MC student spends summer in Prague
This past summer, I traveled outside of the United States for the first time, and it was the experience of a lifetime. For two months,I lived in the city of Prague, which is the Czech Republic. This was something that I never thought I would have the chance to do. However, with the help of those in the Maryville College International House, I had this amazing opportunity. As a nontraditional student and someone with a budget, going to Europe–or anywhere outside of the country– seemed like a longshot. I always assumed my travel outside my home country would be something I would do in the years following my retirement from a hopefully lucrative career. With the assistance of Ihouse, not only did I get the chance to travel, I was able to do it affordably. The Ken Tuck scholarship...
Read MoreAnderson Hall and how it shaped my perspective
As I wind down on my penultimate semester at Maryville College, I realize how much I have enjoyed my time here. Attending this school has been fun. The time I have spent here has been short. I am a transfer student and only the latter half of my collegiate career has been spent here, but it has been fruitful. I have had a wealth of opportunities laid out before me that many would probably put first on top of the “fun things in college” list. This semester, I am preparing for my first trip out of the country this summer through study abroad. While I expect this to go in my top five of most fun experiences while attending Maryville, I can’t help but think of the joy I have had in the classroom. I am a nerd who,...
Read MoreBernie Sanders is not the future
I am not a fan of Senator Bernie Sanders. The feeling of “ugh” that washes over me whenever I see him on my television screen is not new, but today it is much more pronounced. As I look at the current attempts to restructure the Democratic party, I wonder why Democrats are involving Sanders in this process. I didn’t always feel this way about Sanders. Initially, I was excited. I am a registered Democrat, but I liked the idea of an independent candidate who was projected to be further left than my party’s leaders. When he announced he was running on the Democratic ticket, it made sense. As someone who follows politics, I immediately began thinking about what his strategy must be. He knows he won’t win the primary, but he can cause enough of a fuss to force...
Read MoreMissing from our screens
If you receive your news through social media, you may have read an alarming headline: “14 girls have gone missing in D.C. in the last 24 hours.” While this has been debunked by various sources, I couldn’t help but notice a startling uptick in images of missing girls. At first, I assumed I was receiving these updates because I follow people based in D.C., but then people from other parts of the country began expressing concern. The girls, all in their teens, had gone missing since the beginning of the year to very little fanfare. I began to wonder how so many teenaged girls living in the nation’s capital could go missing without it being on the news. With the recent awareness of human trafficking within the country’s borders, one would assume that a high number of missing girls...
Read MoreWomen of color are women too
This past election, like all elections, was often broken down into demographics. Which candidate was leading with what group? The U.S. population was categorized by factors such as age, education level, race, income, etc. I understand the importance of this practice, but one categorization has always bothered me: gender. This is not because I am relearning to not see gender as binary or my dislike of generalizations. What bothers me is the fact that I have always understood that “women” means “white women.” While I have not always been conscious of the politics surrounding identity and categories, I have always known that when people are listing categories, such as groups of color, that the default is white. If there was a discussion involving gender, it was focused on white men and women. As we entered Women’s History Month, I...
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