News Bulletin
Alves being escorted by police after Valencia arrest.
Marcelo Alves, former Valencia contractor charged in sexual assault, released to home confinement on $20,000 bond.
Full story in Feb. 24 issue of the Valencia Voice
Finding romance in 3 minutes
By Angelis Barrios-Montalvo
abarrios-montalvo@valenciaovice.com
Valencia students got to search for their soulmates without ever leaving the SSB Patio.
On Feb. 11, in the looming shadow of Valentine’s Day, Student Government hosted “A Timed Romance,” a speed-dating event aimed at connecting West Campus students to one another.
There was one long table set up with chairs on each side, and two-sided cue cards with suggested questions that the prospective young lovers could ask each other to break the ice.
According to Courtney Wilson, the SGA Press Secretary, the idea arose when a male student asked her “why don’t you guys do something so we can meet more girls?”
A number of students said they attended the event for the opportunity to meet new people.
Nardo Baldwin, one of the participants enjoyed the event, “This should be done more often, with different takes on it,” he said.
One of the most popular features was “foto-licious,” where a student’s picture was printed on edible paper and then wrapped around a white chocolate bar.
Students could also get their picture put on teddy bears to give to their Valentine.
A complaint that arose from students centered on what they believed to be a lack of advertising for the event, many students were unaware the event was taking place until they stumbled across it.
Photo By Karen Raffaelo, Valencia Voice
Valencia volunteers tutor children
By Shaneece Dixon
As many students here in Florida know, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or what we know as the FCAT, are administered to students from grades 3 to 11, testing them on skills such as reading comprehension, writing, mathematics, and even science.
To help elementary students prepare for this statewide test, Valencia Volunteers East Campus has organized a tutoring event on campus. Tutoring services are open to all Orange County students from first grade to sixth grade, taking place in Building 5-112. Starting from Feb. 6, this will continue every Saturday until March 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“Any student can help with the tutoring,” said Lynn Lanceshire, a teacher from Laurel Oaks Academy, who tutors students on the side, “if you have the heart and time to come in and help out.”
Among the number of volunteers, many of them represented Valencia Future Educators, a group on campus for students interested in teaching. Though for some it was their first time, others were eager to help a second time around.
“We tutored 2nd graders with reading as well as math,” said Alexis Lemay, a student from Boone High School.
Notifications were sent to all Orange County school principals and assistant principals, hoping to get the word out to parents who were concerned about their child’s progress on FCAT materials. Many of these concerned parents accompanied their kids to last week’s tutoring session. Pedro and Shirley Velazquez brought their son Neil, who’s in the 3rd grade, in hope of getting him better prepared.
“I want him to be familiarized with the FCAT,” said Shirley Velazquez, “He’s so scared and I hope that he can feel comfortable with the test.”
Many other elementary students also feel nervous about their results; especially since students could possibly be held back a grade if they don’t meet the passing requirements.
“Sometimes I get really scared,” said Micaela Buchanan, a fourth grader from Lawton Chiles Elementary, “Because if I don’t pass I won’t get to the next grade.”
Other students have particular difficulties with certain concepts that make them apprehensive about taking the FCAT in the spring. At times, they’ll not only face these difficulties on the test, but in the classroom as well.
“I need help with learning about volume, length, width, and area,” said Dillon Perez, a fifth grader from Stone Lakes Elementary whose favorite subject is math.
Every session starts off with signing in the students and breaking them into groups according to their grade. It consists of a variety of activities, including Arts & Crafts. Last week, students created messages in a bottle to give to their parents for Valentine’s Day.
For anyone interested in bringing in their child for tutoring sessions, no pre-registration is needed. For more information, go to Building 5-212 or contact Olivia Gonzalez.
‘Get your sexy back’
By Shannon Scheidell
The Peer Educators of Valencia Community College support safe sex. The students of the Winter Park campus came together Thursday, to bring awareness to the student body about the consequences unprotected sex may reap.
There were tables set up, laden with finger sandwiches and information packets. The girls even made a bouquet of roses out of unopened condom wrappers.
Some of the event goers held passionate beliefs on the uses of condoms and being careful with sexual partners, in general.
David Ives, a sophomore, said, “Sex is a very relative issue. It’s better to show condoms and make them available, for health reasons, than to hide the fact altogether.”
Having unprotected sex may lead to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in women, and all sorts of other dismal acronyms. Not to mention, unexpected pregnancy.
“A lot of girls are uneducated. [They] disuse birth control. They think that’s all they need,” a student admitted.
The active ingredient that serves as a spermicide in birth control is nonoxynol-9. Although it is designed to serve as a barrier between the sperms’ interaction with ovaries, it can’t prevent bacteria from entering the body and wreaking havoc with the organ systems there.
The truth is, 90% of women infected with STDs, such as gonorrhea and chlamydia, have little or no symptoms. But, if treated promptly, antibiotics can help combat these diseases from spreading throughout the body.
The Educators came up with the entire idea behind “Get Your Sexy Back” on their own. This is the first year that an event has been arranged to engage and encourage students to be aware of their decisions with sex.
