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science

Day in the Life of VC Professor: Niki Milani

8:30am – Morning before Class

Professor Milani never leaves her house without a cup of coffee in hand. What kind of coffee? Well, she starts her morning with a cup of NESCAFE CLASICO Instant Dark Roast Coffee and heads out the door. Professor Milani has an hour-long drive to work, spending her time in the car staying informed about what’s happening in the world by listening to her favorite YouTube channel, Democracy Now. 

9:30am – Arrives on campus 

Professor Milani strides onto campus with her purse and rolling backpack in hand as she heads to ASC 150 to teach her first class, Intro to Psych. 

11:15am – after class + Lunch 

After class, professor Milani has about an hour between her first and second classes. She walks to her office in LRC where she realizes she forgot to pack a lunch. She walks to the food truck and orders salad and some watermelon. Once she gets back to her office, she has her weekly lunch with Professor Lucy Capuano, a fellow psychology professor here at Ventura College, and Mariana Branda-Gherardi, a Sociology professor at Ventura College. In their meetings, they catch up on their busy schedules and classes. 

1pmNext class

After her hour and a half lunch break, Professor Milani walks down to the library where she prints out the lecture notes for her next class. She walks back to ASC 150 where she teaches intro to psych again. She greets students while they walk and begins lecturing. She starts lecturing while cracking jokes along the way to make the lecture fun, engaging and entertaining. After class, she stays 15 minutes longer to talk with some students and answer any questions they may have. 

2:30 pm – After class

Professor Milani walks to her car to start her hour and a half drive home. On her drive home she listens to more news and updates herself on what is going on in the world. She stops to pick up her son from daycare and heads the rest of the way home. 

4:00 pm – Rest of the day 

As soon as she gets home, she changes and heads to her boxing class. Somehow even in her busy schedule, she finds time in her day to do something for herself which is very important when you have a schedule as busy as hers. After her 50-minute boxing class, she goes home, takes a shower and makes dinner for her two kids under 4. After dinner, she puts her 1-year-old to sleep and gets right back to work. She grades papers, creates lecture PowerPoint slides, and creates assignments until 11pm, then goes to sleep to wake up early the next day and work again. Following Professor Milani around for a day has made me realize that a professor’s work doesn’t stop after the classroom. Professor Milani has taught me work ethic and to use the laziness that I might feel to fuel me to be the person that I want to be. She is someone that I look up to every day and hope one day I can be as successful as her. She has always shown me a level of respect that I now have for professors. The amount of work they do inside and outside the classroom is extremely underappreciated,and I hope readers will realize that, too, as they read this.

Categories
Sports & Leisure Student Life at VC

VC Makes History: New Women’s Flag Football Team

With quarterback standout April Luna having 5 passing touchdowns in their 45-6 win on the road, Ventura College’s new flag football team is on a 3-game winning streak with a 5-2 overall record. Ventura College’s flag football team is making history by adding a new women’s sport to their athletic program, bringing their total to 20 sports. Ventura is now one of 9 community colleges in California to have a flag football program. This flag football program gives female athletes more opportunities to play at the collegiate level and offers scholarship opportunities.

Women’s flag football has been around for more than 60 years, but it wasn’t until recently that they formed the WFA (Women’s Flag Football Alliance). With women’s flag teams growing, they partner with organizations like the NFL and Nike to help raise money and awareness for this 40-team organization.

The NCAA now has 40+ schools sponsoring varsity teams, with the NAIA allowing programs up to 12 scholarships per team. This allows more opportunities for female athletes to earn their degree with a scholarship while playing a sport they love. VC’s flag football program does the same. This widens opportunities for female athletes to continue playing at a four-year university while also getting their bachelor’s degree.

Now the question is: how do female flag football players get noticed at a DI level? The answer is visibility! Visibility is important because you can be the best person on the team, but if nobody is noticing you or talking about you, scouts cannot find you. Although flag football is growing, colleges like VC are struggling with visibility. I created a survey for VC students about the new flag football team. With 34 responses, 73.5% of people did not know that VC had a flag football team, but 70.6% of people would attend a game if they knew about it. When asked what they think about VC adding this new sport, one student states, “It’s very nice to see more variety in the sports at VC,” and another student says, “I think it’s cool; just make it more known because I haven’t heard of it.” This survey shows the importance of visibility. People are interested in going and supporting the team, but they did not know that we had this sport. To increase visibility, VC could promote the games more, hang up flyers for games, post it more on social media, and add activities to get the students involved at halftime during the games.

This program has all the potential to succeed in the future with the team currently having a breakout season blowing out the competition. With the future of flag football growing VC is breaking the stereotypes of female sports, making a more inclusive campus. When asked what kind of effect do you think this  program will have not only for female athletes but also the female student body? One student answered, “I think this creates a lot of opportunities for female athletes. For the longest time it was seen as a “boys” sport, so this will shift culture. It will challenge stereotypes and normalize strength, aggression, and athleticism in the female body” whereas another student answered, “I think it is a great gesture and unfortunately will underperform expectations on a broader scale. Female flag football just doesn’t have the same effect on the campus as mens college football does.” This is the stereotype this campus is trying to solve. Women’s sports can be just as entertaining as men’s sports if people take the time to watch it. Like the student pointed out, this creates more opportunities for female athletes whether that be for health reasons or for scholarships reasons. This program strengthens the inclusivity on campus and promotes new opportunities for women and the female student population. The best way this program can succeed is to build visibility. The season ends early May so there are many more games! Come and support your fellow students and who knows you might fall in love with the sport yourself. Come and find out March 23 when VC plays Irvine Valley college at VC at 5pm! This is just the beginning of a great season!!