A broke student’s guide to surviving De Anza

Lets not be koi, most of us are extremely familiar with the struggle, the struggle of stretching your dollar as far as you can.

College life can be super expensive, lets be honest, the struggle is real. But what if I told you that there are a number of ways to stretching that coin that you’re holding on to, so dearly.

De Anza actually offers a ubiquity of programs and facilities that can aide you in your journey of milking the system.

You see that health care department, located at the bottom level of the cafeteria? while that’s not just a place where you can go get a bandaid.

They provide exceptional healthcare for currently enrolled students ( that just means you need to be currently enrolled at De Anza). You can also get free over the counter medications, free band aids, ice packs, eye drops, free TB screening, and free condoms. For the fraction of the cost that you would pay your general practitioner.

The De Anza health services also offers low cost services such as physical exams,hepatitis B shot, birth control pills and many more, however those are by appointment. But hey, you still save money though.

Ever notice how crowded the cafeteria tends to get, and how wifi can be so unreliable, a cool place to hang out, is the MCC building (multi cultural center).

Which serves two main purposes, its the division offices for intercultural and international studies, so basically its a meeting place for faculty, staff and students to have meetings and hold events, but when the rooms are not being used, students are welcomed to come and hang out. Edmundo Norte the dean of intercultural studies said ” one thing that got out, was that we offer free printing, which is not true”.However students are still welcome to hang out.

And if the MCC building is not what you fancy, then just walk right across the street on the corner of Selling and McCAllen, St Judes Episcopal church offers Free coffee and tea to De Anza students, its a cool indoor and outdoor environment that comes with free wifi wilma Jakobsen, the rector started “cafe De Anza” so students can just come, relax and get some work done.

The cafe is open Monday-Thursdays 10am to 2pm. “ its a very meditated peaceful place that students are welcomed to come check out” said Jakobsen.

Don’t feel like walking? thanks to the help of the DASB De Anza has a bicycle program that allows you to borrow bicycles for free, yes i said free.

It comes with a locker, helmet, and lockers on campus that you can store it for safe keeping, You get to take the cycle home on weekends too, so you basically have it for the whole term. If your interested, just head down to the  college life office and speak to  21 year old massage therapist De Anza student Edward (Eddy) Cisneros Who runs the bicycle program.

At this offices you can also get your DASB card and clipper card that allows you to ride the VTA basically for free .You already paid the small $5 fee when you registered for Class.

Whilst your there why not buy yourself discounted movie tickets for only $8, the tickets are good for all cinemark theaters and what’s great is that they don’t expire!

In-counted some trouble with the law? don’t stress because free legal advice is offered on campus right in the student life offices, the person you would want to speak to is Ron Goualart.

“What you want to do is , get involved, join a club or organization, that’s how you find out about all the benefits” that’s what La Donna Yumori had to say when asked how do students get in the know.

But that’s the absolute truth, you learn these great gems,  by word of mouth, and who knows, you might just stumble upon some free sandwiches.

With your DASB card, which is your student id card, you’re able to access a number of freebies, all you have to do is make sure your fees are up to date and you are currently enrolled.