Nonfiction Commons^™

Empty Promises And Other Coping Mechanisms, Jenna B. Long

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Ivy Leaves, Volume 90, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2015 edition of the Anderson University journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Jonathan Kurtz, Charlotte Stapp, Callie Renfrow, Courtney Couch, Angel Hisnanick, Taylor Kaiser, Yvonne Didway, Noelle Hisnanick, Taylor Henry, Mitchell Dallas Herring, Rebekah Rhoden, Logan Hickey, Josie Maszk, Julia Madden, Kenneth Keller, Alex Dib, Micah Peek, Benjamin Mahaffey, Justin Parker, Teresa Jones, and Tim Speaker.

Westview: Vol. 31, Iss. 1 (Fall/Winter 2015)

Westview

No abstract provided.

Bailamos Juntos: Salsa En Los E.E.U.U. Y El Mundo, Betty Tran

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This composition traces the history of Cuban-American cultural identity formation through the lens of music and dance. As the author explains, Cuban immigrants cultivated a rich music and dance culture in New York City by creating a series of Latin and Afro-Cuban music genres and dances that brought diverse groups of people together. As a Vietnamese-American woman, Tran sees several connections between her family’s Vietnamese heritage and the cultural histories of Cubans who came to the United States as refugees seeking asylum from political oppression. As a first-generation college student, Tran believes it is important to share this composition as …

My Veil, Citlaly Orozco

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Many first-generation students go into college hoping to make their parents proud. Throughout their years at the university, however, students often become more connected to their college environments and concerned with finding their own voices. Family may continue to be an important foundation, but as students begin to learn, explore, and accept who they can be, they may grow distant from their families. In this personal philosophy, the author discusses how the process of discovery that takes place during the college years can sometimes challenge traditional family views, but, in the end, Orozco believes that strong family bonds will lead …

An Education, Priscilla T. Torres

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

The first-generation college experience is one that is often a subtle realization. This piece examines the influence of the author's grandmother on her path to college and her understanding of what it means to be a first-generation college student. The author comes to the realization that a first-generation college education is not merely the student's own; it is that of her entire family and dates back generations.

A Tres Pasos De La Muerte, Samuel Temblador

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

"A Tres Pasos de la Muerte" tells the story of a son of Mexican immigrants and his search for his roots. Here, Temblador attempts to communicate a bicultural experience through the frame of border literature (Literatura Fronteriza) born out of the intersection between Mexican and American culture.

Applications For Dummies, Carla M. Sanchez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This poem discusses the overwhelming pressure that is put on students to justify their right to be admitted into universities or to receive scholarships based on their extracurricular activities. Many working-class, first-generation college students are unable to participate in organizations and programs that offer students a more well-rounded college experience. This can lead first-gen students, like the author, to feel isolated, inadequate, or illegitimate. "Applications for Dummies" expresses Sanchez's incessant fear that she will never be able to compete with other students who were given the opportunity to build more worldly resumes, despite her strong academic commitment and intellectual potential.

It's Not Just A Leave, Genesis L. Montalvo

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

In this piece, the author sets out to explore the first-generation college identity through a gothic lens. In the early stages of this project, Montalvo had considered doing research on narratives from other first-gen college students as a way to trace the uncanny and the abject in their experiences. However, as she began reflecting on her own personal history, she realized that in a matter of only two years she had already experienced moments of distance, uncanniness, and confusion, which are recorded here. In presenting these installments in non-chronological order, Montalvo intends to insert a gothic element of disorder, which …

The Upside Of A Bottle, Mary Ludwig

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Small town girl in the city: In this narrative, Mary Ludwig discusses growing up in rural northern California, her struggles with her mother's alcoholism, and her incredible success as a first-generation student. She challenges her family's notions that she will have a "breakdown" and overcomes every obstacle that presents itself.

Flashlight, Min-Jung Kim

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This poem illustrates the struggle of an undergraduate first-generation college student who knew little about the first-gen identity or the experiences she would encounter until she became a First To Go Scholar at Loyola Marymount University. The poet represents the First To Go Program as a flashlight that has helped her to navigate a once dark and unfamiliar environment.

Summer Days In The Library, Morika Fields

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This essay explores how the author became the reader and writer that she is today. Memories and stories make up the bulk of Fields' piece, along with some retrospective insights on her educational journey.

Keagan, Morika Fields

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

"Keagan" recounts a first-gen poet's experience babysitting a 12 month old who cried incessantly for his mother. Reflecting upon the evening in the weeks that followed, the author comes to realize that this 12 month old experienced emotions a 30 year old man could relate to: loneliness, abandonment, and heartache. The poem is meant to explore these elements of life that begin in infancy and remain with us into mature adulthood.

Revelation, Tanya Diaz

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

There can sometimes be a gap between first-gen students and parents who have not experienced the stress of higher education. Children may believe this stress to be a necessary sacrifice for their future wellness; however, they often cannot feel their parents' sacrifices, just as their parents cannot feel their child's mental strain. Diaz creates this poem in an effort to examine her relationship with her mother from an outsider's point of view, in the end realizing that although her parents cannot always understand her experiences, they care and will support her decisions.

What Am I?, Carlie Cuddihy

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This autobiographical work revolves around the author's personal identity and how she sorts through various stories of her family's heritage. Cuddihy is able to relate her family stories to her own life and connect them to resonant themes of American identity. The development of the author's family over the years has granted her the opportunity to attend a four-year university today.

Volume 15, Issue 1: Full Text

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Samplings

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

A Pasture At Twilight, Gloria Novak

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Poker Club, Harry Ames

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Ward Number Ten, John H. Spears

Manuscripts

Most of the men on ward ten had been brought in the evening before. They were engaged in adjusting themselves to another hospital of the chain of field, evacuation and general hospitals stretched around the globe...