Sunday, September 17, 2017

Why did I think it was a good idea to go to LA?

To begin the week of 9/11-9/17, I had an exciting meeting with the Transfer Academy to plan out my remaining semesters at SBCC and fill them with the necessary classes in order to transfer to my desired school. As of right now I have my eyes set on New York University with hopes of potentially transferring after my first year, however the tuition at NYU is quite a load(especially out of state) so perhaps it would be in my best interest to stay a second year in Santa Barbara. While going into my second year in Santa Barbara I'm hoping to successfully please all the course requirements for UC Los Angeles and UC Berkeley. Yes, I'm aware in my first About Me blog post I mentioned how I was hoping to stay in California for school but after careful consideration I feel that since I was young I've always wanted to live in either LA or NY at one point of my life and maybe because I'm from California I may be bias towards LA but I think New York would be a great fit for me. I love big cities and more importantly I love busyness and productivity so what better place to study than in the city that never sleeps. I think the city itself is something in itself and I don't need to persuade anyone otherwise.

On top of the excitement of transferring I also had the pleasure of hosting the first Snapchat takeover for SBCC, this was not only SBCC's first Snapchat takeover but also the first time I've done anything like this. It was definitely an interesting experience for many reasons. Obviously nothing was of a surprise to me considering the Snapchat followed my daily routine but it was really cool to be able to share my life with so many people at once. Also it was a lot of fun to walk around campus and have people recognize me from the Snapchat, I almost felt like a celebrity.  All in all I think the day went fairly smooth and had a lot of fun promoting SBCC student life from my own perspective and is definitely something I'd be open to doing again.

 




















Perhaps most exciting was over the weekend I went down to Loyola Marymount University to see a high school friend and had a lot of fun with him and I also had the opportunity to tour LMU's beautiful campus. The following day I met up with a group of my high school friends and hit the streets of Hollywood Blvd to celebrate our friend Sierras 18th birthday. Going down to LA for the weekend was a fun time and a great opportunity to really see the city and checkout some college campuses but I think NY might have the edge;) However what was really cool is I met the producer for SKEETV and started talking with him about business and career opportunities for a few hours and got his contact information for a potential job which is pretty cool even thought he's stationed down in LA. It felt like everyone I met while I was in LA was a part of a startup or had some important roll in the art industry which was super cool to learn about I must admit. Anyways the cons of LA was I woke up really late everyday and now I'm scrambling to get all my homework done so maybe I should just stay in Santa Barbara from now on. Lesson learned, but I'm looking forward to an exciting week with a meeting with my counselor and attending an NYU orientation. Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted along with the rest of the usual shenanigans!



Monday, September 11, 2017

What They Don't Tell You To Bring To College

As I approach the monthaversary of living in a college apartment, I am dedicating todays blog post to bring to light the skipped and underrated items for what many students miss out on when they go to college.

1.) The first item that many do not have but defiantly need are earplugs. I cannot emphasize how underrated earplugs are and how influential they can be towards a goodnight sleep or a successful study session. Because students in Santa Barbara are in college it is no surprise that there will be loud noises while trying to sleep and even while studying. Earplugs completely fix the problem of struggling to focus due to loud noises. Also a PRO TIP, in the library on West Campus next to textbook checkout is a container of FREE earplugs, so be sure stop by and grab a pair and get your study on with a goodnights sleep.
2.) Second on the list is a night pillow! Yes, a night pillow isn't the most manly thing, but I must concede they are a huge help when trying to go to bed. And better yet when your roommate still has homework to complete in the room and requires a light: you can just put on your night pillow and the lights might as well be off. An eye pillow is a huge game changer that makes going to sleep that much easier.
3.) Clean water!!! I know from my personal experience that my apartments faucet water probably isn't as clean as I'd like it to be, therefore my roommates and I do business with Culligan Water  who deliver us 5 gallon bottles of purified water every other week for $6.95. The water is dispensed out of a water cooler which we also rent at $6.95 a month, the cooler serves us all cold water at 40 degrees and hot water at 195 degrees. My apartment of 6 guys tend to go through about 10 bottles of water in the 2 week time span so it is a huge reassurance that our water is clean and ready at a cool temperature for a great price.
4.) Venmo, this is by far the most important thing every college student needs, Venmo is an app that links your bank account and credit card to allow you to send/receive money to your friends immediately online. This app is most useful because you can easily pay your roommates for splitting the groceries to the nearest cent and not have to deal with the annoyance of coins. Not to mention your roommates cant pull the "I don't have cash" excuse anymore because you can tell them to pull out their phone and Venmo you, it's 2017. Venmo provides a simple and easy way for college students to split costs and pay each other back in a fun way. I do not understand how one can be in college and not have Venmo, it makes paying people so much simpler and to be fair I too was hesitant about downloading the app last year but it has truly been a game changer since I downloaded it and strongly urge everyone else to download it.

