Author Archives | Alex Nagy

People need to pay more attention to what they recycle

Photograph by Ben Ahrens at The Triangle

Recycling is something that I never paid much attention to before I became a college student, but after living in The Summit and now Chestnut Square, I’ve noticed that recycling is something that some people need to be more conscious of.

 

There are two large recycling bins in the trash room on my floor, and every time I see them, they have several items in them that aren’t recyclable. This always confuses me because the trash chute is literally one step away. I’m not sure if some people just don’t know what is recyclable and what isn’t, or if they simply don’t care.

 

The HuffPost put out an article in 2016 titled “The Psychology Behind Why People Don’t Recycle,” which highlighted eight different reasons as to why people don’t recycle. While 25 percent of respondents said recycling wasn’t accessible or convenient where they live, only one percent of respondents said they do not understand its environmental benefits. Moreover, six percent of them weren’t sure of what is recyclable and what isn’t, which didn’t surprise me because most things that are recyclable (such as water bottles, soda cans, milk containers and other items) will have the triangular recycling symbol or the words “please recycle” somewhere on them.

 

I didn’t think that inaccessibility would be the reason why some people in Chestnut Square doesn’t recycle, so I decided to ask some of my friends if they recycle, and if they don’t, then why not. The most common response that I got from the small number of people I consulted was that they always forget. I figured that this would be the most likely response, as I also simply forget sometimes.

 

Another issue that I think people have when it comes to recycling is the assumption that something can be recycled with everything else just because it is made of a certain material. The most common example of this is with plastic bags. There have been many times where I have gone to the trash room and seen plastic bags in the recycling bin along with cans, bottles, and other recyclable items. Unfortunately, even though they are made of plastic, plastic bags can’t go in the recycling bin.

 

Plastic bags have to be collected separately from most other materials, but most locations don’t have a recycle bin specifically for plastic bags. Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut streets has a spot in the lobby by the elevators where plastic bags can be placed to be recycled, so if you live near there and have bags that need to be recycled, that is the place to go.

 

However, for those of us living in Chestnut Square, there isn’t a Fresh Grocer close to us, and I am certainly not going to walk to 40th Street every time I need to recycle plastic bags. Instead, I’ve found that, rather than recycling them, using all the plastic bags that I get from trips to Old Nelson and CVS as trash bags is a good alternative to throwing them in with all the other recyclable items. The reason for this is because putting them in the recycling bin would ruin all the other recyclable items in the bin. This is called recycling contamination, which is described in an article on Rubicon that was written by Vice President of Sustainability David Rachelson.

 

“In short, recycling contamination is when incorrect items/materials are put into the system or when the right items/materials are prepared in the wrong way (i.e., food residue in containers, recyclables in plastic bags, etc,.)” the article delineates.

 

So, while on the surface it may seem like a small thing to include a plastic bag in the recycling bin in our trash room, the reality is that it has a negative impact on recycling.

 

People simply need to try and be more conscious when it comes to recycling and disposing of their trash. There are even some classrooms on campus that have three bins in them: one for recycling plastic, one for recycling glass and one for regular trash. The environment benefits greatly from proper recycling, so taking the extra steps to do a bit of research on how to recycle properly and then putting that knowledge into practice repeatedly will ultimately be for the benefit of everyone.

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The Quad needs more shade for students to study safely

Photograph by Abbey Ferenz for The Triangle.

With winter being well behind us, now is the time when students start to take advantage of the nice weather by taking our  studies outside. One of my favorite spots to study is the Academic Quad, as it’s close to where I live, having plenty of space and is simply a nice place to unwind at. However, as we get closer and closer to the summer, the intensity of the heat continues to grow, and on a very hot day, the sun can be downright unbearable. This is why I think it would be a smart idea to add some kind of structure, like a gazebo, to provide shade for students who are studying.

I realize that there are plenty of indoor locations to study as well as places where there are trees to provide shade, such as Lancaster Walk, but the Quad really is one-of-a-kind when it comes to Drexel University’s campus. There have been several times when I’ve walked by the Quad and seen a temporary tent-like structure that had been put up to provide shade for the people attending an event. It would be great if this tent could be left up all summer long, but I suppose it’s not designed for that. Not to mention, it’s not the most attractive thing in the world.

