Articles and interviews
Columbia Journalism
Yousif Alshewaili, a 24-year-old Muslim who fled his native Iraq, was recently granted asylum status in Northern Ireland. He is thankful for the reception he has received in his new country but says that it often comes with strings attached.
Here are the the distinct risks faced by students on F-1 and J-1 visas if they receive serious charges, which could potentially jeopardize their future possibility of entering the country.
Our class began exploring tumultuous divisiveness and violence in Londonderry’s recent history — and ended with an uplifting message of unity and friendship across religious divides.
Malala Fund
Four girls from different geographical regions in Brazil talk about their experiences in the public school system. For this article, I interviewed four girls about their experience in the public school system and their ideas to make it better. Also available in Portuguese and Spanish.
18-year-old South Korean student Heidi Nam writes about the global impact of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. I worked closely with Heidi in the editorial process for her piece and served as her main point of contact
Girls from Brazil, India and the U.K. explain how street safety has affected their lives and education. I described in a series of short essays my experience with public safety in Brazil and the US.
Onward State
Jesse Reimink, an assistant professor in Penn State’s Department of Geosciences, recently created “PlanetGeo”, a podcast that’s now won a handful of regional and national awards for offering lessons about our planet.
Penn State alumni Brett Altman and Tyler Bank recently collaborated to create a new song called “Beauty,” which they wrote together in Nashville. The two never met during their time at Penn State but connected online through the university’s alumni network and ended up working in music together.
With more than a million likes and streams on TikTok and Spotify, Penn State senior Eric Damiano is finding success doing what he loves the most: writing songs that connect to people’s feelings.
THON might be over, but the charitable spirit among Penn Staters isn’t.
The Venezuelan Student Organization (VSO), in partnership with Un Par Por Un Sueño at Penn State, is raising funds to fight food insecurity among kids in Venezuela.
Despite its youth, the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition is already making a big impact on the Penn State community.
The coalition works to educate on issues like sexual violence and reproductive justice. Lately, its efforts have focused on increasing transparency within Penn State’s administration on those topics.
Between Penn State’s hybrid mode of class delivery, travel restrictions, and embassy closures, many international students are staying home and taking their classes remotely this fall semester.
However, despite the many obstacles, these students have managed to stay active and involved while studying thousands of miles away from State College.
Penn State News
With a dream of saving the world and inspiring others to do the same, Nora Van Horn, a senior triple majoring in philosophy, Chinese, and global and international studies, has used her education to create lasting change at Penn State.
Jillian Kerr, a senior majoring in economics and philosophy with a focus on justice, law and values, has been working toward her dream of being an attorney while also uplifting the experiences of fellow Black students at Penn State. Jillian Kerr is the student representative on the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Transformation in the College of the Liberal Arts.
Kerry Abello was selected to represent the College of the Liberal Arts as the student marshal for Penn State’s fall 2021 commencement. Penn State Schreyer Scholar Kerry Abello will begin her professional soccer career with the Orlando Pride this spring and plans to attend medical school in the future.
This Penn State alumna never thought she would be the voice in the fight against violence against women or police reform in London — until she had to be. She credits her professional skills to her experiences at Penn State, which prepared her for a career in events management and film production.
Matt Stephens, a 1994 alum of Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts, found his career path in Japan through study abroad.
Stick to Change
According to UN Women and the World Health Organization, approximately 736 million women (about one in every three women) have been victims of physical or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once. What very few people talk about is that minority groups are even more vulnerable to sexual violence, and they do not receive nearly as much attention.
I remember one day, late at night in college, I was talking to one of my friends from India. I don’t remember exactly what the conversation was about, but I do remember commenting on the caste system in India and how I could never imagine something like that happening in my country.
Statelessness, by the international law definition, is “A person who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.” Being a stateless person is different than being undocumented. When you are undocumented, you still have the right to said documents. You are still part of a country where you can claim citizenship. A stateless person is not able to get those documents as she/he is not considered a citizen of any country.
Her Campus
Some call you “Paris of the Tropics” due to the luxury architecture from the rubber era, or “Lungs of The World” due to the Amazon forest and the oxygen it provides for us.
You prove so much air for us, yet here we are dying from the lack of O2.
What are Cubans protesting for?
Last Sunday, many Cubans protested the lack of food and medicine across the country. They were also asking for more freedom and for the current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to step down from power (Oppmann, 2021).
Recently, I have been reading one of my favorite childhood book series “Shooting My Life’s Script” by Paula Pimenta. When I first read it as a thirteen-year-old, I thought the book was an epic romance that I idolized.
Now, almost seven years later, I realize that the book is just some sweet tale of a regular high school relationship.
College Magazine
I was extremely thrilled about the opportunity to leave my hometown in Brazil and come to the United States for college. It was so easy to answer the question, “Why do you want to study abroad?”
Before going to college, I thought the differences between me and someone brought up in Indonesia, for example, were too great. Having grown up on almost opposite sides of the world, there was no way we could relate to each other and become friends. Now, a little more than a year later, I realize that my impression was completely wrong.
When I first arrived in the United States for college, I thought I knew everything about life as a college student in the U.S. After all, my college expectations came from books and movies set at American universities, and even from stories from one friend who came from Brazil to the U.S. the year before me. My story, however, was very different from what I saw in the media, and even more different from what my friend told me
Throughout my entire life, I have written about 12 full journals.
Since I was 10, I’ve been documenting my deepest thoughts, funniest events and saddest moments in writing.