Troy Pope was born in San Francisco, Calif. in 1984 and moved to Fresno at the age of four. He graduated from Buchanan High School in 2002, finding his love for creative writing through the years. Troy first attended Fresno City College from 2002-2003, but ended up taking a seven year hiatus from school and returned in 2010. When he returned he declared his major in journalism and quickly got himself on the Dean’s List. In spring 2012, Troy began writing for The Rampage. He is addicted to video games, and tries to find time to write in the middle of upgrading his character in Skyrim.
Sydney Excinia was born and raised in Fresno, California. The eldest of three children, she quickly realized how her role as a “bigger sister” would play in her professional life. Sydney is currently a full-time student at Fresno City College, enjoying the many aspects of a largely diverse community college. Soon, she plans to transfer to Fresno State University as a Mass Communication and Journalism major. Sydney has been part of the Rampage staff since 2009, exploring the many fields of journalism. She has served as a reporter, news editor, managing editor and business manager. While furthering her education, she hopes to master the technical, professional, humanistic, and conceptual skills necessary to be an effective leader in her future career. After graduating with a master’s degree in public administration, Sydney plans to take some time off to travel, exploring the various countries and their bounding cultures.
Kaitlin Coleen Regan was born in Newport Beach, California in July of 1991.
Growing up in Orange County, Kaitlin wanted to pursue a career in Neurology. She had always written whether it was poetry, a short story or even a novella. Some of her poetry can be found online and in a book held in the Library of Congress. However, it was when she ventured to Fresno City College that she embraced her love of writing by joining the Rampage. This will be her fourth semester in general and her third semester as an editor.
Outside of the Rampage, Kaitlin enjoys spending time with her family. She has a nephew that was born in November, named Cannon James, that she spoils and loves more than anything.
David Thammavongsa is a 26-year-old student at Fresno City College. He was born in Buffalo, N.Y. He has also lived in Las Vegas, Nev. and Portland, Ore. A French Major, he hopes to travel and live in France as a journalist. Outside of being a student, David works at a local bike shop, Tower Velo. He has never owned a car and never learned how to drive. His bike is his first form of transportation. David has taken courses that develop his wide-range of interests which include street photography, sartorial fashion, spanish guitar, watercolors, and graphic design.
David is also a member of the Sustainable Action Club and is working on starting a bike club at Fresno City College. He also started and helps run the Free Bike Clinic at FCC.
Patrick Forrest was born and raised in Chicago as an avid sports fan. During his years at high school he covered high school sports teams and joined the forensics team at DeKalb High School in Illinois. This is his first semester at Fresno City College and his first experiences west of St. Louis. He’s working toward earning an associates degree in Journalism and transferring to either a California state school or back to Illinois to continue his Journalistic studies.
Now in his third semester with the Rampage, Matthew Lloyd Elliott has served the Fresno City College newspaper as the Arts & Entertainment editor for two semesters.
Matthew was born to William and Charlotte Elliott in Walnut Creek, a suburb of San Francisco. During his time there, he was an esteemed and published child poet.
When he was 10 years old, he and his family moved to Fresno. After graduating from the Edison/Computech program, he traveled to various parts of the world including England, Thailand, Japan and the Cayman Islands.
Even though most of Matthew’s immediate family has since moved out of state, he continues to pursue his studies here.
While enrolled with the Rampage in Fall 2012, Matthew received several awards at the JACC conference based on submitted work and on-the-spot opinion writing competitions. He and his colleague, Troy Pope successfully outperformed against students from Contra Costa College; known as having California’s most prestigious and decorated community college journalism department.
Matthew, a legally blind Phi Theta Kappa honor student, recently changed his major to journalism and hopes to transfer to an Ivy League or UC school in 2014.
Olga Verkhotina has moved from Russia to the Central Valley in 2011. She joined The Rampage in the Spring of 2012 and has been an opinion editor since Spring 2013. Before that, she has also served as a social media director and copy editor. Olga has been into journalism for almost 5 years. She has interned and worked for a public television station, art magazine and several other local print and online newspapers. Olga is also a vice-president of FCC Aspiring Press Club and a member of Russian Union of Journalists, youth section. Besides journalism, Olga likes to organize and participate in charity projects and has received a President Volunteer Service Award. She is also a big fan of fashion, Woody Allen’s movies and road trips.
Tomas Kassahun was born in the country of Ethiopia. At the age of eleven he came to the United States and attended Thomas Elementary School. In 2007, Tomas graduated from Bullard High School and decided to study journalism in college. Tomas has been a reporter for the Rampage for four semesters. He has previously been a copy editor and is now the sports editor. Outside of school, Tomas likes to indulge in his wife’s cooking. And he likes to spend time with her.