Regardless, something really does need to be added to provide shade, as the location is a real hotspot for students. On some evenings, the grassy area is nearly filled with people hanging out, playing sports and studying, among other things. I suppose this is partly because people are less busy during the evenings, as not many classes are going on late in the evening and students on co-op are home from work for the day. However, I don’t think it can be denied that the nicer weather in the evening is the biggest factor that draws students to the spot.

People are less likely to subject themselves to the sun’s rays, especially at its peak. According to the American Skin Association, the sun’s rays are strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Their “Sun Safety” page also says the time during which Ultraviolet exposure is the most likely to be strongest is during daylight savings time, late spring and early summer in North America. These rays aren’t necessarily weaker when it is cloudy out.

For someone like myself whose current schedule consists of classes that take place in the early morning or in the evening on most days, I’m pretty much out of luck. I never have class between 1-5 p.m., but I have class in the evening and at noon three times a week, so the only time I can really go to the Quad on weekdays is during the time when the sun is at its strongest. So I usually just end up studying in my room or at the library.

Even putting up a few of those outdoor patio umbrellas wouldn’t be a bad idea. Just some kind of protection from the sun is needed, aside from us taking as many precautions as we can to keep ourselves safe from exposure to the sun. The temperature doesn’t always permit wearing dark colored long-sleeved shirts and long pants as the The American Skin Association’s “Sun Safety” page suggests.

I don’t think we’ll be seeing any structures added to the Quad that will provide students with any substantial safety from the sun in the near future, but later down the line perhaps, something will be built. In the meantime, it’s up to us to be mindful of the weather and how much we expose ourselves to the sun. And most importantly, stay hydrated.

 

http://www.americanskin.org/resource/safety.php

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Autism Speaks: they don’t speak for the spectrum

Photograph courtesy of Tommy Hilfiger at Wikimedia Commons.

It has been almost surreal, for the past eight years, to see the changing perception of the autism spectrum — especially in the media. From having been either a punchline or a stereotype in the media to now being fully-fleshed, well-portrayed, multidimensional characters who are more than their so-called disability, the view on autism and the spectrum has come a long way, as the prevalence rate has increased.

Indeed, looking at the evolution from Raymond Babbitt in “Rain Man” to Dr. Shaun Murphy on “The Good Doctor” and Julia, the first autistic character on “Sesame Street” really gives me some level of hope that the stigma of being on the spectrum will slowly break apart.

And then there are groups like Autism Speaks that completely ruin my rosy view, making my hopes for a greater understanding fade into the realization that we will never be able to shake the stigma entirely.

Now, on the surface, it looks like I should support Autism Speaks due to them funding tons of autism research, as well as its status as the top advocacy group for those on the autism spectrum. However, I have made it a point to never associate with them for numerous reasons, and I know plenty of people on the autism spectrum who would agree with me wholeheartedly.

First, for people who are fortunate enough not to know what Autism Speaks is, I will quickly explain. Autism Speaks founders Bob and Suzanne Wright made their mission to look for and promote solutions needed to help everyone across the wide spectrum of autism and investigate better interventions. However, the first concern I have with this organization is one of the three organizations that were not only Autism Speaks’ offshoot but ended up merging with them: Cure Autism Now.

As the name suggests, “Cure Autism Now” portrayed autism as a disease that could be cured rather than a natural part of the person’s identity. Indeed, the overall medical opinion is that autism and other conditions on the spectrum are disorders that can be treated. While that is technically true, and some side effects of autism such as sensitivity to sounds and lights can be lessened, by no means is autism a disability. Despite this, however, the main focus of Autism Speaks is to not come to acceptance, but rather, to find a cure, to create “normalcy.” See what I’m talking about?

On top of that, Autism Speaks claims to be focussed more on research over advocacy. However, according to their own 990 Non-Profit Tax Exemption Form, a large portion of their funding — 42 percent to be exact — goes to lobbying and “advocacy.” Though, as stated before, their advocacy is not really helping the autism community; in fact, it’s promoting many of the stigmas that the community is seeking to shake. Indeed, it creates the perception that people on the spectrum, no matter where they lie, are anomalies in everyday life.

