RESEARCH ESSAYS – June 2019 |
|
“Fighting Fire With Fire: The Flaming Fortitude of the Tibetan People”by Katerina Webb (’21)
As a monk kneeled in front of a monastery, hundreds of monks behind him followed suit. It was 2008, and one of the biggest protests against Chinese rule was about to happen in the small landlocked region of Tibet (Miller). The monk closed his eyes and right before he was about to take a deep breath, a bullet ripped through his skull. Screaming followed the chaos swirling around the small village. Fires illuminated the overcast sky as Chinese guards lit matches on straw roofs. |
“How Gatsby Fails to Be G-d”by Nate Nemeth (’20)
The idea of G-d has been around for thousands upon thousands of years. Every major civilization on Earth has had their own interpretation of the heavens and who/what resides there. Today, the most prevalent divine being in the world is G-d, the one true G-d in the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic religions. G-d in these religions is the creator of man, a supreme being like no other. Yet in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby, an outstandingly wealthy man of mysterious background, views himself as so powerful that he must be G-d on Earth. |
“The Art of Fulfillment”by Molly Shea (’20)
In 2009, Curt Hammerly was an engineer. A year and a half after starting his first job, Curt was on his daily bike ride to work when out of nowhere, he was hit by a car. He broke his neck, seven ribs, ruptured his spleen, kidney, and liver, and had a collapsed lung. Remarkably, the engineer survived and recovered from this accident. However, he was no longer an engineer, he emerged a resilient artist. Hammerly decided to take pottery classes in the later stages of his recovery to get himself out of the house. Little did he know he would develop a passion for the therapeutic art and less than seven years later, become a full time potter. |
“The Disease of War-Torn Syria”by Melanie Lloyd (’21)
Some diseases are more complicated to treat than others. Some can be mild, some can be stubborn and take time to treat, and some are just simply incurable. Doctors, scientists, and experts can spend weeks, months, and years trying to figure out a remedy, something that will heal the contaminated body. But there are some diseases, like cancer, that even the most effective medicines and therapies cannot control, due to how rapidly the harmful cells multiply in the body. |
“The New ‘Nursery'”by Kayla Solino (’19)
In Ray Bradbury’s 1950 short story “The Veldt”, Bradbury writes of a world entirely unknown. Everything is automated: machines are responsible for cleaning, cooking, and washing, and the family in the story does nothing for themselves. The children spend their time in a room called the nursery, which creates a too lifelike reality. By the time their parents notice the dangers of it, it’s too late. Technology has already altered their minds along with the minds of their children and they ultimately pay the price. While a distant thought in 1950, the tale of “The Veldt” has started to parallel today’s actuality with each year that passes. |
“The Survival of Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan”by Emma Munro (’21)
Boys are stereotypically naive, foolish, and generally harbor negative feelings regarding school. Most young boys dread learning, finding it boring and a waste of time. But what if the education that they took for granted was ripped from their hands? What would happen if these immature kids were thrown into an adults’ war and forced to flee their homes? How would they react? Would they lose hope, or would they keep fighting until they found safety? Would they even attempt to resume their education in the face of adversity? Even though some would lose hope, the Lost Boys of Sudan, a group of young refugees, fled to safety while continuing to learn. Their inspiring story all started with the Second Sudanese Civil War. |
“Victims of a Communist Storm”by Brendan Mahaney (’21)
Hurricanes are known for their raging winds and torrential rains, but rarely for the effects they have beneath the crests of the ocean. As the gusts of the storm push against the water, the waves grow larger and create circular turbulence beneath each swell; these circular motions descend towards the bottom of the ocean, eventually disseminating at the seabed and causing strong forces to collide with the ocean floor. Some fish swiftly escape, swimming away from the chaos, but others are whipped around in the surges of the waves (Geggel). |
“Vietnamese Refugees and Their Rise to Action”by Nikki Mikruk (’21)
In the heart of Vietnam, a people, crushed by war but willing to rise above the ashes of destroyed rice fields and villages, stood resilient and strong. In 1975 alone, the first influx of Vietnamese refugees numbered 140,000 after the country fell to communists (Berman and Newman). The refugees, not knowing where they would end up or if they would even survive the vast and deadly ocean, had only one desire: to never have to endure the trials of living under the communist regime again. In a desperate attempt to escape tremendous violence and persecution due to the severe political collapse of post-war Vietnam, thousands of refugees have been forced to flee their homes, seeking asylum in already overwhelmed neighboring countries in the hopes of making it to the United States. |
