No monkeying around with people’s minds
Gilbert Polanco, a Palo Alto test administrator, read his paper “King Kong and Critical Thinking” at the 15th Annual Multi-Cultural Conference held at San Antonio College on April 22, where “The Framing Game: Manipulating Perceptions” was the theme. The aim of Polanco’s paper is to get people to actually think about what they are told, especially by people they agree with. He used his childhood impression of King Kong to show that it is possible for large groups of people to accept a false premise based on how the subject is presented.
-Sarah Ramirez
Lifting up to the World Championship
Palo Alto’s Strength Team competed in the World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters competition last month in Houston. Three of our four power-lifters who competed will advance to the World Championships of the WABDL in Reno, Nevada, on October 7. Jesus Lozano, David Register and Abraham Rohler qualified in their selected weight classes. PAC’s team placed fourth overall in the entire meet. “We train hard four days a week,” said Lozano. “We know we’re representing PAC, and we want to do good.”
-Lupe Treviño
Summer brings new opportunities
Registration for the 2009 Maymester, Summer and Fall classes is now available online and in the Welcome Advising Center in the AT Building’s second floor. Pay close attention to tuition deadlines. If you don’t pay on time, you will be purged from the classes. The Center for Academic Transitions, located in the campus’ Student Center, is available to help students create a resume and hone their job interview skills. Paid and unpaid internships are available as well as work-study opportunities. Stop by the CAT and get help finding the summer job or internship that is just right for you.
-Amanda Aguilar
Blast off into aerospace excellence
Three of Palo Alto’s Engineering students recently competed in the College Aerospace Scholars Program where they were assigned to separate teams.
Layne Johnson, Anthony Pursel and Mark Sherwood worked with like-minded students from other colleges from across the state and were mentored by NASA employees. All of the teams were assigned the same project, and the team with the best product won. Sherwood was on the winning team. Congratulations to all three Palo Alto students for their selection into this prestigious program.
-Margaret Tovar
Lend a helping eye or hand
PAC’s Disability Support Services need work-study employees to serve as reader/scribes. Readers and scribes will be the “eyes” and “hands” for a student in class, out of class and during monitored testing. They will also read printed materials onto a cassette tape for their student. DSS is taking applications for Summer and Fall Semesters. They also need volunteer note takers in the classroom. For more information, please contact Lydia Hannawi at (210) 486-3020 or lhannawi@mail.accd.edu
-Johanna Salazar
Uniformity for Alamo Colleges begins
All Alamo Colleges have aligned their courses across the five colleges and they are now launching a new electronic catalog. This means that courses at all of the campuses will now have the same name, number and description. The most noticeable difference will be the changes for classes in the Kinesiology and Music Departments. The new electronic catalog is meant to make it easier for students to match classes taken at other Alamo Colleges. The e-catalog will be available online at http://mypaccatalog.alamo.edu/ or through the PAC homepage effective with fall registration.
-Sylvia Hernandez
H1N1 flu strikes San Antonio
According to Chancelor Bruce Leslie, the Alamo Colleges are in close contact with local health agencies to determine the risks of H1N1 to students, staff and faculty. Precautions include washing hands and staying home if sick.Those who would like more information about fighting the virus should visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm
-Brent Walker