Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Challenging Homelessness, Elizabeth D. Marshall

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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]

The New Normal, Hannah M. Frantz

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On September 19, 2013 an individual wielding a military-grade assault rifle fired sixteen bullets into a Chicago park harming thirteen individuals, among them a 3-year old named Deonta Howard who was shot in the cheek.

On September 16, 2013 a man by the name of Aaron Alexis opened fire on the cafeteria at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. Thirteen people died, and eight others were injured.

On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza shot twenty-six people—twenty of whom were children between the ages of 6 and 7—in Newtown, Connecticut. Barack Obama called it the “worst day of [his] presidency.”

On …

Fearless: Jessie Pierce, Jessie M. Pierce

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A vocal advocate for socio-environmental justice issues and a believer in the potential for social change in the developing world, Jessie Pierce ’14 fearlessly travels, volunteers, and researches to promote awareness and change. Studying abroad last year for both semesters, spending one semester in Denmark and one in India, gave Jessie the interest, skills, and drive to continue pursuing a deeper understanding of these issues while at Gettysburg. [excerpt]

The Shortcomings Of A "Diverse" College Campus, Chelsea E. Broe

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“What is the diversity like at Gettysburg College?” As a tour guide, I get asked this question a lot. It’s a tricky question to answer: On one hand, I know that this is probably the family’s way of inquiring about race on campus without having to use such a taboo word, but on the other, my Diversity Peer Educator training chimes in and I want to challenge my questioner’s assumptions about what diversity even means. [excerpt]

Porch Culture: The Stoop Of Entitlement, Marina K. Crouse

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To the class of 2017:

Welcome to Gettysburg. Welcome to the next four years of your life. Welcome to the school where you spend vast amounts of time at or trying to get into a Fraternity House. Welcome to the school plagued by porch culture. [excerpt]

Stuff White People Like #1863, Joseph Stephen Slowinski

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There I sat: sun burning my neck, sweat pouring down my face, watching grown men play at death. I’d been meaning for years to get to Gettysburg to see the reenactment, and this past July, I was lucky enough to be there for the 150th anniversary of the battle. And so there I was, sitting in a grandstand in the middle of a farm in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by fellow white people, watching a Confederate soldier get shot in the back for pretending to desert in the face of the Union cavalry. He flopped to the ground in front of …

What Kind Of Asian Are You?, Uyen T. Le

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You don’t know anything about me. You’ve never been to my country; you don’t know my native language; you may not even be able to locate Vietnam on a map.

And that’s ok. What matters isn’t that you already know about my country and my culture. What matters is your attitude toward learning about it. [excerpt]

Milking The System: Do Poor People Deserve Fresh Food?, Melanie M. Meisenheimer

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Poor Americans are all lazy, selfish people who must first prove their worth as human beings if they want to be able to feed their children.

It sounds harsh, stereotypical, and judgmental when you put it like that, and few people would feel comfortable saying that exact phrase. However, it’s a perception of poverty in America that I’ve found still has a strong grip on our way of thinking. [excerpt]

What The Unglamorous Side Of Study Abroad Taught Me, Kathryn E. Bucolo

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I’ve been gallivanting around this beautiful planet posing as a study abroad student taking classes and writing papers for the past academic year, one semester in England and one in Argentina (where I still am) and, just like all the brochures, promotions, and panels of study abroad survivors say, it has been absolutely chock-full of amazing experiences, people, places, foods—I think “transformative” is the proper term.

But transformative can mean many things. It doesn’t just mean that you “find yourself” or “change your life”—it means you see the less glamorous stuff about yourself, too. [excerpt]

Classified: The North Face Files, Riccardo M. Purita

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“You’re going to need to buy nicer clothes,” my dad told me during our first visit to Gettysburg College. I laughed, thinking it was a typical “dad” thing to say and something I would promptly ignore, but after four years I now see that maybe he wasn’t joking.

Let me be honest. I had never considered just how expensive the clothing name brands could be until this year. I do not own an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod. In fact, you’re more likely to see me on campus with my #VaginaProblems t-shirt and a pair of jeans …

Culture Shock, Hannah M. Frantz, Stephanie K. Adamczak, Elizabeth A. Rupert

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Take one week living in our culture:

Monday: A student quotes other students on Overheard at Gettysburg.

“In the commons at 8:50am. Two girls. Completely serious.

Girl 1: Have you been outside? Girl 2: Yea! It’s rape weather. Girl 1: I know. A girl could totally get raped out there.” [excerpt]