Digital Commons Network^™

Fashion Faux Pas And Cheetah Claws, Helena E. Yang

SURGE

It feels like winter, a time for thick socks, boots, warm coats, and… leggings?

Leggings are one of those articles of clothing we completely overdo... Or UNDER-do. From a practicality standpoint, they’re marvels of winter, but why rock the thin, sheer leggings in 0° weather when you could just wear shorts? [excerpt]

Reading Between The Lines, Conor P. Brooks

SURGE

“Why do so many people come to our country? They come here and they take pictures, and then they go home and use them to show that we are a terrible place. Why do you do this?”

This question was posed to me by a sixteen-year old boy in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti while I was visiting his school on a post-earthquake relief trip in 2012. [excerpt]

Fearless: Yaou Liu, Yaou Liu

SURGE

Humbly and passionately serving the campus community as a true “servant leader” for the past three-and-a-half years, actively engaging in dialogues and initiatives to promote awareness about social injustices, and constantly striving to learn more, act more, and teach more, Yaou Liu ’14, is a fearless role model for the campus community, showing in everything she does a restless passion to see the injustices in the world righted, awareness increased, and the future changed for the better. She is an inspiring, courageous student who has enriched the lives of many both on campus and in the greater Gettysburg community, using …

The Cost Of Affordable Food, Candice L. Cobuzzi

SURGE

When someone puts a piece of food in front of me, I don’t just see a piece of food.

Instead, I see an innocent cow being cornered by a forklift and slaughtered, its limp, moist tissue hung on a long conveyer belt with hundreds of others.

I see hundreds of chemically-injected chickens packed into a dark barn with no hope of seeing sunlight in their lifetime.

I see immigrants pulled from their houses like criminals, taken away from the lives they’ve spent years building for themselves and their families, working for the same food company that courted them into the …

Reimagining My Body, Center For Public Service

SURGE

I stood there, shoulders slouched, elbows locked, hands glued to the side of the toilet. My body convulsing, I told myself, “this is the last time, just one more time and you’ll get back on track tomorrow.” It wasn’t the last time. I had been forcing myself to purge for months at this point, and each time I hated myself for it.

It was something I couldn’t control. It wasn’t out of a need for attention as so commonly thought, but a pure need to be the unreachable level of thin that I thought would make me beautiful. I was …

Our Gendered Food Chain, Jasmine T. Colahan

SURGE

Over the past four decades, the number of women-operated farms has nearly doubled. Including both primary and secondary operators, one million women make up thirty percent of all U.S. farmers.

Headlines such as “Females Take the Reins,” “Meet the New face of Agriculture,” “Old McDonald Might Be a Lady” demonstrate this gender shift. And, it is true in my life too. As I worked on the Painted Turtle Farm this summer, the majority of my role models, co-workers, and mentors working in agriculture, whether rural or urban, were primarily women. [excerpt]

Fearless: Melissa Rich, Kathryn E. Bucolo

SURGE

Consistently striving to take what she learns in the classroom and apply it to her life, whether in terms of her interest in Native American issues or her passion for animals and desire to go to veterinary school, Melissa Rich ’14 serves her community humbly, respectfully, and with the intent to educate those around her. [excerpt]

Challenging Homelessness, Elizabeth D. Marshall

SURGE

I had been homeless for about 28 hours. I sat on a sidewalk in Georgetown with a friend holding a cardboard sign that read, “Put a Smile on Our Faces” with a Dunkin Donuts cup at our feet. In the two and a half hours we sat there, hundreds of people passed, hundreds of people avoided eye contact, hundreds of people detoured around the lamppost on the street side of the sidewalk. A few people glanced at our sign. [excerpt]

Down At The Cross, Elena Perez-Zetune

SURGE

For the first thirteen years of my familial life, I walked a block to devoutly pray to statues with open arms, promising open gates- my radiant mother walking with once thin father, hand in hand like a teenage couple. My sister, with her thick night-black curly hair, skipped and fell every other step, not due to young age but simply an unfortunate quarrel with gravity. Always trailing close behind was my brother clutching his precious cards shouting, “I choose you Pikachu” along the way.

From kindergarten through eighth grade, I walked through the hallways of my Catholic primary school. The …

Fearless: Kaleigh Sosa, Kathryn E. Bucolo

SURGE

Fearlessly organizing events on campus addressing issues of sexual assault, serving the campus community by raising awareness of gender, bias, and violence issues, and helping first-years and sophomores as part of Residence Life staff, Kaleigh Sosa ’14 passionately leads her peers toward understanding. [excerpt]

Twice As Likely To..., Adrienne M. Ellis

SURGE

TRIGGER WARNING!

