Essay
Aliyah Mashriqi
"Reflections of a special needs sibling: love"
This morning after I read the email about February’s theme for the Honor’s Journal, I pondered the famous question asked; “what is love?”. I continued with my morning finishing up a Critical Thinking quiz and a Stat exam. I finished them both up and got my phone from my sister to scan and upload them onto Canvas, but the second I attempted to do so, Sophie, my 13 year old sister grabbed my stat exam, crumbled it up and tried to do the same to the rest of my papers. She somehow got triggered by me scanning my papers. I was furious, I yelled at her, and marched up stairs to get away, but she followed and continued attempting to stop me. You might be wondering “damn sucks to be her...but what’s she getting at?” I’ll tell you right now. What happened to me this morning, how I responded afterwards, and then what happened this evening as well, I believe is the greatest example of the sort of unique love one has for their sibling with special needs.
Aya mikbel
"sleep deprivation and college students"
Sleep deprivation is a real issue facing first-year college students because the only college they are familiar with is virtual, and the role online education plays in SD is very real. Freshman need to develop healthy habits that will follow them throughout college. If first-year college students begin their college habits with substandard routines and practices, it will be difficult to change them later on. The unfixed timetable and flexibility that online education offers might seem tempting, but in reality can be harmful. Dr. Carl E. Rosenberg, sleep medicine doctor, neurologist, neurosurgeon & psychiatrist, lists the reasons why online education has led to sleep deprivation. In “Virtual Learning & Working from Home: Why You Can’t Sleep These Days”, he says that “constant screen time, irregular schedules, and bad bedroom habits” are some of the reasons why you can’t sleep. Also the lack of distinction between school and home life makes going to sleep harder. Doing schoolwork from the comfort of your bed might seem tempting at first but it doesn't only make it harder to focus, but it makes it harder for you to fall asleep at night.
Margarita Niemann
"Generational Trauma of the indigenous peoples of latin america"
Tension and distrust make the air feel heavy as the Spaniard conquistadors set foot onto Latin America. both the indigenous peoples of Latin America and the Spaniards unsure of the intentions of one another. The indigenous peoples fear the Spaniards, for the conquistadors threaten to destroy their entire world with their forceful assimilation to Christianity and Westernization; meanwhile, the Spaniards fear the indigenous peoples for their unfamiliar cultural practices and highly intelligent inventions and infrastructures that ultimately intimidate the narcissistic Spaniards. Throughout The Conquest of New Spain, Bernal Diaz, one of the Spanish conquistadors on the expedition to Latin America; portrays the “heroic” actions of the Spaniards as they travel from city to city, protecting the indigenous peoples from harm’s way and offering peace treaties to maintain harmony between the two clashing groups. He explores the complicated concept of justice from the perspective of the Spaniards as he brings to life the multiple expeditions that the conquistadors, including himself, partook in. While Diaz illustrates justice as saving the indigenous people of Latin America from their cruel and barbaric sacrifices and “evil” idols that they prayed to through Westernization and colonization, he fails to understand the decades of generational damage that the Spaniards inflicted upon the indigenous peoples by purposely neglecting to include the indigenous peoples’ perspectives in their struggle to fight to keep their culture and entire world as they know it alive to justify the conquistador’s cruel and murderous actions to gain power.
Bryanna Payden
"The Manipulative tool of religion"
The appeal to discover new land, expand territory, and spread religion roots itself in history. With each conquest, a destructive system of assimilation occurs as Natives were forced to abandon cultures, sacred religious ideals, and their homes. These Western European practices were falsely described as lessons of civility to help guide Natives to a better “ Christian “ way of life; juxtaposing their inhuman treatment. Whether looking at the Conquest of New Spain, Andrew Jacksons’ Indian Removal Act, or Benjamin Franklin's view on Indians, all three justify the means of conquest through the justification of the Christian faith.
Sarah Roberts
"equal access to education"
Throughout the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft first handedly witnessed the injustices women endured secondary to educational inequalities. Wollstonecraft grew up in an abusive environment and quickly came to recognize the roles of power, status, and wealth in the limitation of women’s rights. During this period, women sought marriage simply because they did not know how else to thrive or exist within society; women pursued domestic affairs because they lacked the resources and support necessary to pursue educational opportunities. Perceived as naturally inferior to men, philosophers, primarily male, argued that women devoid the ability to attain reason. Inspired by the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in riposte to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution. In this early work of feminist philosophy, Wollstonecraft challenges the idea that women exist solely to please men and emphasizes the importance of educational equality in strengthening the body and mind. Targeting middle class women, Wollstonecraft introduces new ideas pertaining to women’s rights and reintroduces arguments from an array of philosophers that preceded her. Frustrated that women had become domestic slaves, Wollstonecraft argues that women ought to receive the same quality of education as men to become active participants in society; she believes that equal access to education produces a just society.
Emery salman
"EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE FOR ALL"
In his treatise Emile, or Education, renowned Enlightenment-era philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau remarks the following of humanity and education; “We are born weak, we need strength; we are born destitute of all things, we need assistance; we are born stupid, we need judgment. All that we have not at our birth, and that we need when grown up, is given us by education.”1 Although Rousseau’s observations are correct, that does not mean that equal educational opportunities have always resided as hallmarks of society. When it comes to receiving an education, one group of people or another has always had access to nothing at all or had an inferior version of what others received; women, minorities, and the poor to name a few. Society’s progression and advancement rest on the shoulders of the educated; however, obstacles continue to lie in the way of certain members of society receiving a quality education, leaving improvements towards educational justice still necessary to this day.