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When you walk into a bathroom at my school, it’s hard not to catch a student vaping, or smell the nauseating vapor. Vaping is prohibited at my school, of course–but in the bathrooms, there are no cameras. I don’t vape, but when I ask my friends why they do it, most of the time I […]

The recent United States military operation to seize control of Venezuela’s energy sector and remove Nicolás Maduro has fundamentally restructured the global chessboard, and not in Washington’s favor. By reasserting a 21st-century Monroe Doctrine fueled by explicit resource extraction, the U.S. has inadvertently stripped itself of its remaining diplomatic leverage in the Ukraine peace process. […]

Washington has a lot of work to do on health care. The current battle on Obamacare subsidies is a stark reminder of that fact. While that issue is divisive, there are opportunities to find consensus on health care such as protecting Medicare’s home health benefit, which is widely supported by Americans of all backgrounds and […]

In finance, a unicorn is defined as a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion, a term coined by investor Aileen Lee to describe its rarity. But I would like to expand that definition so that “unicorn status” measures not only market valuation but also the scale and durability of a company’s contribution to solving […]

For me, time spent on Instagram isn’t doom-scrolling. It’s education, inspiration, even validation for plot points of my debut novel I plan to publish this year. Posts can also feed my indignation and rage. “Did you know,” I growl, looking up from the tiny screen clutched in my hand, “that there’s still a law on the books supporting the forced sterilization of ‘feeble-minded’ women (Buck v. […]

Growing up, my Nana would tell me, “Shoot for the moon…and you’ll always land among the stars.” But what happens…when even the stars aren’t attainable? Throughout my journey in higher education, I have been trained to do several things. To be in my head more than my body. To use bench science techniques. And to […]

At 250 years, the American Revolution is no longer a story of simple triumph. Watching Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary The American Revolution reminded me that the nation’s founding was a struggle—moral, political, and deeply contradictory. And today, as our President acts in ways that seem to challenge the very principles this country was built […]

When federal dollars disappear from public schools, the damage is never evenly distributed. It concentrates—predictably—on Black, rural, and historically underfunded communities. North Carolina’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over the sudden termination of nearly $50 million in school funding exposes an old truth dressed up as a new administrative decision: when commitments to […]

I was a strictly no-social-media kid. My parents were adamantly against technology for much of my life. Without the chance to scroll aimlessly, I grew up almost exclusively on books. At the time, I was fine with that; reading brought me joy on its own. But there was an added benefit: whenever adults would compliment […]

The Princeton Review publishes a “Top 50 Green Colleges” list annually. The list aims to highlight colleges and universities that have “superb sustainability practices, a strong foundation in sustainability education, and a healthy quality of life for students on campus.” These colleges tout LEED-certified buildings, renewable energy initiatives, and zero-waste goals. Yet, as generative AI […]