Lauren is a Senior at Southern Illinois University.
The Graduate is a new blog feature considering college majors, graduate school, and a look into career options beyond higher ed. Are you a young college or graduate student who wants to be featured next? Tweet us @PetalAndSass or email petalandsass@gmail.com for more information!
Name: Lauren Graham
College: Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville ’16
Major/Minor: Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology
A recent New York Times article highlighted the lives of teen girls as they begin to build a curated social identity around Facebook and other networks. Social media may allow us to take control of the ways in which we want others to perceive us, though it doesn’t necessarily represent how we truly feel about ourselves, nor does it paint an accurate picture of the people in our lives. Is this dangerous, or a necessary way to assert our identity though social “decoration” – our updated baubles and painstakingly perfect selfies holding up the ideal version of our best selves on a good day?
Joo is a hospital chaplain in NYC.
Role Call is a Petal + Sass blog section featuring interviews with professional young women occupying diverse careers – and their advice to teens.
Name: Joo Young Hong
Age: 41
College & major: Barnard College, environmental science & anthropology
Graduate school & concentration: Union Theological Seminary, Master of Divinity, Psych and Religion
The Graduate is a new blog feature considering college majors, graduate school, and a look into career options beyond higher ed.
For the past decade, teens have consistently rated becoming a lawyer as one of their top career aspirations (following careers in medicine, education, and STEM fields). Careers in law are often depicted as sexy, whirlwind, detective style who-done-it professions- and probably just a bit over glamorized – in popular media today (except for you, Amal Clooney: swoon. Looking at you, SVU and Suits.) but what is a career in law really like, and what does it take to get there?
Should I go to law school? Is pre-law an undergrad requirement to get there? Is being a lawyer actually worth it? We reconnected with corporate lawyer and Role Call interviewee Erika Payne, JD, for some hard nosed advice about a highly sought after field. Here are her points to consider:
Does it seem like other people around you have a sharper memory? Chances are, you’re just forgetting how great your brain retention really is. Memory is critical to success – and it certainly might come in handy when you run into that girl from French class at a party or sit down for a US History exam. Photographic memory is a superpower – and since most of us are mere mortals, here are just a few tweaks you can make in your everyday life to strengthen your ability to retain information.
If you have experienced sexual assault, it is important to realize you are not alone, and you are not ruined. Your body is yours, and only you can decide what to truly and willingly share with another person. You may not always receive this message in school or from the media, but your choices are important – and you are still a whole person worthy of respect, personal decision making, and intimacy.
If you have endured the physical and emotional trauma associated with unwanted sexual contact, assault and rape, unfortunately you must also deal with conflicting societal messages. Broken self perception and diminished self worth is a long lasting side effect of sexual abuse, particularly in a society that condones abstinence-only education, creates a culture of slut shaming, and has a lack of physical and mental health resources. The system is broken; you are not.
‘Tis the season for organizing your underwear drawer.
Back to school means fresh fall jeans and a chance to start over in more ways than one. Slip these handy academic and organizational apps into your back pocket and put your best boot forward.
School kicks off in early September for most, for others it may already be a grueling reality. Whether you are already trudging through the halls or enjoying your last few mornings of MTV, here are a few tips for starting the school year off right.
1. Start waking up a little bit earlier each day. It’s harder to make yourself go to bed earlier than it is to wake up earlier (even if it doesn’t feel that way!) Avoid ‘back-to-school jet lag.’ Jet lag doesn’t only happen when you return home from a European vacation; starting a new routine (like cruising into first period by 7:45 am) can take a big toll on your first weeks back at school, which can have a significant impact on your grades for the year. Try adjusting your sleep patterns for a few days in order to prepare for your upcoming schedule.
Real Women Who Inspire.
In honor of our tenth ‘Role Call‘ interview, a blog section featuring professional young women occupying diverse careers (and their advice to teens!), here is your chance to take a look back at the growing list of career role models who made the cut – and importantly, a recap of the life advice they wish they had received in high school.
Looking back, what general life advice would you give to your former high-school self?
Academia: “Chill out. I went to a super high stress high school, where I often joke everyone had to be the “Best ____” and that blank could be filled a million ways, English student, squash player, troublemaker, whatever (I was none of those). I think the times that I have struggled in my life are when some things were going awry, but I didn’t want anyone to know, so I refused to reach out for help. I’m still not great at that, and I think learning how to ask for help is a behavior/habit that we should develop earlier in our lives. Asking for help doesn’t mean that you are weak or dumb or less than, it just means you are strong and you want to improve.”
-Bernadette Doykos, Research Associate
It’s hard to make a pencil and sharpener look sexy but use your imagination here.
There’s an interesting [read: incredibly dangerous] tension between teenagers who do not want to talk about sexual health with their teachers, teachers who often cannot inform students any further than an ineffective abstinence-only education, and the parents who threaten legal action when their children are introduced to the concept of intercourse as anything more than a marital, procreational act.
It’s completely understandable that teens feel squeamish about sex education in the classroom. Why? Teens get completely mixed messages. In the media, everyone is having very sexy sex. In the classroom, the lesson plans sound like they were created in a different century: sex is taboo, secretive, and illicit before marriage. Of course teens are clamming up in the classroom, feeling guilty about their actions after hours, and engaging in high-risk sexual activity regardless.
Petal + Sass 