was put down and blamed for every-
thing simply for who she loved. I hated
that there was nothing I could do to help
as she was being driven farther and farther
away from me, spending days depressed
and lashing out at me for what was hap-
pening.
Eventually she started talking to a guy
that her family loved. She ignored me all
of Valentines day to which to later found
out that she had brought him to a family
dinner to celebrate and persisted to cheat
on me. I never knew why she wouldnt
talk to me until that night as I sat on the
side of the road sick to my stomach while
her sheepish words hit me like bullets
and later followed a nervous breakdown.
In my eyes, I had lost the last support I
had ever had. My parents were gone, my
grandmother was gone, and the only per-
son I had ever let in just cheated on me
with a guy. But her family granted her re-
spect. They no longer bullied her or put
her down and she had found a scapegoat.
We both spent weeks physically ill with
depression as I tried with all my strength
to understand and forgive her.
Months later and the center of my
world is now a complete stranger. It is
always so easy to see how homophobia
affects the person that it is directed to but
very few people see the girl curled up in a
ball in the mental hospital, malnourished
and covered in scars from head to toe,
wondering why loving someone uncondi-
tionally warranted such deceit.
Closets Are For Clothes
BY DESIREE SWENDSEN
STAFF WRITER
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
Eleanor Roosevelt
16
arts & entertainment
arts & entertainment
e
S
tudents walk past one of HCCs
treasures every day without a sec-
ond glance. The art collection at
HCC is one of the largest of any two-year
school in the country and is on display all
over campus. It has works by revered art-
ists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picas-
so, and Joan Miro.
I cant really say there is one highlight,
the collection as a whole is so impressive,
said Lizbeth Anderson, an art history pro-
fessor at HCC. The highlight to me is
that we get to live in it here.
The collection is not confned to a spe-
cifc theme or medium. It is free to be var-
ied, and continues to get more diverse as
HCC acquires more pieces. The diversity
in cultures, the diversity in time periods,
the diversity in styles, I mean it is really
boundless, said Anderson.
Thomas Brenner, an art professor at
HCC, also likes the diversity the collection
offers. However, some pieces, such as Oc-
tober Moon by Bernard Chaet, are partic-
ularly interesting because they were done
by professors he had as an undergraduate
at Yale University. It is interesting after
all these years encountering pieces, says
Brenner. ...One of them I saw him work-
ing on when I was a student.
Art is important. It allows humans to
express themselves in a way no other me-
dium can, everything from abstract ideas
buried deep inside a persons subconscious
to the physical objects that surround them.
It is the history of human imagination,
it is what separates us from the animals,
says Anderson. It is something that just
enhances our appreciation of life.
...I think that there is a lot of talk
that art is not important, that it is a luxu-
ry, that it is more important to train peo-
ple for business and professions like that.
But when we look back throughout all of
history, what we look at is the art, adds
Brenner.While art may seem like the
icing on the cake, it is really the batter.
Andrew Pinto, an art professor at HCC,
wonders what would life be like without
art. Would you like a car that had no de-
sign built into it? How interesting would
your house be? inquires Pinto. Art is
what allows us to express ourselves. It
helps us create new ideas and problem
solving. It makes life fun and interesting.
It helps you identify yourself and express
yourself as an individual.
Students and staff should be taking
a closer look at the art that surrounds
life at HCC, whether it be a sculpture, a
painting, or a photograph. To help stu-
dents look at art in a more meaningful
way, Anderson uses, what she calls a vi-
sual assessment. This assessment asks
a series of questions to get students to
look at different aspects of a piece of art.
Questions include: What medium did the
artist use? How is the piece lit? What col-
ors are used?
These types of questions force students
to look at a piece more formally and get
used to some of the particularities of art.
It is like learning a new language. To
become sensitized to line, color, light, you
know? says Anderson. We are not really
used to thinking in those terms.
The art collection also acts as a teaching
tool. Brenner takes students from his two
dimensional design class on a tour of the
halls. He fnds different pieces that clearly
illustrate ideas that they covered in class so
the students can see real life examples of
what he teaches.
Appreciating visual language isnt just
about being able to understand art better.
It is about having a richer experience in life
too, says Anderson.
The art also helps teach students through
experiences. What we are seeing is great
experiences in art are available to students
here because of the art department, says
Pinto. They are also available to the com-
munity because the events are all open to
the public. An example of a past event is
when artist Mike Perry, famous for paint-
ing portraits, came in and talked to students
about his art and had a live demonstration
of portrait painting.