Considering, too, that the organization is called “Autism Speaks,” you would think that the majority of people on the board of the organization are on the spectrum, but you would be wrong. Of the 29 active board members, only two of them are on the spectrum. And of those 29, 19 are actually members of major corporations, including designer Tommy Hilfiger, who has associated his brand with the organization since his daughter’s diagnosis, even appearing in ads for Autism Speaks.

When Autism Speaks decides to do research, even though they tend to research the wrong things, they have also had to put their metaphorical feet in their mouths due to outdated statements. In the past, I have mentioned Andrew Wakefield’s infamous “study” regarding the linkage of the MMR vaccine to autism, and how, in 2011, Lancet, the medical journal which first published those findings, completely retracted it, along with every study based on it. Autism Speaks would not do the same until 2015, and even then, acting after devoting a massive amount of financial resources to it and changing the language to prevent a measles outbreak.

Their position prior, which was published in 2013, read, “it remains possible that, in rare cases, immunization may trigger the onset of autism symptoms in a child with an underlying medical or genetic condition.” However, the positions of the people who resigned during this time were clear: vaccines didn’t cause autism, and yet, Autism Speaks was unwilling to make a statement supporting it.

So, enough of my complaining about this “advocacy group.” The important thing is what can be done to combat Autism Speaks. Well, two things. On top of boycotting companies who support Autism Speaks, such as Tommy Hilfiger, you can cut your funding to Autism Speaks and instead, contribute money to other organizations, such as the Autism Self-Advocacy Network, founded and run entirely by people on the autism spectrum, and also to support the Yellow Feather Fund, created by Sesame Workshop.

I bring up the Yellow Feather Fund due to the character of Julia on “Sesame Street,” the first autistic Muppet character and a landmark in children’s television. Based on the episodes that she has played a part in and numerous interviews, it is clear that “Sesame Street” not only heavily researched autism but has a full focus on letting people, especially young children, normalize autism and other spectrum disorders, which is, in the end, what all members of the spectrum community want: acceptance. I’ll even go so far as to say that a petition should be created to make Julia a main character. A little foreshadowing, maybe?

Autism Speaks is nothing more than an autism pity party. They don’t speak for me or anyone else on the spectrum, and in a month where Autism Awareness is essential, it’s even more essential to understand the roles of these organizations. Leave this job to those who understand.

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Reconnecting with my roots

Photograph by Sean Hyatt for The Triangle.

You may be wondering what Birthright is, and I’ll tell you. A once in a lifetime opportunity, Birthright is a 10-day trip to Israel offered to Jewish people ages 18-32 free of charge. My brother and I had been talking about going together since we first heard of Birthright, and so when I turned 18, we could not wait to finally go. Though I had been long looking forward to the trip, I was hesitant about going because I was afraid to be away from home for 10 days and stay in a country I have never been to before. However, I got past my worries, and by the end of the trip, I felt connected to the place where my family came from, and I learned to embrace my roots in ways I could apply to my real life.

Neither did I know what it meant to have a spiritual experience was before I went on this trip nor did I anticipate experiencing one on the trip. Although I identify as Jewish, I am not extremely religious; however, I do celebrate most of the Jewish holidays because they are meaningful to my family. After the trip, I feel much more connected to my Jewish identity, and I now look at celebrating the holidays in a more important light.

Before the trip, I felt like I was losing part of my Jewish identity because I didn’t explore the unknown of what my religion had to offer. It is important to me that I stay true to my roots since it is so easy to forget where you come from. I thought that as a Jew, I would have to go to services, know the symbolism of each holiday and know all of the prayers by heart. However, to practice a religion, one doesn’t need to conform to doing everything that people of that religion do. You should feel comfortable practicing the religion that you identify with and not feel forced to act a certain way.

Over the first couple of days of the trip, I noticed myself getting out of my comfort zone more and allowing myself to try new things. Although I knew facts about Israel, the opportunity to experience the country in person was a time in my life that I will never take for granted. I would say that if you have the chance to explore your roots, take the opportunity to do so when it is offered. It may be scary to picture yourself in a land that is unknown to you or unlike what you’re used to, but remain hopeful for the experience. Regardless of what ideas or perceptions you may have about your roots, it is beneficial to explore your past because it allows you to understand where you came from.  

