Reviving Ophelia’s Song
By Sam Sarafin, V Form
Reviving Ophelia’s Song
What happens to a life so battered and bruised under the gift wrap of perfection? What happens to a life
whose opportunities have been seized by another, whose ideals and self-importance are plucked out of fingertips before they even left a print? In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Ophelia is often depicted as well-composed and sophisticated. When Ophelia sings a song before her death, she can attribute the meaning of the lyrics to one feeling or event – most often, this meaning is madness or grief. While Ophelia sang this song to convey her distress, there are many hidden meanings in the lyrics. Ophelia’s song is not an expression of one event or one feeling – it is the verbalization of grief over Polonius and Hamlet and a scrutiny of Gertrude’s portrayal of love. In it, Ophelia laments about patriarchal society and the way she had been controlled and used. (more…)
La Realidad de la “Democracia Racial” entre Brasil (En Español and English)
By Theo Bartlett, V Form
La Realidad de la “Democracia Racial” entre Brasil (En Español and English)
Our core objective in our Spanish IV class is to study Latin American history in order to understand how and why Latin America has been shaped into the region that it is today. Within our curriculum, we accomplish this task by doing case studies on many different countries in Latin America, in which we study the national history of the country and then connect it to recent publications regarding its modern day situation. Within these case studies, we explore the demographics, economics, politics, and social scene of a country by immersing ourselves in Latin American literature, political debates, documentaries, and movies, and we reflect on what we have learned in both classroom discussions and written responses throughout the studies. Most recently, at the end of our case study on Brazil, we were asked to take the information that we learned in the PBS documentary “Black in Brazil”, which talks (more…)
Advice to a “Girl”–What I Wish I Knew
By Mary Hoffman, IV Form
Advice to a “Girl”–What I Wish I Knew
(Based on Jamaica Kincaid’s short story)
Always be aware of your surroundings; never ignore your gut feeling; when you don’t feel comfortable in a situation- leave; the police are always there to help; nothing good happens after midnight; learn from your mistakes; you deserve what you tolerate; treat people how you want to be treated; make your bed every morning, it teaches smart habits; clean your room; dress to impress, people will treat you better when you look nice whether that’s right or not; never slut shame- girls are supposed to support each other; friends and family are more important than romantic relationships; don’t gossip; don’t burn (more…)
Knowing God
By Adriana Roman, VI Form
Knowing God
The majority of people do not believe in the existence of anything if it cannot be seen, felt, smelled, or touched. This notion has to do partly with the time period we live in—the era of technological advances, where almost anything in the world can be proven through tangible proofs and reasons. As a result, everything we experience externally, through the world, can be “known”, or believed in, because there is irrefutable evidence that will produce the same result every time a specific situation occurs or a question is brought up. For example, gravity’s existence can be “known” because we have experienced countless times that a dropped pencil will fall to the ground due to the pulling force of gravity. Experience (more…)
Literature Review: Creating Value in US Health Care Industry
By David Baek, VI Form
Literature Review: Creating Value in US Health Care Industry
Redefining Health Care, by Michael Porter, and Fixing Health Care From Inside & Out, by several Harvard Business School professors, will be the foundation upon which this review will be built. The two books differ in that the former centers its content on a general, abstract principle that can be applied to the whole industry while the latter provides practical business solutions to problems occurring inside each component of the industry. Many health care leaders today are provided with far too many solutions, such as these two, to decide which one is the best option. This review serves to combine the two seemingly complementary solutions to better the health care leaders’ vision for moving US health care forward.
The status quo of the health care industry is looking very dim. There have been reports of unhelpful pharmaceutical mergers, doctors charging patients unnecessary amounts, a decline in employer-based (more…)
Environmental Blog: Can We Blame Cows for Climate Change?
By Emma Plumb, VI Form
Environmental Blog: Can We Blame Cows for Climate Change?
Editors’ Note: The following piece is one of many blog posts written by Advanced Environmental students; check out the blog here–https://2015enviroblog.wordpress.com/
We all know that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. We can, and should, buy hybrid cars, ride our bikes and put up solar panels
to help solve the problem of climate change. But did you know coming home to a steak dinner also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions? Livestock is responsible for 27% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and 18% of emissions worldwide through enteric (microbial) fermentation and manure management, not even taking into account transportation. (more…)
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