I attended the Deliberation “Living in a Barbie World: Addressing the Issue of Single Use Plastics.” As an avid climate enthusiast, I was excited to hear about their proposed approaches to improving the environmental crisis facing our world today. Throughout the deliberation, we discussed how the individual, producer, and government can all work to improve […]

Stuffed animals can be a symbol of love, a remembrance, or simply, just a toy. I remember the first stuffed animal I was ever given. When I was six-years-old, my mother gave me a stuffed bunny she had from her childhood that was almost the size of me. With old food stains and a missing […]

For my passion blog this semester, I have decided to write about the ski mountains I have visited and hope to visit through out my life time. I think this will be a fun way to cover the semesters passion blog, as skiing has been a prominent factor within my life. For my civic blog, […]

A “This I Believe” statement that stands out within my life is the impact a family member can have on your growth. Both of my parents have affected me in intense ways, but of the opposite nature. For my podcast, I was hoping to address the differences with my relationships with each parent. Although that […]

Our Founding Fathers created the electoral college with intention to enshrine the best method for choosing the President of the United States. Yet, over time, this strategy has become no longer relevant to American society’s. At the time of its creation, it was believed that the general public lacked the capacity to effectively elect the […]

My views on rhetoric and civil life have greatly developed over the course of this semester. Back over summer orientation when scheduling classes, I had no idea what I was getting into. To me, this class was just a requirement. But, throughout our course work, I have come to really enjoy the ideals behind public […]

Introduction:   Hook – Vampires. Mummies. Werewolves… These are all staples in horror movies. Yet, are they as scary as they once were? Background – Since the dawn of cinema, horror films have been an influential part of the American movie experience. From Stephen King’s 1980 The Shining, to the 2019 hit movie It, horror […]

First glance, this talk probably doesn’t come off as something very important. Or, at least not as important as other Ted Talks you may have encountered. But, this Ted Talk is a perfect example of spoken rhetoric, as James Veitch uses comedy, speech strategies, and an interesting topic to entice his audience. What his talk […]

Many aspects have changed throughout history, causing revolutions in technology, gender, relationships, and many more societal conditions. One that I believe that has had a great impact within the 21st century is the transformation of mental health. Throughout history, mental health has always been frowned upon; if you were bipolar, you were labeled insane. If […]

Introduction:   Hook – When you look at this image of a child, what comes to mind? Probably thoughts of Innocence? Purity? Now, how about this image? Probably doesn’t remind you of the incorrupt childhood you envisioned of the first one…. Thesis – In this speech, I am going to explore society’s influence on our […]