The Academy News -- April 6, 2012
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Transcript of The Academy News -- April 6, 2012
FENGYI (PHOEBE) ZHANG
Last Friday, March 30, the
Language Academy held an
activity to visit Griffith Obser-
vatory,which is a well-known
icon of Los Angeles. Griffith
Observatory is a beloved civic
gathering place for public as-
tronomy and one of most popu-
lar attractions in southern Cali-
fornia.
The Observatory is located
on the southern slope of Mount
Hollywood in Griffith Park. For
inspiring everyone to observe
and understand the universe,
Griffith Observatory provides many scien-
tific instruments, pictures, videos, models
and many artificial sky shows.
When we just arrived there, we had a
panoramic view of the beautiful City of
Angels. The buildings of downtown Holly-
wood and others I couldn’t recognize, but I
was still so excited because I had never
seen the city that I am living in like this.
See Griffith Observatory on p. 3
Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament Friday, April 6th 4:30pm - 9:00pm Meet Jeminah in the JEF courtyard at 4:30pm. A four-course feast awaits you in Buena Park, CA, where you’ll see knights jousting, fighting with swords and com-peting on horses. You’ll be back at USC around 9pm.
Venice Beach Friday, April 13th—FREE 12:30-5 pm Need to buy some last minute gifts for friends? Want to spend some time playing at the beach? Come with the USC Language Academy to Venice Beach for our LAST activity of the semester! We’ll walk on the boardwalk, sightsee, play on the beach, and shop for fun things. Sign up Monday in the JEF Courtyard at NOON. This activity is FREE!
The Universe in Our Hearts
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Language
Labs
2
Announce-
ments
3
Interview
with Deb
4
Cesar
Chavez
6
Bolt 6
Hair Care
Treatments
7
Campus
Calendar
8
UP C O M I N G AC T I V I T I E S
The Academy News A P R I L 6 , 2 0 1 2 V O L U M E 5 3 , I S S U E 1 1
Meet Deb Detzel, the
Academic Director of
Language Academy,
p.4
Cesar Chavez organ-
ized farm workers
and is a hero to
many, p. 6
Yvoon tells us how to
care for our har, p. 7
How well do you
know American cities.
Take the quiz on p. 8
P A G E 2
P A G E 2
Tuesday, April 10th
Time Location Description Facilitator Levels
12:00—1:00 VKC 101 IELTS Test Preparation James Hutzell All Levels
12:00—1:00 VKC 160 Writing Skills Jimenah Espinoza Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6
12:00—1:00 VKC 111 Life Skills Jemal Williams Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4
12:00—1:00 VKC 209 American Culture Natalie Reyes Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4
11:00—12:00
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 Bella Narvaez Level 1
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Justin Chang Level 2
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Micala Mendoza Level 3
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Dorothy Chang Level 4
12:00—1:00 JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5, 6 & 7 Hannah Yoo Levels 5, 6, & 7
Please remember to sign up for Language Labs start-
ing TODAY at NOON until MONDAY, April 2nd at
8:00am. If you have questions or problems signing up,
please email Sky at [email protected].
Thursday, April 12th
Time Location Description Facilitator Levels
11:00—12:00 THH 113 Statement of Purpose Prep Heather Robertson
Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6
12:00—1:00 VKC 101 GRE/GMAT Test Prep James Hutzell All Levels
12:00—1:00 VKC 111 Life Skills Jemal Williams Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4
12:00—1:00 VKC 209 American Culture Natalie Reyes Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4
11:00—12:00
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 Bella Narvaez Level 1
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Justin Chang Level 2
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Micala Mendoza Level 3
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Dorothy Chang Level 4
12:00—1:00 JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5, 6 & 7 Hannah Yoo Levels 5, 6, & 7
For this week, Life Skills AND American Culture will be on Tuesday and Thursday. Each lab will have the same topic on Thursday as on Tuesday, so everyone can get a chance to attend. Check out Jemal
in Life Skills and Natalie in American Culture!
P A G E 3
Griffith Observatory Continued from p. 1
After visiting Griffith Observa-
tory, I felt that human beings are so
tiny compared to the enormous uni-
verse. The happiness, sadness and
suffering of human beings become
meaningless in front of the timeless
universe. However, the spirit of ex-
ploring an unknown world and the
imagination in the human heart are
endless.
When you look up at the sky,
every star is telling you an age-old
story. You can imagine that our life
is so short, so it’s very important to
make our life meaningful and make
every minute count .
