Art and Design Commons^™

How I Came To Dominican, Lisa Wagenhurst

The Tuxedo Archives

I remember like it was yesterday. It was late on a hot Friday afternoon in mid-
August and the sun was shining with the fierceness that August is notorious for, even in Northern California. Everywhere I looked there were trees and flowers and beautiful lawns. ~excerpt from short story

The Frog Pond, Valerie Silver

The Tuxedo Archives

Each January, the frog pond calls to me. I drive across town to the Discovery
Center parking lot, put on my mud shoes, breathe in the damp, leafy air, and step away from my everyday world. ~excerpt from short story

Sonoma County, Jim Metzger

The Tuxedo Archives

“It’s coming, a calmness of thought. It has to be.” These were often Tom’s words and most certainly always his thoughts. “The critical mass of media cannot sustain its frequency.” So for that we will be grateful, and for Tom’s final wishes, I am grateful too. ~excerpt from prose

Just Dial Zero (Excerpt), Megan Lynn

The Tuxedo Archives

Welcome to Paradise.

The scent of stale booze, fresh urine and dejection washed over her as she opened the glass door with a crack carefully patched by a duct tape diagonal slash. A small bell jingled above her head. She wondered where anyone would go. ~excerpt from prose

Paris, Cooper Scollan

The Tuxedo Archives

Oh to be in Paris. Paris, just like the movies. Just like the image. Just like the romance. It is as beautiful as one could conceive, and as inspiring as one wants it to be. As you visit the sites, eat the food, and try to become a part of this breathtaking city, you are left in a state of constant emotional tickle. But to be in Paris, you must try to act like a Parisian. Not a tourist. ~excerpt from prose

The Seven Forgotten Modern Wonders Of The World, Amy Fagan

The Tuxedo Archives

The Gateway Arch is the “gateway” to Saint Louis, Missouri. The Arch is a feature of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park, and standing at 630 ft., is the nation’s tallest memorial. The stainless steel structure took four years to construct and was dedicated in 1966. Now, millions of visitors take a tram from one leg of the Arch to the top to get a glimpse of bustling St. Louis. ~excerpt from prose

A Cautionary Tale: Exploring Myths On Dominican Sponsored Trip To China, Alexis Mcbride

The Tuxedo Archives

I am submitting this cautionary tale to the wary traveler. Be prepared for some surprises and be open for new ideas.

These are a few things I learned:

1) There is no such thing as an easy credit.
I admit that it was naive to expect easy credits. I should have predicted extensive reading for class preparation, a trip journal that would swallow two weeks of my life and a fourteen page paper that would entail hours of research and writing. ~excerpt from prose

Testimonies From Ireland, Brianna Youmans, Katie Ross, Denise Cetti

The Tuxedo Archives

This summer, nine of Dominican University’s students involved in B.A.S.I.C., traveled to Northern Ireland where they worked with children and young adults, encouraging them to become “leaders of peace and hope.” ~excerpt from prose

View From A Hill, Jennifer Curtin

The Tuxedo Archives

My mother and I drive up Parnassus Avenue in the hills of San Francisco. Listening to our iPod, I sing along to “Gold Dust Woman” by Fleetwood Mac. Usually, my mother would join me, especially since this song is one of our favorites, but she seems ashamed of her weakening voice. The pulsating rhythm of the song enhances the nervous tension as we charge up the Victorian-lined incline. ~excerpt from prose

Not Far From Home, Serianna Pearson

The Tuxedo Archives

I flew out of the San Francisco International Airport with a group of essential strangers to travel out of the country for the first time. After a bumpy ride fully-equipped with a lightning storm, we landed in Quito, Ecuador. I highly anticipated this trip, collecting handouts and attending group meetings, but I was somewhat confused when, standing in the customs line, I saw two pictures: one of San Francisco and one of Quito, with a slogan basically saying “Quito, the sister-city of San Francisco.” Apparently, I hadn’t traveled as far from home as I thought. ~excerpt from prose

Find Yourself By Looking In A New Place, Christopher Leeds

The Tuxedo Archives

Making the choice to leave a very successful, established life in the corporate world and enter academia was an easy one for me. The opportunity to help students find some direction, to find a path to start their lives or change already established ones, was irresistible. ~excerpt from prose

Churros, Julia Van Der Ryn

The Tuxedo Archives

We are here in the middle of a country. At night I anchor myself to my husband as if we were surrounded by water instead of a flat, dry plane of land. I hook my foot around his ankle and breathe in dust and the smell of other people's kitchens. Frying foods fuel my dreams. ~excerpt from prose

A Mexican In Metropolis: Pensées Of A Summer Among Parisians, Carlos Rodriguez

The Tuxedo Archives

Aeroports Charles de Gaulle

How to get there from here. From San Rafael, take the airporter at the Transit Center. Get to SFO. And then take a plane to France. Fly into the night. Arrive the next day.~excerpt from prose

