2008 About the Authors
Delta Winds: A Magazine of Student Essays
A Publication of San Joaquin Delta College
2008
About the Authors
These biographical statements were written for publication in 2008.
Rogene Reynoldsis a 58-year-old, 4th generation native of San Joaquin County. After 40 years of family and two careers (bank operations and real estate sales), she is back to college with enthusiasm. Her plans include transfer to the next level, with a focus on polishing her writing skills. Rogene is a farmer's daughter, and "grew up on the back of a horse." Her interests include camping and hiking (at 10,000 feet), driving her Percherons, Molly and Barney, and reading-"I won't live long enough to read all the good books that have been written." Rogene has three daughters, four grandchildren and a host of pets, including a beloved Golden Retriever named "Puppy." She shares life with husband, Bill, her best friend for over 30 years. Home is two acres on Roberts Island, South of Stockton..
Shaunna Branham, originally from Daly City, feels that since moving to Stockton her puzzle (life) has been broken up and put back together in different spots. As a mother of two young boys, she has found herself more motivated than ever to do well and to give them more than what she had. She attends Delta College while still at Western Career College. She has a few more days left to obtain a certificate in medical assisting. She doesn't plan on stopping there. She is going for her A.S. in nursing at Delta and hopes to get her master's in registered nursing. As she says, "I am willing to start at the bottom to get to the top."
Mary White sums up her upbringing in the following words: "Even though we were raised in poverty, we never really went without much. Our needs were met. We worked on the farm and went to church. At school, life was horrible. I was a sad kid, isolated from others. I was told that I was ugly and that nobody would like me. My self-esteem led me to fight all the time. I did not hang out with any kids because of all the words they said about me. I had to learn the hard way that kids were going to be kids, and I had to fight everyday to let them know that I may be ugly, but I could beat them up. No kid should ever have to go through what I went through in school. Today I am a student at Delta College, working on my A.A. degree in social science. Life is good now because I choose not to allow people to affect me. I am a woman with integrity, and I am no different from anyone else. I choose to accept people for who they are."
Greg Patchenis 18 years old and attending his first semester at Delta College. He plans on transferring to a four-year college after attending Delta for two years. Though he enjoys writing, Greg's true passion is mathematics and science.
Michael Kost, a native of the Stockton/Lodi area, presently works full-time managing a print and copy center. A part-time student at Delta College, he says that he is enjoying the benefits of taking courses over the Internet. He hopes to become a professional writer in some form or another in the future.
Steven Stewartdescribes himself as "just a kid with ADHD wandering through the vast forest of life."
Michael Scottis twenty years old and has lived in Stockton for five years. After graduating from Bear Creek High School, he has attended Delta since the fall of 2005. He has been a member of the football team since he began attending Delta. Michael's goal is to graduate this semester with his AA and finish both his education and his football career at a four-year college. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, movies, and spending time with family.
Rosaline Smithis a full-time student here at Delta and is planning on transferring to C.S.U. East Bay, where she is going for her B.S. in Health Sciences with a specialization in Community Health Education. Rosaline currently works on campus at the bookstore and enjoys it! She also enjoys spending her free time reading and usually goes to Barnes and Noble to relax.
Ken Lambert, a Locomotive Engineer, has worked in the railroad industry for 29 years. He has an incredible wife, three wonderful kids, and two beautiful grandchildren. He enjoys traveling, photography and working with computers. He finds his involvement with the Match-2 prisoner outreach especially rewarding; in the program he is involved with mentoring youthful offenders and offering them hope and encouragement. When asked why he would bother going back to college, he states: "Raising my children, I always encouraged them to finish what they started. I attended Chico State in the 1970s but was unable to complete the curriculum. Through the years my career has been an impediment to earning a degree. The Internet is now allowing me a chance to realize my dream."
Oskaris from Colombia, South America. Because of his strong interest in learning English, he decided to come to the United States. He likes to write in Spanish a lot, but when his instructor from English 79 told him that this essay was so well written that it could be published in Delta Winds, he was delighted. From that day on, he began to believe he could also write in English, "the language of my dreams." He strongly believes in the power and beauty of words. As he states, "When a person learns the language of a civilization, he or she also has the privilege of entering into the heart of that civilization." Currently, he is taking English 1D this semester.
Previously home-schooled for three years, Mary Guillory is in her first semester at Delta College. She is seventeen years old and the only girl of three children. Mary likes reading Delta Winds essays and is delighted to have her work included in the magazine.
Nina Peñalosais a twenty-something-year-old girl with an insatiable appetite to explore the world around her, but is stuck in the bubble that is Stockton, California. She plans to flee the San Joaquin Valley in the fall when she transfers to San Francisco State University, where she plans to major in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and minor in Journalism. She likes music, art, perusing around bookstores and hopes to see her name written across the spine of one those books someday.
Kellie Corber, a native to Southern California, grew up in the small town of Redlands. A few years after high school, she grew restless of her citrus-rich town and moved on to see what else California had to offer her. She traveled to Fresno and lived for one year before finding Stockton. In Stockton, she discovered her passion for natural resource conservation and is actively investigating different ways she can satisfy it. She is still searching for the particular area she wishes to focus her major in, but the State Park Ranger program is a lead she is currently pursuing. In her free time Kellie loves to camp and travel. If there is a new experience to be had, she will likely be there. She is a strong, independent, competitive person and does not give up easily. Kellie is a single, twenty-three-year-old woman just starting her life. Kellie currently resides in her hometown of Redlands along with her best friend, Eddie, her Boston Terrier. She didn't leave the city of Stockton empty handed; the city and the people gave her a new outlook on life, and she credits Delta College for giving her a new ambition.