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The Confessions of the Other Woman

He was a master manipulator — charming and charismatic to every degree but with a hint of something darker underneath.

That hint of darkness eventually revealed itself to be a black hole, where even I, someone who chose to believe in the inherent goodness of people, had a hard time seeing the light anymore.

He was a cool yet nerdy senior that I looked up to. I was a wholesome yet brash freshman that he looked at with a peculiar interest. It felt like a crazy connection, an intense attraction, something out of some cliched and trashy romance novel.

He made me believe that I was special — most manipulators will do that. They enjoy playing the games. They like the pursuit. And if they see you as some sort of challenge?

Run.

He made promises he never actually intended to keep. Every date was cinematic, every kiss was tender and sweet. He complimented me, made me feel as if I was the only one who held his mind captive. At one point, he called me a “siren” — a mythical being so enticing and alluring that he couldn’t stay away, even though it was so wrong.

As wide as my eyes were, I couldn’t help but narrow them quite frequently. I had my guard high up. I grilled him on his intentions. I interrogated him on his past cheating behaviors. I outlined boundaries. He told me that he respected my boundaries — that he would only cross them with my permission. He told me that he didn’t just want the physical things; he liked me because I was fun and unpredictable, and my “adorkable” nature was refreshing.

In reality, he pursued me out of a need for a thrill to temporarily escape the dull ache of being him. He played terrible games and wove beautiful lies.

But even the prettiest lies will unravel at some point. He got caught in his own web by his girlfriend who sent me a threatening message before ripping apart all threads of my existence off of his phone.

One thread remained though — I messaged him on GroupMe and found out the truth: he got back together with his ex-girlfriend during the time that he was with me. Never once did I know. I couldn’t have — he never intended to tell me. And if you ask either of them, they’ll blame me for putting another dent in their already troubled relationship. But the only people at fault are those who believe that lying and cheating are a valid way of coping with their own internal pain.

If any one of you is facing a similar problem, your first response will probably be to blame yourself. I know that’s what I did. I asked myself how I could have been so stupid. I re-read messages, looking for signs that I should have seen. I wondered if there was something wrong with me for giving someone so problematic a chance to hurt me.

But be kind to yourself. You are not at fault. Placing your trust in someone who did not deserve it is not a weakness. It just shows that you’re capable of putting yourself out there and one day, someone who deserves that trust will come along.

Allow yourself time to heal. Emotional trauma is often some of the hardest to see and cope with, but it will get better with time and a strong support system. Surround yourself with amazing friends — those who will buy you your favorite food and force you to eat because, honestly, you won’t feel like it. Surround yourself with those who will allow you to vent and sob as much as you need to and then make you laugh with silly dances and faces. Don’t be afraid to get professional help. Drexel has free counseling services, so take advantage of those resources.

If I ever see him again, I think my primary emotional response will be intense pity. I don’t look up to him anymore. The charm is a facade. The charisma is a carefully crafted mask. Inside is a broken boy who for some reason never learned empathy and compassion. I got to walk away from the situation as a stronger person, but he’s the one who has to face a stark black hole in the mirror everyday — and I truly hope he can find some light.

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Hybrid courses beat out online courses and lectures

Photograph courtesy of Tungsten at Wikimedia Commons.

Hybrid courses are the best type of course to enroll in because they contain some of the best aspects from both online classes and lectures.

Probably one of the most beneficial aspects of hybrid courses is the fact that the vast majority of the assignments are done online. This is extremely good because it gives the students a lot of flexibility when it comes to getting work done. Even though there are still due dates for assignments, it’s a lot easier to meet these dates when you don’t have to attend the class three times a week.

It may seem like a small commitment to attend class for 50 minutes three times a week, but the total time spent at the end of the day can vary dramatically depending on the distance of your commute. If you live in The Summit and have a class in Lincoln Plaza, it’s probably going to take you 10 or 20 minutes to get to class and then another 10 or 20 minutes to get back home. And that’s assuming you don’t make any stops on the way there or back.

