facesofpalomar-blog

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John Hennessey, Athletic Equipment Assistant

“I mostly like working with the students and seeing them progress through the season.  It’s just a fun thing to be around…The students, how they interact with the head coaches, you see they respect them and you see them grow.  You get teamwork and the friendships…I have conversations with all the students.  I try to keep them light, but I also encourage them at whatever they’re doing…You see people come back years later.  I don’t know if that happens at a lot of schools. Here, it happens a lot.  You see a lot of people come back and want to see the old coach, want to see the people and, that sort of tells me something.  I try to make it so they have a good experience the whole way through so they have good things to look back on…

 My whole thing is just coming to do a good job every day…I like to keep always going…I’d rather be busy and keep on moving along…I don’t see myself retiring.”

Interview by Mike Adams. Photo by Kyle Ester/The Telescope

#pctelescope #palomarcollege #communitycollege #collegesports

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Ruben Moreno, 18, Business Administration

“Got started in Hip-Hop because I got in trouble a lot when I was younger and it was a creative outlet, I got grounded and didn’t have nothing to use and when I started using it I thought, ‘I could actually do this.’ Hip-Hop is more like artistry and poetry, something I want to teach the kids. Hip-Hop is my therapy, without it I’d be insane.

I hope that in five years I’m finished in school and touring and making enough money to support myself and my family. I hope I can open for my favorite artists; I hope maybe they could open for me. If I could give some advice, I’d tell someone to keep doing it, not to let people bring them down."

Listen to his YouTube channel AMON the mc!

Rodney Figueroa/The Telescope

#pctelescope #palomarcollege #hip-hop

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Antonio Rangel / President of the Palomar College Arboretum

“I think it’s important that we have places like [the arboretum]. We need it. I mean Central Park was built because they realized New York was becoming a jungle of buildings and that was awful depressing. We need green spaces in our lives and our culture. I’m not really worried about the arboretum being turned into a building  or a parking lot. The thing that concerns me is that we need more people to be aware of it and find ways to contribute, even if it’s just walking through and telling your friends about it. A lot of people tell me all the time “I didn’t even know that was there.” They’ll say “Wait, Palomar has a what? An arbo-what?” and then they see it and they’re like “Holy crow! This is amazing! This is beautiful!”

Michaela Sanderson/The Telescope

#pctelescope #palomarcollege #arboretum

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Chris Bertram, 22, Computer Science / Palomar IT Guy

“What's the most challenging part about being an IT guy?" "It's definitely interacting with people that is the biggest hurdle because computers will always be the same. They will always have new versions of themselves but it's nothing that you can't learn. People are always changing. I would get bored if all I did was repair computers in a room all day by myself. When a computer has a problem it usually doesn't take long to figure out what the problem is, but when a person gets upset, it requires a little bit more investigation. Like why are you angry? Is it because your hard drive is broken?" 

Michaela Sanderson / The Telescope

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3-D Art Design Professor Michael Hernandez

“What I love most about glass blowing is the team aspect, there are very few forms of Art that involve a team oriented making of objects, so that is really what I enjoy.”

Niko Holt/The Telescope

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Professor Raymond Elstad, Digital Photography 120 Instructor

“Photography has always been a passion of mine. I used to take photography classes here at Palomar back in 2002, and after three years I was asked to teach Digital Photography 120. Besides teaching Photo120, I have my own in home studio where shoot dance, alternative pin-up and fine art nude photos. Outside of the studio I do a lot of street photography. I have a series called “Neighborhood Walks” where I primarily shoot older classic bungalows that will be demolished next time the property changes hands and think of them as anthropological artifacts.”

Olivia Meers / The Telescope

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Katelyn Shaw, 24, Undecided

"I've been at Palomar for two semesters now. I took some time off after high school to find myself and during that time became a mother to a beautiful baby girl. She is my greatest inspiration in my life right now. After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis as a teenager, I was terrified to become a mother. That day changed my entire life in a way I never knew was possible. I have had my ups and downs, including losing my vision in my right eye. I have had to learn how to do different daily tasks in different ways to compensate. I never let my diagnosis stop me from doing my best and it turns out that my daughter is my biggest blessing. Being a mother motivates me to keep going. She is only two but has already taught me so much about life and the bigger picture of everything. She helped me work up the courage to do one of the coolest things I have ever done; move across the country for a couple of years. Going from my home in California to living in the South was a huge change, but so much fun. I've gotta say though, I am glad to be back in Cali. Palomar is helping me take my next step in life in order to be the best mother to Jayden. Hopefully, I will have a degree in a few years time and she will look at me as her inspiration one day. That is the main goal at least."

Tamara Eakins / The Telescope

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Emerson Diehl, 19, Undecided

"At Palomar's KKSM radio station, I have enjoyed the freedom I have to create a personality on air, whatever that means, and the freedom to write my own material, whatever I like it to be, and to play the music that I do enjoy listening to. Never letting my own perfectionism getting in the way of just putting out whatever i can for people... and just letting it be what it is, whether there's only one person listening, like my mom, or even just 10 people around San Diego County. It's really cool to know that that exists. I would hope that people would take away that they can expand the types of music that they feel like they are qualified to listen to. I think that the people sort of limit themselves by their culture that they grew up in or by their own initial thought of what they'd want to listen to and then they get sort of pigeon-holed into this one genre of music whereas there's so much you can listen to."

