Mini profiles

Written by: Connor Cook The 5-foot-tall woman with dark hair contrasted by light green eyes scavenges around her small office, picking up papers and folders as she prepares for a meeting at Pierce College. Soft-spoken and reserved, Julia M. Cohen attended University of California, Los Angeles several decades ago, and is now a psychology professor at Pierce. Her toughest challenge was discovering...

Professor finds purpose in and out of the classroom It was 2010 in Stillwater, Okla., when Angela Belden sat in front of a three-member panel at Oklahoma State University defending her dissertation about the cumulative effects of TV on body image. As intense as the moment was, her mind was also...

  Eyes fixed to a monitor, mind in total focus, Alex Chen works attentively tapping away with all 10 fingers on a keyboard. Chen, an instructional assistant for Information Technology (IA-IT), has worked at Pierce College since 2001. He has about six-to-eight different duties in his current position which he says he enjoys. Chen has converted old Novell network technology within the...

The sound of keys jingling in the keyhole of the door to the Roundup can be heard over the chaos and chatter of the newsroom. A tuft of dark brown hair and a pair of searching brown eyes survey the room to see if there’s a class in session. He sits at a computer and types for a few...

Poco a poquito (little by little), we land into the places we are meant to be.

Professor Adrian Youhanna, who teaches Geography and GIS (Geographic Information System), displays a multitude of maps in her office at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif., on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Photo by Ginina Pulcinella. Wide-eyed with fascination and a Pacific Ocean away from her home in...

Outreach Librarian Lisa Valdez leans against a tree in Woodland Hills, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2020. Photo by Peter Villafane. Many children do not have everything they need to succeed. One person is helping as many students as she can.  During her off hours, Outreach Librarian Lisa Valdez...

Buried behind a mountain of papers and bookstore receipts, a petite woman types furiously on her smartphone and tries to get some work done despite the constant interruptions of students and staff members who come to visit her. What she lacks in size she makes up for with a big personality and an even bigger smile. Working for the Student...

Many Americans, including Angelita Rovero, have had their identities centered around a generic stereotypical label—one often including a hyphen. African-American. Asian-American. The names have become too general to describe someone’s culture. Rovero, who is both Mexican and Jewish, felt like...