Joel Garcia, 24, is an English graduate student at CSUN and enjoys being able to help others write creatively. Photo Credit: Christine Chen / Staff Reporter

Joel Garcia is a 24-year-old English graduate student at CSUN, who first completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA where he doubled majored in Spanish and English.

His main focus is on creative writing because he wants to eventually teach at a community college. In order to qualify for the creative writing focus, students must submit personal works of writing. He is currently working on short stories and plays for future submission.

“I enjoy teaching and students sometimes have difficulty trying to express their ideas. I want to improve their writing skills. It makes me feel good when they’re able to express themselves better. It makes me happy that I’ve done my job well,” Garcia said.

Garcia is also an SAT tutor and helps sharpen students’ skills in vocabulary when he is not busy in school.

“A tip I usually give to my students when it comes to vocabulary is to group words by their meanings and making them into synonyms.”

He also enjoys sports such as tennis and yoga. He has been playing tennis since high school.

“I try to stay active because I can get bored easily,” he said. “I also appreciate yoga. It’s not a competition. You can never be good at it. You just do it. Saying that you’re good at yoga only means that you go regularly and practice often. It’s not a skill where you can be good at. It’s a spiritual and meditative way to relax. It’s making sure that you’re taking care of yourself, staying positive and staying aware.”

In addition to exercising, Garcia enjoys traveling around the world. During his years at UCLA, he studied abroad in Spain for a year and in England for one month.

He shares that during his studies in Spain, he discovered that it was a very religious country. There would be frequent “religious furloughs” during school.

“Twice a month, my school would have these religious days where people wouldn’t go to school or work,” said Garcia.

As for the food, he mostly ate bread, cheeses and meats. Everything was fresh and unprocessed with no preservatives, no artificial flavors or ingredients.

“You can just go to the bakery in the morning and buy fresh bread and have breakfast,” he said.

Garcia has also traveled to Prague, Morocco, Budapest, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Italy. His ultimate dream destination is Tibet, Egypt where he would like to see the pyramids, and Peru where he could visit the Machu Pichu ruins. After graduating, Garcia’s dream would be to teach students English in Greece or Japan.

International student, Daehyun Kim, 26, CTVA Junior, had trouble getting all the classes that he needed in order to stay in the U.S. He is able to stay now because he got two online classes which made him a full-time student. Photo Credit: Camille Hislop / Staff Photographer

During the beginning of the semester, 26-year-old Daehyan Kim’s future looked bleak. Like others, he was not able to get into the classes he needed due to the effects of the budget crisis.

Kim is an international student from Korea who transferred from Santa Monica College. As an international student, the CTVA major is required to be enrolled in 12 units to have his student visa renewed.

He was not and faced potential deportation.

“I was frustrated and worried about my status,” he said.

He added that he considered his situation an “emergency” and therefore reached out to university President Jolene Koester, the Pre-CTVA Undergraduate Adviser Kathleen McWilliams and those at the International & Exchange Student Center, but “no one tried to help.”

Adding to his stress is his father’s fast approaching retirement and his need to look for work on campus to help his mother, an elementary school teacher, and pay for his expenses in the states.

“I am going to try as much as I can to lessen their pressure to support me,” he said.

This is why Kim decided he needed to take action.

He began by recording a message about his situation at “Vent at the Tent,” an event that took place earlier in the semester to bring awareness to the effects of the budget cuts on students, staff and faculty. He said he wanted to bring attention to his situation.

He also attended both of The Presidents’ Town Hall Meetings, which served as an open forum for students to ask questions to their university presidents and comment on any concerns pertaining to the university. He was looking for an answer to the question: “What is going to happen to me?”

During both instances, he was directed to speak to someone at the International & Exchange Student Center, which he had already done.

At the second town hall meeting, he invited the Korean Broadcasting Company to attend the event. Kim’s goal was to shed light on the difficulties international students are facing by using his situation as an example of how the budget crisis has negatively affected students.

In the end, Kim received help from the International & Exchange Student Center. Although he was able to enroll in four classes, he said these are “not satisfying results” because he’s here to learn about film and did not get the classes he wanted.

“That’s what I am more pissed about,” said Kim. “No one seemed to know what would happen to me. They had no backup plan.”

Kim said he is aware that the crisis is not the university administration’s fault, but he wishes “they were more supportive of international students.”

As of now, Kim is working on getting himself familiarized with CSUN and getting involved in short film projects.

“I came to California because I want to learn about the film industry in the biggest market and that’s what I’m going to do,” he said.