Spring 2022

The Good Life Spring 2022

Letter from the Editor Hello!

Welcome back to TGL! And if you’re new here, that’s great, because so am I. Well, I’m not really new, but this is in fact my first edition as the Editor-in-Chief! This semester has been a crazy one, especially considering I have been studying “abroad” in New York City, and this magazine was produced through the magic of zoom and a really patient staff. As I sit here writing this in my apartment four hours away from campus in what feels like a different world, I feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude for and pride in everyone involved in the process of creating the Spring 2022 edition.

This issue may look a little different than it has in the past. We put a vibrant twist on our classic magazine, while staying true to our roots of optimistic content highlighting parts of our Syracuse community you see if you take the time to look just a little deeper than the surface.

I hope that reading this edition makes you feel the same connection to Syracuse that creating it allowed me to feel from 247 miles away.

See you soon,

Gracie Carrigan Editor-in-Chief

Profile Open Mic Night 󶀳

By Grace McConnell

Community Center Ties

Lifestyle

Community Gardens

󶀷

Period Poverty

󶀱󶀱

Indigenous Land Use

8

Brotherhood

󶀱󶀳

The Cost of Crypto

󶀹

By Clara Olson

󶀴

By Bella Corral

Spencer Hillman, 󶀵 Rock Star

By Morgaine McIlhargey

Environment

By Sadiya Kherani

By Aryaan Anand

By Ava Lombardi

By Emily Bruck

Illustrated by Emma Lenz and Morgaine McIlhargey

The Good Life Gracie Carrigan Editor-in-Chief Grayce Nichols Managing Editor

Morgaine McIlhargey Editor-at-Large

Editors Lifestyle Julia Pryor Lookbook Jace Williams Art Abby Rosenstein Feature Morgan Calcara Photography Sophie Walter Design Amelia Flinchbaugh Bella Klug Emma Lenz Lindsey Smiles Social Media Anna Ginelli Vivian Li Heather McClure Jack Wojtowicz

Natalie Muñoz Creative Director

Writers Sofia Abdullina Aryaan Anand Emily Bruck Ariana Centeno Bella Corral Sadiya Kherani Chloe Langerman Ava Lombardi Grace McConnell Morgaine McIlhargey Clara Olson Photography Anwuli Onwaeze Andrew Prado-Alipui Jonah Srulevich Olisa Tasie-Amadi Mo Wood Lookbook Mia Adelman Tehnaya Brewer

Advisor Harriet Brown The writing contained within The Good Life expresses the opinions of the individual writers. The opinions expressed herein are not those of the editorial board, Syracuse University, the Office of Student Activities, the Student Association, and the Student Body. The Good Life reserves the right to edit or refuse submissions at the discretion of its editors. The Good Life magazine is published twice during the Syracuse University academic year. All contents are copyright by their respective creators. No content may be reproduced without the written consent of The Good Life editorial board.

Fashion The Social 󶀱󶀵 Confrontation of Afrocentric Genres

Art Confrontation 󶀲󶀱

By various contributers

Feature GenZ’s New Girl Boss

󶀲󶀷

The Stress of LinkedIn

󶀲󶀹

By Sofia Abdullina

By Ariana Centeno

STI Inequality 󶀳0

By Chloe Langerman

Profile

Open Mic Night Syracuse senior becomes a regular at the campus comedy club, The Playground

By Grace McConnell

I

f you had told Maggie Farley when she began her journey at SU as a freshman, that as a senior she would be center stage creating a comedy set out of her life experiences, she wouldn’t have believed it.

Being sports-oriented and never having been on stage before, it wasn’t until her junior year that Farley began to experiment with long-form improv when she joined a campus improv club, Zamboni Revolution.

has been different. But the first performance holds a special place in her heart.

“A lot of my best friends were there. One of my best friends from my childhood goes to Syracuse, and he was sitting front row. I was telling my most embarrassing middle school stories,” Farley says. “It was just kind of cool to see how some of, not like the worst moments in my life, but when I was such a dorky middle schooler and I thought that’s

Now a senior, Farley is a recurring comedian at The Playground, a newly-formed student run comedy club founded by three students with an interest in stand-up comedy. Every Wednesday night, the basement of 311 Comstock Ave is transformed into the comedy club.

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“I feel like her personality on stage and off stage is the same. She’s naturally a very funny person so her doing stand-up makes a lot of sense,” Collymore says.

Farley believes to find something you may be a natural at, sometimes all it takes is stepping out of your comfort zone and trying.

“I was never into comedy before college and now it’s my one extra curricular I’m really into,” Farley says, reflecting on her time at Syracuse. “Just thinking about where I was even freshman year, I was really into sports, and I was a health science major. It’s just kind of like that full 180 and a whole different side.”

“It’s just such a nice feeling making people laugh, specifically with The Playground. It’s every Wednesday which is kind of a rogue day or rogue way to have a stand up show every week,” Farley says. “But it is such a nice break in the middle of the week just to kind of hang out and you know that everyone’s stressed college students and you are kind of that outlet to make people feel better, even if it’s for an hour or two.”

