Sharon Heidenthal

Student

“When I read that SMC was the best community college in California and that it had a theater mentor program, I thought, ‘Who wouldn’t choose that?’”

She had just come from a long day of preparing the schedule on her boyfriend’s movie. “It’s about a bank robbery, and I’m doing the costuming,” says Sharon Heidenthal. “I just transferred down here from San Jose, and for the movie industry it’s a lot better to be here. I just met a girl whose friend did the costumes for “City Slickers II”, so I plan to ask her all about what my next moves should be.”

As a new transfer, Sharon reports that she didn’t get every class she wanted. “I’m taking stage craft, dancing, and acting; all the creative fields,” she says. “But I’m also taking Nutrition 1, which I’m really surprised to find that I like so well. It’s amazing to learn that eating the right foods can have such a good, or bad, effect on us.” Sharon plans to transfer to UCLA or USC, “depending on whether they have good costuming departments. But I’m really enjoying SMC because, where I moved from, everyone tried to look like everyone else. Here, people are really individuals. And it’s a great place to ‘people watch’.”

Sharon says that in her family, “not going to college is just not an option. My parents always stressed that good education is the key to success. And the teachers at SMC all seem to have great personalities; they’re not just here to do a job. They’re interesting, and they’re really funny.” She adds that money issues are increasingly important to students these days. “Once you start looking to transfer to somewhere like USC, you realize how lucky you are to be at SMC. You really get the same valuable education here,” she says. “But it’s a lot cheaper.”

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