By Daniel Montaño, Staff Reporter
While congress is locked in partisan battles regarding subsidized student loans, it is more important than ever to have a plan for paying back student loan debt, but most students do not understand their loans, much less have a definite plan on paying loans back, Corbin Cordova, former Business major said.
As of July 1 the annual interest rate of 3.4 percent doubled to 6.8 percent on all subsidized student loans because congress was deadlocked in debate over how to address subsidized student loan interest rates, according to insiderhighered.com.
Students have said they have mixed reactions regarding the interest rate hike and how they plan to pay back the extra interest.
Gabrielle Roberts is in the process of registering for classes and plans to begin attending CNM in the fall 2013 semester, she said.
Although she plans on taking out student loans she hasn’t come up with a plan on how she is going to pay them back because to her it’s more important to get her degree then it is to worry about paying back loans, Roberts said.
“I’m just starting so I’m not too worried about paying anything back yet. I’m sure that as the years go on and I see my loans accumulating, I’m going to start wondering how I’m going to pay back that interest. Right now the main concern is actually being able to go to school. Being able to afford going is the first step and I haven’t been able to conquer that quite yet,” Roberts said.
While some students may be more concerned about attending class, Monica Apodaca, Nursing major, used to work for a student loan service provider and said that her experience prepared her to enter school with a plan to pay back any student loans she might have needed to take out.
Apodaca said that she knew that student loan interest rates can fluctuate but that they wouldn’t go above 6.8 percent. Although the interest rate was lower at the time she took out her loans, Apodaca said she gave herself leeway when she took out the loans by planning to pay them back at the maximum interest rate.
“Everything I took out I figured based off of the 6.8 percent because I knew that the interests rates fluctuate, but I knew the highest they could go is 6.8,” Apodaca said.
It is important for students to know where their student loan money is coming from when developing a plan to pay back student loans because different loan servicers can provide different repayment options, Apodaca said.
“Contacting the servicer is the best thing to do. Financial aid knows repayment options but the loan servicer will actually be able to give them quotes and give them better options because they’re the ones actually servicing their loans,” Apodaca said.
If a student has taken out a loan but doesn’t know which loan servicer they have, they can find out by accessing the National Student Loan Data System, at http://www.nslds.ed.gov.
Corbin Cordova who currently attends UNM and is a former CNM Business major said that he knows how much student loan debt he has, but doesn’t have a definite plan on how to pay it back.
Cordova said that he is relying on finding a job through which he can pay back his loans after he graduates, but that he isn’t sure if he’ll be able to find work because of the difficult job market right now.
“It’s one of those things that I’m going to have to deal with eventually. One of the promises of school is to improve our future. That’s definitely one of the marketing campaigns for CNM in particular, to know your path know where you’re going and that the unwritten promise is that at the end of it you’ll be getting paid more. So you should be able to pay it off, right? Should being the operative word,” Cordova said.
While some student’s do not have a clear-cut plan on how to pay off their student loans, other students have said that they might have to default on their loans if they are not able to find a good job after school.
Dustin Zumwalt, Business major, said that he has taken out the maximum amount of student loans ever since he started attending CNM in order to feed and house his family and that he will not pay the loans back until he is able to do so comfortably.
“I mean, my family comes first. If it’s going to take food off of their table then I’m not going to pay it back. But if I end up doing good, being successful and it isn’t going to hurt me to pay it back, then I’ll pay it back,” Zumwalt said.
The STEM up program offered a financial literacy workshop in June, including information from both UNM and CNM’s Financial Aid departments, and plans on hosting another in the fall semester; E-mail’s will be sent to all students when a date is set. To reach CNM’s Financial Aid department call 224-3090, to view individual student loan information visit http://www.nslds.ed.gov.
Tag: Issue 8 Volume 19
New Chem Club
By Daniel Montaño, Staff Reporter
While congress is locked in partisan battles regarding subsidized student loans, it is more important than ever to have a plan for paying back student loan debt, but most students do not understand their loans, much less have a definite plan on paying loans back, Corbin Cordova, former Business major said.
