I Felt Like A Failure: A Critical Analysis of Sarah Hoffmann’s “What the Pandemic Has Done to the Class of 2020” A 2020 graduate Allyson Prater, M.A., explained how her pandemic graduation was “just another Thursday.” When asked how she …
A “Not-So” Dystopian Future by Jordan Phillips
“Hey Siri, how will the implementation of artificial intelligence advance human beings into the next technological revolution?” Hollywood cinema might suggest a horrifying visual of a technology obsessed culture suffering its demise through a robotic uprising. While it makes for …
Choosing Secondhand First by Juliet Moore
Children are often protected by their parents from the financial realities of family life. When I was very young, my own mother and father were embarrassed by how tight their money was after they both left the Army in the …
The Socratic Seminar: A Queer Ethos by Sierra Shields
I graduated in 2015 from Sierra High School located in the Harrison school district, the same year that same-sex marriage was legalized. In both our English and Social Studies classes, we used the Socratic method when we would discuss various …
My First Semester by Juan Johnson
As I step out of my car and look at the college campus, I see a majestic mountain looking down upon me. I think to myself, “Do I have all my equipment to make it to the daunting top?” The …
Pediatric Suicides: Colorado’s Mystifying Dilemma by Jeremy Wilson
Dear Dr. K. Ron-Li Liaw, Director of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado, As an Emergency Medical Technician, I noticed an issue in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I work for Ambulnz, an ambulance transport company in Colorado Springs, and …
Human Trafficking Victims: Immigrants’ Vulnerability and Continual Exploitation by Kaylie Pippin
In Colorado, human trafficking has been on the rise, and specifically, in sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking is predominantly seen in cities and is not unusual to have high rates (E. Reid, personal communication, May 4, 2022). High rates of sexual …
In Censure of Censorship: A Brief History of Power and Censorship in Public Libraries by Katherine Atherton
Before the start of the 2019 school year, Reverend Dan Reehil of the St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville quietly decided to remove some books from circulation at his school’s library, the most prominent of which is the Harry Potter …
The Opioid Crisis by Natalie McFarlane
The opioid crisis has been a major issue facing the United States for over twenty-five years. Over 500,000 people have died from opioid overdose and the amount of deaths continues to rise every year. Not only is this a national …
Mountain Mothers and Coal Miners’ Daughters: Gender Roles and Educational Attainment in Appalachia from the 1800s to the 2000s by Emily Prichard
In spite of the sense of heightened cultural sensitivity that has characterized much of the 2010s and the uptick in people-centered activism it has wrought, Appalachians fail to stand out as a grossly underserved population. Of the scant political dialogue …