The Ithacan

IC Defy’s dance repertoire includes ballet, hip-hop, jazz and contemporary. Each style is taught by a different student instructor each day.

Alisar Awwad created the #takeitback Project in an effort to “take back” her own identity and empathize with others.

Year after year of math classes, many of my Asian-American classmates would ace their math tests while I hoped for a B-minus or better.

One day, one of my white teammates stated frustratingly, “It doesn’t make sense. You should be better at this.” This stopped me in my tracks.

This spring break, I was a tourist in New York City. It was my fourth or fifth time there, but only my first time with an uncomfortable experience.

With recent ISIS activity taking the forefront of the media coverage, the fear of terrorists is on high alert. People see a man in a turban in the airport and automatically rush to the worst-case scenario. I would like to take the opportunity to say this: Islam does not equal ISIS.

It has also been reported (via military.com) that fewer than 1 in 10 people who apply for disability will not receive it. What happens to these veterans? How can they adjust to their regular lives without help?

I challenge all who read this to take a second to appreciate your grandparents. Give them patience, respect, and, most importantly, love. If you are one of the lucky ones who still has living grandparents, take a few minutes out of your day to see them or call them.

A person with homosexual interests is still a person. An attraction to the same gender does not make you any less male or female, and it definitely does not make you any less human.

The point that I want to make is this: no matter what your spiritual beliefs are, there will be people who put you into certain groupings. This is a result of the extremists in religion who have created an image that is unfairly placed on all who have the same or similar beliefs. Our country prides itself on welcoming diversity, yet religion causes so much conflict and so many hard feelings.

What is it that makes gender a source of so many problems? How can the XX or XY chromosomes differ that significantly that a person’s sex dictates certain categories that they fall into?

Mentally ill people may have to fight their thoughts day in and day out, which is more exhausting than others realize. The feelings of being alone in this world can take over your mind as a virus would take over its host cell. The human brain becomes ill and weak and frail until life seems like it is too much to deal with.