As of July 1 the annual interest rate of 3.4 percent doubled to 6.8 percent on all subsidized student loans because congress was deadlocked in debate over how to address subsidized student loan interest rates, according to insiderhighered.com.
Students have said they have mixed reactions regarding the interest rate hike and how they plan to pay back the extra interest.
Gabrielle Roberts is in the process of registering for classes and plans to begin attending CNM in the fall 2013 semester, she said.
Although she plans on taking out student loans she hasn’t come up with a plan on how she is going to pay them back because to her it’s more important to get her degree then it is to worry about paying back loans, Roberts said.
“I’m just starting so I’m not too worried about paying anything back yet. I’m sure that as the years go on and I see my loans accumulating, I’m going to start wondering how I’m going to pay back that interest. Right now the main concern is actually being able to go to school. Being able to afford going is the first step and I haven’t been able to conquer that quite yet,” Roberts said.
While some students may be more concerned about attending class, Monica Apodaca, Nursing major, used to work for a student loan service provider and said that her experience prepared her to enter school with a plan to pay back any student loans she might have needed to take out.
Apodaca said that she knew that student loan interest rates can fluctuate but that they wouldn’t go above 6.8 percent. Although the interest rate was lower at the time she took out her loans, Apodaca said she gave herself leeway when she took out the loans by planning to pay them back at the maximum interest rate.
“Everything I took out I figured based off of the 6.8 percent because I knew that the interests rates fluctuate, but I knew the highest they could go is 6.8,” Apodaca said.
It is important for students to know where their student loan money is coming from when developing a plan to pay back student loans because different loan servicers can provide different repayment options, Apodaca said.
“Contacting the servicer is the best thing to do. Financial aid knows repayment options but the loan servicer will actually be able to give them quotes and give them better options because they’re the ones actually servicing their loans,” Apodaca said.
If a student has taken out a loan but doesn’t know which loan servicer they have, they can find out by accessing the National Student Loan Data System, at http://www.nslds.ed.gov.
Corbin Cordova who currently attends UNM and is a former CNM Business major said that he knows how much student loan debt he has, but doesn’t have a definite plan on how to pay it back.
Cordova said that he is relying on finding a job through which he can pay back his loans after he graduates, but that he isn’t sure if he’ll be able to find work because of the difficult job market right now.
“It’s one of those things that I’m going to have to deal with eventually. One of the promises of school is to improve our future. That’s definitely one of the marketing campaigns for CNM in particular, to know your path know where you’re going and that the unwritten promise is that at the end of it you’ll be getting paid more. So you should be able to pay it off, right? Should being the operative word,” Cordova said.
While some student’s do not have a clear-cut plan on how to pay off their student loans, other students have said that they might have to default on their loans if they are not able to find a good job after school.
Dustin Zumwalt, Business major, said that he has taken out the maximum amount of student loans ever since he started attending CNM in order to feed and house his family and that he will not pay the loans back until he is able to do so comfortably.
“I mean, my family comes first. If it’s going to take food off of their table then I’m not going to pay it back. But if I end up doing good, being successful and it isn’t going to hurt me to pay it back, then I’ll pay it back,” Zumwalt said.
The STEM up program offered a financial literacy workshop in June, including information from both UNM and CNM’s Financial Aid departments, and plans on hosting another in the fall semester; E-mail’s will be sent to all students when a date is set. To reach CNM’s Financial Aid department call 224-3090, to view individual student loan information visit http://www.nslds.ed.gov.
Editorial Cartoon
Editorial Cartoon By Scott M. Roberts
Editorial- Who let the dogs out
In the Nob Hill and University neighborhoods one will see dogs off their leashes constantly, whether these dogs are with their owners or not, and one has to wonder why a dog owner would walk dogs without a leash, or just let them roam the streets.
Not all dogs are friendly, and not all dogs are safe to walk on their own, with distractions such as loud traffic, other animals and many other people walking around as well. All it takes is one small distraction for most dogs to go bolting into the street, whether they see a cat, another dog or some food they want making dogs unpredictable when it comes to having them off a leash and letting them roam.