Another aspect of hybrid courses that is better than lectures and online classes is that you get a better connection with your fellow students. In online classes, you probably never see your classmates in person, and in lectures you see your classmates three times a week for 50 minutes, which gives you little to no time to talk with people. In a hybrid course, there are almost always discussion boards. Sometimes, these discussion boards are boring or uninteresting, but in certain classes, they are easily the best part.

Not only are these discussion boards a great source for getting information from your peers by reading, but they can be really entertaining for all parties involved if the professor leaves the discussion topic up to the students. It’s just like those classes where the professor makes you sit in a circle and discuss the week’s reading. The only real difference is that discussion threads don’t limit you to class time. Most lectures don’t even have time dedicated to discussion, and the ones that do generally allot only a quarter or half of the whole class time for it.

Something else about hybrid courses that I prefer over lecture and online classes is that you get each week’s information in one long lecture as opposed to having it broken up into two or three smaller chunks. It can be argued that this is a personal preference, as some people prefer to learn in shorter sessions as opposed to longer ones. However, I find that the pacing for the hybrid courses often works better, as you tend to focus on one or two things each week. In a course that takes place three times a week, there is often a lot of jumping from topic to topic throughout the week. This can be problematic for some students because not everyone learns at the same pace. There could be a specific topic covered one day that a student may not understand, but by the next class, the professor has already moved on to the next topic.

While they can sometimes be difficult from a time management perspective, hybrid courses take some of the best aspects from lecture and online courses and combine them together. If you’re feeling skeptical about taking a hybrid course, all I can say is that you won’t know until you give it a chance. But if you’re someone who enjoys both online classes and lectures, then you have nothing to lose by trying one. Afterall, they’re called hybrids for a reason.

 

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Pregnancy policies should be made by female lawmakers

Photograph courtesy of Fred Squillante/Dispatch at Tribune News Service.

The week of April 8, two bills in Texas and Ohio regulating abortion reached their respective state senate and house. Ohio Senate Bill 23, named the “Human Rights Protection Act,” passed April 10 with 18 “yeas” and 13 “nays.” Texas House Bill 896 was left pending in committee April 9 after public hearings and testimony that began back in January. Both bills are direct attacks on the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which allows women the right to an abortion without state or federal interference. The case decision was historic for the women’s rights movement but has since been the subject of vicious bipartisan discourse, mostly from men who will never personally experience pregnancy.

Texas HB 896 is an amendment on the state’s family and penal code, reconfiguring the rights granted to children to now include unborn fetuses. State penal code Title 5, Chapter 19 has also been rewritten to no longer exclude abortions performed safely by physicians from criminal homicide charges, categorizing it as capital murder or negligent manslaughter. With these changes, women could be subjected to the death penalty or a life sentence without parole just for getting an abortion. The bill, spearheaded by a man and supported mostly by  men, also has no exceptions for cases that include rape or incest. HB 896 did not pass after committee, but its appearance itself is a threat to women’s health.

Ohio SB 23 outlaws abortion as early as five weeks into pregnancy. In this scenario, a woman’s period would only be days late, and she would not even know she’s pregnant. The state would strip a woman of her rights before she can consider her options for confronting  an unplanned pregnancy. Similar to Texas HB 896, this bill has no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

The idea that men have written bills about women’s bodies, something they have no personal understanding of, is ignorant to the highest degree. Men will never entirely understand the  aspects of pregnancy scares that women go through and they will only ever be able to experience pregnancy and birth secondhand. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Texas State Rep. Tony Tinderholt both authors and the faces of these bills, don’t have the female perspective needed for laws that are so intimately tied to women’s health. For Ohio SB 23, 15 out of the 18 “yeas” for the final vote were men and 40 of the 46 bill sponsors were men. Texas HB 896 is no different, five out of the six the bill sponsors are men.  Policies that strictly monitor women’s bodies and women’s health choices shouldn’t come from lawmakers who can’t understand these processes themselves.

Personally, women’s health issues became a bigger part of my life once I got to college. Multiple times in these past two years have my friends have talked to me about their struggles with birth control symptoms and how they themselves have gone through pregnancy scares. Birth control and pregnancy scares are tough for everyone, but it’s a much more personal situation for women considering the biological and physical changes pregnancy brings. Getting pregnant unexpectedly, though shocking for both parties involved, is a much bigger disruption on the woman’s social life, often forcing them out of school and certain professions. Both men and women are part of the process, but it’s definitely not an evenly split process. Women truly understand their own bodies and therefore should be the ones to make choices for their health, not the state or federal government.    

