Articles
Articles that have been written through my time at Fresno State.
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Projects
Lifting Community
A warehouse building converted into a gym resides overlooking the golden state highway was a vision that was inspired by Emily Perez and Albert Vann.
“I always wanted to be a part of youth fitness. I wanted to expose athletes /youth adults to fitness outside of their sport. Albert and I both wished we knew about lifting sooner, so now with these young athletes, we are fortunate enough to share and expose them to proper lifting before they get into college.” Emily said.
They made it their mission to build a gym equipped for young athletes, weightlifters and any individuals who wanted to better themselves. Emily and Albert committed into putting there all into building a solid structure known as Atlas Barbell Club.
Atlas Barbell Club open their doors in 2018, As their vision was coming to light it slowly dimmed when COVID-19 hit Fresno County in February 2020.
“It changed for good and bad. It brought us a lot of people that normally would not have come to a small gym like ours.
(Normally they would go to a global gym like GB3) I think it brought us closer to a lot of our members (Familia) and allowed us to get closer to outside members of the community.” Said Emily.
Although closing doors meant not seeing everyone on a regular basis, Albert and Emily took that time to brainstorm how they could innovate through the pandemic and how could they help society once they reopen.
Between the four-five-month break, Emily and Albert began to rebuild Atlas barbell Club. Designing it to incorporate classes inside and outside the facility.
Welcoming not only their Olympic weightlifters that compete in USA Weightlifting and strength and conditioning (CrossFit style) classes.
But also, Athletes from Fresno State; Fresno State women’s basketball, Track throwers, and some wrestlers and lastly youth teams Fresno Force, Back Yard Boys, Elite Image Baseball, and Central Valley United Soccer.
With this being Alberts second job, during the day he works as a lineman (works on power poles). This has become Emily main responsibility other than raising their son, Christian while Alberts at work.
When I asked Emily if it was difficult balancing Atlas and life, she said, “It doesn’t feel like a job. I coached a youth empowerment class for about a year or so at New Era CrossFit. It really made me want to continue exposing kids to other types of physical activity outside of your regular sports. It’s something I love to do. Sometimes it doesn’t feel real that this is such a large investment that we made.”
Atlas is doing better than ever since reopening; however, it still isn’t where they envision to be. Eventually having their own sports organization with softball and baseball and competition team in CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting, but that will come at a later time.
For now, Atlas Barbell is focusing on what they have in the now and feel fortunate to still have a place where people can still come and workout and have a good time.
“We want to work on figuring out how to get connected and integrated with schools and their sports programs. We want our brand to be uplifting for all.” Said Albert.
Both Emily and Albert have been working with sponsors and are currently focusing on branding with Proven active apparel and Central Valley Chiropractic as well as expanding their coaching staff since adding on classes.
When people think of Atlas Barbell Club the one thing that comes to mind is Family (Familia). It’s a place that you are surrounding yourself with not just people who you come across just once.
You eventually find yourself staying longer and hanging out because these individuals eventually become your extended family.
With supporting one another getting through struggles you are held to a standard and have to accept that sometimes you will fail at times, but you are expected to get back up and try again with people cheering you on, on the side lines.
Let's Roll Fresno
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A small newly renovated shop holds weekend vendors fair at their location to support small business remain open during pandemic.
Let’s Roll Fresno a new local shop in tower district, owned by Jazmine Guzman and Tony Quezada.
Jazmine a graduate from Fresno State with a business degree sought out in making a place where everyone can come and enjoy the perfect size serving of homemade rolled up ice cream in the middle of tower district in Fresno, ca.
“We wanted something that went with our main product or something that represented Fresno and us. We played around with names and at first, I, Jazmin, was hesitant to the name because it felt cheesy.
But after saying it out loud a couple of times and playing with some funny saying it felt just right. Tony was the one who suggested it was perfect all along.” Jazmine said.
In 2019, people knew Let Roll Fresno as a small pop-up stand that would be at fundraisers or Street fairs. During that time Jasmin and Tony wanted to grow their business even more by buying their own shop to continue to help their community along with other upcoming businesses.
Since the pandemic Jazmin and Tony have opened their shop and have transformed there outside area to also provide vendors a place to sell every Saturday and Sunday from 2PM-7PM.
Vendors who have made an appearance at Let’s Roll Fresno have mainly been a variety of small business owners including individuals who want to showcase their products to their community.
In mists of all the attacks on local street vendors Jazmin and Tony have teamed up with local street vendors to help give back in any way they could.
“We began Sunday Vendor fairs to give people in our community an opportunity to showcase their crafts and small businesses they began during the pandemic. We wanted to provide vendors an opportunity to market and connect with other people outside of the screen.” said Jazmine.
Although there are still COVID-19 regulations put into place at this time, they have made there outside lot a comfortable area to still relax and enjoy your ice cream.
In addition to their inside eating area, they have renovated the outside of the building where guests can enjoy the outdoors and have made it ADA and kid friendly.
“A lot of vendor events that we were looking forward to attending were cancelled. Our income was basically zero. However, in September we found a location with a large outdoor space which we fixed up to hold our own events. [This was around the time outdoor seating began to be allowed. ]
In October we held our first event to introduce ourselves to our neighbors and to let out family, friends, and followers know of our future plans on that site. We then had events every other Sunday to raise funds to begin our construction inside.” Tony said.
