Joe Mancini's Journalism Coursework

Scott McCollum, 28, has been diagnosed with diabetes ever since he was 17 and up until a year and half ago, Scott has been alone in his battle against diabetes. When Scott was 26, he received Hyatt fromDogs4Diabetics. Hyatt was 2 years old at the time when he was trained to alert Scott when his blood sugar was too high or too low.

“I wasn’t surprised with Hyatt’s abilities,” MCcollum said. “I had heard through anoher friend who has diabetes that the dogs were very reliable.”

Scott however was skeptical about whether the dog could an inconvenience since he needed to be with Hyatt 24 hours a day. Since Scott is a teacher and basketball coach at Mt. Diablo high school inDanville, California, the dog might be difficult to deal with in addition to high school students.

“The dogs aren’t trained to be alone,” McCollum said. “I wasn’t sure if I could have Hyatt around me 24/7”

However Hyatt behaves well at both the classroom setting and at basketball practice. Scott’s students and players have both grown fond of the Hyatt. Hyatt has his own social networking profiles on facebook.com and myspace.com thanks to McCollum’s students.

“Hyatt is never disruptive, even when he alerts me,” McCollum said.“My students would not even know if Hyatt was alerting me.”

When Hyatt wants to alert Scott about a blood sugar malfunction, he puts a Bringsle, a soft chew toy in his mouth. This method is very affective and keeps the dog and less of a distraction to his students and players.

“When Hyatt first alerted me, it was an emotional experience,” McCollum said. “It was hard to believe that something has your back like that.”

Because Scott felt that Dogs4Diabetes had really changed his life he has now volunteered his time for them as a trainer. Although Scott is new to training dogs, he looks forward to giving back to Dogs4Diabetes who helped him so much.

-Joe Mancini

Ryland Jones, 19, is a former college student of Diablo Valley College in San Ramon, California.  Recently, she has become one of the few students to choose an alternative path to a college education as a fashion designer.

Jones’ designer name is just an alias because she refused to give her real name.  She admits thats she is still uneasy to tell her friends about her choice to commit to her dream as a designer.

“It’s almost awkward,” Jones says.  ”I feel that some of my friends, even my family secretly disapprove but it’s my dream, you know?  I feel like this is my life and I’m not taking any chances with it.”

Before she decided to drop out of college however, she considered many other routes to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer.  She considered programs from both California Sate University, San Francisco and the University of California Davis.  Both of these programs however emphasize marketing and business more than fashion in their programs.

Nevertheless, Jones also found problems with fashion schools as well.  She says they are too expensive and more can be learned from networking rather the learning that takes place at these schools.

“I’m the type of person who can network and be okay that way,” Jones says.  ”I would rather be doing it than be sitting in a classroom learning about it.”

Many of Jones’ friends consider her bold in her decision to abort college for her dream risky.  Some of these friends feel that it is necessary to back have a cerificate or diploma to back up her career.  Jones’ feels that this skepticism of her decision is “good honesty,”  however it has caused her to be reluctant in sharing her new path.

However listen to Jones’ friend Kylie Nik-Aid describe her admiration for Jones’ passion:

Jones

Ryland Jones believes that her decision, whether it is or stupid, is the only one worth making.  She say that she could not live with the regret of new giving her dream her full attention.

Throughout the night of Halloween in Isla Vista California, tons of trash was  dumped onto Del Playa Street.  Hundreds of Hispanic Americans came to Isla Vista to collect bottles, cans, and other pieces of Isla Vista’s Halloween aftermath.

“They usually just come into our house,” said Robert Kale age 20.  “I just think they just want the bottles and cans but they aren’t here to clean up.”

With the flood of students and outrageous costumes, the people cleaning up the garbage hardly stood out.   Police estimated between 40,000 and 50,000 people would be at this years 3 day festival.  Although bottles of any kind ween’t allowed to be carried in the street , the amount of trash in Isla Vista exceeds standards every year.

“I think they are helpful,” said Haley Roebuck, 20.   “They save me a lot of hassle from cleaning up my side yard and I wouldn’t know what to do with all of the bottles and cans.”

Since the people who were cleaning up the garbage at night, seemed to only be looking for bottles and cans, there were student organizations who tried to clean up the rest of the trash on Nov 1.   According to Robert Kale, the Santa Barbara lacrosse team has been picking up the trash on Del Playa for many years.

“The trash never seems to be a problem the day after which is amazing to me because there are so many people here every year.” Said Haley Roebuck

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Thousands of people came to San Francisco’s LovEvolution this year despite the new $10 fee and were unaware of the dangers security imposed.  Although this years festival was the biggest ever, even with the new fee, many of the festival-goers were oblivious that the new fee was for security which would not allow attendees to bring in water.   As the festival progressed this proved to be dangerous as people who had become dehydrated and passed out from various drugs

Benjamin Alvarez, a San Francisco resident and festival attendee, said that he had no idea what the money went toward but he was against the $10 fee.  “I’m not trying to pay.  It’s Lovefest (LovEvolution), all about peace and love.”

Another festival-goer, Tyler Will said “It’s kind of whack, but you had to pay last year too, pretty much.”  Although the mandatory fee is new this year, there were suggested donations to which he contributed in years past.  He wasn’t certain, but he believes that since there were bigger musical acts this year at LovEvolution, that the fee was necessary to bring these artists into the festival.