The art collection is arguably the most
impressive thing about HCC in part be-
cause it is so unexpected. Everyone should
take the time to soak in all the history,
ideas, and feelings that the art expresses
throughout the campus.
The Underappreciated Treasure of HCC
BY BRENNA MCINTYRE
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
October Moon by Bernard Chaet
F
ine arts painter Michael Peery
graciously and gently shared
and demonstrated his oil portrait
painting secrets in a 5 to 7 p.m. event
held at the HCC Beacon Hall auditorium
on April 22.
Peery started the event by speaking
about himself, sharing that he was born in
Idaho and moved from an Idaho small town
to New York City and for 7 years walked
around and looked. He explained that it
was easier for him to become a painter and
avoid his fathers business because he was
the youngest of six children and that he
thinks that his older brothers had already
satisfed his fathers wishes to continue the
family business.
He decided to study art because he
wanted to become a teacher and needed the
MS degree to teach in college as a profes-
sor. Today he teaches at the Rhode Island
School of Design. The meaning of art to
Peery means just to be good at it. Peery
considers himself to be an oil painter be-
cause he likes the smell of it, the look of
it, the feel of it. He also uses gouache and
considers himself to be a traditionalist. He
also said that in college he studied anatomy
so that he would be better able to paint the
human fgure.
He spoke about his strategy with the
palette which he developed over an eight-
year period and that it functions well - it
has 5 values at 100% then to 50% dark
grey.
Throughout the demonstration of his
painting he encouraged questions from the
audience to be just shouted out since he
had his back to the audience while paint-
ing. The audience did not hesitat, and there
was a dialogue of questions and answers
during the demonstration. To a question
from the audience of who infuenced him
he replied that he, while a child, was in-
fuenced by the Flamenco Dancer painting
hanging at the Wendys fast food restau-
rant and remembers that moment which
validates his decision to become a painter.
Other infuences were: Norman Rockwell,
Wyeth and Homer.
He used a warm light brown canvas
color and before starting to paint he wiped
the canvas with linseed oil and explained
that it helps the paint to fow better on the
wiped canvas and that it also helps the paint
to spread better and less paint is consumed
this way and it is more economical. With
oils one can start with dark and then go to
lights. He said that he starts with the bris-
tle brush because it maintains shape longer
and can take a lot of abuse and also holds
more paint and is more sensitive. He starts
his paintings with a basic color statement
and then pushes to colors. At the start he
blocked the shadow shapes and said that a
good light source is important for shadows
and shapes. During painting one is not
copying but interpreting and feeling.
Peery likens painting as a visual in-
formation emerging like a fog on canvas
and he warned about investing too much
in specifcs too soon and becoming a prob-
lem and he initially invests less. He identi-
fed three stages: beginning (something to
start), middle (which then challenges the
start), and the fnish which may take two
years depending on the painters tendency.
He also commented about the colors of
the model that he was painting, that they
are more warm than cool and the fesh is
not atypical but has many chromatic state-
ments.
Painter Michael Peery Visits HCC
BY PAUL CHUHVOV
STAFF WRITER
Palette of Artist Michael Peery
photo credit: Paul Chuhvov
HORIZONS Arts & Entertainment
17
O
ne of the last things that illus-
trator Victoria Vebell said in a
talk to Housatonic students was
that there was a wonderful connection be-
tween the canvas and oil paint. Despite
this connection, Vebell has recently moved
from traditional illustration to digital art.
On the evening of April 28, around 30
students (most from art classes meeting
during the time of the presentation) gath-
ered in Housatonics Performing Arts Cen-
ter to listen to Vebells presentation, Line
and Tone, about her experiences as an art-
ist and the comparison between her work
and the work of her father, illustrator Ed
Vebell.
The presentation commenced with a re-
view of her fathers body of work. My
father sees through a more linear flter,
she explained. My flter is more tonal. I
have been fascinated throughout my life
with light.
Vebells father had only three months
worth of formal art school before World
War II broke out. After being shipped
overseas, he began working as a war cor-
respondent for Stars and Stripes, a newspa-
per for the troops. In 1945, he covered the
Nuremburg Trials as the only illustrator in
the courtroom. These particular works now
hang in the Holocaust Museum. He also
illustrated for magazines including Sports
Illustrated and Readers Digest.
In the 1980s, Vebell and her father
worked together on a series commissioned
by the United States Postal Service for the
History of the United States stamp pro-
gram. After, both went back to their sep-
arate careers.
One of the problems I had as an illus-
trator is that everyone wanted me to be like
my father, Vebell said.
