Chaparral 2021-2022: 30.5 Milestones

Gayaneh Pezeshkian (Healthcare Administration) is working to pass Senate Bill 974 with Senator Portantino. She was shocked when she received her bill after her follow-up to the original mammogram, so she reached out to the senator and he moved forward with it. She would really like this to pass because it is so important as it was overlooked in the Affordable Care Act.

On April 20th there was a hearing in Sacramento where Gayaneh testified on the Senate floor.

She hopes women all across the State of California can go and get their preventative diagnostic testing done without being billed hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Please find the official press release and fact sheet here.

Deirdre Mendoza (English) can't help her mom brag this month: Cassio Mendoza, her son, is one of the lead organizers of the worker-led Amazon Labor Union on New York's Staten Island. As reported in every media outlet, after an exhausting, nine-month, no-budget campaign, the workers triumphed, winning a stunning victory at JFK8 Amazon fulfillment center. They were up against a multi-million-dollar anti-union busting effort that included captive audience worker "training sessions." The ALU will now move to sign the first union contract in American history. Let’s give a shout out to all the brave organizers and all the workers who voted yes!

Nare Garibyan (Counseling) would like to share her contribution to Dear Freedom Writer: Stories of Hardship and Hope from the Next Generation. From the authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, a new book has been published, Dear Freedom Writer: Stories of Hardship and Hope from the Next Generation, which was released by Penguin/Random House on Tuesday March 29, 2022. After just a few hours of being out in the world, it became a #1 Best New Release on Amazon and a #1 Best Seller on Amazon.

The book features 50 letters from young authors/students writing about their challenges and asking advice about how to face those challenges. The letters are paired with 50 responses providing guidance, assistance, and hope. The responses are written by either an original Freedom Writer or a Freedom Writer Teacher.

As a Freedom Writer Teacher, Nare had the opportunity of recommending a Glendale Community College student to be one of the young authors in the book. She also had the opportunity to contribute her writing to the book as one of the responders to an Armenian-American student about her Armenian story, providing advice and hope to the student. The letters are anonymous and their entry is #16. Nare’s message is about standing up for our culture and history, while learning and honoring the stories of our neighbors.

Gerardo Monterrubio (Ceramics) recently celebrated the opening of a solo exhibition in New York. The exhibition is titled Gerardo Monterrubio: Laberintos del Delirio. It is presented at The Something Machine.

Here is a video clip of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Mws5HC46U

Ramona Barrio-Sotillo (Associate Dean of Continuing and Community Education/Garfield) would like to share that her son, Luis Antonio (Anthony) Sotillo is graduating from CSULA with his MA degree in Sociology in May. Luis is a long time GCC, lifetime alum as he started his career at the Child Development Center at 2 years old with Mike Dulay and Jeanette Tashiro as his teachers. He came back to complete his AA in Social Science at GCC, then transferred to CSULA for BA and MA in Sociology and will be starting at UCLA for his PhD this Fall.

He was also offered admission to UCSD for a PhD program for the Fall so he can throw me off and go there instead!

David Crawford’s (Multicultural & Community Engagement Center) full-length play Kingwood Heights was accepted into the Black Creators Collective Playwrights Festival and received a reading on Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, at 7:00 PM at WACO Theatre in North Hollywood.

In addition to the above news, David was accepted into the 2022 MADlab 2022 First Look Reading Series, a nine-month play development program where he will be developing a brand-new play.