By Alyse Kiara Deatherage 

Marc-Anthony Rosas is a Mt. San Jacinto College alumnus, as well as an alumnus of The Talon newspaper. He started attending MSJC when he was still in high school, in 2017, and recently finished his time with MSJC as a student in the Fall of 2019.

Rosas has stayed involved with both The Talon newspaper and the local community by advising The Talon’s social media team and petitioning to create a new flag for the city of Hemet.  

Rosas cherished his time with MSJC, and he stated that some of his fondest memories were of participating in club activities and getting to know club members as well as many of his professors and advisers who had a great impact on him.  

“For the people that made an impact on me at MSJC, I would say Dr. David Moss, Dr. Michele Weber, Professor John Perham, and EOPS counselor Thai Pham,” said Rosas.  

Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, or EOPS, is a state-funded program provided by MSJC that provides tools and services to students who are economically, socially, or educationally disadvantaged. Rosas first saw Heather Jones, another EOPS counselor, and was grateful to her and all those who helped him with EOPS. After joining the program, he began frequently seeing Pham as his primary counselor.  

“He always made the check-ins comfortable because meetings with counselors could sometimes be intimidating for me,” said Rosas. “He made sure I was on track to graduate from MSJC and helped me get valuable resources that I needed as an EOPS student.” 

Professor Perham was Rosas’ professor in English 101, which Rosas considered one of the hardest courses he had to take while at MSJC.  

“I thank him though because he did make me a better writer, and I learned to do research too,” said Rosas. In Perham’s class, Rosas cherished the friends he made along the way who also made this early 8 a.m. class fun for him.  

Dr. Moss helped ignite an excitement for communications in Rosas, and he especially enjoyed the Communications 115, Persuasion, class he took with him.  

“He was the one who made me fall in love with communications,” said Rosas. “At the time I took his first course, I was still iffy if I wanted to study communications, but his knowledge on the subject made me want to study it further.” 

Rosas found that the Comm 115 class was one of his favorite classes. He and a partner had to create a campaign package and learned to advocate for their position by making slogans, posters, commercials, and speeches.  

Similarly, Dr. Weber helped increase his fondness and excitement for communications, and she also introduced him to The Talon when she sent out an announcement to his class that they were looking for new members, including photographers. Photography was and is a hobby of Rosas’ and it caught his attention for the club.  

“She was always helpful in the class, and made it interesting, understandable, and provided assignments that allowed me to research communication in media,” said Rosas. “The advice she has given me as a communications major and for life in general is something I will always cherish. She gave me an outlet to show my creative side and it led to me having more confidence and more opportunities with my work.” 

Rosas started out as a photographer with The Talon, and soon branched out to get experiences with other jobs, including social media directing, graphic design, and advertising. While working with The Talon, he got the experience of reaching out to possible advertisers and marketing advertising with The Talon.  

“Of course, the Talon has impacted me so much,” said Rosas. “I was able to show off my skills, but also learn new ones. Doing marketing and graphic design put me way outside my comfort zone, but it paid off.” 

Rosas’s time with The Talon hasn’t ended yet, though, because he is now helping The Talon as a trainer and adviser to its social media team and graphic designers. He helps to train new members who are not as familiar with graphic design software and shows them what he’s done so far to improve our social media as well as helps them come up with new ideas and templates for it.  

“As a team, we create templates for our posts so that they look uniform with the imagery we are trying to convey,” said Rosas. “It’s an internship role that was very tempting for me because I get more experience in working in things I am studying for.”  

In the fall of 2019, The Talon rebranded its logo and Rosas was eager to help come up with new ideas because he had previously already started a similar design. Rosas has been working on a design for a new flag for the city of Hemet since 2017, and this project started from a flag he had originally planned to brand for MSJC. However, the MSJC flag did not end up being Rosas’ focus, so he instead continued working on the Hemet flag and what was the MSJC flag became the foundations for The Talon’s newest logos.  

Since then, Rosas has made great progress with his plans for the Hemet city flag. Earlier this year, around the end of January, Rosas and two of other Talon members, Secretary and writer Jesus Alcala Avalos and SJC Site Editor and writer Pablo Ramos-Diaz, began formatting a presentation to present to the Hemet City Council.  

“I ended up having a meeting with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem (VP) of Hemet,” said Rosas. “They liked the flag and the meaning/symbolism behind it as well. I was slated to give a PowerPoint presentation to the city council during a study session after they all saw my original proposal.” 

Rosas’ time at The Talon helped to put this plan and presentation into motion as he was encouraged by both his work on The Talon and his new companions, who he met through The Talon, who went through the journey with him and supported him.  

“My work with the Talon did help with the proposal,” said Rosas. “I have social anxiety, but me talking to advertisers and people around campus helped me talk to the mayor. Jesus and Pablo helped out tremendously because I know I would’ve been all over the place when talking to the mayor. They helped me narrow down on how I was going to convince the city council, and it did work!” 

Unfortunately, soon after this plan was made, the state went on lockdown due to COVID-19, so Rosas’ presentation has been put on hold for the time being. However, he has big plans for both his flag as well as transferring to a university in his future.  

“Once it is safe to do so, I do plan on continuing to advocate for my flag in Hemet, and will begin the process of having my other flag design adopted by another city,” said Rosas. “It’s tough trying to convince people in changing stuff like flags and city seals for the better, but I look forward to the challenge.” 

Rosas will be transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles, in the fall and is excited to continue his studies and further his education as he works towards attaining his bachelor’s degree. He is also excited to utilize his new free time to work on his photography skills during this quarantine.