First-Generation Collegians: Their Families’ Hope
Dec 13th
Of his six brothers and sisters, Mike Rodriguez,* a Fordham University senior, is the only child in his family who will graduate from college.
The words his mother told him before he began his freshman year are seared in his mind: “You are my only hope,” she said as he pushed a half-filled grocery cart back to their apartment in Washington Heights. He stared at her blankly: never before was it so clear that his future or his family’s future rested on him going to college.
“I’m carrying the family’s banner,” he said. “It’s my job to increase our status, so my mother can have the life she dreams of and my kids can have more than I do.”
While his parents came to America from the Dominican Republic for factory work to fulfill the “American Dream,” Rodriguez carries the responsibility to take the dream one step further by using college to establish his family as well educated and financially successful.
Sex Ed 101: What You Didn’t Learn
Dec 13th
College sex educators have found that many students have basic questions about sexuality that should have been answered in sex ed courses in middle school or high school. Here are the most common misconceptions that college students have about sex, and the ways that educators attempt to remedy them.
Dr. Paul Joannides is a walking-talking sex-advice column, minus the diva plus ten years of graduate school. Traveling from college-to-college across the United States, Joannides lectures students on the female orgasm, pornography, contraception and other sex-related topics. His book, “The Guide to Getting It On,” may make parents uncomfortable—what with the Grecian god cartoons with swollen, foot-long penises—but Joannides aims to change unhealthy, common misconceptions that college students have about sex through the frank discussion of topics that most kids weren’t taught in middle school or high school.
From Dating to Hooking Up: What it Means for Gen Y
Nov 22nd
When people asked Sara A., how long she and her then-boyfriend Nick had been dating, her answer varied. To her friends, the now 20-year-old NYU student had no problem explaining several years of “hooking up” and her “open relationship.” To her grandma and other relatives, Sara counted only the months when she and Nick were a monogamous, exclusive couple.
“Even after my parents knew about Nick, it was hard to answer their questions about our status and to keep them updated on how our relationship evolved,” said Sara, noting that their relationship covered a three year span. “They didn’t understand the grey areas in the complex dating world.”
In the present-day dating landscape for Generation Y, being involved with someone can’t simply be labeled “dating” as it was for older generations, when romantic rituals followed distinctly defined patterns. Today, with few universally agreed upon labels and rules, it is hard to know what to call these dating stages, or if stages even exist at all. Read the rest of this entry »
The Medicated Generation: Young adults seek solutions to problems with depression
Nov 22nd
“Numb.” That’s how Charlotte Wimberley, a 20-year-old college student from Brooklyn, recalls her first month on antidepressants in high school. She had no desire to do her schoolwork, no energy to hangout with her friends, and no interest in connecting with anyone around her. On the bright side, at least she wasn’t sad anymore.
After having three depressive episodes over the course of a year, Wimberley started taking Celexa, an antidepressant commonly prescribed to young adults, with the hope that her outlook on life would improve. But as the medication began to take effect, Wimberley was confronted with a slew of unexpected physical and emotional side effects.
Today, one in 25 adolescents currently uses antidepressants, according to a study released last month by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To cope with anxiety, depression and mood swings (or a combination of the three) many young adults have sought medical assistance – turning to prescription drugs know as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Read the rest of this entry »