Advocacy

In the fall of my junior year of high school, the athletics program mandated an assembly for all the female athletes, stuffing our already cramped cafeteria full with apathetic girls.

It is not lost on me, the irony of reading The Idiot as my clock reads midnight: I have work in 8 hours. But I am captivated.

Cassie (she/her): Hi Emma Mei and Acacia, can you start by telling me a little bit about yourself? What year are you, what are your pronouns, what is your racial/ethnic identity, and how long have you been in Mixed Race Student Coalition (MRSC)

In the United States, including all 50 states and Washington D.C, only 7% of professors are Black, despite Black people making up about 13% of the total population.

Just over two weeks ago, I sat down (albeit over Zoom) for a conversation with University of Virginia’s Vice President for Finance, and Chief Financial Officer, Augie Maurelli, to talk about all things tuition for Iris Magazine. 

Journalism: the “4th pillar” of government. The watchdogs of politics (and other social institutions), they expose the unethical decisions of those in power.

You know what. I’ll say it. I liked working in retail. For me, most days going to work meant an opportunity to play dress up with guests, engage with the broad spectrum of the human condition, and get people to spend their money–or even better, their partners’ money.

In today’s Third Wave feminist movement, there’s a growing idea that any “choice” a woman makes, with the intention of doing so to empower herself or the women around her, is inherently “feminist.” Such ideology is referred to as “choice feminism,” and isn’t it a relief?

In talking to my female-identifying peers, I’ve found that almost every one of them remembers a time when a man has said something so demeaning, sexist, or uncomfortable, that it has stuck with them for ages.

She tells her friend she needs air, and on the patio of this popular college bar, her heart races. Her lungs feel on fire. Her hands can’t stop shaking.