The Stories
Volume 2
Issue 2 | Summer 2023
Why Do Students Choose Community College?
We all know about the stigmas associated with community colleges. They are perceived as “pseudo” colleges for unmotivated and academically unprepared students. However, these stereotypes are being disproven again and again, and we are seeing that community college students are actually quite brilliant and creative. In this publication’s first research essays, the authors explore the true reasons students decide to attend community college, despite the stigmas in doing so.
Issue 1 | Winter 2023
Digital Natives: the Impact of Social Media on College Students
Today’s traditionally-aged college students were born well into the aughts, just after MySpace was launched and just before Facebook was open to the public. Social media and other digital technologies, in other words, have been ubiquitous since today’s college students were born, and most of them have been utilizing these platforms since a young age. The stories in this winter’s stories explore some of the opportunities and consequences associated with being a “digital native” and how social media has had both positive and negative effects on these students’ social, emotional, and physical well-being.
Volume 1
Issue 2 | Summer 2022
Transitions: From State of Emergency to Living with COVID
It has been over two years since the United States entered a state of emergency due to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, and now with widespread treatments, vaccines, and less severe variants, the nation is learning to live with COVID. At times, things can even seem “normal.” This issue’s stories complicate this feeling of normalcy. As these stories show, many of the consequences of the lockdown have emerged, and college students who are returning to campus are feeling socially anxious. Nevertheless, they also show that college students developed healthier habits during the lockdowns and stronger senses of self.
Issue 1 | Winter 2022
Living and Learning Under COVID-19
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic completely upended higher education as we know it, and students not only found themselves thrust into a new mode of learning, but also into economic and personal uncertainty. These are the stories of their experiences living and learning under COVID-19.