“This is a really nice place. Not
only can I have entertainment with
my friends but also I can learn some-
thing. It is a good memory for me
when I recall the life in LA,” Aselya
Aliyeva said.
Here is the address of Griffith
Observatory: 2800 East Observatory
Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027. I
recommend this wonderful place to
students who haven’t been there be-
fore.
Special Language Labs Next Week: Guest Speaker from USC Occupational Therapy Sign up for these great language labs by going to:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/langacad/current_students.htm#LanguageLabs
Quit Smoking: Do you want to quit smoking? Ahra Roha will help you analyze why you smoke, teach you
ways to quit smoking and identify activities you can do instead of smoking on Tuesday, April 10th from 11-
12pm in JEF 124
Managing Your Time Effectively: Do you want to learn how to schedule your time better, so you can ac-
complish more throughout the day? Ahra will teach you how to prioritize your daily tasks and teach you dif-
ferent organization techniques on Tuesday, April 10th from 12-1pm in JEF 124
Managing Your Stress: Do you want to manage your stress, so you can do your best during finals in the
next couple of weeks? Ahra will help you identify what stresses you out and teach you some great relaxa-
tion techniques on Thursday, April 12th from 11-12pm in JEF 124
Do you want to live in USC Housing this
summer A session? If your answer is
YES, please fill out the green “I Want to
Live in USC Housing” form by next
Wednesday, April 11th 5pm. You can get
this form from Pam in JEF 201.
Staying for Summer A session?
If you are planning to continue your studies
at the Language Academy this summer A
session, please see Gil and pay your summer
A tuition fees by Wednesday, April 25th!
Language Academy students visited Griffith Observatory and hiked in the Hollywood Hills
P A G E 4
SARA AL SHAHRI
YARA HARI
Deborah Detzel is the Academic Di-
rector at the USC Language Academy.
She is from Pennsylvania and majored in
linguistics, and then she got a degree in
computer science.
Deb also did her Master’s in teaching.
She majored in linguistics because she
was always interested in languages and
other cultures. This interest began when
she was a child in elementary school.
She always loved to read about other
countries, their cultures, and the people.
Deb speaks several languages, includ-
ing Spanish, French, German, and Indo-
nesian. She also knows a little bit of
Vietnamese, Russian, and Arabic.
Those are some questions that we asked
Deborah to get to know her a little bet-
ter.
How long have you been in USC Lan-
guage Academy?
I just came here in the beginning of the
fall semester.
Why did you choose USC?
I had worked for 10 years at the Univer-
sity of Delaware, which is a large state
public university, and I worked in a big
language program. It was very interest-
ing and I learned a lot, but I wanted an
opportunity to see how language pro-
grams work on the West Coast, and to
have an opportunity to contribute to the
program here. I also like to take chal-
lenges to learn new things.
What are your interests? And hob-
bies?
I’m interested in people and I do a lot
of reading. I tend to read things about
other cultures and ways of thinking, and
I’ve always been interested in how the
human brain works. As far as active
hobbies, I’m a swimmer. I swim every
other day here at the university pool, and
on the days between I ride my bike and I
run.
What is your favorite movies/book/
city/food?
I never watch movies because it’s
against my religion. I was raised Men-
nonite which is similar to the Amish. I
didn’t grow up going to movies and I
have trouble sitting still. As far as favor-
ite books, I have so many I can’t name a
favorite. My favorite food is dark choco-
late.
What do you think about the Amish
home, life style? Do you think they
have to be more modern?
They are kind of in the middle in the
way they do business. So in my home, I
buy almost all of my fruits and vegeta-
bles from my Amish neighbors. The
furniture in my house is made by Amish
people. We do business all the time.
They’ve chosen to follow their religion,
and the United States was founded on
religious freedom, so I think the Amish
are doing the right thing. I think it is
important to have the freedom to stay
with your religion if that’s what you
want to do. I respect their ability to teach
their way of life to their children and to
continue it. And they seem to have a
very happy life.
Who influenced you or whom do you
admire?
My hero is Mother Teresa because
she lived a life of service to very poor
people that other people didn’t want to
work with. She was very giving and
very kind, and she put other people be-
fore herself. Therefore, I have always
been inspired by her life and works.
What are some obstacles that you
have overcome? What moment in
your life was a turning point?
I had a lot of obstacles and turning
points in my life, first of all, because I
came from Mennonite parents. They
didn’t want me to go to the university
because they wanted me to live a simple
life, to get married and have children,
and stay home and be a good wife and
mother. But I was always curious about
learning. I wanted to go to a university.
