The Listening & Speaking Center will host a celebration on June 15 at the California History Center located on campus. The celebration will begin at 1:00 p.m. and will end at 4:00 p.m. The center is holding this event as a fundraiser to raise money for the workshops next year. Raffle tickets can be purchased in ATC 304 for $2. Prizes range from: books, museum tickets to a Dell mini netbook. The center receives an estimated 11,000 student visits per year. For years, the center has provided students who with the appropriate skills to Through classes, workshops, tutoring and language exchange programs, the center provides students with the required tools to excel in the classroom. Recently, the center has been affected by the continuing budget cuts and has had to minimize its staff and operating hours to remain active. The center has many student volunteers who help fill in the due to the insufficient funds. In a letter to the editor by student Gen Shibayama, published on May 24, Shibayama states the importance of the center for students whose second language is in English. He also expresses his concerns if the center were to be shut down and how it would affect students such as him. As a response to the letter, De Anza students posted comments regarding their own praises for the center. “LSC provides the best amount of time, multiple schedules, and non-competitive but sharing environment for my busy life as an immigrant,” student and mother of two Kaili Liao said. “I really appreciate the efforts that LSC has made for non-native English speakers. Please keep it going for us who do not have much flexible time learning to be a fluent English speaking citizens.” “Before taking the LSC courses I couldn’t force myself into reading books written in English (it was not pleasure and I just read newspapers). Now after taking LSA courses several times, sometimes I can’t stop reading when the book is interesting for me,” student Marina Sukhanova said, “I’m exposed now to a new experience. Those courses are very useful and need to exist to help people to bridge different cultures.”