No matter whether you have great, purposeful ambitions and experiences ahead or are heading into new adventures not by choice, moving on is hard. I have been with The Advocate since January 2023, almost a year and a half, and that is a major part of my life. Roughly 8% of my life up to this point has been spent working with a wonderful team of writers and editors at this college newspaper. My departure is a bittersweet moment as I thoroughly enjoyed my time here working with

Submitted by Twila Bruni, MHCC Funeral Service Education Student Can you believe that we are already well into the year 2024? Somehow four years have flown by within the blink of an eye – and our lives as we know them have been changed forever, whether we like to admit it or not. It isn’t as if we all forgot about the treacherous time that was 2020. It seems as if we were all forced into the lifestyle of hermit crabs who learned to love life at home and take what we can get

Photo sourced from Shutterstock.com Before I even begin here, I want to give a general disclaimer that this is my personal experience and I do not, in any way, intend to speak on behalf of everyone living with an autoimmune illness/chronic illness. I only aim to share my story, with the intent to let others who may have similar experiences know that they are not alone. At the fresh age of 23 years old, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Most people just know it as

Image sourced from theplanetd.com At times, I struggle with the key question of life’s purpose. Life makes me question the point of striving and existence in any activity I do. I end up going down a deep rabbit hole of thoughts and emotions. In these moments, which occur more often than they should, I choose to step away and embark on a journey of just existing: I interrupt my everyday routine, seizing the day with a simple act of existing – nothing more, nothing less. It w

Photos provided by Multnomah County Library Libraries are far more important now than ever, with the dying amount of so-called “third places” (aside from home and workplace) for people to go to. While many communities across the country have started reducing funding for, or abandoning, public libraries altogether, Multnomah County is currently working on building a massive new library for all Gresham and East County residents to use. The new East County Library will be a near

Before I enrolled at Mt. Hood Community College, I knew I needed to find a major that would yield me a good-paying job. I have a career background in IT and Web Development, so when I discovered that MHCC has a Cybersecurity program I did not hesitate to enroll and choose that as my major. One morning, while sitting and waiting for a class, I happened to see Jeff Sperley, who is a Cybersecurity & Networking Instructor, walking on campus. Out of excitement, I called out, “Jeff

In the past few years, a digital phenomenon has hit the online world and spread almost as quickly as COVID-19. For some users, this tool has become a way for them to bypass physical or other hardships they’ve had in the past, but for myself and many other artists, it is nothing but a disease. AI, which, despite many misconceptions, technically stands for Augmented Intelligence (not Artificial Intelligence, which would require sentience), started to grow in popularity during t

I am a strong believer that using language models and other AI systems as tools to enhance our abilities, enhance the quality of life for disabled people, and to help us discover new solutions and insights is a powerful avenue for progress and inclusivity. The legitimately critical debate over generative AI artwork centers on a relatively small (if lucrative) market, considering the vast current and future potential of artificial intelligence, neural networks, and language mo

Mt. Hood Community College’s website continues to go through a redesign process – although it may not bring all the major changes needed. According to the Megan Nugent, associate vice president of marketing and communications for MHCC, the website upgrade should launch in the fall, but that launch window remains subject to change. Many improvements will be made to the website, including a new, modern layout. They include accessibility features to help every user, including th

Picture this: it’s a beautiful, warm day in Salem, Oregon. The sun is shining, the trees are blooming, and college students determined to facilitate change for the betterment of ourselves, our state, and our nation are gathered at the state Capitol Park in front of Salem’s historic Capitol building to protest budget cuts against higher education. Knowing that an updated two-year state revenue forecast was set for release to state legislators on May 17, the Oregon Student Asso

As a college student, I have a lot on my plate. I need to go to class and do homework for 16 credits’ worth of classes, go to work to pay for those classes, and take care of myself. The way the Associated Students of Mt. Hood Community College (ASMHCC, the college’s student body government) is operated, I would never be able to participate in many of its positions due to the current requirements. As you will see, the time commitment is more than I and many other students woul

During the pandemic, I had the same thought as everyone else: I should get a dog. It was the beginning of 2021 and I had just been laid off. I was living in isolation with a healthy severance package and plenty of time on my hands, so I started researching dogs. I’d been following dog trainers online for years and I knew I wanted a big dog that would encourage me to walk and be outside. I found a reputable breeder for the dog breed of my dreams, and luck was on my side – the

Martell Meacham The Advocate On Tuesday, Nov. 22 – just last week – I was in class in the Integrated Media department late at night with a number of classmates. At around 9 p.m. the emergency alarms began going off. Somewhere on campus someone had pulled one of the alarms, which meant that all of us had to evacuate. The evacuation point for much of the MHCC campus is large patch of grass, near Northeast Kane Drive, in front of a number of flagpoles. Integrated Media is on the

Martell Meacham The Advocate Prior to the pandemic there were quite a number of services and facilities available to students on campus. As the college has continued to reopen, so too have a number of these facilities, including the Aquatics Center and soon, the indoor rock wall. Both of these are located in a far corner of the campus where a number of students have likely to yet step foot. However, there is a another facility on campus yet to reopen that almost every student

Hey, MHCC students and staff: I hope you’re doing well and taking care of your mental health, especially with everything that has taken place recently. The term is quickly coming to a close and summer is fast approaching, even though we have had more rain than sun lately! Take care to take a break from the books and enjoy the sunshine as much as possible when we do get it – whether it be by opening the curtains and letting some sunlight in, or taking a walk and enjoying some

On my 21st birthday in 2019, I bought a sativa joint with the strain name of Bruce Banner. Being 21, this gave me a whole range of possibilities for where my experience with marijuana would lead me. Since then, I feel like marijuana has been a great addition to my life, even though it is not something I would recommend to everyone. In these two years, I went from only doing marijuana once in a while, to doing it every day for a while, then to doing it no more than three time

From a young age, we are taught that family is everything and that no matter what, we should always love and care for ours. But should that infinite love and care extend to the family members that have repeatedly hurt us? As we come to the end of the holiday season, some of us may feel burdened with the guilt of not seeing that parent who has repeatedly neglected you, or the manipulative aunt, or the homophobic grandfather who you’ve been too scared to come out to. Some of u

This last quarter, I took a watercolor class – a class I expected to be an easy “A” with little consideration to my visually artistic skills. As the Fall Term progressed, I continuously felt disappointed with each assignment. Abstract piece after abstract piece, then on to pieces I wasn’t interested in painting, then into studies on items I felt no connection to – it all just felt like work. Ironic, isn’t it? How art, a leisurely activity, turned into a subject I felt like

Books are an interesting medium for storytelling these days, as the advent of the digital age has created an internal divide within the medium. Where once you had to have a physical copy of the book, there are now digital copies that can be pulled up at the tap of a button nearly anywhere. And while this digital form does have its advantages, its printed counterpart has its own advantages and appeals over its binary brother. Before diving into the classic charms of print book

THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF NFTS Since the conception of cryptocurrency, people often wondered where it would lead and if this was an answer to the growing divide between rich and poor. And with influencers such as Elon Musk, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, and several other wealthy elites, this new market could easily be shifted by a mere few words from them. One example of this phenomenon was captured by a Twitter executive from Shibecoin tweeting at Musk, asking how much Shibecoin