I got married when I was 17, and I went
to the university with my husband . Get-
ting married when you are 17 in the
United States is a turning point.
Then, a year later, I had my first baby
so I was a really young mother. I had
four children by the time I was 24, but I
loved being a mother, I have now seven
children. Some people think seven chil-
dren is an obstacle because it’s a lot of
work and it takes a lot of effort and a lot
of money and all of that. But I think that
my children are really my treasure in
some ways. So they didn’t present an
obstacle to me; they just became a part
of my life.
One of my children was born with a
chronic fatal illness. The word “chronic”
means “all the time,” and “fatal” means
that it results in death. My fifth child
Ana was born with cystic fibrosis, and
that is a huge obstacle if you have a baby
and they tell you that your baby has this
disease.
They told me she wouldn’t live to be
past 11 years old, and I told them “No,
don’t say that.” A few years later, there
was some new medicine and they said
maybe 14. I refused to hear that. While
she was growing up, she had a lot of
trouble and surgeries. She just struggled
all the time. I realized during this time
that in some way her life depended on
Get to Know Deborah Detzel Personality Profile
P A G E 5 Deborah Detzel continued from p. 4
me.
Because I had to take care of her, I
taught her how to take care of herself. I
had to find the best doctors and best
medicine, like a mother does for her
child. But at the same time, I realized if
I only did that and something happened
to her, what would I do. I would not be
able to live anymore. This is why I got
my master’s degree. I thought that I
needed to have something where I put
my energy that’s not just her.
Then I began to develop my career
more because I thought that if my
daughter didn’t survive, I would be
broken hearted. I could run away to
my job and I wouldn’t think about it .
After I got my master’s degree, I
was teaching in Penn State University
and then the University of Delaware. It
was in line with my interests, so I took
my children including my daughter
who was sick with me to my different
places where I worked so my children
had different experiences.
My daughter is 25 years old now.
She is married, and she is still takes
care of her illness all the time. She had
very serious times in her life. Her life
is a gift like our lives. We don’t know
how long we will have. Even that ob-
stacle—I feel that it’s been very good
to me because I have her , because she
knows how to live well , and because I
have this good career.
Any obstacle— if we take it, we can
really change it to make our life bigger.
The more obstacles we experience , the
more we understand about life and
about people and about ourselves.
What do you want to achieve in the
future?
I always thought that I wanted to
learn to speak Spanish well, but now, I
really want to learn to speak Arabic.
I’m curious about and interested in
Arabic; I did a lot of work in countries
in the Middle East in teaching English
teachers.
I have worked in Morocco, Jordan,
and Egypt. I spent five years going
there every year for a part of the year
to these countries, but I have never
been in Saudi Arabia. I have always
wanted to be able to spend some time
teaching in Saudi Arabia. The Arabic
language is very hard but also very
rich. For me one of the most attractive
things about Arabic is the Arabic
speaking people I know. I have so
many dear friends that speak Arabic
and it’ll be great to communicate with
them.
Your dream job?
I don’t really have a dream job; in
my life I have had a lot of really inter-
esting jobs, all of them with people. I
worked for ten years with immigrants
and refugees. I thought that my biggest
dream job in my life would be to work
in refugee camps and be like Mother
Teresa. But because I have a lot of chil-
dren, I couldn’t take my children to go
live in refugee camps and work there.
But I worked in an immigrant refugee
program for ten years and that was a
great job and I loved it.
I taught English in prison for people
whose papers have expired but who
still stayed in the United States. I was
working in a prison during 9/11 when
the government was putting a lot of
people in prison because they were
suspicious of them. It was a terrible
injustice, but it was really good work.
Moreover, I have worked with inter-
national students for 15 years. I always
want to work with different languages.
I don’t like to have a job where I have
to sit on a chair so anything that in-
volves working with people but not
sitting at a desk would be my dream
job.
If you could change one thing in your
life, what would it be, why?
If I could change one thing, I
wouldn’t have chewed so much bubble
gum when I was a kid and a teenager.
Bubble gum is not really good for your
teeth.
I have seven children and seven
grandchildren, so I think I’m too old to
chew bubble gum. I wouldn’t chew so
much bubble gum and I wouldn’t like
bubble gum and candy so much.
What is your slogan in life, and could
you explain it please?
For a long time my slogan in life
was “Do it now!” and then Nike took it
and started using it, but it was mine for
20 years before Nike knew about it !
Because I have so many kids, I would
say to my kids, “Can you get the table
ready for dinner?”or “Can you put
your books back and put them where
they belong?” and they would still be
sitting there. So I would say, “Guys, do
it now because if you do it now it’s
done.” But now I’m getting a little lazy.
