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Admissions and Self Worth

I have been attending a school that required admissions since I was 10 years old. Although I was not directly involved with the application process for the magnet middle school I ultimately attended, I remember understanding what it would mean for me to be offered a...

Staggered endings

This Saturday, both my parents finally received their COVID vaccines. My sister and I were elated, as they’ve been eligible to receive it for about a month but hadn’t been able to secure an appointment until just recently. Knowing that they have that extra...

Redistributing Pain

This semester, I’m taking a course on child maltreatment and advocacy. It’s an interesting course in that virtually no one is there because they have to be; the class is not a requirement for any major or minor except the child maltreatment and advocacy...

Giving one hundred percent

This past week, I finished and submitted my law school applications. I have wanted to go to law school since I was in high school, and when it was all over I expected to feel victorious. Instead, I was disappointed. As I tried to identify why the moment felt so...

Strengthening community support

In the face of massive, structural oppression, I’m increasingly wary of electoral politics as a solution. This election is my first time voting, but it comes at a time where my focus is shifting from familiar systems of change, and into forms of community...

Why I am scared of my Thesis

From the moment I was accepted into Schreyer (the summer after my freshman year), I had genuinely been looking forward to writing my thesis. Nerdy, I know, but I was sure that after years of reading and writing about other people’s research and theory, I would...

Healing Trauma

In the course of my lifetime, I have seen significant improvements in the destigmatization of mental illness, and the awareness of how trauma can play an unseen role in people’s behavior. Content warnings for potentially triggering topics are being increasingly...

The Rhetoric of Invisibility

One of my favorite courses this year is about mass incarceration– a topic that has become increasingly discussed in the past few years and in particular, after this past summer. In the class, we make an effort to understand imprisonment and incarceration beyond...

There is always someone to fight for

For most of my time at Penn State, I was involved in organization whose primary goals were advocacy. Whether it was a broad mission that encompassed the unrepresented interests of all undergraduate students, or more targeted communities like in state students or...

Property Destruction and Inequality

This weekend brought to light a lot of destructive and troubling behaviors in the students at Penn State. Apart from the typically disappointing slew of students who risk alcohol poisoning and drug overdoses as a hobby, there was an obvious increase in the destruction...