Saturday, July 12, 2025

In Focus: Las Fotos Project

Story By: Monica Salazar A young woman’s voice floated through the screen door of a Boyle Heights house, grabbing the attention of several young girls, cameras in hand. “What do you think of this photograph?” asked Claudia Marquez, a 23 year-old California State University, Fullerton student. “How do you think it was shot?“ The girls looked at the photographs in-depth, and silence...

From Carnegie Hall to Pierce’s Great Hall

A velvety, deep crimson carpet covers the seating area lined with rows of chairs. The eager audience faces a glamorous spectacle. A cream-colored stage is accentuated with glimmering gold touches lining the nooks and crannies of the walls. A solo vocal fills the room. Performing arts professor...

Mini Profile: Angela Belden

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...

David Ayala

Working in the Pierce College bookstore warehouse since 2007, David Ayala unpacks the shipment of boxes he receives and separates the materials into different sections for the sales people to pick up and put on display. “I used to be a equipment manager and locker room attendant for West L.A. College,” Ayala says. Ayala is a father of two boys...

The upkeep of the Pierce College aquatic center

Many students on campus may not know this but there are classes that start before 7 a.m. If you think that’s way too early to be on a school campus consider this. The swimming pool on campus opens at 5:30 a.m. Deborah Hefter, 28, has been the swimming pool supervisor at Pierce College for past five years and those early...

Knowledge lights the way

Perhaps you missed his office because it was obscured behind a brick wall with a sign reading Platform 9 3/4. Maybe you weren’t looking for a train station leading to a magical institution, but the entrance to English instructor Mickey Harrison’s office bears an uncanny resemblance to the place. Harrison has only been a full-time instructor at Pierce College for...

Computer science, let’s talk about IT

  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...

More than just an anthropology professor

Anthropology professor Brian Pierson stands with his posse of skeletons in the Anthropology building at Pierce College. Photo by: David Paz   His office is a small cubicle, simple, organized and grey space. Three things stand out, two frames that display a Neanderthal and the Menino Lepedo child, and him. He wears an eggplant purple shirt with beaded necklaces to celebrate the...

The adventures of a photojournalist

Gerard Burkhart poses in the Los Angeles Valley College studio room in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 26, 2023. Photo by Alexis Guevara. Gerard Burkhart’s photography journey has taken him on countless adventures filled with adrenaline and passion.  Born in 1958 in Altoona, Pennsylvania; Gerard Burkhart moved to Los Angeles...

Home is where the art is

The afternoon sun is high, the breeze strong, creating a scenic and relaxing atmosphere in the Fine Arts Plaza at Pierce College. Art history professor, Ramela Abbamontian, sits at a bench  in the middle of native Californian plants and metal sculptures, a mauve puffer jacket protecting her from the wind. Her eyes are bright, glancing around the plaza that...