Some things don’t really matter if I do
it now or later, so now I don’t have a
new motto but my old motto was do it
now. And I had it before Nike!
What do think about UCS Language
Academy students, and what is your
experience about teaching them so
far?
I think that Language Academy
students are amazing in how smart they
are. I can tell that they are really good
students in their own education system
in their country and that they come here
as really good students. So if you take
really good students and smart people
and put them into a good school, it is
really an amazing thing. I also feel like
they are not really students and there
isn’t a division between teachers and
students. For me, students are more
equal here than at any other schools I
have been in. This is one of the first
things I have noticed and I appreciate it
all the time.
Finally, my position is Academic
Director, and I really want to know that
the students who come here can reach
their goals. We are doing our best to
help the students achieve their goals
and we are helping to support people to
move forward in very best way that we
can. I am open to any suggestions. I
would like to know what is working
and what is not, people’s ideas ,and
what we can do to continually improve.
I think it’s important for the Language
Academy to continually improve what
we do so that we are sure that our stu-
dents all getting very best.
P A G E 6 Remembering Cesar Chavez by Lily Sabajan
Cesar Chavez’ birthday, March 31,
1927, has become Cesar Chavez Day, a
state holiday in three U.S. states.
Many parks, cultural centers, librar-
ies, schools and streets have been named
after him. This day is to serve as a trib-
ute to his hard work.
In California this day is celebrated as
a state holiday, intended to promote ser-
vice to the community in honor of Cesar
Chavez’s life and work.
Many, but not all state government
offices and community colleges and
libraries are closed. Many public schools
in the state are closed too. Texas also
recognizes the day; it’s optional in Ari-
zona and Colorado.
Chavez e was an American Mexican
farm worker like his parents. He was a
labor leader, and civil rights activ-
ist ,who, with Dolores Huerta, co-
founded the National Farm Worker As-
sociation. This organization later became
the United Farm Workers (UFW). He
became the best known Latino Civil
Rights Activist, with a public relations
approach to unionism. He also used
nonviolence tactics. This dedication to
his work earned him numerous friends
and supporters, including Robert Ken-
nedy and Jesse Jackson.
Cesar Chavez dedicated his life to
improving treatment, better pay, good
living conditions and immigration infor-
mation to the farm workers in the fields.
He also brought the national awareness
to the dangers of pesticides to the work-
ers health.
In the 1970s, this movement forced
growers to recognize the UFW as a bar-
gaining agent for 50,000 field workers in
California and Florida. Cesar Chavez
and his union won several victories for
the workers and their families when
many growers signed contracts with the
union, but he continued to fight for farm
workers.
Cesar Chavez died on April 23,1993,
in San Luis, Arizona. His widow Helen
Chavez donated his black jacket to the
National Museum of America History.
After his death, he became a major his-
torical icon for the Latino community.
Many workers and Hispanics created the
slogan “SI SE PUEDE,” which is Span-
ish for “YES,IT IS POSSIBLE” or
“YES, IT CAN BE DONE.”
All the work he did for the farms
made a lot of improvements for labor
unions. Cesar Chavez helped the His-
panic community and all the people
who work very hard in this country to
have respect and dignity.
Haoyang Wen (Howard)
Jamaican Lightning
What can you do in 9.58 seconds? Maybe you can only cross a road; maybe you can only lace up one of your shoes; maybe you can only take a bite of your hamburger.
However, this man, can accomplish a great-est achievement in 9.58 seconds. He comes from Jamaica.
This Jamaican is the fastest human on land. He is the best sprinter now, a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is also
the world re-cord and Olympic re-cord holder in the 100 me-ters, the 200 meters and the 4×100 meters relay with his team-mates.
His name is Usain Bolt , just like his last name “Bolt” which means light-ning. People call him “Lightning Bolt”.
This young man has never admitted defeat in his 26-year-old life time. Poverty didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream. When he was in juvenile
sports school, Bolt’s height was already over 1.9 meters. Several years later, his height was 1.96 meters. His coach and many experts said that he was too tall
to be a sprinter because tall people have less co-ordination, and it is very hard to run faster. See Bolt on p. 7 for the rest of the story and Bolt’s statistics.
Bolt Continued from p. 6
However, Bolt firmly believes that he can overcome all the de-fects of nature by his industrious training. No one is a born cham-pion, and no one is a born loser, but Bolt’s story tells us that a champion is made of determina-tion .