Vebell started with watercolor, working
extensively on covers for mysteries and
Young Adult novels. Also an instructor
at Pratt Institute in Manhattan and Nau-
gatuck Community College, Vebell was
approached to write a book. In 2004, her
text Exploring the Basics of Drawing
was published. The second edition will be
published this year.
Around this time, she became involved
in digital art and her book cover illustration
scope seemed to branch out into Young
Adult paranormal fction. The majority of
these covers featured a long-haired young
woman holding a weapon, surrounded by
magic sparks, while a large semi-trans-
parent bust of a chiseled-jaw man loomed
over her. Whether this was an artistic
choice intentionally made by Vebell or a
request of the publisher was left unsaid.
In going to the digital medium, I was
allowed to embrace my photography, she
said. Vebell uses Photoshop and Painter,
programs in the Corel suite.
At the end of the presentation, when
asked what the biggest difference between
illustrating in her fathers time and illus-
trating in the present day, Vebell quickly
mentioned a current drop in the amount of
available work. She likened it to standing
beneath an apple tree. In her fathers time,
she said, You just had to wait for the ap-
ples to fall. Now, sometimes, you have to
climb up to the tree and shake it.
The Daughter of Another Illustrator
BY SARAH SPRINGER
STAFF WRITER
HORIZONS Arts & Entertainment
T
he Housatonic Museum of Art
constantly rotates exhibits in the
Burt Chernow Gallery. However,
one that comes back year after year is the
Faculty Art Show. This year the show is
called (A)Muse.
Its the best, Thomas Brenner, an
art instructor says about the exhibit.The
variety is at least as great as always but I
feel like there are more pieces that really
make you stop and say woah. Art pro-
fessor Andy Pinto thinks the annual faculty
exhibits are very interesting because they
express the diverse abilities and interests
of the faculty. The show displays the ar-
tistic talent of some of HCCs faculty and
includes a variety of mediums. The pieces
of art in the show include life-like pastel
drawings, large abstract encaustic compo-
sitions, and breathtaking acrylic paintings.
The whole gallery is flled with magnif-
cent designs.
Lizbeth Anderson, an art history profes-
sor at HCC, has two encaustic pieces in the
exhibit. It is important for faculty to show
the HCC community what they do in their
studios, to express ideas through visual
work and not just through their teaching,
says Anderson.
I think its important to show my
work so my students can see what I do,
says Andrew Prayzner, an art professor at
HCC, My hope is that they are inspired by
example, and that they discover their own
means of producing great art. Secondarily,
exhibiting my work legitimizes my qualif-
cations as an instructor at the college.
I think it is great for the stu-
dents to see what the instructors do
that might not be completely limit-
ed to what they are teaching, says
Brenner. If you take Drawing from
someone you think of them a someone
who draws but maybe theyre a paint-
er. The faculty show can allow stu-
dents to see a different side to their
instructors, in both choices of subject
matter and the medium they chose.
Brenner uses exhibits such as this one
to help with his teaching. For instance,
if he is teaching color theory he can
take examples that the students are al-
ready familiar with, from seeing them
around school, as opposed to a random
photo he found offline.
Housatonic has an student art show
that occurs every spring and acts almost
as a companion to the faculty show.
It is particularly interesting to see the
faculty and student shows back to back,
it truly creates the sense of a living,
breathing art community here, says
Anderson. The student show runs May
5 through May 29.
HCC Faculty Act as (A)Muse to Students
BY BRENNA MCINTYRE
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
City Line by Thomas Brenner Stack 3 by Andy Pinto Dedication by Andrew Prayzner
Also from time to time he emphasized
that he squints a lot and that is a technique
which helps to simplify the visual informa-
tion when choosing the lighter or darker
areas.
Towards the end of the demonstration
he announced that he was switching to a
smaller brush. At that time he also point-
ed out and explained that he uses a cane (a
walking stick) to give support and stability
to his arm and hand.
On several occasions he warned about
being too specifc too soon because
it throws you for a loop and that you
have to hold yourself back from going
there which is the shiny object syn-
drome - a trap and that usually, when
that happens, one needs to backtrack - and
that it is better to just stay away from it
and avoid it. All decisions must be chal-
lenged - instead keep it general. No per-
manent decisions and nothing is precious,
Peery said.
To the question of what infuences him
now he said that now I am more infu-
enced by what I do not want. When he
was young he competed with Rembrandt
and the masters and studied their paint and
strokes.
