Photos: Top to bottom: Chelle Aragonez, Frankie Rojas, Sachet Birdsong and Cynthia Nelson, and Sasha Sevostiyanova (Photos: Stephen Harvey and Donald H. Harrison)
EL CAJON—The acronym of WOW week officially stands for “Week of Welcome” at Grossmont College, but it’s intended to get students to think to themselves, “Wow! There really is a special place for me here!”
Twenty-eight student clubs and college departments held a fair on Wednesday, Aug. 21, on the Main Quad of Grossmont College to suggest that their programs may be the ones to help the students find their niches in life. There were clubs devoted to various sports, others to the study of languages, and still others representative of the college’s broad diversity.
Cynthia Nelson was at the table of Umoja, a program that emphasizes African and African-American culture while being open to people of all backgrounds.
Becoming active in the program helped turn her academic outlook around, she said.
“I went from a 2.4 grade point average and I have a 3.2 now. I am now looking at graduating with honors. That was not something that I looked at before; it wasn’t even a goal of mine before this program…
“I have seen some students in the program graduate who may not have thought that graduation was a possibility; they struggled for a while but they made it. I’ve seen students who dropped out, and Umoja contacted them, and they came back. They knew they had waiting for them people who really cared. And that is the big thing: sometimes we slip and fall, but if someone will help us back up, it is that much easier.”
Nelson said she expects to transfer to San Diego State and study to become an elementary school teacher, and later to return for a master’s degree and become a counselor. She said she wants to follow in the footsteps of Grossmont College Counselor James Canady, who is the coordinator to the Umoja program, which takes its name from the Swahili word for “unity.”
Sachet Birdsong is another Umoja member who credits the program for helping her navigate through college.
Having a group like Umoja, “I feel like if I need something or someone, the help is there ; I am not scared about not knowing where to go,” she said. “Coming here and being the first generation of my family to graduate, it was just a great program for me to fall into and I love it for that, I love it for the unity, just going the extra mile for one another. “
She said she hopes to go on from Grossmont College to become a nurse practitioner.
Representatives of other clubs had similar stories to tell. For example, Sasha Sevostiyanova, event coordinator for the International Club, said she was uncertain how to behave among Americans after coming to Grossmont College from Harbin, China, where her Russian family resided during her years as a teenager and in her early 20s.
However, she said, the International Club provides students from around the world as well as interested American students with opportunities to learn about each other and American places and customs.
“We went whale watching last semester and learned a lot about whales, and this semester we will be going to the Birch Aquarium to get to know a lot about marine life,” she said.
Like other international students, she said, she felt that “it’s real hard to find friends in the United States, because it is only on campus or at the workplace you can meet them, but if you are an international student you don’t work. Plus, I am too shy to meet people, so when you have a place for a club, you can meet friends.”
Among American customs that were puzzling for her: “Smiling people will talk to you at the store and they will ask how your day is going. No one does that in China or Russia. People don’t smile. If they do, you think maybe there is something wrong with them. “
“Another thing is the openness,” said Sevostiyanova. “In Russia it is not polite to ask someone’s age, but here it is not a big deal. Here, I am fine with that, but it took a lot of time to get used to the questions you have to answer.”
Sevostiyanova hopes to transfer to UC Berkeley next year to major in business and finance.
Sonja Ghattas-Soliman, who teaches Arabic, is the advisor to the Arabic Club, which provides Arabic-speaking students an opportunity to converse together in their own language, and also to put on cultural events to inform students about the culture of their countries.
“The Arabic Club’s main objectives consist in sharing its culture, fostering social interaction, mutual respect, and a better understanding of the peoples of the Arab World," she said.
Herself an immigrant from Egypt, Ghattas-Soliman said club members enjoy preparing Middle Eastern food for fellow students to sample, and to demonstrate other aspects of Arab culture.
For example, she said, students enacted an Arab wedding on the Main Quad, with female spectators trilling their tongues in a traditional expression of congratulations.
At a nearby booth Chelle Aragonez, a recent Grossmont College alumna told students about the Forgiven Christian Club, which is advised by Gospel Choir Director Ken Anderson. It is one of three Christian Clubs on the campus—“the more the merrier” –but joyful song is Forgiven Christians’ particular feature.
“We will always have music,” she said. “We will definitely have an event to sing to people, and maybe another at the beach where we will have a bonfire and invite people out. It is really just to foster community and make people feel that they have a safe place to be where they can be free, and connected, and not just float through college.”
Music of another kind was occurring as Aragonez was being interviewed. Dance instructors David Mullen and Nancy Boskin-Mullen, husband and wife, were introducing students to the steps of salsa and later to some classic rock n’ roll dances.
Frankie Rojas, vice president of the Student Veteran Organization, said his group knows that the transition from the military to civilian life can be difficult “so we are trying to create some camaraderie so people can meet each other and see familiar faces, and not just be walking around the campus.”
The club engages in volunteer activities and plans to resume a Friday afternoon art project on campus. Last year, veterans engaged in making ceramic pots under the guidance of Art Technician Al Ventura, and it proved a popular activity.
Rojas said that “a veteran is probably a bit more focused than a regular student because we probably have different priorities. I would say that a majority of veterans are more responsible because they have more riding on their shoulders. And when you see veterans in groups, even if they don’t want the responsibility, they will assume leadership roles for the good of the group.”
Furthermore, said Rojas, veterans don’t dawdle in their studies. “They want to get in and out.”
Reflecting on her own college experiences, Sara Glasgow, who is the Interim Associate Dean of Student Activities, said she was the first member of her family to go to college, and at first she felt totally lost. I didn’t know how to register for class or anything at Drake University in Iowa. When I started my first semester, my parents said, ‘we wish we could help you but we don’t know what to say.’”
Glasgow said she became involved in student activities, and “suddenly I had a network, people I could talk to, and that is the whole reason that I stayed in school. I had faculty I could reach out to – a support system.”
When students become engaged in Grossmont College activities, she added, “you feel like you matter, and you do matter. People will notice if you are not in class. People feel that you can make a difference and you do make a difference.”
Glasgow said she went on to obtain a law degree at Gonzaga University, but without the confidence she gained through student activities, “I wouldn’t have had the tools to do that.”
So finding pathways for students at Grossmont College is “personal to me; I do see a difference for students. When they can check in and feel that they are engaged and have a place on campus, and that they matter and they can shape policy and be a part of what is happening, and shape activities and the tone of the campus, that is powerful.” --DHH
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