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4 Peature Advisor's note: The following article comes from The Ranger. San Antonio College's Student Newspaper. The Ranger; is linked with The Polemic as part of Exploring America's Communities: In Search of Com- mon Ground. Sponsored by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Association of Community Colleges. Exploring ,America's Commu- nities is designed to promote understanding of contemporary American cu!ture. Vol. 72, No.18 ■ March 7, 1997 .. I' BrieflV Emplovee Development Dav Students will have ,a break from day classes Tuesday while faculty, staff and administrators at this college attend Employee Development Day. Classes scheduled after 5 p.m. Tuesday will meet. Employees will attend a group session, choose from concurrent sessions and relax at lunch with health and wellness activities. The event begins at 8: 15 a.m. in the foyer of McAllister Fine Ans Center. From 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. a general session in the auditorium of McAllister Fine Arts Center will focus on "The Impact of the Information Highway on SAC." The speakers will discuss home pages, e-m.w, on-line registration and training. Charlotte Wolf, director of the instructional innovation Center, will discuss the home page of the Alamo Commu- nity College Dis tr: ct. Information on this college's home page will be presented by Sheila Fichtner, graphic Internet/web specialist; John Hnmmond, director of community and public relations; a:1d Ann Marie Thornton, public information office:. Math Professor Ron Ferguson will show deparunental home pages, and English Professor Roger Bailey will discuss individual home pages. Rosemarie Hoopes, director of admissions and records, will talk about on-line registration. On-line classes will be the topic for James Perk.ins, governmer;it professor; Michael Berrier. government lecturer; Val Calvert, coordinator of student support services; and Lavon Lockwood, nursing professor. Internet resources for classes will be presented by Ann Weisner, reading professor, and Dave Allen, computer information systems professor. . Librarians John Deosdade and Andrea Peterson will discuss refining net searches. David Mrizek, coordinator of institutional planning and evaluation, and Edward De Leon, English lecturer, will discuss user-friendlv e-mail. -From -10:25 a.m. ·to 11:20 a.m., employees will choose from workshops dealing with information technology. Additional sessions include one-on-one ·technology coaching, instructional innovation grants, ACCD early and regular retirement, use of the Internet, ahd sexual violence. From 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. employees can relax and choose from sessions including health and wellness, creative writing, art and support of theater and-communi- cations productions. Deparunents will sponsor sessions from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 7'/ie <Po[emic/.Jlpri[9, 1997 Boys and Girls Club to resurrect roller skatirig- • New greenhouse contribU:tes. to growth BY BECKY BLACK STAFF WRITER The Alpena Boys and Girls Cluh has been in operation since 1924. The mission of the club w:as to be a place where kids can hang out off the streets. That mission is still being followed, as it has been for over 70 years. For the last six months though, it has been put into practice by the new director of the Boys and Girls Club, Kelly Bushey. skates are being cleaned and start- ing in May roller skating for all ages will take place twice - a month. Alpena Com- munity College students can get involved with the .Alpena Boys and Girls Club. This is an excellent spot to get hours for com- munity service. The club is looking for volunteers who are interested in crafts, gardening, tutor- ing, physical fit- ness (basketball games, kickball, floor hockey), and who are good with kids. The· club is also In a recent interview with Kelly, she explained her plans for the future of The Boys and Girls Club. "We are pursuing avenues to increase our teen membership by making our facility more appealing to teen- agers." In fact, the club is hav- ing an entire room dedicated to teens. This is made possible . by a $900 grant from the Com- munity Foundation of North- east Michigan. The room will come complete with beanbags, pool tables, cable television, and a CD player with stereo Racheal Throop, Michigan's Junior Miss Scholastic Achievement l?okingto~reaf1:111 winner coming alongside some girls and boys at the Club. Photo by time· physical ~1t- h ness program m-Kelly. Bus ey structor. The posi- year membership fee. Last new greenhouse hooked to tion is for June '97-June'98. If surround sound. Kelly's personal goal for the club is to create an environ- ment in which that teens want to hang out. She says that "there are few places kids feel that they belong. Alpena Boys and Girls Club is that place." year the club had is9 mem- the facility. The kids will be you have questions, call Kelly bers. able to grow and eat many Bushey