In fall 2022, I traveled to three A-1 Comics locations to find out how the pandemic impacted workers and customers. I first met, Nick, a Sierra College student in his second year working at A-1 Comics, North Highlands location. In the photo above, he organizes and sorts comics.
Sacramento – the “City of Trees” and the capital of California. The city is known for its historical sites like Old Town Sacramento, Sutter’s Fort, and the Railroad Museum, but few are aware of the hidden street culture that keeps citizens entertained and involved. Pop-up shop events, such as reselling markets, small business fairs, and food festivals occur most weekends and are considered the “it” thing to do by locals. The plethora of events remained separate until the idea of a “Vintage Market” evolved. Here’s what to know about their origin and how they function before heading out to your first one.
At the edge of the lower American River, Lake Natomas is a staple in the community. The Sacramento State Aquatic Center is a great example of this. Community members come out to enjoy the lake with their families and athletes to train and compete there as well. In this 4-minute video, Sacramento State Aquatic Center employees and community members speak to student fellows, Aviana Loveall and Katelyn Vengersammy about the importance of having access to a clean and safe lake to recreate.
This video is one in a set of stories produced by a team of journalist fellows at Sierra College who were awarded grants from the California Humanities “Emerging Journalist” Fellowship. Read more about the team and their project here: “Banks and Bends: Communities, Water, and the American River.”
Produced and Anchored by Aviana Loveall | Reported by Aviana Loveall and Katelyn Vengersammy
When the California Humanities Emerging Journalist Fellowship team at Sierra College started researching the role of water in the community and the American River, one group they came across was the Save the American River Association (SARA). Through SARA, journalist fellow, Madalyn Wright discovered local water caretakers, Bob and Mary Beth Metcalf, who spend their Saturday mornings testing the river water for E. coli bacteria. To learn just how accessible this citizen science is, Wright, their 5-year old daughter, Thea, and their partner Ryan Moskun joined the Metcalfs on May 7, 2022, for a morning of pipettes and learning in a parking lot science lab.
January is a snowy month with numerous power outages sweeping across the city of Colfax. The month also signifies the beginning of the Spring semester at Sierra College and my entire being overflowing with excitement and a hint of dread. It’s been months since I’ve gone to school, having taken a break due to the ongoing pandemic, and want to reunite with the person I fell in love with.
Even before class started, my mind raced with ideas I wanted to write about: romance, video games. I even had a working title, Digital Love.
It has officially been two years since the start of the mask mandate in California and people, including students, still have strong opinions.
Born and raised in Sacramento, Steven Bruegeman grew up with National Geographic on all the coffee tables and the kitchen counter. Almost everything in his life has been tied back to California ecology. After going back to school in retirement and getting a degree in Environmental Conservation, Bruegeman found Dolphin Scuba- the Sacramento scuba diving hub. Now a pro, Bruegeman takes on river clean-up dives and teaches kids scuba and Ecology Awareness. I interviewed him on May 11th at Dolphin Scuba. Continue Reading
When looking back on the events, it’s easy to be caught up in the controversy. In 2003, Sierra College’s student newspaper, The Outlook, accepted an op-ed titled “One Person’s View: Sierra Girls Aren’t Really All That Hot.” With statements like “I find the majority [of women at Sierra] to be stuck up, bitchy, and self-centered.” The op-ed unsurprisingly earned negative responses from students writing to the editor, national media, and even the California National Organization for Women.
The transition to a digital campus didn’t just impact classes- college clubs had to find their new footing in a remote world. Now, two years later the clubs of Sierra have experienced functioning remotely, on-ground, and in hybrid forms, and have a sense of what the future of clubs at Sierra holds. Continue Reading
Words were screamed across the room
A man was beaten, battered, and tried
Everything comes to a halt
It all comes down to this; who lied?
I watch from the safety of my own home
Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard,
The trial that is being seen across the world
The comfortability and safety of my own life
Sits in the back of mind, rarely coming out to play
For others, their safety is dangling off a tightrope,
A finger away from falling into the depths
One in four women
One in nine men
10 million suffer
10 million too much
After a marriage full of hate, fear, and humiliation
Witnesses are brought to tell the truth as
Everything comes to a halt
It all comes down to this; who lied?
Interruption, objection, hearsay
Years of being silent,
Depp is silenced once again
But now is the time to tell his story
Seeing toxicity since childhood left him bruised
The shadows of trauma followed him to his adulthood,
He didn’t have a voice then, but he has one now
In horror I listen to the audio clip playing at the end of testimony
“Tell them Johnny Depp, I, Johnny Depp, a man,
I’m a victim too of domestic violence”
What did he say?
“Yes I am.”
Written by Jessica Mananquil | Photo by Georgy Rudakov, Unsplash
College students spend thousands of dollars on tuition, living expenses, food, gas, etc. but have little room for anything else. What if you had to choose between period products and groceries? This situation occurs more than people may think. A new study found that 14.2% of college students experienced this problem known as Period Poverty in the past year.
Bends and Banks: Communities, Water, and the American River, is a set of five stories produced by a team of journalist fellows in Spring, 2022. The team includes four student journalists: Madalyn Wright, Vontress Ortega, Katelyn Vengersammy, and Aviana Loveall. They were all awarded through the California Humanities “Emerging Journalist” Fellowship with the Journalism program at Sierra College.