With an estimated 100,000 people there, there was a need for more security and safety precautions.  However, many of the festival-goers felt that security went too far this year.  Since so many people take illegal substances containing MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), like ecstasy, water is essential to have at the festival.  However, the new security was not allowing bottles of water inside the civic center.

Many people who were desperate sneak water into the festival because they had taken ecstasy.  It seemed at the time, like they were rushing to disarm a bomb because they were aware of the dangers that dehydration and MDMA impose.

“Even an open water bottle will be taken as alcohol,” said Elaine Turner who also goes by the alias Twinkle.  Many of the people who had taken forms of MDMA were very desperate to sneak in water to the festival. 

“The girl behind me in line, suggested to her friends that they could sneak in water through the front of their shirts as though they were pregnant.”  Said Turner

Inside the festival it was easily noticeable how tight security was, however it seemed no match for the abundance of people who came this year.  The many people that tried to sneak water in were successful due to the speed of the line at the entrance.  However some were not so fortunate.  Throughout the day, sirens of ambulances interrupted the music to pick someone up had collapsed or fainted.  The festival continued onward and little people seemed to pay attention to the those who had been picked up by an ambulance.  It was tragedy of the commons perfect illustrated in San Francisco’s civic square.  The more people that were there more likely no one would be able to notice if someone was hurt.

The real question is whether the $10 fee that payed for the premier DJ’s, security, and permit was a contributing factor in the injuries of the festival goers?  Since many of these people’s bottles of water were thrown away at the entrance of the festival, they became dehydrated after hours of dancing inside the festival.  Many of the people who went took MDMA tablets like ecstasy, but wished to remain anonymous.

One individual, said he needed two, 1.5 liter water bottles filled with vitamin C for all of his friends who had taken some form of ecstasy.    He explained the importance of the drive to get water into the festival.  He said, “Most people will take their tablet up to two hours before the festival because it take so long to hit.”  Since most people took their tablet so far in advance they did not anticipate their inability to get water into the festival because they were not even in the civic center.  In the past festivals, where there was no fee, security was very minimal so festival goers could get water inside more easily.

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The Stewart Indian School

From 1890 until it closed in 1980, the Stewart Indian School in Carson City was the only off-reservation boarding school in Nevada for Native American children. Children from Nevada and throughout the West were forced to attend the institution through secondary school age. Students came from many tribes including the Nevada-based Washoe and Paiute tribes, as well as Hopi, Apache, Pima, Mohave, Walapai, Ute, and others.

A group of boys in 1894

In 1888 the Nevada Legislature passed a bill that authorized the sale of bonds to purchase land for an Indian boarding school. Once purchased, the land was conveyed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs who established the boarding school to train and educate Indian children with the ultimate goal of assimilation.

Listen to an interview with Daisy Smith:

The campus began with a Victorian-style wood framed dormitory and school house. As enrollment increased, new buildings included shops for training, a hospital, and a recreation room. A Virginia and Truckee Railroad stop was established by 1906 to deliver supplies and facilitate transporting students to and from the school. By 1919, 400 students attended the school.

Classes included reading, writing, and arithmetic but focused on vocational training in various trades, agriculture, and the service industry. Classes offered for boys included ranching and farming, mechanics, woodworking, painting, and carpentry. Students learned stone masonry from their teachers, including Hopi stone masons, and helped to construct more than 60 native stone buildings on the campus.

Stewart girls attended classes in baking, cooking, sewing, laundry, and practical nursing. Much of the school’s basic needs were supplied by students’ products or fulfilled by their newly acquired skills. Vocational training remained the school’s principal focus until a shift to academics occurred in the late 1960’s.

The Stewart Indian School was initially intended to assimilate the young people into mainstream American culture. Policies prohibiting speaking native languages and practicing native customs anguished both students and their parents. The Federal policy toward American Indians radically changed with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, after which self-determination and self-government were supported.

1905. Organized sports began at Stewart Indian School in 1896. Teams competed under the school mascot ­ the Braves. The football team became Nevada State Champions in 1916. In the late 1920s Stewart became a member of the state interscholastic athletic league.  In 1937 a new stone gymnasium was built. Team sports such as baseball and football provided friendly interchange between schools and communities

Stewart coach, Robbie Willis, talks about the old gymnasium:

Stewart Indian School Band Marching on Carson Street.  In later years, the Bureau of Indian Affairs encouraged schools such as Stewart to let students speak their native languages and to promote classes in native cultures. Today, the State of Nevada Indian Commission annually hosts the Stewart Father’s Day Powwow, which presents traditional competition dancing, Stewart School alumni recognition, arts and crafts, special events and exhibits. Photograph courtesy Nevada State Museum.

Frederick Snyder, who served as the school superintendent from 1919 to 1934, began the practice of using colored native stone (quarried along the Carson River) for campus buildings; much of the masonry used in the vernacular-style buildings is the work of student apprentices working under Hopi stonemasons. The majority of the surviving buildings were built between 1922 and the beginning of World War II.

Text courtesy State of Nevada Indian Commission

Photographs courtesy Nevada State Museum

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My name is Joe Mancini, I’m a journalism student at the University of Nevada.  I’m originally from San Ramon, California, located in the bay area.  I aspire to go to law school after graduate with a degree in Journalism.