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(03/19/22 5:38am)
As we return back to our rigorous courses, busy schedules, and endless assignments post-spring break, it is very easy to see our schooling at Penn as a burden rather than the privilege that it is. For many of us, this is likely because we see college as a means to an end for our career goals — a stepping stone — rather than an opportunity for enrichment. In order for us to improve our overall relationship with education as well as the quality of our experience on campus, we need to stop seeing college as a determinant of success.
(02/15/22 10:29pm)
For many of us, the decision to attend Penn is a choice which forces us to forgo easy access to a serious relationship in college. The “Social Ivy,'' with all of its many charms, is known for building professional repertoires, not romantic ones. Its prolific hookup culture was covered in an all-encompassing exposé in The New York Times back in 2013, “Sex on Campus: She Can Play That Game, Too,” which, despite the nine years that have passed since its publication, could have been written yesterday. The piece focused on anecdotes from 60 interviews of female Penn students, offering a grim outlook on the prospects of long term relationships at Penn.
(01/27/22 2:57am)
Universities regularly regard themselves as havens for broadening students’ horizons by exposing them to a wide range of perspectives. This sentiment is exemplified in university mottoes like Yale’s and Harvard’s, which invoke “veritas,” or the exposition of truth. In fact, diversity of thought is a foremost value in the core curriculums of institutions like the University of Chicago, where its inclusion is critical in a growingly performance-based pre-professional approach to higher education.
(12/06/21 2:03am)
The term “school choice” is defined as “a program or policy in which students are given the choice to attend a school other than their district's public school.” Typically, this results in school districts broadening the types of schools they have, which manifests itself in an expansion of the types of schools available to most students, which often include magnet, charter, or private schools. While I would imagine this to be a fairly uncontroversial definition, Republicans and Democrats have remained divided on this issue for decades.
(11/04/21 2:10am)
Picture this: you attend the university with the country’s top business school and you have friends who are “proud they’ve never taken an economics class” and can’t explain marginal utility to you. Chances are it didn’t take much to imagine; if you’ve spent any time at Penn you’ve probably encountered the antipathy in some of the student body towards economics. In many ways, I can’t blame them. I once held the belief that studying economics was a pipeline to Wall Street, a high-brow discipline to describe the way money is made and moved. As someone who now majors in glorified game theory, I have come to understand it’s so much more than that.
(10/19/21 1:44am)
Those who know me are familiar with my love of all things political. My dorm is decorated in red, white, and blue, with an American flag as wall art. The line from country music artist Ingrid Andress’ song "Lady Like" (which can often be heard playing from my room) could have been written about me: “Sometimes I forget not to talk 'bout politics / When I'm in the middle of me getting hit on."
(09/25/21 5:42pm)
I recently reposted a tweet by the British rapper Zuby which read, “You can be in favour of something but opposed to it being mandatory. You can be against something but not in favour of it being banned.” While I don’t typically look to the music industry for political commentary, the tweet did a great job of stating what I believe to be obvious: vaccine and mask mandates have undoubtedly entangled political rationale with regard to matters of public health, a decision that is going to have drastic consequences for the future of crisis response and the ethos of leaders in the public and private sector.
(09/11/21 1:25pm)
Growing up in the New York area (my hometown of Stamford, Conn., is about 45 minutes outside of Manhattan), 9/11 was always a day that was filled with sorrow, commemorative events, memories, and education. Living so close to the city, everyone was impacted by the tragedies of the terror attacks in some way, whether it be through a parent who died in a tower collapse, a traumatic recollection of debris scattering through NYC, or a tale of heroic responses like those of firefighters fraught with lung cancer following the risks they took to save lives in the attacks. As most people from the tristate area understands, everyone around us has their 9/11 story. My own father was caught in traffic on the George Washington Bridge on his way to work at the Twin Towers when the first plane hit — traffic that undoubtedly saved his life, and is the reason why he lived, and why I am at Penn today.
(07/04/21 9:07pm)
Ever since I was little, I have loved the 4th of July. With a summer birthday just one week before (in fact, I was due on July 4th) and a dream of eventually going into politics, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone. My commitment to Penn brought with it many jokes about our school colors. Some of my fondest memories revolve around the holiday, watching our town's firework display, parties filled with my family decked out in red, white, and blue, and most importantly, the overwhelming sense of patriotism from those around me.
