International Youth Coalition

As a homeschooled kid, I felt free to say, “Mom, I need a break today.” Though I never called it a mental health day, oftentimes that’s exactly what it was. The flexibility of homeschooling allowed me to plan out my schoolwork and extracurricular activities. If I had a day where I felt tired or sad […]

Teacher and activist Nicholas Ferroni broached an interesting question about male role models on Twitter: at what grade did his followers first learn from a male teacher? Thousands responded. At first, his question appears to be innocuous. However, male teachers make up less than a quarter of the total teaching population, according to The Atlantic. […]

I remember the thrill of playing pretend with a doll that looked “just like me.” Of course, I played with many different dolls, but the one I related to the most looked like myself. As a brown-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian girl, I found my lookalike on many store shelves. It’s not always so easy for others […]

Brand boycotts seem to pop up more and more frequently, both in real life and on social media. “Have you heard what [insert business] supports? I’m never shopping there again.” In social-media-driven politics, this phrase gets thrown around often. Most recently, abortion has been at the center of these boycotts. Several Hollywood favorites threatened to […]

Coffeeshops seem to be the place where people find community nowadays. It can be as simple as stopping in to grab a cup to go or settling in for a few hours’ work. Coffeeshops are places where people can meet and bond in a low-stakes environment while enjoying their favorite drink. Recently, several groups decided […]

If the 2016 United States Presidential Election taught me anything, it’s that a perfect answer is hard to find. As a newly inducted voter living on a politically charged college campus, I felt the polarization of the election firsthand. The election was a constant topic of conversation, and the spike in aggression that occurred when […]

For blind and vision-impaired children, learning Braille can be a difficult task, since fewer teachers are qualified to teach Braille and many schools do not offer Braille as an option for blind students, according to the National Federation of the Blind. The NFB reports that though there are 1.3 million legally blind people in the […]

The United States is taking a serious look at abortion, but this does not mean pro-life advocates can give a sigh of relief and step aside. According to the BBC, almost 30 states have begun to add some kind of abortion restriction to their legislature, with 15 of those states using the term “heartbeat bill” […]

Attending the Commission on the Status of Women has been a powerful experience for me. I’ve sat in rooms with delegates, ambassadors, leaders of companies, pioneers and groundbreakers. I’ve listened to testimonies and pleas, accusations and plans of action. The voices of these women spoke passionately, and their messages have resonated deeply. Throughout all of […]

Throughout the Commission on the Status of Women, I have sat through panels on controversial topic after controversial topic. Oftentimes, the mentality during these discussions is my way or the highway. The panelists will take a clear side and insist that any other viewpoint must be false, backward and harmful to women and their rights. […]