The Nob Hill and University neighborhoods have become more congested, not only because of the constantly fluctuating student population, but also because of the revitalization of these neighborhoods to attract more people. As a result, these neighborhoods have more traffic than ever, especially on the weekends and in the summer.
People need to leash their dogs not only to ensure the safety of their own pets, but also to ensure the safety of other people and their animals as well. It is blatant neglect of other people and animals to let ones dog walk around without a leash, and can lead to a bad situation that cannot be undone.
Countless times people of the editorial board have picked up dogs that got out of their yards, or ran away from his or her owners because they had been spooked, and it just seems redundant that so many dog owners would be neglectful of their own pets.
The Chronicle board knows that sometimes dogs just get out, especially the ones that like to jump, but being a responsible pet owner means that one has to make sure that their dogs are in a safe and secure place while left unattended and to leash their dogs while walking them at all times.
The Chronicle board also knows that some people don’t like to put constraints on their dogs such as leashes, but when dog owners do this, they risk that their dogs could be harmed or could harm others, and it is not a viable reason to just let their dogs roam free.
During the month of June at Kinko’s on Central Avenue, a man parked his truck with two dogs in the bed and left them there unattended while he went inside. Not two minutes later, another man was walking his three dogs without a leash, and without a few seconds notice, all five dogs were running around the parking lot freely, causing havoc.
More than a few people were in their cars trying to leave and almost hit these poor dogs. It is this type of neglect that needs to be addressed because it could have been worse if people were not paying attention, and any one of these dogs could have been hit, being this occurred right on a major street in afternoon traffic.
The Chronicle cannot stress enough that poor judgment such as this is one of the reasons why people lose their beloved pets. This can be fixed by leashing or securing animals. So please, dog owners think before you let your dogs out as well as making sure your yards are secure, and put a leash on your dogs, for the safety of your pets and the safety of the community.
Get summer thrills strolling through Nob Hill
By Adriana Avila, Senior Reporter | Graphics provided By cabq.gov
Gather family and friends and enjoy the dog days of summer at the twelfth annual Summerfest event in Nob Hill on Central Avenue from July 19 to 21.
Tierna Unruh-Enos, marketing manager for the city’s cultural services department, said there are four Summerfest events around Albuquerque. Each of the events is free and has concerts as well as family activities. This year’s theme for the events is ‘taking it to the streets.’
“This year our theme for the Summerfest is street parties, so that’s what we’ll be doing with all of them, except for the one that’s on Civic Plaza. We shut down streets and then we set up a street party essentially,” Unruh-Enos said.
Summerfest was created to entertain the community and give people something to look forward to during the summer, Unruh-Enos said.
“We have food trucks and different things for kids’ activities and stuff. But it’s really to get more people to stay in Albuquerque and have something for people to do.
“It is a free service that this department provides to give back to the community and the department works really hard, especially in the summertime to provide all of the events. There are definitely things to do here in Albuquerque,” Unruh-Enos said.
This year’s first Summerfest kicked off in the heights on June 15, which was the first time it was held in the heights, with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as the headliner. The Route 66 event, on Central Avenue, takes place July 19 through July 21, and is the biggest of the four Summerfest events, Unruh-Enos said.
“The one in Nob Hill is the Route 66 Summerfest which is the biggest Summerfest and it’s been going on for quite a while. We block off a mile of Nob Hill and we usually get about 35,000 people there so it’s pretty big. It’s probably the same size as Albuquerque’s Twinkle Light Parade, between 30,000 to 35,000 people,” Unruh-Enos said.
The main attractions at the nob hill event will take place on Saturday July 20. The July 19 Friday event is a concert and VIP Reception featuring the Yellowjackets at the Highland Theater at 8 p.m. Nob Hill Jazz Brunches begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday July 21 at several restaurants that include Zinc Wine Bar & Bistro, Zacatecas Tacos & Tequila, O’Neil’s Irish Pub and Scalo Northern Italian Grill, according to the Summerfest event program.