Aside from this lack of respect for women’s choice, these bills only further the culture of victim blaming. Both bills explicitly deny women who are victims of rape or incest the right to an abortion, prolonging their trauma and burdening them with the responsibility of carrying their rapist’s child. Women who are raped never invited the sexual encounter by its very nature, and therefore certainly did not invite unplanned pregnancy that may come with it.

In an interview with the Texas Observer from 2017 when drafting of this bill began, Rep. Tony Tinderholt advocated for his stance on not protecting the rights of those women who have been raped.

“I don’t think that there should be any exceptions to murder, no matter what. So, if this child was out of the womb, and it was a child that was born out of rape or incest, no one would be OK with killing a child. I look at it like that child is a child in the womb, just like it’s out,” he said.

Someone  who has no concept of the trauma associated with being a female rape victim and who will never be put in the position of being pregnant with a child that is a product of rape believes he should have a say in what women should do during possibly the most devastating period of her life. He is forcing women to live with the aftermath of something that was not and will never be their fault, while the rapist walks with no strings attached. According to data from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, for every 1,000 rapes committed, 995 perpetrators will walk free and only 46 reports of those 1,000 cases will lead to arrest. Often, the only control women have in rape cases is the right to terminate a pregnancy that might come with it.

Tinderholt also believes that women use abortion as a throwaway back-up option to have unprotected sex.

“They don’t make it important to be personally responsible because they know that they have a backup of ‘oh, I can just go get an abortion,’” he said in the same Observer interview.

To think that women treat abortion like taking an Advil or a daily multi-vitamin further demonstrates the profound ignorance to what women go through. Abortion is a surgical procedure that can be physically and mentally scarring , sometimes resulting in infection, uterine complications and adverse mental health obstacles. All of this comes after confronting the emotional whirlwind of finding out they are pregnant and stressing about what the next step should be.

Men who have no understanding of what going through biological pregnancy is like should reconsider imposing destructive regulations or judgment on women who have no choice but to face these issues .

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Staying ahead of your classes

           It’s already week two of spring quarter and your classes are probably about to kick it into high gear if they haven’t already. That said, now is the time when large amounts of homework start to build up from all our classes and it can be easy to get overwhelmed without even realizing it. It’s important to have some kind of plan in place to make sure that you get all of your studies done in a reasonable time so that you avoid falling too far behind in class.

        For me, one general rule of thumb is to always plan out your week from start to finish. For most classes, you’ll at least know what’s expected of you at the start of each week, such as what readings you need to complete, online discussion boards and other things that most classes have students doing on a weekly basis.

        Planning out your week from the beginning keeps you from getting caught up in having to make decisions on the fly. For example, it’s a Thursday night and you have two readings that you need to have done for Friday morning. You then look at the readings and see that each one is about thirty pages; you guess that it will take about four hours to read it all thoroughly. Trust me, I’ve been there many times and it’s never fun.

        However, situations like these can be completely avoided if you take a few minutes out of your Sunday to figure out what your plan of study is going to be for the upcoming week. Iron out everything. Leaving even the smallest of assignments unchecked can potentially screw you over in the long run. And I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to actually look at what your homework is as soon as it’s given to you.

        I’m guilty just like most students of not looking at what is due for class until the night before. And despite it never being a good experience, I still continue to do it every now and again for some reason.

        It’s actually rather difficult to plan an entire week out in advance and then actually stick to what you planned. Assignments can change, classes can get canceled or your friends may want to hang out during a time you had already set aside for studying. When there’s potential for things to not go in your favor, having good flexibility can really save you. If you scheduled your classes for the quarter in such a way that you have a lot of free time between classes, then that will make it a lot easier to pick out days and times to get work done for classes.

        Most of the scheduling won’t be very difficult; it’s just a matter of figuring out what works best for you, and then trying to be consistent and stick to whatever schedule you set for yourself. That’s the challenge, but if you can overcome it. The reward is almost never getting overwhelmed with homework ever again.