Nikki Arnold, who was the head organizer, attributes most of her ideas for this event to the recent Bacchus conference for Peer Educators. She and Sylvia Martinez, in charge of Student Development on campus, added a more Valentine’s Day feel to the decorations and overall theme. The concept of the holiday mixed with all of its implications-relationship wise-seemed an appropriate approach, Arnold says.
Though, one freshman said he didn’t attend the event necessarily for informational purposes:
“I like the candy that might be around,” he said. “Free candy, that was the puller.”
What’s love got to do with it?
By Roxy Smith
February is the month when love is in the air, flowers are blooming, butterflies are flapping their wings for the first time and the birds are singing. Cupid is sitting on a cloud with a dirty diaper and canister full of love arrows.
These arrows can be considered as poison for the people living the single life. February is nothing but a month of dread for the lonely and depressed. February is the shortest month, but for the lonely it can feel like the longest.
Valentine’s Day rears its ugly head into every department, convenience, quick stop, gas station and school way before the month of February even begins. Stores stock their shelves and prepare for the madness as boyfriends and husbands everywhere search for the perfect gifts.
Some may think that this made up holiday was just another creation from the candy company, like Halloween or just another way for stores to get rich off of our mindless spending habits.
Valentine’s Day wasn’t invented by the candy company; it was invented by a group of bitter old hags whose husbands left them long ago. It was invented to remind the relationship challenged that they are single.
In high school this so called holiday was the absolute worst if you didn’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Every class and every hallway was filled with kids walking with balloons in one hand and flowers in the other.
If walking through the tiny narrow hallways wasn’t already bad enough trying walking down the hallway on Valentine’s Day.
Roaming the halls definitely wasn’t the place to be for the claustrophobic or the easily annoyed.
Forget about learning anything because there were always too many interruptions during class. In every class the door would open at least five times and all the girls would be showered with gifts from secret admirers, friends and lovers.
Valentine’s Day wasn’t invented for guys; it was invented for girls to show each other up. It is when you get to brag about your boyfriend and all the great things he did for you without looking like an obsessed crazy person.
If a girl says she doesn’t want anything for Valentine’s Day, she is a liar. Girls always want things from their significant others. It doesn’t have to be expensive and no one said you even had to spend any money, in this case a simple hand-made card will do.
I for one love Valentine’s Day because it’s an extra birthday or anniversary in the year. It’s just another excuse to celebrate your love for one another and receive gifts. It is an excuse to eat cake and chocolates without feeling guilty for doing so.
Photo By Collin Dever, Valencia Voice
Hip-Hop for Haiti hits campus
By Collin Dever
This year the Valencia film program decided to use their yearly film festival to help those victims of the recent earthquake that struck Haiti. Organized by Ralph Clemente, program chair for film production technology, Hip Hop for Haiti took place Friday and Saturday night on the East campus with all the proceeds from Saturday going to Yele Haiti, an organization started by hip hop star Wyclef Jean.
The film festival premiered eight shorts created in the film class by the students, as well as two feature films that the students had the opportunity to work on, ‘H2O Extreme’ and ‘Just Another Day,’ a film directed by Peter Spirer about an up and coming hip hop artist.
Donald Phillips was a second second assistant director on ‘Just Another Day.’ The second second is the right hand man to the assistant director. Their job is to make sure the production runs smoothly by organizing the scenes and talent. With a cast full of hip hop artists things didn’t go as planned, on the set.
“We were filming in h2o church for the club scene the assistant directors laptops got stolen,” said Phillips. “I went out to find Trick Daddy and I couldn’t find him. Five minutes later he came back, both laptops in his hand.” Depending on who you asked there are two stories on how the laptops got recovered. One that the laptops were stored under some equipment to take later. The other is Trick Daddy got a gun out of his trunk and started getting quick answers.
One thing that makes the Valencia Film program so unique is this ability to work on movie sets creating features destined for the silver
screen, and it is that hands on experience that sets Valencia apart. “The Valencia Film program is amazing “ said Lev Mergian. “I got my bachelors from UCF and then came to Valencia afterwards because the film program here, I thought, was way better.” Mergian also worked on ‘Just Another Day’ as well as writing and directing two of the film shorts. “Valencia is hands on. Your working with a crew [...] where as other schools are just teaching you theory.”
“In the beginning I felt it was very important that these student have an opportunity to work on real film,” said Clemente. “Film is team art everyone works together.” Clemente has been the head of the film program for the past 22 years and before that was a film professor at University of Miami. He built up hollywood contacts like Peter Spirer in the classroom as their teacher. Clemente is also a member of the Director’s Guild of America. An craft union representing directors, assistant directors, and stage managers.
Saturday nights show raised approximately $1,400 to donate to Yele Haiti along with two truckloads of clothing, food, and essential supplies for the survivors. The entire film program uniformly agreed that they should use their event as an opportunity to help our global neighbors. Clemente said, “When you visit the planet it comes with a price, and part of it is to look out for your brothers and sisters.”
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