In December of last year, Let’s Roll Fresno along with other small business shops were selected to team up with the Eva Longoria foundation to spread awareness over small businesses. This experience was all through Instagram live, giving Jazmin and Tony a platform to sho
Adaptive Fullsend
Headline: Being able to restore independent functions after an unfortunate injury can be detrimental to oneself however A sense of rebuilding a foundation you have already embarked and having to relearn new ways to adapt can become overcoming mentally and physically.
Getting to know the core of what adaptive means for us individuals who have not been through anything as traumatic. We can only think of how frustrating it is overcoming physical disabilities and trying to restore functions you once were capable of doing such as work, being independent, activities such as sports, music and dealing with phantom pains, which is when your body starts playing tricks on you thinking you’re moving but reality you’re not moving.
Becoming adaptive after a spinal cord injury doesn’t just happen overnight it may take a couple month, or it may take years it is physically and mentally exhausting to one’s body as the individual take steps to regain independence in a new form of way.
With facilities such as our local Spinal Cord Injury Functional Integrated Therapy also known as SCI-FIT they have helped individuals find ways to regain motor skills and walk again. The founder of SCI-fit is Dan Dumas who has a C-5 incomplete spinal cord injury himself.
After going through the journey, himself he wanted to create a place where individuals who have spinal cord injuries can go and progress in life like he did without anyone telling them different. Spinal Cord Injury Functional Integrated Therapy (SCI-FIT) is originally located in three area Dublin there original, Sacramento and Fresno.
Sci-Fit helps individuals regain function differently than physical Therapy. They help them mentally and physically learn to regain motor functions. I can tell you not all spinal cord injuries are the same and if they are some may have more motor function then the other.
Individuals like Ellie Skromme and Raulie Sencion who go to Sci-fit to enhance their mobilities not just for themselves but their families and friends. Giving them a sense of independency once again.
When Raulie first got into his incident in 2015 he was only able to move his neck by the third day he slowly began to regain functions, by his third year Raulie surprised his family with wiggling his toes and then a couple months later lifting one leg.
That’s when he realized mentality would be everything during this process if he ever wanted to regain some independency.
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For Raulie adaptive means, “learning how to physically and mentally navigate through life it’s a workout within itself because you are facing obstacle each day and by the end of the day it’s a rewarding feeling to know I got up and achieved more then what I accomplished yesterday.”
Raulie has a C-4/C-6 incomplete (C5-C6) are fused, he is considered a tetraplegic and is six years post injury. He spends most of his days on a semi set schedule for himself. He goes to Sci-fit two days out of the week and then three to four days out of the week does CrossFit. “I live a fairly normal life for the most part now, it has not been easy there were a lot of fails but I didn’t give up. Before sci-fit I forgot how it felt to walk or be tall, they gave me the push I needed to excel in my plans and the next steps I wanted to take in life.”
Ellie, who just turned 21 years old is a T-10 complete paraplegic, she was 17 years old when she was in a car accident. “Being at SCI-FIT, I’ve learned so many things about neuroplasticity and muscle memory. I’ve also learned physically how to crawl again, how to take assisted steps, and how to lock out my knees.”
During her spare time Ellie works on cars and bikes she simply enjoys living life to the fullest appreciating every moment in her life.
Before finding sci-fit Ellie used another source of Physical Therapy called Functional electrical stimulation also known as FES to help stimulate her nerves enabling her to stand on her own at home. “The most rewarding feeling I have is seeing progress that I’ve made with recovery.
Sometimes it gets redundant when I’m doing the same things every day because I can’t see the little progress I’m making. I have gotten better about being appreciative and paying more attention to the little progress.”
There is so much more to go in depth about being adaptive in the SCI community but being able to share a little snip bit of it with you all through the eye of not just mine but my fiancé Raulie and our friend Ellie has been something I’ve been wanting to do for some time now.
It is individuals like Ellie and Raulie that inspire people to live to their fullest, giving awareness to the SCI community and making others believe that the impossible can become possible by overcoming one’s physical disabilities.
Making Dreams into Reality
As his dreams to owning a home and having nice cars become closer by the day Humberto works hard into producing this as his reality.
At the age of twenty-one years young, Humberto first in his family to go to college works hard to make his family proud. Working a full-time job and doing fifteen units this semester, his plans to achieving his goals in life become closer and closer.
I asked Humberto, “What motivates him to work hard?” his reply, “My parents, my parents are what motivates me especially my mom she motivates me a lot they come from a hard working- my grandparents as well were hard-working sunrise to sunset they were famers, and my parent did the same thing and now it’s my turn to show them that I am hard working. I am not going through the original route, which is working every day, you know I am like working and then going to school. I am the first generation to go to college so my motivation would be my mom.”
Born in Fresno California Humberto was raised on a farm riding horses and caring for animals, there he found his passion in agriculture and how much it centered around his family who originated from Jalisco. Both his mother and father born in Jalisco migrating to the States to start a family. Being the middle child can be quite difficult when you have an older brother who is favored by the family and a younger sister who pretty much gets whatever she wants which can become unfair at time, however it does not bother him as much as him wanting to have curly hair like his brother who got that from his moms’ side of the family.
Although during this time it could be stressful and has change the trajectory of our education making it that much harder for Humberto to accomplish his achievements, he does not let that faze him. In fact, he makes it his mission to prosper through taking fifteen units all while having a full-time job and still finding time to have fun in which Humberto says, “He enjoys skating and listening to music by himself.”
Humberto a sophomore in college has a bright future ahead of him majoring in agriculture in communications and specializing in public relations I have no doubt he will make this into his reality for himself and his family.
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