Adventure Time with KC

After interviews are over, the AYA team is in full gear to develop workshops and flesh out the summer program's schedule. We've had more meetings since then to make sure we are on track and to plan out what the summer looks like. We had to really think to fit different workshops and skills trainings in as well as the extra activities we want to do. It's going to be a packed summer! It's not finalized yet since the youth leaders will get to look at it and give feedback as well. Watch out summer, we are doing a lot every time we meet! I'm responsible for developing four workshops, and I'm pretty excited about them. One is on ableism and the other is on environmental justice. These two are issues that I do not know a lot about but I'm interested in and I think they're issues that deserve to be on the table. Researching for curriculum development materials has definitely taught me a lot about these topics, though. My favorite workshop and biggest priorit...

I realized I had not blogged in three weeks. How did three weeks fly by like that? Then I contemplated about what I had done in the past three weeks, which, in this day and age, means looking through your Facebook photos from the past three weeks to refresh your memory. In short, homecoming happened, Duncan's birthday week happened, one of my best friends Melissa's birthday happened, and now it's Thanksgiving weekend. I don't know why it took me so long to come up with an idea for a new blog post, because obviously I should've known right away. Giving thanks. What better topic to reflect on during this quiet and exciting time of the year? Looking back on the past year, I have so many things to be grateful for. Here's a list of things I am thankful for: Finishing sophomore year and completing some research papers that pushed me to learn about new and difficult topics outside the hedges of Rice My Alternative Spring Break trip and group. I loved working with...

As per my previous post about launching Who Needs Feminism at Rice, my two friends, Clara and Anya, wrote an opinion piece for our school newspaper, The Thresher, about the project and urging people to join them in a feminist-themed discussion during lunch today. You can find the article, titled "Everyone at Rice Needs Feminism," here . I am so proud of them for being active citizens and urging people to action via public intervention. Obviously, not everyone reads the newspaper, but it is a way to disseminate ideas and information in hopes of reaching a substantial amount of the population. There is also a lot of history to feminism, and one article can hardly do it justice, which is why they ask that people share their opinions and begin this discussion. I would like to clarify my perspective on the article in general. From my understanding, we are trying to bring the discussion of feminism to Rice. What do I mean by feminism? Well, for me, generally, it's a framew...

At the end of my sociology class on deviance, justice & popular culture, our professor reminded us that next week, we're talking about women. Here's the heading for Week 7 in our syllabus, verbatim: Where are the women?: Gender, proper femininity, and pushing boundaries? (aka, ‘You go, girl’) Thanks, Professor, you go, too! So Steubenville, Blurred Lines, Kill Bill, and other juicy stuff are on the line-up next week, and I cannot be more excited. A fellow Duncaroo (one whose residential college affiliation is Duncan College) actually recently messaged me about what I thought of Blurred Lines and feminists' reactions to it. I gave my share of limited opinion because I feel that I have more questions than answers about this whole fiasco. I will save all my thoughts until after the two class meetings next week; I bet by then we would've generated so many great thoughts that I will be inspired to write a full blog post all about it. So stay tuned. In other ...

My best friend, Leslie, sent me a few articles today talking about how Playboy apparently released their annual top party schools list, except this year they are making consent the priority and released a list of "Top Ten Part Commandments: the Ultimate Guide for a Consensual Good Time." News of this spread like wild fire, and everyone is questioning, mostly commending, Playboy for their willingness to make talking about consent a priority. Check out the initial webpages here and here . Except as some of you may have predicted, it is indeed too good to be true. Funny thing is, I sent these pages to my suite mate and fellow feminist Clara, who thought it was strange that it is "news" that a magazine is saying rape is not okay and that consent is cool. I agreed with her, because while it is great news that Playboy magazine, who reaches a large demographic of men, is endorsing the idea of consent and teaching men not to rape, it is kind of ridiculous that in 2013 we ...

A few friends of mine at my residential college have bravely taken up the cause of bringing feminism to the forefront of our lives. Today is the debut of Who Needs Feminism at Rice, and I'd like to say a few words in honor of this noble beginning. For your information, Who Needs Feminism is a PR campaign that 16 students from Duke University started to dispel negative associations and misconceptions surrounding feminism, including the belief that society no longer needs feminism. Who Needs Feminism works primarily through asking everyone to share what they think of feminism and taking photos of people who finish the sentence on a white board "I need feminism because..." These photos are then shared via social media to inspire conversations about feminism and its misconceptions. Visit their website here to see the amazing photos of people sharing why they need feminism. In preparation for launching Who Needs Feminism at Rice, my friend and suite mate Clara wrote down a...