Natalie Smith / The Telescope

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Will Warren, 21, Meteorology

"Some guy said, 'halt halt'. I was like 'Well why? Why?'. 'You can't be doing that.' 'I just had two cops tell me I could.' 'Ok well I'm overruling that.' 'Who are you?' 'I kinda run this school.' 'Ok well I just had two cops tell me that I can butt-board and you do have [a] skateboarding racks so what the f*** up with that and he looked at me and just shut up, just walked away. So I mean like it just pisses me off. Honestly like its like we are trying to have fun. We are putting our own lives at risk. You have skateboarding racks but you don't let us skateboard. Yeah, the cops said we could and he's [nameless faculty] the person who runs the school. I think the cop overrules that [Laughs.]"

Belen Ladd / The Telescope

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Noor Salaita, 20, Studio Art

“My friend and I were walking around at the art sale and all of the sudden this girl picked up some of my work. She was looking at the canvases and my friend and I were looking from the side wondering which one she was going to buy, but then she walked over to the cashier and bought all three. I was just like ‘Oh my god somebody bought three of my arts!’ It’s such a great feeling but I wish that you had to sit there and sell your own stuff because it’s more personal and I like the idea of knowing who is going to buy my art.”

Michaela Sanderson / The Telescope

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Alexis Mojica, Undeclared

"This year is my second year at Palomar and this semester I'm taking math, speech, and psychology, just general education stuff. I haven't declared a major yet and therefore haven't researched any colleges either because it could be that what I want to do in life only requires community college education. I moved out here from Mammoth Lakes, got a place to live, got a job and then figured well I might well go to school and that's how I ended up here (Palomar). I didn't start up school thinking of majoring in anything in particular, it was really just to give me something to do.”

Aaron Fortin / The Telescope

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Tay Dancy, 19, Visual Merchandising

“Since I was a little girl, I used to cut out magazines and make this little book for my entire family and I called it “Tay’s Magazine” and that’s when my mom knew I would work in fashion. I love what I do in the fashion industry and I think without it I would most likely being doing something really hands on. The fashion industry to me is more like artistry that we can wear. Even though some of us may all have the same shirt that individual shirt is going to look different on everyone and that’s what makes this world so unique.”

Johnny Jones / The Telescope

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Lisa Wisnesky, 25, Undecided

I graduated two years early from high school by taking classes here at Palomar when I was sixteen through the homeschool program I was in. I used to think that I would major in psychology to become either a therapist or counselor. After taking a semester off to travel to China with my Dad, seeing Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing and also traveling here around the United States, I realized how much I love to adventure to new places and travel. So, after a semester, hip surgery and ten years, I’m back studying to get my associate degree and hopefully major in something that allows me to travel and see the world. I’ve always liked photography and I am considering making that my profession.

Olivia Meers/The Telescope

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Brittney Campos, 25, Environmental Studies

I hope to transfer to Portland State University and I am pretty close to finishing all the things I need to finish to get my [associates degree] to transfer. I want to do this because I lived in Tahoe for two and a half years and I spent a lot of time outside, like in the forest and stuff, and so I really just want to protect the forest and be around nature and just be outside and stuff… I really like what Oregon has going on and there’s a lot to offer me; I really like hiking and I love the activism up there as well.

Daze Castillo / The Telescope

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Josh Kirkbride, also know as Columbia Stonewall,  21, Theater Arts

I’m only doing theater arts because I think it pertains to drag the most. You can’t get a degree in drag, so I’m getting a degree in theater arts to get the tools to be really professional in the business. I've only been doing this for two years. I started when I was 19.

I prefer to do it all the time, but it takes an hour and a half to get ready, so that’s not really reasonable. I’ve been mainly doing it for special occasions like pride, but I have gone to school in drag because it’s fun. I get a lot of heads turning. To get ready you have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn, shave your entire body, and when it’s irritated you slap makeup on it. It’s fabulous, and it feels amazing. It can take about an hour and a half to three hours. I think for real gigs it takes a few days because of the hair, the shaving, the makeup and the outfit.”

Noah Callahan/The Telescope

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Noelle Sanchez, 22, Criminal Justice 

I work at Face-to-Face Outreach and Save The Children. I want to help people and Criminal Justice is something that interests me. When I was younger I watched a lot of law and detective shows but I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go in the field. Then after high school, I started studying it, I fell in love with it, and now I want to go get my master's for a Social Worker and then I want to rehabilitate criminals. I mostly love the fact that I can do a job where I can show people love constantly. I think that’s really important, I think that it’s something that has been taken out of our society a lot and that people have really become alienated from one another. I’d like to bring it back to the fact that people do care about each other and people can help each other. If I can do a job that can do that as well, I think that’s awesome.

Johnny Mueller/The Telescope

#palomar college #san marcos #journalism #college #university

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Valeria Ramirez, 19, Kinesiology

On her 23rd out of 265 field So Cal Community College Championships: "My dad inspires me a lot and I have a really, really inspiring coach who motivates me to do the best that I can.

In the beginning, I felt kind of rusty and I doubted myself. I thought I am not carrying the girls, I am just running against them, like I know I have the strength to beat them. And that worked really well.

After I felt accomplished, and I did not hold back so I felt pretty successful about it.

Not one of my best time, but it was one of my most confident runs."

Shaina Blakesley/The Telescope

#palomar college #faces of palomar #san marcos #journalism #college #university