Pabel Lopez is a copy editor of the Rampage. He was born and raised in Southeast Fresno. This will be his third semester working on the newspaper. He majors in Journalism at Fresno City College and hopes to transfer to a school in Southern California. Apart from editing, he is also an aspiring sportswriter. He covered the Fresno City College football and volleyball teams during their 2012 seasons. In his free time, he enjoys reading, watching football and playing the drums, all at different times. He also looks forward to the time when television is free of shows about pawn shops and storage sheds.
Jordan Russell is a fourth-semester FCC student and Copy Chief for the Rampage. She will be transferring to either a CSU or UC next year in whatever she decides to major in between now and then.
Adan De La Cerda is one of five siblings in his family and bikes to school everyday. He is an English major and full time student at Fresno City College . The Fresno native aspires to transfer out of the city to get a chance to become familiar with another city. He currently works at Forever 21 in Fashion Fair Mall in hopes to save money when he hopefully does move out of the city, He hopes to one day become a screen writer for film video games and enjoys film, reading and designing things with Adobe Illustrator on his free time.
Dympna Ugwu-Oju has written and published extensively in national newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek and the New York Times. Her first book, What Will My Mother Say (A Tribal African Girl Comes of Age in America) describes Ugwu-Oju’s childhood in the traditional Ibo culture of Nigeria and chronicles her war-torn childhood. Her second book, In the Eyes of God, is awaiting publication. An instructor of Journalism at Fresno City College, Ugwu-Oju has presented numerous writing workshops and lectures on her writing and cultural experiences.
Felisha Sanchez was born in Fresno, California and raised in Sanger, California. She attended Sanger High School where she was involved with marching band and photography. She is a first year student at Fresno City where she is majoring in English. This will be her first year working with the Rampage. Some of her interests include playing board games, camping, fuzzy socks, playing the piano, and baking. Felisha is the youngest of eight children and the niece of six aunts and seven uncles. Felisha is a lover of animals, children, and nature. After completing schooling at Fresno City, she plans on furthering her education at a four year university.
Taylor Rodriguez has attended Fresno City College for three semesters now, graduating from high school in June 2012. She has always been intrigued by journalism and had taken a course in high school. Starting out strictly writing only when necessary she intends to expand her interests and take it on as a hobby. Taylor plans to attend either an Art Institute or Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles after two and a half years at Fresno City to major in visual communications. Her ultimate goal is to one day work for a high end fashion magazine. Aside from journalism and fashion Taylor is a huge Star Wars fanatic and enjoys designing tattoos for herself and others.
Born in Austin, Texas but raised in the emerald city of Seattle, Jackson Taze Raney has only been living in the “NO” for about three years. From an early age, Taze loved to tell stories. Before he could write he would sit on his mother’s knee and tell her a story as she furiously wrote them down. Now, at the ripe age of 19 he is fully capable of writing on his own. As a film major Taze hopes to hone his skills as a story teller and one day when he “grows up” be able to write and direct feature films.
If she had it her way, Dani Nicole Mehas wouldn’t have been born and raised in Clovis, California. She says she’d rather in Greece, which is where her father is from, and where she’s always wanted to travel to. Dani’s mother is Mexican and started speaking Spanish to her and her older brother since the day they were born. She wonders how dark and ominous a world without coffee and sports would be. Photography infatuates Dani. She hopes to progress in that field and somehow incorporate taking pictures with her love for sports, and journalism. Dani says she anxiously awaits her families trip planned this Thanksgiving in Hawaii. This is where she’ll be able to check off two more items on her bucket-list. What might those two items be? Skydiving and swimmming with sharks. Her major is Journalism/Mass Communication.
“There’s no fun in sucking”, a phrase often heard by Clovis’s Darryl Jones, and its meaning goes beyond some cheesy sports mantra. It defined him in music and more recently, as a student. He was initially inspired to play by the video, “Love Shack”, which later led him to becoming a professional drummer at twenty-five. Thousands of miles later, he hung up his drummer hat in exchange for the student one; ultimately winning the “Casanova” writing scholarship. With a new found love of writing, Jones plans on earning a Master’s Degree in Journalism and Creative Writing from Fresno State.
Esteban Herrera was born and raised in Fresno. Living for a portion of his teens in Santa Cruz helped influence his desire to one day make his permanent home near the pacific coast. He is a fan of all sports, with a passion for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is in his last semester at Fresno City College and is a first time contributor to the Rampage. In the fall he will transfer to Fresno Pacific University where he will pursue his B.A. in Mass Media Communications. He also dislikes beets, the Kardashians, and wet socks (not in that order).
