WNC News & Notes: Poet honoring Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month in Carson City

WNC Leads Nevada in National Survey

A new national survey of community colleges shows Western Nevada College is performing among the best in helping students reach their goals.

WalletHub’s recent nationwide analysis of 821 community colleges reveals WNC rates among the top 19 percent in the country. Moreover, WNC is listed as the top community college in Nevada.

One of WNC’s most impressive results came in career outcomes, where the college ranks 119th overall.

WalletHub compared community colleges across the nation in a project dubbed 2016 Best and Worst Community Colleges. WNC finished with a No. 156 ranking.

Analysts focused on 12 categories, including student-faculty ratio, cost of in-state tuition and fees, graduation rates, education outcomes and student outcomes.

Helene Fuld College of Nursing in New York City garnered the top overall ranking.

In its research efforts, WalletHub collected data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research and College Measures.

WNC Students Bringing Noted Poet

Energetic. High-spirited. Effervescent. Vibrant. Eloquent.

Describing Gabriela Garcia Medina requires some lively adjectives.

Garcia Medina will bring her passion for poetry to Western Nevada College on Monday, Sept. 19, in honor of Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month.

WNC’s Student Life presents the poetry performance from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Carson Nugget Hall on the Carson City campus.

The touring poet is an international spoken word artist whose poetry ranges from social injustices to lingerie. Her prose has found a home on the walls of actress Eva Longoria’s restaurant in Los Angles and Coca-Cola, Toyota and Dove commercials.

Garcia Medina has been touring college campuses and theaters for the past eight years, growing her fan base. But her stage wasn’t always planned.

“I would try to get someone to hear. So, if I was on the bus, I would get up and perform on the bus,” she said during a performance at College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. “I wanted to perform any chance I got. Eventually, as I did little shows here and little shows there, slowly it escalated and was a snowball effect.”

Garcia Medina also is an actress, having been featured on TV shows such as “Local Heroes Gala” and “Latinos on the Rise.” In 2014, Garcia Medina was nominated by Josefina Lopez of “Real Women Have Curves” as Poet Laureate of the City of Los Angeles.

Her upcoming performance is free to WNC students and staff with identification. General admission is $3.

“My poems are an extension of me. I ask you to see me for the person behind the words,” Garcia Medina has said previously.

For more information on Garcia Medina’s performance, phone WNC Coordinator of Student Life Lilly Leon-Vicks at 775-445-3324.

To further honor Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month, WNC is planning a performance by Trio Bossanova and Latin American cuisine. Bossanova will perform on campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday. Wildcat Den will present Latin American cuisine from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.