There is no perfection but only a quest
for perfection and there is only good stu-
dio practices - not an OCD, said Peery.
When the painting does not look right the
answers are in the palette.
He emphasised that painting is a dis-
covery and said: ...it is all a visual prob-
lem - let it develop - if you try too hard you
can miss the journey of discovery.
For an example of discovery he said
about pastel that to fnd that ONE MARK
- try, try, try, - then when you see it:
thats what I want
Peery said: I am linear when drawing
and there is no line in nature, all is value
- all is through the value relationship - not
copying but interpreting and feeling, look-
ing at the edge - the color relationships, not
focusing on feature but on swatches. Peery
likes to work in stages and then scratch the
excess paint and then continue - not in 1
sitting without pressure and without being
exact - to avoid bad decisions.
Capturing the three dimensions to the
canvas, to the painting, is a translation.
It is a skill based activity - repetition and
practice is required - the magic is in the
development of the skill - stay with it -
set the bar high - look to improve - look
to those before you. He made encour-
aging statements in his parting message
to seek improvement, that perfection is
not a destination but a journey that is
never reached.
In his concluding statement he said:
America has a long way to go to cele-
brate the arts. At HCC you have art all
around and teachers are working art-
ists.
18
HORIZONS Creative Corner
arts & entertainment
creative c rner
o
F
or Issue 2, we published some
of the found poetry that
Karyn Smiths creative writ-
ing students wrote based on past issues
of Horizons. They took words and
phrases from past issues and remixed
them in new combinations to create
original poems of their own.
In April, we decided to try our
hand at finding poems in Issue 2.
In these found poems, we worked to
create our own original poems by us-
ing text from articles, headlines, and
even advertisements from all over the
issue.
Below are some of the editors fa-
vorites. If youre interested in find-
ing your own poems in this issue
of the newspaper, wed love to see
them and consider them for publica-
tion in a future issue or online. Email
housatonichorizons@gmail.com with
Issue 3 Found Poem in the subject
line.
Poems Found in Issue 2 of Horizons
BY HORIZONS STAFF
Confession time
I had come to the conclusion
Memories come and go
Making it diffcult
And thats all right
Search the nooks and crannies
Where the path may lead
So now well just stick with the idea
The good old days
Memories lost
The past transforms the future
Knowledge and experiences
Bumpy road
I was prepared
--Leslie Pizzagalli
A musical play
Is about the Civil Rights struggle
Glory is centered on the road-
blocks
The African-American singer
Encountered roadblocks because of
her color
During the discussion
During the slavery years
An HCC student said:
No. You cant let that stop you.
but there was also this musical
struggle which was never mentioned
in history
classes.
Overall, the event met with great
success.
--Olivia Hodge
April is one those months were a
lot happens
The governor came to HCC
The President is leaving
Memories are coming and going
And HCC is turning ffty.
ND HCC IS TURNING FIFTY
---Lindsey Baldasare
Burden comes with choices,
Two faces.
Contemplated failure, timewaster
Roadblocks encountered have a greater presence
Insulting playpen for the mind
Make submissions, Credit mistakes, create expansion
Mess shows the stakes of the stage
A catalog for the collection
Highlighting the good, document what happens,
Rhythmical composition
Elevated thoughts, Intense growth
In the process of making Jubilee
Hakuna Matata
---Ashleigh Teare
The person who gave you the world,
It is important to evaluate your success,
My grades were constantly fuctuating,
I had so much on my plate,
Stress impacts how you feel, function,
Overdose is dangerous,
A rush of emotions came to my stomach,nervous,
What do I do now?
Too much to give up when it really mattered,
Rising up out of the shadows,
Smell the fowers and blow out the birthday candles,
Weaknesses that I shouldnt let hold me back,
From what I want in life,
I can look at it as an immense success.
And maintain a positive mindset.
---Desiree Swendsen
19
HORIZONS Creative Corner
The birds in the grass
Are more alive than the students
Who are lost behind screens.
-- Brenna McIntyre
Arms crossed, head up
Wind blowing in springtime
We walk, think.
--Franklin Jusino
Theres a security guard -
He is telling me to leave;
The college has closed.
--Sarah Springer
Silent but for wind
Streetlights on rain-slick pavement;
No one learns past supper.
--Sarah Springer
In their hands they hold it all
Their lives and the lives of others
What great power a cell phone has.
