Amy Chen
Amy is a Business major at IVC–a psychology major in disguise–who is passionate about personal development, hoping to help people carve out their own success stories. R&B music is her escape; young adult fiction is her guilty pleasure on a lazy summer day. She loves rock climbing and aerial dance, and likes to go on spontaneous adventures (especially if they involve food).
Mikey Chen
Mikey is a Data Science student at IVC. He enjoys learning about math and loves talking about art in different types of genres. He hopes to find a career working with VR technology.
Helen Yajaira
Estrada
Helen (Maya & Xinka) is an Aerospace Engineer major aspiring to transfer and double majoring in Latin American studies. Helen has published several of their poems in online journals and participated as a writer on Orange County Environmental Justice’s comic book Lead Me To the Garden. Estrada hopes to continue to write, draw, research, translate, and learn anything that comes their way!
![Barbara Hill [PLACEHOLDER].jpeg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/53d442_c4eb962f56684367bf2313062ffcb147~mv2.jpeg/v1/crop/x_186,y_0,w_2330,h_2845/fill/w_208,h_254,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Barbara%20Hill%20%5BPLACEHOLDER%5D.jpeg)
Barbara Hill
Barbara is an English major at IVC with a love of writing, art, and tabletop roleplaying games. In fact, she loves those games so much she’s also become president of the school’s Board Game Club and runs games of Dungeons and Dragons and Blades in the Dark for her friends. She loves reading interesting stories and analyzing them, and she loves her adorable cats Ceaser and Nori.
Dirk McLemore
Dirk is an English major at IVC who loves writing and art. He’s been writing for ten years in various forms and specializes in writing fiction and not in writing staff blurbs about himself (but don’t tell anyone that.)
Jasmin Liao
Jasmin is a Computer Science major at IVC and UCSC. She enjoys drawing and writing poetry whenever she has free time and takes a lot of inspiration from nature. Her favorite book currently is the Midnight Library. Her goal is to find a career within the entertainment industry!
Amelie Muro
David is an English major at IVC. He loves the outdoors as an avid backpacker and environmentalist, but he also loves to spend time indoors reading fantasy and science fiction novels and writing poetry and fiction.
Ara Marquez
Ara is aiming for a career in scientific/medical writing, and is pursuing English and Mortuary Science degrees. She enjoys horror media and biology, and often uses direct inspiration for her creative work. Her hobbies include enjoying live music, exploring coffee shops, and watching movies.
Vy Nguyen
[she/her]
Vy is a Political Science major at IVC. Her hobbies include reading and baking, but she also enjoys writing and editing stories in her free time. Her favorite artists to listen to while in a creative space are wave to earth and Laufey, but she is always open to any music recommendations.
Raquel Sokol (they/them)
Raquel is a psychology major who plans to either minor or double major in something else when they transfer. They worked last year with The Ear, and loved getting to be involved with fiction and poetry after a long time away. Their work and interests are examining identity, existence, race, ethnicity, and history among others. They love most creative formats, but reading and engaging with fiction and poetry will always be their first love.
Wyleen Olaes
[she/her]
Wyleen has an MA in English from UCI and is currently an English instructor at IVC. Her interests are in race, storytelling, identity, media representations, spectrality, and Asian American studies. In addition to teaching, she enjoys visiting coffee shops, art museums, and libraries.
Melissa Perez
Melissa is a psychology major attending IVC who also has a passion for poetry. She loves the beauty of expressing her innermost thoughts and emotions through creative writing. She coaches color guard, her favorite colors are red and pink, she loves skincare, and her favorite artist is The Weeknd. More than anything, Melissa loves to slay everyday.
Azad Samatar
(He/Him)
Azad is an English major here at IVC. A writer with a deep love of fiction of all stripes (especially the works of Terry Pratchet and Steven King), working to improve his writing and editing here at the Ear. A nerd for TTRPGs, He loves hiking through shaded trails and boardgame nights stretching long into the evening.
Jessica smith
Jessica is a Literature major with plans to teach high school English. Being an avid vinyl collector, there is always some variant of pop or rock blasting through her speakers. She is also a lover of film, RPGs, and reading fantasy and historical fiction. Pair these with some coffee, and she’s content!
JUniper tran
[they/them]
Juniper is a second-year architect student & avid film photographer. They like vintage cars, bass guitars, handmade soap bars, Andy Warhol memoirs, marmalade jars, nighttime stars, and Hozier.
elise tyler
Elise is an English major at IVC who loves surrounding herself with books, family, friends, and nature. She loves hanging out at the beach during summer but loves the rain in winter even more. Road tripping to new National Parks and binging Gilmore Girls are some of her favorite obsessions. Elise hopes to pursue a career in education to teach literature to students.
makayla wu
Makayla is studying English and Art History at IVC with a particular interest in sci-fi short fiction, and in the past, she has enjoyed the work of Ray Bradbury. She loves to watch episodes of the x-files in her spare time and enjoys collecting postcards from everywhere that she visits in her travels. Makayla is also very fond of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century.
kristen
skjonsby
Kristen has a PhD from UC Riverside in Global Anglophone Literature, a Master's degree from Cal State University Long Beach in English, and a Bachelor's degree in English from Mills College. She is a poet, and a lover of all things creative writing.