at 356-0214. The club is changing lots different kinds of foods in The Alpena Boys and Girls of things'. Several improve- addition to growing flowers . Club is a wonderful and often ments, such as repainting the to be planted outside this overlooked asset to. 01:1r com- gym, and increasing number summer. munity. Hopefully with the of computers. The club put One of the most exciting work and dedication of Kelly To be a member of the Boys and Girls Club, kids pay a $5 a $300 in to program games things to happen inside the Bushey, the communty will and basketballs this year. club is the "resurrection" of witness it thrive and bloom Another new addition is the indoor roller skating. · The again. Film series offers up a classic •"The Joy Luck Club" shines By KENT ANDERSON . NEWS EDITOR America was founded upon the hopes and dreams of people who longed for a better present for themselves and a better tomorrow for their children. And today, people from all over the world come to the US with the hope of realizing their aspirations for a better life. That influx of immigrants is what molded our nation into the cultural mosaic that it has become. "The Joy Luck Club," third in a series of films shown at Alpena Community College as part of a National Endowment of the Arts grant program, helps explore the desire of immigrant parents for their children to have a better tomorrow. Also presented, however, is the fact that even though a parent may have the grandest of intentions, even though they want their children to be free from the choking sorrow and lingering misery of life, parents can sometimes miss the mark and, inadvertently, inflict the pain they sought to protect their offspring from. Though "The Joy Luck Club" revolves around the Chinese culture, its theme of building a better understanding between parent and child are universally applicable. If we are to under.: stand ourselves, we must ~omprehend our parents and be aware of our cultural distinctions. Adapted from the Amy Tan novel of the same name, "The Joy Luck Club" was co-executive produced by Oliver Stone, who has tackled Asian themes before in "Heaven and Earth," and directed by Wayne Wang. The movie features a talented cast of Asian actors, one of which has become qtlite well known sihce the film's 1989 pre- miere. Rosalind Chao, who portrays "Rose," currently has a recurring role as "Keiko," the wife of Chief of Operations Officer Miles O'Brien on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." The film is composed of the life stories of four Chinese women who, sometime after arriving in America, meet and form the Joy Luck Club, a way of corning together to laugh and cry, to live and share their regrets and dreams. As "June," the daughter "Su Yuan," who founded the club, says, "Their connection with each other had mqre to do with hope then joy or luck." Also involved are their daughters' experiences growing up with the hopes their parents have for them, and the reality of painful misunderstandings when those hopes are mis-inter- preted as necessary expectations. Tragic and often cruel, the women's tales begin in innocence, but quickly descend down a harsh path of mistreatment and brutal loss . Hope was the only potential savior they possessed during their dark years, and as they continued in that belief, which was embodied in their.children, that hope, as "June" tells us, "was their only joy." , The mothers unfurl their tales as flashback narrations that begin in their teenage years. Taking us through .turbulent Chinese countrysides with "Su Yuan's" tale, to the la:vish manor of a polygamous, wealthy Chinese aristocrat in "An Mei's" story, Wang's directing gives the m~vie ,a semi-epic quality while highlighting the beleaguered emotional states of the members of the "Club." Despite the fact that "The Joy Luck Club" is composed of four separate tales, it flows with clear, clean focus and often srems like art in motion. · Wang gives us the stark reality of the women's tales, and, with the unyielding assistance of a superb cast, he is able to convey the poignant, tragic manner in which the daughters unwittingly inherittheir mothers' damned pasts. Chao's perfor- mance, in particular, is full of power and lucid, shining beauty. The scene in which "Rose" suddenly comes to grips with her life and asserts herself for the first time over her soon-to-be ex- husband, played by Andrew McCarthy, is an Oscar-worthy moment. If the word "classic" can ever be utilized with justification, it certainly applies to "The Joy Luck Club." If you could be •any article of clothing what would that be and why ? ·S T u D E N T s Kathy Kolonowski " I don't know, that . is something I'd have to think about." · · Shawn Cook "I'd probably want to be a shirt because they're cool and relaxed." Christina Webster . · "A pair . of sunglasses, be- cause you'd get to see the whole world." Angie Kruczinski "A pair of shoes, because then you'd get to walk all over." Jamie Koenig "A coat, so I could be warm all the time." · s. p · E A K