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Readjusting from co-op

Photograph courtesy of Wokandapix at Pixabay.

For the past nine months, I haven’t had any traditional homework. I had a full-time summer job at home, six months at my co-op and a part-time job on-campus as a barista. The routine of getting up, going to work and ending the day after clocking out became so normal to me. Before this working streak, from kindergarten up until last June, my life had been a cycle of nine months of school followed by a three-month-long summer break. I was excited to get back to campus and see my favorite professors, but the realization that I had to do homework hit me harder than expected.

When I got to my first class, I had to re-learn the motions of getting the syllabus and going through the uncomfortable introductions. It was when I read these syllabi that the back-in-class life tumbled on me. I saw assignment dates, presentation times and big paper topics. I temporarily panicked as I scrambled to remember how to organize all these looming assignments and get my brain back into the mode of writing everything down for the week.

Last Wednesday, I woke up with my head buzzing. I didn’t write anything down on Monday so I wasn’t sure if I missed small initial assignments or forgot to buy textbooks that were going to be used in class. At the beginning of every lecture, I held my breath in anticipation hoping they wouldn’t bring up a blackboard post or email I was supposed to send. Luckily, none of this happened and I found comfort in knowing that during week one, nothing is due. So I stopped worrying for this week, but the idea of future assignments floated over my head after leaving class and throughout the weekend.

The mindset change was the biggest setback by far. On co-op, I would come home from work and that was the end of the day. Nothing to work on afterwards and no planning out when to do assignments. Though the “9 to 5” schedule had a certain level of monotony at one point during the six months, it was nice to actually have an end to the day. The extension of work after a full day of classes was unfamiliar to my newly adapted work-only brain.

To any freshmen who have fall-winter co-op cycles, I would highly recommend taking one class outside of work to keep your brain in a semi-school mindset. My experience of jolting from full-time work to full-time school in a single week is one I would not put on other people. If you don’t have room in your schedule to have even one class, try to keep up with some academic related hobbies, such as a club or certain reading just to keep the gears spinning. Changing from class to co-op is a big step and even small solutions can help in huge ways.

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College admission boards need to change their ways

Photograph courtesy of SM-N900V at Pxhere.

As much as I’d like to think I’m a relatively level headed person, there are a few things that really get under my skin. Such things could be slow walkers, my fear of deep waters, people who try to hit the woah but can’t do it properly, etc.

But here’s what bothers me the most: injustice. Injustice on any level, whether it be small scale or a national conflict, just doesn’t sit well with me, even if it doesn’t pertain to me at all.

So what happens when you nationally publicize an injustice that applies to all college students across America?

Outrage, frustration and, of course, a livid Opinion writer at The Triangle who is set on giving you her two cents on the issue.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the scandal in which 33 high-profile individuals and parents were accused of partaking in bribery in order to secure their children’s admissions into top-ranking colleges.

When I first heard about it, I didn’t think much of it. Sure, it bothered me, but at least the parents were going to pay for the crimes they committed, right? There was no reason for me to get involved.

Until I realized that this issue actually does directly affect me. It directly affects me, it directly affects my friends and it will directly affect all of the people who are currently, or in the near future will be, applying to colleges.

And that’s when I decided to write on this issue.

Here’s how it began:

Prosecutors had initially been investigating an unrelated case against finance executive Morrie Tobin for securities fraud, which led to Tobin offering a tip in exchange for potential leniency.

Hence, from here came the leads that exposed these parents involved in the scandal; Tobin had mentioned the name of Yale’s women’s soccer coach who had suggested Tobin use bribery in order to fix her daughter’s enrollment in the school.

As it turns out, that soccer coach had been working for William “Rick” Singer, who was the founder of a college preparatory business called the Edge College & Career Network, also known as “The Key.” He coordinated all of these illegal operations, such as funneling the money into colleges that guaranteed these parents’ children’s acceptances or helping children cheat on standardized college admission tests.

He had allegedly garnered $25 million as of February by running this racketeering business.

Among these parents were celebrities like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

Huffman and her husband had paid $15,000 to the Key Worldwide Foundation, where Singer proposed a plan that he would alter their daughter’s SAT score by correcting her wrong answers. Their daughter, who requested extra time though she had no learning disability, took the SAT in the presence of a proctor who was in on the scheme.