Welcome Velkommen
Bienvenue Bienvenidos
Benvenuti Bem-vindo 歡迎 환영
ようこそ
ยนิดต้ีอนรับ Қош келдіңіз!
Xush kelibsiz
مرحبا بكم
Добро пожаловать
Courtesy of Google Translate
P A G E 7
I am a girl with healthy
and strong hair which is
long, thick, and a little
curly. After doing perma-
nents and dying many times,
I noticed that my hair has
become drier and more brit-
tle than before, especially
after I arrived in LA, which
is much drier than Shanghai.
I have fought off the dry-
ness and brittleness of my
hair for a long time, since I
was a high school student.
Based on my several years’
experience, I want to share
my hair care products with
you.
1. Kerastase Nutritive Se-
rum Oléo-Relax
This is the best hair prod-
uct I have ever used. I love
it so much. It touches like
oil but not as oily as normal
oil.
When you apply it to
your hair, your hair will be
smooth and not frizzy any
more. In fall and winter
when it is windy, the dry-
ness of my hair will become
worse and frizzier when the
wind blows. I always use a
small portion of this product
and apply it on my frizzy
hair. 125ml-$39.00
2. TRESemme' Heat De-
fence Styling Spray
This product is recom-
mended by my friend. I
bought it just last week and
have used it twice. I think it
is a good product because it
is pretty cheap. It is a spray
you can apply it before us-
ing your hair-dryer or
straighteners to protect your
hair from damage. I always
use ceramic irons to make
my hairstyles, and I have
never found a product which
can effectively prevent my
hair from heat damage. I
hope it will work wonder-
fully on my hair. 300 ml-
$8.35
3. Organic Root Stimulator
Hair Mayonnaise
This hair mask looks like
real mayonnaise and smells
like delicious food. I love
the flavor of this mask. It
makes my hair smooth and
smells good when I am
sleeping. The mask contains
whole egg protein, nettle,
safflower oil, soybeans and
amino acids which can pro-
vide your hair lots of protein
in order to make it stronger.
Another reason I like it is it
Is
cheap price. 16oz-$7.99
4. Frederic Fekkai Protein
Rx Anti-Breakage Treat-
ment Mask
This mask is pretty famous
and relatively expensive. I
think it works nice on your
hair. It provides lots of pro-
tein for your damaged hair.
It smells like milk and the
fragrance is so cute that
makes me can’t help using
it. However, the price is ex-
pensive and the portion is
small compared to other
products. If you think it is
affordable to you and I
strongly recommend this
product to you. 5.5 oz-
$30.00
Hair Care Recommendations by Yvoon Wei
BOLT’S STATISTICS
HAPPY EASTER
Christians all over the world will celebrate the
Easter Holiday on Sunday, April 8.
Do you know the nicknames of
American cities? Take this quiz and
see what you know.
Send your answers in to
[email protected] and you
have a chance to win a coffee card.
1. The Big Apple
A. San Francisco
B. Seattle
C. New York City
2. The Big Easy
A. New Orleans
B. Chicago
C. Philadelphia
3. The Windy City
A. Boston
B. Chicago
C. Baltimore
4. The Motor City
A. St. Louis
B. Miami
C. Detroit
5. Sin City
A. Las Vegas
B. Cincinnati
C. Washington D. C.
6. The Big Pineapple
A. Miami
B. Honolulu
C. San Diego
7. The Magic City
A. Denver
B. Miami
C. Portland
8. The Coffee Capital
A. Seattle
B. Phoenix
C. Kansas City
9. Beantown
A. San Antonio
B. Memphis
C. Boston
We have a winner! Last week’s winner was Shu
(Rancho) Zhou. Enjoy your
coffee card!
USC Language
Academy
Rossier School of
Education
Phone: 213-740-0080
Fax: 213-740-0088
Web: www.usc.edu/langacad
American Cities Quiz
The Academy News is a weekly newsletter pro-duced by students in the Journalism Elective of the USC Language Academy. All students in the Lan-guage Academy Program are encouraged to send news stories and photos to Sonja Lovelace at [email protected].
Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Informa-
tion” and then click on “The Academy News.”
P A G E 8 A P R I L 6 , 2 0 1 2
Editor
Sisi Lin
Assistant Editor
Yara Hadi
Reporters
Sara Alshehri
Lilly Sabajan
Yining (Yvoon) Wei
Haoyang (Howard) Wen
Fengyi (Phoebe) Zhang
Advisor
Sonja Lovelace
THE TAN STAFF