Chameleon? As a sixteen-year old African American teenager going into her senior year of high school, identity crises are a weekly occurence for me. I’m the youngest student in my class, and since the sixth grade I’ve dreaded my birthday-having my entire school remind me that I don’t belong in my grade has always been something fun to look forward to after blowing out my candles. More recently, though, my age hasn’t been the point of...

The second I stepped through the gate on Broadway, I knew Columbia was for me. I want to live in Carman and argue about its superiority against friends living in John Jay. I want the semi-enclosed campus with access to the city. I want mandatory swimming classes and afternoons spent on the steps of Low Library reading The Record. I want leading research in the fields of study I’m interested in Biological Sciences and Latino Studies. If Columbia had...

Books read for pleasure in the past year When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, Paradise by Toni Morrison, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, Nephilim by L. Marzulli, Part Asian 100% Hapa by Kip Fulbeck, Yakuza Moon by Shoko tendo, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, The Giver by L. Lowry Required reading most enjoyed in last year One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cold Mountain by Charles Frasier, Song of Solomon...