Image result for emergen-c
5.) About a month into college you'll begin to notice a cluster of zombies sneezing around campus dreading life with stuffy noises and a stack of tissues close by. Thats right, the common cold is near, so brace yourself. Apart from the conventional sanitary tricks of washing hands and minimizing contact with others comes another layer of protection for just $6 a box, Emergen-C! This flavorful powder can be poured into water, hot or cold to be drinken to help fight and prevent the affects of the common cold. This is done through high dosages of Vitamin C, Zinc, Manganese, and 7 B Vitamins. The effects of these nutrients helps boost immune strength and in doing so helps protect yourself against the common cold. Emergen-C is very tasty with flavors such as Orange, Raspberry, Blueberry, Lemon-Lime, and Cherry. Inside each box will be a packet of powder filled with healthy nutrients to help make sure you don't become another cold victim. Emergen-C is a cheap, simple, and delicious way to decrease your chances of getting sick while away at college.


Be sure to revisit this post periodically throughout the school year for updates!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Being the first week of September: not only is this my first blog entry but it's also Labor Day weekend! To be honest I have never appreciated Labor Day weekend to such an extent as I have this year. Not only did our school give us the Monday off, but to my benefit of not having class on Fridays I had luxury of a 4 day weekend! Oh yes, more than half the week was a weekend. I love it. With so much free time I decided it was the perfect opportunity to go home to Los Gatos and see my family for the weekend.

One of my five roommates, Evan is also from Los Gatos like me. I've actually known Evan since 4th grade when I joined a competitive soccer team and played with him until Junior year of high school when he picked up lacrosse. We decided to carpool home early Friday morning with Evans girlfriend, Kylee who goes to CSU Channel Islands. The five hour drive flew by to my surprise and seemed to last only a few hours which consisted of a nice pitstop at a McDonalds and the blasting of country music on the interstate.

It's funny because as soon as I arrived home in Los Gatos I found myself only wanting to be back in Santa Barbara. However, it was extremely nice to go out and eat a real dinner for once and see my family. Since I've lived in Santa Barbara most of my dinners consist of Annie's Mac n Cheese or Pepperoni Hot Pockets. So after going to one of my favorite restaurants in Los Gatos, The Pastaria I was feeling pretty good to say the least. The weekend essentially consisted of homework and nice dinners with my family since all my friends are off at school.

Monday evening I returned home in Santa Barbara and since its been a fairly mellow week for me at school with the exception of Club Day and my first day working as a Social Media Marketer. Club Day was Wednesday and I gave a few clubs my contact information so they could email me their schedules and I could decide which would be the best fit for me and my schedule. I signed up for the Math Club, the Economics Club, and The Open Mind Project. I'm not totally sure which I'm going to actually join, but I'm planning on checking out the Math Club's first meeting later today and seeing how it goes. As for my first day as a Social Media Marketer I was called upon to attend Rafa Esparzas Atkinson Gallery in room 202 of the Humanities building. Rafa is going to be working at SBCC for the next month until October 5th creating structures made from adobe mud. I arrived at the gallery to find Rafa and his team prepping the Adobe by breaking it down with their feet. I filmed Rafa prepping the Adobe and the video was posted on the SBCC Snapchat. I was super proud to have contributed to SBCC's snapchat for the first time and am excited to work more and see Rafa's progression with his artwork.

