Drop-out students learn to start over

By Linda Hou, Miami 2007
Originally published in The Central High Times.

The many students who returned to Central after dropping out came back with different reasons and motives.

For sophomore Laura Franklin, coming back was what she always wanted.

“I never really wanted to dropout. It was my only alternative,” Franklin said. Franklin dropped out of Hillcrest last year because she and her friend Kelsey felt threatened by another group of students.

“They were threatening and calling us names,” Franklin said, “The day we dropped out, some girl punched …[Kelsey], and the teacher didn’t do anything about it.”

Hang on to election fever

By James Ding, Miami 2007
Originally published in the Daily Tar Heel, Nov. 2, 2008

The election of our lifetimes is a day away and its outcome is uncertain. Regardless of whom we support, we all know that agonizing loss and blissful triumph are equally probable tomorrow.

But are we really prepared to accept either? Or will we believe that the incentive for recent activism — to secure the election in our favor — will be gone once the ballots are cast?

Looking back, this election of unparalleled importance has been the raison d’être for much of student-led activism this year. Cobb Community’s “Tunnel of Political Oppression,” the Young Democrats’ “March to the Polls,” and the multitude of candidate appearances on campus — all this activity has stemmed from one historic, impending election.

Simply put, all of these events were the symptoms of this year’s election fever, a contagious zeal for discourse that has increased the vibrancy of political dialogue on campus.