---Sherly Montes
A boy in grey sits
Using hands like drums he taps
Seeking quiet, others leave
--Alyxandra Irizarry
Life is beautiful
We all have things that we have to do
But its always good to take a moment
and cherish the moment
---Lindsey Baldassare
Spring brings sense of relaxation
As I overhear random conversations,
I feel like a creep.
---Olivia Hodge
Campus Haiku
BY HORIZONS STAFF
A
s one of our activities in hon-
or of National Poetry Month,
Horizons staff traveled around
campus at various times of day to observe
and then wrote their own original haiku
based on these observations. Some of the
editors favorites are below. If youre inter-
ested in sharing your own campus haiku,
wed love to consider them for publication
in a future issue or online. Email housa-
tonichorizons@gmail.com with Campus
Haiku in the subject line.
A traditional Japanese haiku
is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables,
written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.
Did you
know?
Please Recycle This Newspaper
Most of the classrooms at HCC have both a garbage bin and a blue recycling bin.
There are only two things that you should put in those bins:
- Printer Paper/Notebook Paper
- Newspaper
These items CANNOT go in the recycling bins:
- Food
- Plastic of any kind, including bottles
- Other packaging
Horizons remains committed to assisting in efforts that will result in a cleaner campus and community.
Housatonic Community College
Welcomes Veterans
How to apply for educational benefts:
After applying you will receive a certifcation
letter stating which beneft you qualify for.
Before or after applying , see VA Rep. Bring a
copy of your certifcation letter to our VA Rep
along with a copy of your DD214.
*Make sure to bring any transcripts and any
immunization records with you*
Our Vetarans Representative
Jeff Stewart
Phone: 203.332.5087
Fax:203.332.5251
Room: B101
Email: hccvetrep@gmail.com
Please contact for any questions.
We also have a Veterans Oasis located in room B101 where our Veterans can do homework,
relax and get acquainted with other Veterans
20
HORIZONS Creative Corner
arts & entertainment
stud nt art
e
Graphite by Barbara Phoenix
Pastel by Sasha
Graphite by Carolina Trinidad
Acrilyc Paint by Barbara Phoenix
Digital illustration by Carolina Trinidad
Digital illustratiopn by Barbara Phoenix
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.
In spite of everything I shall rise again:
I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken
in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.
VINCENT VAN GOGH
21
arts & entertainment
stud nt art
e
G
rowing up, my fathers fami-
ly was occasionally poor. Oc-
casional poverty is not a rare
phenomenon, especially when raising
fve children of varying ages while going
through a divorce in the 1950s. I think that
this is where my fathers love of cooking
came from.
Lena, my grandmother, was a formida-
ble, forward-thinking woman from Italy,
where food was a joy to all people regard-
less of their personal fnancial status. And
food was a shared thing. If the mailman
happened to deliver the days letters while
a pot of soup was simmering on the stove,
he would be invited in for a taste or two
(a taste being equivalent to at least one
bowl). He had all that walking to do, all
those letters to deliver he needed suste-
nance!
My fathers favorite meal, so I am told,
was Bologna Stew. My grandmother would
make this dish every so often and my father
grew to look forward to it.
He grew up (at least, physically) and
joined the Air Force. When he had served
out his term, he came back home. What
do you want to eat? my grandmother must
have asked him, because I know he re-
quested Bologna Stew. I know this because
thats where his story starts, when he tells
it to me once every few months.
Bologna stew? she asked. I only
made that because we were poor and thats
all I could afford!
Bologna ends were cheaper than most
other cuts of meat, and it was a way for
her to feed her children with whatever
small amount of coinage she could scrape
together. It was, to her, an embarrassment
tangible proof that she could not properly
provide for her family.
Still, she made it for him.
Pauper foods are now often considered
some of the most delicious, and some have
evolved to be the most expensive. Even
lobster was once only eaten by poor folk
and indentured servants, and was viewed
with much derision.
My father has never made me Bologna
Stew, as my grandmother would never give
him the recipe and, to him, any guess he
might make would be a poor substitute.
Her Bologna Stew reminded her of the bad
times, so my father says and although I
know that he understands her motives for
keeping the recipe close to her chest, I also
know that he misses his once favorite meal.
Still, she gave him something better
than a recipe important life lessons. Use
what you have on hand and get creative.
Some of the best things come from the
direst circumstances. She taught him these
lessons, and he passed them on to me while
he showed me how to roast a chicken or
make chili con carne. Now, when I cook
for myself, I think of those happy discov-
eries and of my grandmother, making do
with what she had.
While this is not my grandmothers rec-
ipe (I imagine that, if nothing else, more
onions and a good deal of garlic would
have found their way into the pot), this is a
solid starting point with which to get cre-
ative. And I recommend creativity. So does
Grandma Lena.
