Paradigm shift perception of Death Penalty in US (Colonial executions to prison system to morality/forensic analysis) The Death Penalty: An American History *Scholarly journal sequencing the shift from executions to death penalty executions commonly used in colonial times introduction of prison (19th century) made punishments more tailored to crimes prison began to be viewed by many as worse than death executions peaked in 1930s question of constitutionality (Furman and Gregg…

You may have received the text warnings, heard the stories, or even been there. To be a Penn State Student is to be familiar with the events of this past Monday. Campus wide protests erupted in response to the event hosting founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes. You may be wondering what the event has to do with feminism, or issues of sexism in higher education. The truth is…

My favorite Ted Talk is the one above titled “How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime” by Nadine Burke Harris. What I love about this Ted Talk is that she breaks down trauma into its biological affects. I think we can all intrinsically understand that trauma is bad, but Harris describes the way in which it inherently causes our “fight or flight” responses to work overtime, leading to an…

My roommate is a journalism major. Personally, I’m a little more interested in STEM so not many aspects of journalism are very appealing to me. A few nights ago, however, she approached me and said, “I think you should come to this lecture with me”. For her journalism class they were tasked with going to hear a Penn State alum speak about his career as an investigative journalist. You may…

The Death Penalty A punishment that was widely accepted and supported for the worst of our nations criminals has become increasingly controversial. There are rising questions about the morality of such a finite punishment as well as the way in which a Justice system that vilifies people of color and often wrongly convicts is made increasingly dangerous by utilizing this punishment. Background: understanding the evolution of opinions surrounding the death…

When I made the decision to attend Penn State I heard the same phrase over and over again, “You’re going to love it; the campus is beautiful!”. Those who told me that were right, Penn State has a beautiful campus. The brick buildings surrounding us filled with character, the mountains that tower around us, and our quaint downtown. Lest we forget the infamous Fraternity Row. So when it came time…