Headlining the Route 66 event in Nob Hill Saturday July 20 is Red Baraat, a Bhangra Funk Dohl ‘n’ Brass band from New York City.
One of the biggest attractions of the Route 66 Summerfest in Nob Hill is the Old Route 66 Car show, which will be from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and will feature over 100 custom and classic cars.
Immediately following the car show, the Twelfth Annual Neon Cruise will parade down Central Avenue, according to the Summerfest event program.
The Route 66 Summerfest will have three stages; the main stage will be located on Girard Boulevard and Central Avenue, and east stage will be at Washington Street and Central Avenue. The Cork and Tap stage will be located in between Montclaire Drive and Sierra Drive, and will be home of the Food Truck Rumble, where Albuquerque’s best street food vendors compete for the overall winner. Local beer, wine and spirits will also be available.
The Kid Zone will have a rock wall, face painting and inflatable fun jumpers from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wellesley Drive and Tulane Drive, and there will also be an artisans market on Saturday as well from Bryn Mawr Drive to Dartmouth Drive.
Before splitting off into different events, Summerfest used to be held Downtown at the Civic Plaza but about two years ago the city decided to spread the events throughout Albuquerque to serve different parts of the community, Unruh-Enos said.
Summerfest has two other events planned this year; one at the Civic Plaza Downtown on August 3 that will be headlined by Ozomatli, a Latin hip-hop and rock group from Los Angeles, and the Westside event, located behind the Cottonwood Mall, is on August 24 and will have Better than Ezra, an alternative rock band from New Orleans, as the headliner, she said.
“We take them to different parts of the city because they help spur economic development,so we’re serving everyone in the city, not just having them in one place,” Unruh-Enos said.
For more information about the Summerfest events go to rt66central.com/rt66summerfest.html.
Fantastic Fractals Math League Event
By Jamison Wagner, Staff Reporter
The student Math League will be holding a presentation about fractals on Friday July 12 at 6 p.m. on Main Campus in Smith Brasher room 106, Alex Cordova, physics major and Math League vice president, said.
The Fractal Event, which will be hosted by Tim Torres and Otto Mossberg, will cover what fractals are and where fractals can be found in nature. The event is open to anyone and will end at 9 p.m., Cordova said.
“Fractals are literally nature. Nature pretty much bases itself around the most efficient way of doing something, and if it works it repeats itself over and over again,” he said.
Fractals are a mathematical phenomenon where there is a simple rule and it gets applied over and over again forming a geometrical shape that has symmetry of scale, he said.
“This kind of phenomenon does not even have to happen with a math equation; it can simply come about from a general rule,” he said.
An example of this is the Koch Snowflake; where a person can divide a line segment into three segments of equal length, then draw a regular triangle that has the middle segment from the first step as its base and points outward, and then remove the line segment that is the base of the triangle from the second step, he said.
“This is neat since you just follow the algorithm and you get the snowflake. Just cut out the middle and keep following the rules and you get a fractal,” he said.
One of the uses for fractals is in the building of a cell phone antenna to have more surface area without changing its’ size, he said. This allows the antenna to absorb a broader range of frequencies for receiving cell phone signals, he said.
“With fractals you can get all telephone frequencies and only have that on one small antenna, and if we did not have this we would have to carry a different antenna for each different frequency,” he said.
One of the pioneers in the field of fractals was Benoit Mandelbrot, and one of his first papers was a study of how to measure cosines that explained that depending on the ruler one uses, whether it is a mile, half an inch or another length, one can get varying inaccuracies on how long that cosine may actually be, he said.
“There is a way to get a really precise measurement in units you can use based on his works,” he said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mandelbrot used the term fractal (derived from Latin fractus which means broken glass) to describe a pattern of roughness, and no matter how closely someone views the pattern the person will always see a equally jagged or rough edge to the object at all scales. This pattern, for example, can be found in a fern plant.
For more information on the Math League or to RSVP to Fractal Friday on July 12, email Alex Cordova at acordova112@cnm.edu.