Bologna Stew
Ingredients
1 lb bologna ends, thickly sliced and
cut in quarters
salt to taste
1 medium onion, sliced
1 carrot, diced
1 small turnip, diced
2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2-3 tbsp ketchup (if desired)
Directions
Fry the bologna end pieces until slightly
browned. Add the fried bologna and all of
the vegetables into a soup or stew pot. Pour
in just enough water to barely cover the in-
gredients. Let boil slowly until vegetables
are tender. Stir in ketchup near the end for
added favor, if desired.
Bologna Stew: A Lesson in Ingenuity
BY SARAH SPRINGER
STAFF WRITER
S
ummer, winter, spring and fall my
sisters father-in-law, Mike Del-
zell, makes an incredible chili.
Whenever someone tries it they always
want to know what the secret is. Just the
other day, my sister Laura was going on
about how he was going to make it for an
upcoming birthday party and I thought that
it would be a great recipe to share with peo-
ple, and he graciously allowed me to write
it up for the HCC newspaper. He likes his
chili very hot but that can be adjusted to
taste.
My brother-in-law Luke says its all
about the bacon grease and he prefers
to use hickory bacon. He says its good
with bread , corn chips, or sometimes he
likes it with spanish rice. Of course you can
have it anyway you like. It has a delicious
sweet and savory taste. If you add less
heat the sweetness comes out more.
Laura loves it in the summer at
family picnics, and Luke likes it
best in the winter, so I guess its
a year round treat. Laura says,
Everyone always asks, Make
sure you bring that chili. Its spicy and
delicious...I always look forward to it.
Ingredients
3 strips bacon
1 medium onion
1 hot pepper
1 lb ground beef
1 tsp chili powder
black pepper
cayenne pepper
mustard
relish
12oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes
liquid smoke
gray master
12 oz can of b&m baked beans
Cut three strips of bacon. Fry. Re-
move from pan. Cut medium onion and
hot pepper. Brown in bacon grease.
Add 1 lb ground beef plus bacon and 1
tsp of chili powder. Add a few dashes
of black pepper and a dash or two of
cayenne pepper. Add 1 tsp of mustard,
a forkful of relish, a 12 oz can of diced
or crushed tomatoes, a capful of liquid
smoke, 2 capfuls of gravy master and
12 ozs of water. Simmer and add can
of beans. Hot sauce optional accord-
ing to taste. Cook until thickened and
Enjoy!
Delzell Chili
BY NICOLE LAZARIUK
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Photo by Nicole Lazariuk
HORIZONS Recipes
arts & entertainment
r cipes
e
22
YOUR
HERE
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with all pertinent data to horizonsbulletinboard@gmail.com.
HORIZONS Recipes
I
f youre like me, youre exhaust-
ed when you get home from work,
school, or both, the last thing you
really want to do is cook dinner. Heres a
recipe that can easily be served with a veg-
etable and/or rice for a quick meal thats
budget friendly.
Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken breasts (turkey breast is an
excellent substitute)
1 packages of Frenchs French Fried
Onions (just shy of 8oz.)
1 egg, beaten
Black Pepper
Parmesan Cheese
Preheat oven to 400F.
Place French Fried Onions into a large
ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin so
that the onions wind up ground pretty fne-
ly. Open bag and add in black pepper and
Parmesan cheese to taste.
After cleaning chicken, pat dry and
place into beaten egg mixture. Make sure
chicken is fully coated with egg and to
shake off excess egg.
Place chicken in large ziploc bag with
French Onion mixture. Shake vigorously
until fully coated. Place coated chicken on
a baking tray, you may want to put down
tinfoil for a mess-free clean up.
Pop baking tray into the oven for 20
minutes or until the chicken is cooked all
the way through.
*This recipe is intended for chicken,
but what Ive found that I and my fami-
ly love is using turkey breast. The turkey
breast comes out a little more moist than
the chicken, which really adds to the fa-
vor.
** If you have a picky child at home,
try cutting the breasts up into nugget sized
pieces and serving that way, (great for
toddlers.)
French Onion Chicken Recipe
BY ALYXANDRA IRIZARRY
STAFF WRITER
23
HORIZONS Pin it!
Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Harold R. McAlindon
HORIZONS Pin it!
Pin it!
If youd like to have your ad posted in the new Pin it! section just send us the information you want posted
with all pertinent data to horizonsbulletinboard@gmail.com.