All in all a pretty slow week for me as not much has happened, however Im excited one of my best friends is visiting me this weekend from UCLA so I'm excited to see him and show him around Santa Barbara and catchup. To end the blog today I thought I'd share a picture I captured this morning during my Boot Camp class. Turns out 8 am's aren't all that bad . I've found it's actually a really nice way to start off the day early in the morning with a tough workout and to be fair it would be hard to hate class with views like this. I hope everyone had a good week, I know I enjoyed mine and I'm looking forward to tackling the next one on Monday. Stay tuned, go Vaqueros!!
a basic SBCC PE class




Saturday, September 2, 2017

About me!



Hello all, my name is John Latchford and I am currently a freshman at SBCC. I’m 18 years old and am originally from a small town in the Bay Area called Los Gatos. And even though I’ve been a Vaquero for just two weeks, I’m beyond excited for this school year and am honored to be able to share my experience with you all!

So let’s get into it, why am I here and why am I blogging? First of all there are many factors to what lead me to choose a city college 300 miles south from home. For starters the town is beautiful and it feels like summer everyday, hard to complain with that! Secondly, this school in particular goes out of their way to make sure students can become involved in the community whether it’s academically or socially. Lastly this is THE #1 CITY COLLEGE IN THE NATION, need I say more? Well I’m going to: by going to SBCC I still receive the “traditional college experience” of leaving home and meeting new people, giving me the opportunity to live life how I want to:)  I’m blogging to help promote the school and its many beauties as well as become involved in the school and everything it has to offer. 

So far academically I’m off to a great start heading into my third week. I’m taking 17.5 units this semester, and like I said so far I’m off to a great start and I love my classes and professors. The first class I have on Mondays and Wednesdays is my Intro to Marketing class in the Business/Communication Center which is my largest class with over 100 students. Shortly after Marketing is my English 110 Honors class(also Monday and Wednesday) which has a spectacular view of La Playa Field and the Pacific Ocean. I’m also enrolled in ENG 120 which is just a one credit class online. Later that day I have math, for which I’m in the Express to Success Program(ESP) enabling me to take 2 math classes in one semester. In ESP I’m in Math 107N/107/117, which consists of a Study Skills for Math, Intermediate Algebra, and Statistics. Because I’m taking two math classes in the same semester I actually have this class everyday Monday through Thursday. As for PE credit I’m in a Body Conditioning Boot Camp for beginners, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Unfortunately my Marketing 101 class(Monday and Wednesday) is an 8 am and my Body Conditioning Boot Camp(Tuesday and Thursday), to my dismay is also an 8 am. I don’t know why I do this to myself, but whatever I’ve done it the past 4 years in high school so I guess I can handle two more. Hopefully with these classes I can let you guys know how I’m doing and you can learn a little bit about the Honors Program and the Express to Success Program.


My goal in regards to my education from SBCC is to put in everything I have into my academics in hopes of transferring to a four year university for Business and Marketing. I don’t have a final choice for where I want to transfer(yet), but I definitely want to stay in California. I’ll keep you guys posted how the hunt goes!


Apart from blogging, I also work in the Office of Communications as a Social Media Marketer! Essentially, I help the school post on its social media accounts(Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter) by attending school events and promoting them through the accounts. I also plan on joining a club somewhat related to my major(Business/Marketing) but am waiting until Club Day to make my decision.

All I can say right now is I’m very optimistic about the school year and Santa Barbara already has a piece of my heart. Everyday I seem to love it more and more. Hopefully from blogging about my experience here you can learn what the school school has to offer and also a lot about me as a person! I hope youre looking forward to it. I’ve been anticipating this school year for quite sometime and am very happy to be here so stay tuned!