Sleeping Ladies, Rachele Ketchem

The Tuxedo Archives

Out of nowhere a man jumped out of the bushes on the trail a little ahead of us. He was balding, tall, a 40 something year-old with spooky eyes. Christine knew damn well Kim and I were scaredy cats and began to quote a favorite old horror movie of ours,

“Barbara! He is coming to get you Barbara!”At that point, Kim and I were giving her the shut-the-fuck-up look as this creepy guy wearing camouflage in the dark was walking towards us. ~excerpt from prose

Crash And Burn, Ashton Guasco

The Tuxedo Archives

My eyes open slowly as the paralyzing drugs begin to lose their hold over my body. I wake up alone and at first, I look around in fear; not knowing where I am. I begin to remember the terrifying events of the morning that led me to this place, this hospital recovery room at midnight. It had started as any other horse show day. ~excerpt from prose

The Need To Be Inspired, Jessica Curlett

The Tuxedo Archives

It is like opening my eyes for the first time as I step off the plane and new sights greet me like a warm breeze of air. This is the Golden State. The State people think of when “the land of opportunity” runs through one’s mind; home to both the red wood forests, and Tinsel town. ~excerpt from prose

Moon Love Valley, California, Megan Lynn

The Tuxedo Archives

There is a valley north of San Francisco where the moon shines her love. Mountains stand tall and proud, rooted to the ground, protecting the valley floor. The North and East mountains are darker, the protectors. They are covered with tall, earthy green trees that, on grey mornings, fog tangles in on its way over the mountain crest, clearing just before noon. ~excerpt from prose

Creation Myth, Annabelle C. Maginnis

The Tuxedo Archives

There was nothing. Emptier and emptier still, chaos made its way between the gaps. Eventually, chaos spun itself into a figure of all capability. This figure was It. It was an androgynous watery conglomerate that grew tired of life alone, and curious about the nature of its own body. It tugged at its malleable sides and burst, creating a circular globe that It named Earth. ~excerpt from prose

It Happens Everywhere, Mariah Mcguire

The Tuxedo Archives

When did violence and hate become the norm? I can’t turn on the t.v, listen to the radio or turn a page without hearing about someone getting popped. Pop pop. All it takes is one shot, one stab one burst of anger to end a life. My friends, my classmates did they even see it coming? He wears that red bandana hanging out the back of his pocket with pride. ~excerpt from prose

The Eternal Torment, Benjamin Mages

The Tuxedo Archives

I sigh. How many days have I spent in this hellish torment? Has it been weeks? Months? Years? There’s no way to tell time in this prison of eternal twilight. Each cycle (as it is impossible to know if one of these is actually a day) seems a monotonous repeat of the previous. First, I wake up. I am surrounded in filthy and reeking dirt that covers the walls of my cell. I have a single roommate, Jorath. He’s a brute of a man, just as dirty and reeking as I am after all this time. ~excerpt from prose

The Art Of War For Pre-Med Penguins, Elyza Genilo

The Tuxedo Archives

Organismal Biology: Mon/Wed, 8am; General Chemistry I: Tues/Thurs, 8am; Bio Methodology & Research: Fri, 8am. Great, you think to yourself, all 8am classes from Monday-Friday, a 17 unit workload that also includes College Algebra and Statistics for Health Sciences. This is what your college days will be like for the next four years as a pre-med student. How do you think you will survive? ~excerpt from prose

An Open Letter To All The Adam Carolla's, Adrienne Formentos

The Tuxedo Archives

So. I want to say I expected better, but in fact, I'm not at all surprised by your total ignorance and racism.

The first time I heard about your tirade about Manny Pacquiao's illiteracy, prayers to "chicken bones," and the Philippine's reputation for sex tourism I found myself caught in a bit of struggle. You see, as a Filipino-American woman I was not at all shocked to find you think little of my motherland and its hero. ~excerpt from short story

Immigration Told Through Cuisine, Melissa Hughs

The Tuxedo Archives

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee is a wonderful, well researched book. Lee, the daughter immigrants from China and a speaker of fluent Mandarin, began this book as a research study into the lives of people who won lotteries based on numbers found in fortune cookies. What the project turned into was a discovery of herself and her culture. Lee, whose middle initial means prosperity in Chinese, combines historical facts and the stories of immigrants, along with her experiences as the daughter of immigrants, in order tell the story of Chinese food. ~excerpt from prose

Movie Reviews- Unfaithful, Talaria Haast

The Tuxedo Archives

Okay, so honestly, the fact that this movie was way hot almost outweighed its flaws. Almost...but not quite.

So let’s begin with Richard Gere. First of all, I thought his initial reaction was accurate. Well, not accurate, because I can’t really back that up...but handled in what seemed to be a realistic way. His relationship with Diane Lane was logical up to the point where you believed that she cheated because they were just so mismatched. I don’t much see Gere as a romantic lead (even though some casting directors do), so I really could see Lane growing apart. ~excerpt …