(05/28/21 2:11am)
The topic of United States Supreme Court reform has been hotly debated for years now. Everyone from media outlets to politicians to citizens alike have staked the claim that the court’s legitimacy has been fundamentally threatened by the influence of partisanship. This is despite rebounding Supreme Court approval ratings and a decreasing gap between favorability among Republicans and Democrats, in light of what the media frequently describes as a “conservative majority.” So, does the Supreme Court, in fact, need reform?
(04/17/21 1:06am)
In light of the past four years of a Trump administration, increasing progressive influence, and the rise of cancel culture, it’s not a far reach to say that “conservative” has become a dirty word for many liberals. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) so much as called for a blacklist of public figures who had supported former President Trump in a tweet that felt reminiscent to McCarthyism-era political shunning. These calls for a “Trump Accountability Project” or something of the sort aren’t limited to the former President’s political opposition, but have instead become regular occurrences within families, in businesses, and at schools.
(03/25/21 7:59pm)
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an inescapable plight for all of us over the last year. Looking back at my Snapchat memories from March 12, 2020, I don’t think anyone could have anticipated that we would still be far from normal a year later. I know for sure I never expected to be attending Penn online my first semester, let alone my entire first year of college. However, for most of us, our understanding of the pandemic has likely been very personal, reflected in the experiences, jobs, and lives we lost out on.
(02/25/21 5:08pm)
Growing up as a practicing Catholic, my faith never seemed to be in conflict with my identity as an aspiring biologist who understood evolution or as an American who believed our separation of church and state was one of our most important values. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to learn that my religious identity will always make people question my appreciation for science and the secular state. I think back to the shock of one of my close friends when he found out that I considered myself religious (despite the cross that I’ve worn around my neck for our whole friendship), he replied with “I thought you were a woman of science.”
(02/21/21 12:43pm)
It’s impossible to have a conversation about social justice without referencing the famous Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Arguably the most notable civil rights leader in American history, he is often used when invoking ethos in arguments for both provocative societal change and the importance of civil disobedience over violence in calls to action. The name MLK is synonymous with civic engagement, so much so that this year’s Penn Reading Project focused around that very topic and included a piece by Dr. King, “The Purpose of Education,” which he wrote while in college.
(01/28/21 7:34pm)
Over the course of the last few months, my regular social media scroll has been swarming with political speech. Part of that is Facebook’s algorithms, which has clearly gotten a handle on the fact that I like politics. However, much of my feed is reposts and commentary from every person I follow. In an age where so much information is accessible, everyone has thoughts and social media has given them a platform to share them.
(12/12/20 4:59am)
As we enter into the holiday season, it’s impossible to escape American consumerism. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the holidays. I grew up singing at Christmas Eve mass in my church and eating huge dinners with my extended family. However, I don’t like the use of holidays based on giving, to mass market everything from cars to plastic toys. More importantly, I can’t stand the waste that accompanies the holidays. With mountains of wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and bags, gift-giving is a garbage producing business.
(11/27/20 5:19am)
I can vividly remember my third grade class field trip to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, an institution dedicated to Native American history, to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. When the curator asked about relations between the Native Americans and the English settlers, my hand shot up and I clarified for the class that the “Thanksgiving story we were told was followed by a smallpox epidemic and a lot of stolen land.” A regular laugh at family Thanksgiving dinners about my never-ending outspokenness and desire for accuracy, I am frequently reminded around this time of year about the complexity of historical understanding.
(11/12/20 2:13am)
Through my limited exposure to Penn, I’ve been surprised by the progressive influence on campus. Growing up in the Northeast, liberalism was the norm. However, in a recent class discussion on "The Communist Manifesto," I found it striking to see that the overwhelming majority of my peers supported some form of socialist ideology. If you’ve spent any time on social media, a college campus, or in downtown New York City, you’d believe there was mass support for packing the Supreme Court and decriminalizing illegal border crossings. What we define as American “liberalism” seems to have shifted from increased social liberties to expansive government regulation, or at least in the eyes of the coastal mainstream.
(11/02/20 1:54am)
Young people are often characterized as idealistic free thinkers with big ideas centered around their utopian views of what society should look like. We’ve all heard people complain about lost dreams and the crushing reality of adulthood as they turn thirty. In claiming policy agendas were impractical I’ve been asked, “You’re 18, why aren’t you more idealistic?” I replied with a laugh, “You’re 36, why aren't you more pragmatic?”
(10/20/20 2:01am)
I expected to be watching the first presidential debate with my classmates at Penn this election cycle, but instead I found myself at home with my family in Connecticut. I, like many of the 73 million Americans, who tuned in to the debate, was concerned, frustrated, and discouraged by what I saw. However, I think the most disconcerting part was that I wasn’t surprised by their behavior.