I am white. I am bisexual. I am female. I have been sexually assaulted. Three times. [excerpt]

What I'Ve Learned To Expect, Natalie S. Sherif

SURGE

“Hey bitch!” someone yelled.

“Biiitttch!” I heard again from the car.

Music blared from inside. I pretended not to notice. Don’t give them the satisfaction, I thought. Don’t do something you’ll regret. So I stood there until the cars stopped whizzing past, pretending to ignore a car of boys yelling insults.

When the light changed, I hurried across Carlisle Street, got into my room, and lost it.

I was furious. Being reduced to an insult while walking home from a movie for class is infuriating. But, what really got under my skin was that incidents like this seem commonplace. While …

Fearless: Sexual Assault Survivors, Kathryn E. Bucolo

SURGE

TRIGGER WARNING!

Raped, abused, molested, assaulted. Every other day on this campus.

Grabbed, touched, hit, down. Not a person. Skirt going down, shirt coming up.

Led behind locked doors, poured another drink.

“Not sure if it counted as assault.”

Every. other. day. [excerpt]

To Empathize With An Enemy, Rashida Aluko-Roberts

SURGE

I do not like to talk about my time in Sierra Leone, but I think I’m ready to start.

Growing up in Sierra Leone was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I carry with me fond memories of my childhood, growing up on 22 Thompson Street in the one-storey house with red doors and windows and zebra themed paint. Evenings were spent riding bikes with my best friend Fatmata. Weekend afternoons spent playing scrabble and watching our favorite Disney movies with my siblings and neighbors in our living room. Those memories I have kept, happily. [excerpt …

The Strong Silent Type, Alyssa L. Bosold

SURGE

Speak up. Be assertive. Lean in. Take up space. However it’s said, there is a stream of discourse telling women that we should be louder and prouder in order to succeed.

As the argument goes, we, as women, are silenced by oppression. Society tells us to be quiet, politely agree, and make ourselves as small as possible. So naturally, we should resist this social pressure by being more vocal, more extroverted, and more assertive. [excerpt]

Fearless: Eric Lee, Eric J. Lee

SURGE

Snapping pictures of his fellow Gettysburgians around campus as the visual communications intern, and fearlessly working with other students to create, organize, and lead the new Asian Student Alliance (ASA) group on campus, Eric Lee ’15 finds himself at the crossroads of art and activism.

New to campus this year after two years in the making, the ASA is a student-led, -run, and -organized group focused on celebrating different Asian cultures and heritages, closing the gap between international and domestic students, and creating a social, cultural, and political forum for students to dialogue, specifically about issues facing Asian communities. [ …

Every Other Day, Sarah M. Connelly

SURGE

There is a problem on our campus—a problem of sexual assault and its perpetuation due to unnecessary silence. Current compulsory education on the topic through AlcoholEdu and First-Year Orientation are often turned into jokes because of course everyone knows not to rape and not to put yourself in a dangerous situation. The concept doesn’t seem real until a Campus Safety Alert reports that one of our students has been sexually assaulted. But even then, we get those so infrequently that it couldn’t be that much of an issue, right? [excerpt]

Dear Mama: An Open Letter From A Prodigal Son, Mauricio E. Novoa

SURGE

Dear Mama,

This may seem a bit unconventional, and it may be a bit difficult to understand (both why I did this and the words I’m writing), but I guess the time came where I had to get some things off of my mind. I’m in my last year of college, and by this time next year, 7 days after my 22nd birthday, I may no longer be in your household, under your guidance and protection, eating your pupusas and pan con frijoles, or having to beg you for money. I also won’t be disregarding your requests to clean the …

Fearless: Heather Ipsen, Heather Ipsen

SURGE

In celebration of Sustainability Week on campus, we proudly feature Heather Ipsen ’16 who has fearlessly raised awareness for the environmental issues about which she’s passionate and started a group on campus to better facilitate dialogue between sustainability groups. [excerpt]

Do You Have A Boyfriend Yet?, Corrine E. Fucci

SURGE

“Do you have a boyfriend yet?”