Kevynn Gomez attends Fresno City College where she works as a reporter for the Rampage newspaper. A lower division transfer from Notre Dame de Namur University, she plans to finish her general education requirements before transferring to San Francisco State. She majors in journalism and plans to work in the magazine industry.
Born and raised in Fresno, California, Kevynn Gomez graduated from Sunnyside High School in 2011. She later moved to Belmont, California to attend Notre Dame de Namur.
She has a passion for many aspects of social justice, which she hopes to blend with her interest in magazines.
Keaundrey Slocum is a 19 year old First Year Student at Fresno City from Fresno Ca. His Major is Journalism. This is his First Semester writing for the Rampage. He went to Sunnyside high school, played football, basketball, and ran track. He likes to read books and write stories.Watch tv shows like The Walking Dead and Family Guy. He likes to play sports and stay active. Keaundrey is a aspiring sportswriter ,loves to talk and right about sports. Keaundrey’s plan is to transfer to Fresno State, continue working on to his Masters in Journalism. Then go on to work in sports writing or sports broadcasting, LA Times or ESPN or NBC sports.
Victor Aparicio is a Journalism major here in Fresno City College. He has been living in Fresno all 20 years of his life and this is his first semester with The Rampage. He learned he loved writing since he was in middle school and always wanted to improve since. Growing up playing video games and listening to inspiring music, Victor became creative, thoughtful, and goofy and even began a dream of working at IGN Entertainment as an editor on the PlayStation team. His other interests include drawing fun little doodles, singing on walks home, video producing, a bit of photography and technology. You can usually find this young man outside the Student Store around noon, tell him hi.
Donald August Promnitz is one of the contributing reporters for the Rampage, as well as a film and theater critic. He was born in Fresno on June 16, 1989, and has lived there his whole life. Originally an EMT, he found that this line of work offered no future, and returned to college at the age of 23. He is also an avid playwright, finishing his latest work “The Spy of Fort Wist” in August of 2012. This arose from not only his passion for writing, but for the theater as well, having been an actor in several productions. Though he is a journalism major, his passion and main aspiration is children’s literature. He hopes to find success in this field of writing, wanting to get children interested in reading. Previously a deist, Promnitz converted to Christianity in November, 2011, and considers his faith to be a factor in life which constantly shapes and molds his morality and character.
Kayla Valenzuela was born in Fresno and went to Sanger High School. This is Kayla’s second semester at Fresno City College. She is the Social Media Director for The Rampage. She loves music, art, and hanging out with her friends. Kayla is a promoter for Imperial Booking and helps book hardcore shows around the valley. Her favorite drinks are coffee and hot tea. Kayla also enjoys watching TV, playing video games, drawing, taking pictures and practicing makeup techniques. Her dream is to move to Los Angeles someday and become a Special Effects Makeup Artist. A few unique things about Kayla are her eyes and piercings.
Daisy Martinez joined the Rampage spring of 2012. Currently she is a full-time student at Fresno City College. She enjoys traveling, fashion, music, photography, and spending time with her family. She has been married for eight years and has a 4-year-old son. What she enjoys most in life is, having the privilege of being a mother. She plans on transferring to Fresno State University as a Mass Communication Media Production student. Daisy currently works for Fresno County Office of Education in the After School Program. She enjoys working for FCOE and what she enjoys the most is, producing the after school plays.
Jere Kirkland was born and raised in Clovis, California. She graduated from Buchanan High School in 2010. She is currently a 21-year-old journalism student at Fresno City College. Her dream is to become a producer for a daily syndicated talk show like the Ellen DeGeneres Show. She plans on continuing her education at The California State University of Northridge.
Born and raised in Southern California’s beach cities, Heather Jamieson-Brown moved to Clovis, CA in 2003 with her three small children. With only her 14-year-old daughter left at home now to raise, Jamieson-Brown is pursuing a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at Fresno City College with hopes to transfer to a state institution to complete her Bachelors.
Jamieson-Brown, 44, is an experienced writer having completed one semester as a reporter for the Rampage. She has covered entertainment venues in the Fresno area as well as profiles of persons of interest to FCC.
During the current semester Jamieson-Brown hopes to gain more experience as a copy editor for the Rampage. As much as she enjoys reporting, she also likes immersing herself in the editing process. Jamieson-Brown is currently working as an editor for FCC adjunct English professor, Julia Simpson-Urrutia, as she writes her third book, a fiction novel.