Kelly Goff
Seven years ago, I was a student at New York University.
I decided to take a semester off to work, only to be in a major car accident that sent me to physical therapy to learn to walk again instead of back to class for the fall.
After two more years, I finally decided to move back to California, since I could afford to go back to school in the more accessible California community college system.
After getting my residency status reinstated a year later, I decided that I would try to take some classes at Pierce.
I registered late and crashed a few classes. I took the next semester off, but couldn’t bear the thought of not being in school again.
So, in the spring of 2006, I registered again at Pierce full time, and for once, I’ve stuck with it.
When I first returned, I struggled with the idea of not being at a four-year institution. Somehow I thought that Pierce couldn’t possibly give me the same level of education that I was used to at a four-year university and it turns out that I was right.
Pierce has given me a better education, and better prepared me for life, future studies and a future career than did all my years of prior education.
I know the names of my teachers and they know mine. Within the media arts department, I have been able to take the things I’ve learned in the classroom and apply them in the field by learning to interview, write, photograph for and produce the campus newspaper, The Roundup, from every aspect.
This campus is one of multiculturalism, embracing students of all ages and backgrounds and bringing them to a singular place of learning with a single goal of embracing their future.
This campus is a devoted one, with teachers who have stayed engaged and interested over many years of service. Teachers return e-mails, counsel and implore their students to take their learning outside of class.
In covering a story for The Roundup, I interviewed students from the Boots and Saddle Club who were helping with horses evacuated during the recent wildfires. This type of hands-on approach keeps them involved and makes them a part of their own education.
This campus is one that serves many purposes: with the farm, we are able to host a unique pre-veterinary program and agricultural classes; with an outstanding and competitive nursing program, we are training students for one of the most-needed and most viable fields; with a theater arts program that has been in existence for 50 years, we have been able to attract and train actors for generations; with a media arts department facing major technological changes, we are able to usher students into the digital age of news collection; and with a new science center underway in place of the old bungalows, we are able to look forward to needs of future students.
As Pierce marks its 60th anniversary this year, The Bull explores the lasting imprint the school has made on the lives of so many students.
From the early beginnings of the all-male institution in 1947, to the multi-layered multi-ethnic student body of today, the school has changed as its students necessitated and so too have morals and fashions.
Photo editor Gil Riego brings to life the tradition of the theater on page 7; Managing editor Ava Weintraub comments on the recruitment of students for yet another controversial war; Kiyomi Kikuchi follows 60 years of athletic history on page 11; Katherine Moore looks at the struggles of single parents at a commuter campus on page 21 and Adrian Sanchez takes a closer look at teachers who continue to stay involved in campus life over their long tenure at Pierce; Marion Kimble brings together a group of self-proclaimed “gamers” for a closer look at what occupies students after hours.
For my part, I’ve brought you the story of an undocumented student, a situation in Southern California that has cornered the political spotlight for much of the last year.
This narrative examines the problem not as a theoretical argument of numbers and dollar signs, but as a personal story of one man’s struggle to control his life.
Our centerpiece is a collection of shots by our art director, Alejandro Funes, that recreate photographs of Pierce spanning 60 years and show the contrast, and similarities, that make the growth of the campus so unique.
We have sought to bring many different versions of the Pierce experience to this issue.
We hope that in it, somewhere you recognize yours.
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Fall 2007 staff of The Bull magazine. ()