That was the question that haunted me for most of my teenage years, the one I knew I would be asked at each family event and have to answer as nonchalantly as I could, “No, not yet,” without letting anyone know how embarrassed I felt. The feelings of anguish and anxiety continued in games of “Never Have I Ever,” going around the table with a group of less-than-close girlfriends sharing some of our first or best romantic experiences, so grateful that I had those one or two experiences that “kind of counted but maybe …

Generalizing Anxiety, Center For Public Service

SURGE

As she began reading the list of symptoms, I was making mental check marks next to the ones that applied to me.

Fear of interacting with strangers- check. Fear that others will notice that you look anxious- check. Avoiding doing things or talking to people out of fear of embarrassment- check. Fear of situations in which you may be judged- check. Anxiety that disrupts your daily routine, work or school activities- check, check, check. [excerpt]

Fearless: Adrienne Ellis, Adrienne M. Ellis

SURGE

Taking the initiative to change college policies related to LGBTQ issues, restructuring a sustainable community garden in Gettysburg over the summer, and continually being motivated to change and challenge the powers that be through her love of people, Adrienne Ellis ’14 fearlessly fights for what she believes to help the people she loves— everybody. [excerpt]

Gay After Graduation, Laura J. Koenig

SURGE

I first went public with my sexual orientation over Surge last spring–my last semester at Gettysburg before graduation. I was scared, but ultimately lucky to be met with support from my friends and family. People generally accepted my sexuality and then moved on. Actually, life went on so quickly that it took me some time to catch up. [excerpt]

Bi The Way, I'M Queer, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

363 days ago, on October 11, 2012, I came out as bisexual.

Every year, the queer community observes October 11th as National Coming Out Day, a day when queers of all kinds can openly acknowledge and celebrate their sexual orientation and gender identity. [excerpt]

Overheard At Gettysburg, Rashida Aluko-Roberts, Zakiya A. Brown, Monae S. Evans

SURGE

Monday. In Old TKE. A student of color is called in the hallway to hear the “funniest thing ever.” (giggling) “Night night little nigglet.”

Tuesday. In an AFS class. “I’m pretty sure the majority of black students in my private school were there because of sports.”

Wednesday. In Musselman. Woman: “I can’t believe Trayvon Martin got shot because someone thought skittles was a weapon.” Man: “To be honest, he did look suspicious because he was black.” [excerpt]

Fearless: Emily Cranfill, Emily J. Cranfill

SURGE

Emily Cranfill ’15 has been getting a lot of attention recently, but not necessarily for all of the volunteering, organizations, and groups with which she’s normally involved. Since first hearing last week about the Ku Klux Klan’s (KKK) plans to come protest in the town of Gettysburg, Emily has been inspired to take action by organizing a Rally for Unity Against Hate on campus this Saturday afternoon while the KKK will be protesting. And the responses to her fearless ideas, enthusiasm, and initiative have been staggering. [excerpt]

Red Drops For A Rainbow, Zakiya A. Brown

SURGE

Splashes of pool water licked my ankles, scenting my coffee-colored toes with chlorine. Bareback guardians, robed in red, hovered high as flocks of fleshy tangible innocence skipped jubilantly across the pool deck and disappeared into a wet square pocket of sapphire. [excerpt of poem]

I Don't Want To Save Second Base, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

Tomorrow kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I have one request: This October, let’s not save second base.

I know, I know, you probably think this month is a good thing. If not for all of those T-shirts demanding every female-bodied person to feel their boobies, or the bracelets simply proclaiming “I love boobies,” people with breasts might forget that they even have them, or at the very least might start to think that their breasts are their own business. But the female body seems to be an object owned by the public, so we must always be reminded …

Fearless (Saturday): Michael Hannum, Michael W. Hannum

SURGE

In celebration of Alumni Homecoming Weekend and Hispanic Heritage Week, we proudly feature Michael Hannum, member of the Class of 2011, for his fearless commitment to fighting for social justice issues and his continued involvement in serving the Adams County community. Currently working with the Lincoln Intermediate Unit’s Migrant Education Program as a Recruitment Coordinator, Michael began finding his passion for helping identify families in the migrant community who need extra educational support when he was a first-year student just looking for something to do. [excerpt]

A Tale Of Two Needles, Chengyi Liu

SURGE

Looking back, I guess the name should have been my first clue. “Alternative” medicine? “Complementary” medicine? What is it about these medical practices, which to me are completely traditional, that places them in a secondary position to other medicinal options in the United States? [excerpt]