Category: Opinion

Opinion

Common Ground, Project Wayfinder, Advisory: Necessary But Not Everyone’s Favorite

Ryan Chung

In my four-year journey, what we now call “advisory” went through significant changes. The system was often torn apart and built from scratch. In my freshman year came Common Ground, then Project Wayfinder, and finally Advisory, which also went through quite a change amid the novel virus. After going through these programs for four years, I feel more confident in providing my feelings and understandings about them. Continue reading Common Ground, Project Wayfinder, Advisory: Necessary But Not Everyone’s Favorite

Features, Opinion

A Pandemic’s Crisis of Trust

Annabella Zhang

There is little question that the COVID-19 pandemic has made people more distrustful of one another. In a time when anyone and anything could be a disease carrier, it is difficult to not be suspicious. A visceral manifestation of this distrust is violent xenophobia, expressed in public acts of brutality against Asians: a Singaporean University College London (UCL) student in the streets of London, and even an Asian-American family and child in a Texas supermarket. Such distrust shows when people dub COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” It shows when people inside China call it “Wuhan pneumonia” and panic at the … Continue reading A Pandemic’s Crisis of Trust

Opinion

The Sacrifices You Make to Become “Educated”

Tiffany Kuo

Tara Westover had never stepped foot in a desk-and-chair classroom until she turned 17. Neither had she received her birth certificate until she turned nine. When other sick children are rushed by their parents to the hospital, Tara had never been sent to a government institution, not for broken arms or tuberculosis. When most kids her age wake up in the mornings to an eight-hour day at school, Tara spends her days in the junkyard, gathering scraps and metals and operating dangerous machines for her father. There are many famous groups of religious fundamentalists in the world, who isolate themselves … Continue reading The Sacrifices You Make to Become “Educated”