She scored a 1420, a full 400 points higher than her PSAT score.

Huffman was charged for her participation in these illegal activities; her husband was not charged, and her daughter had not yet been accepted into any colleges yet. It is unclear as to whether or not she was aware of the scandal she had been caught in at the time.

Loughlin was one of America’s dearest TV show actresses, playing the beloved Aunt Becky. She and her husband used $100,000, allegedly, to have their daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli admitted as crew recruits for USC. Neither of the girls had ever laid hands on an oar.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of this situation with Loughlin and her daughters was the commentary made by Olivia Jade, a Youtube sensation.

“But I do want the experience of like game days, partying. I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know,” Jade claimed.

Having presented all this information to you, I think now’s as good a time as any to explain why this scandal irritates me on a much more personal level.

The college admission process is a struggle, but I think what most people tend to forget is that it doesn’t just start during senior year.

We’ve all heard stories about how parents literally force their kids to pick up the most obscure instruments or sports, like squash or oboe, at a young age just so that colleges looking for certain talented players will be inclined to give their application a second glance. It doesn’t surprise me that these parents were this desperate to partake in illegal activities and bribery to help their kids succeed. That’s not to say I empathize with them, but I can see why they didn’t think about how this puts hardworking kids who actually do care about getting a higher level education at a school at a disadvantage.

In fact, we even laugh at memes and jokes that poke fun at kids who literally lock themselves up in their room to study for hours at a time for a standardized test just to earn a good score that college admission boards can use to label them with. But I think sometimes we forget, not that there’s anything wrong with a good joke here or there, just how serious this is, and how disproportionately it affects certain populations, especially the Asian population.

It bothers me that I had to sit there and watch some of the most deserving and smartest kids in my school be rejected from schools that I know should have accepted them; they had the scores, the brains and the extracurriculars to prove it.

Some of us are first generation college students or applicants; our parents have poured in an amount of time, money and effort that we could never hope to repay so that we could have an education and a future that they never had.

As much as college is a chance for us to make a living for ourselves, no matter how much we try to deny that, it also is a chance to make our parents proud and show that everything that they put into us paid off. That’s why when we get a bad test score or when we don’t get into the colleges we wanted to, or when I see stuff like this, it hurts me to think that no matter how hard we try, sometimes it’s just out of our control. It hurts me to think that in the very back of my mind, I want to tell my brothers, who are leaps and bounds smarter than me and deserving of the top colleges, to not waste their money. There will be a kid richer than you with more legacy who will probably have an advantage over you. It hurts me to think of all the kids who have literally sacrificed so much just to put together an outstanding resume for college were rejected for a reason that was unjust and more importantly, out of their control.

However, I also think that in order to combat this problem, there needs to be more of an emphasis on the individual student themselves, rather than an emphasis on the schools. Sure, certain schools just tend to rank higher than others, but what concerns me the most is that the more value and importance we delegate to schools that are inclined to be bribed by money and legacy, the more we polarize this issue and the more pressure we put on kids to literally kill themselves trying to get into one school. Instead, I feel that there should be more focus on a students forming a healthy relationship among themselves, their studies and their social lives. And rather than the dinner discussion being about Harvard or Yale, there should be more positive conversations perhaps about the groundbreaking research happening at state schools that can be equally as challenging and competitive as that of the Ivy Leagues.

Retrospectively, the college admissions process is a complicated one that would need to be discussed in a mini series, not a single article. But for now, here’s my conclusion in a nutshell:

What these parents did was wrong. They deserve to be tried by court and to pay for the crimes they have done. It’s unacceptable to abuse one’s power and money to one’s advantage, especially if it comes at the price of another person’s opportunity.

College admission boards need to crack down on properly managing their individual constituents to avoid falling victim to these illegal bribes, and for unfairly evaluating their applicant pool.

And finally, for the sake of current and future college students, from the very beginning of a child’s educational journey, there needs to be a paramount emphasis on developing healthy study habits and allowing them the freedom to choose what they want to do with their lives; the name of a school or their test score doesn’t define them, especially given what we have learned about how little we actually have in our control concerning the college admission process.

 

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