Chaparral 2024-2025: Milestones and Memories

Congratulations to Edgar Zardaryan, Non-Credit ESL Divsion, on his publication in the double-blind peer-reviewed international academic journal, the Armenian Association for the Study of English and Yerevan State University. This work is entitled "Significance of Pragmatics Within SLA Instruction With Focus on the Speech Act of Requests".

Photo:  Sometimes you just need a walk, a deep breath, and a nose bump with a colleague on Artsakh Blvd. Lulu Q. Skinner and Indie F. showing us how it’s done.🐾💕

The Power of a Walk by Jennie Quiñonez-Skinner

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is close the laptop and take a walk. Not a power walk. Not a multitasking call-on-the-go walk. Just… a walk. When everything feels loud, urgent, or like too much, walking reminds us: we are not machines.

We’re people with bodies, rhythms, and limits. And it’s okay—necessary, even—to slow down.

Some of my best thinking doesn’t happen in a meeting or at a desk. It happens on the sidewalk, in the parking lot, doing loops around campus or just enjoying the sunset from the top of parking structure after a walk around the city.

On behalf of Rosemarie Shamieh, Noncredit Business & Life Skills Division, Britney Shamieh and Alex Padilla—now the proud Shadilla family—welcomed their firstborn, Charles Alexander, on Pi Day (3/14/25)! Born a few weeks early, Charles is thriving. Fun fact: their birthdays fall in January, February, and March—1, 2, 3! Their new family anthem? Michael Jackson’s "ABC 123." Welcome, Baby Shadilla!

Joanna Parypinski's forthcoming novel, THE MIDNIGHT MUSE, coming in March 2026 under her pen name Jo Kaplan, is on NetGalley and receiving positive early reviews.

Condolences to the family and loved ones of GCC's long-time risk manager, Ron Villa, who passed away after a short battle with cancer. Ron worked for GCC's insurance company, ASCIP.

- Shared by Michael Serot, CalWORKs

In September of 2023, GCC's nutrition Department Chair Sona Donayan attained her Doctor of Education in Health Professions degree from A.T. Still University (ATSU), the world's founding college of osteopathic medicine. Sona’s doctoral research was published in UNLV's Journal of Research in Technical Careers and focused on dietary management program graduates' national credentialing exam hesitancy across the US. 

Shared by Sangita Dube, English: My milestone is that my pup Pluto who basically saved my life is turning 4 this year. His birthday is on May 1st.

Erin Calderone, Kinesiology, wrote an open educational resource (OER) for a new Introduction to Public Health class during her sabbatical in 2023-2024. It is now published on LibreTexts, and is currently being remixed by other public health faculty around the state! Oh yes, and she also published a small human that summer too... she's almost 2 now!