The growing popularity of The Playground has changed the original, invite-only Wednesday nights to a “first come, first serve” attendance with people lining up early to make sure they secure a spot. Farley has noticed the change in turnout since she started performing, and to her every show

Farley and has experienced her humor both on and off stage. She has enjoyed seeing how audience members react to Farley’s sense of humor, from the perspective of a friend who has heard some of the stories already.

As for taking on bigger stages, Farley is okay sticking with the smaller ones for now. Although she may not be pursuing comedy professionally, Farley plans to explore whichever city she ends up in after graduating for open mic nights. what my whole world was. Now I’m doing a stand-up set about it in college, it was a full circle moment which I thought was really cool.”

Student and active audience member at The Playground, Vivi Collymore, is a friend of

“This has also helped me find the comedic side of everything I do ever, which I think is really interesting. So I know, even if I’m not actively doing comedy, I’ve gained so much perspective from doing The Playground and being a part of Zamboni.”

The mission of The Westcott Community Center is to offer services and accessible programs to residents of the Syracuse city.

The Center provides amenities such as daily meals and food pantries, recreational activities, transportation services, friendly advisors, and even companions that help with simple at-home tasks. The programs are tailored to promote diversity in the community, as well as to help and provide people of all age groups with engaging activities. Syracuse residents often rely on The Community Center for basic needs, and others go simply for leisure and to make connections with other members.

Community Center Ties

Illustrated by Bella Klug

S

ervice as a gesture of goodwill has always been familiar to the Syracuse community. The Westcott Community Center has been operating in the Syracuse area for over 50 years and its influence on and service to the neighborhood has been long lasting.

Transforming the lives of Syracuse residents

By Bella Corral

Ruby Jones, a community member who has been attending the center for over 6 years, explained how The Westcott Community Center has made a considerable impact herself as well as on the daily lives of other community members.

“It gives me somewhere to come every day,” Jones says. “I like the activity class and I like playing bingo and I like being with the people in here. You have somebody to talk to every day.”

Upon entering The Center, the red-brick building comes alive with all the socialization among Westcott goers. Jones explains how The Center not only has daily activities for the residents of Syracuse, but also offers helpful resources.

“They helped me with all of my paperwork,” Jones says, “and we get our flu shots from here, and we get all of our booster shots here.”

Joan Royle is the Executive Director at the Westcott Community Center. Royle explains that community is the heart of the Westcott Center’s mission, and that The Center is a fundamental aspect to the city of Syracuse. Royle stresses that The Center is a safe space for community members and its priority is to make the residents of Syracuse feel acknowledged and accepted.

“When an older adult comes here, they know

that they’re greeted like their family,” Royle says.

Royle explains that along with the activities The Center offers a basic needs pantry. She says that since the pandemic the use of the pantry has gone up by 45% and that food acquisition has been a struggle for many residents. Many of the resources that The Center offers are needed now more than ever due to the pandemic, and The Center has done everything it can to make food and help more obtainable.

The Center has also made progressive steps toward bridging the digital divide by offering classes on how to get jobs online and creating résumés. Although it is a newly incorporated

resource, it’s a beneficial tool geared towards helping Syracuse residents get back into the workplace.

The Westcott Community Center positively affects all who participate in the programs offered and are continuously open to new program ideas from local community members on how to continue to help the residents of Syracuse. Their intention, as both Jones and Royle explains, is to cater to the needs of the people of the community and to make Syracuse residents feel loved and valued.

“I think [the center] has made a great impact,” Jones says. “The people in this area need something like this to come to.”

Spring 2022 The Good Life | 4

Spencer Hillman, Rock Star A look into the life of a student musician

By Morgaine McIlhargey

I

t’s 2 a.m. on a Thursday night in September, and Spencer Hillman is dyeing eggs at his dining room table. He hard-boiled two dozen eggs and mixed four bowls of red, green, blue, and yellow dye. He’s writing his band’s Instagram handle in black Crayon on each egg and dipping them into the bowls with a spoon. In a couple hours, he’s going to drive to Syracuse University to place them around campus. Theoretically, students will stumble upon the eggs on their way to class, look up the Instagram, and see that Hillman and his roommates are hosting a band show Friday night at their house, which they’ve nicknamed The Coop (@thecoop.cuse on Instagram). The unorthodox marketing seemed to work because the next night, students crowd around the plywood stage in his living room, singing along to Paramore covers.

Hillman is going to be a rock star. Ask anyone he knows, and they will tell you that.

Because he’s told them.

“The beginning of sophomore year, people were like, ‘What’s your major? What are you going to do after college?’ Oh, I’m a rock star.

I would really say that to people,” he laughs.

“It’d freak some people out.” (He’s actually an English major.)

That year, he formed a psychedelic rock

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Photo by Sam Parrish (@shlammyp)

band, The Knu, with fellow Syracuse students Brett Turnquist and J.P. Abner.

Two years later, they’ve booked gigs at Funk

“I don’t want to do a shitty recording ‘cause I feel like my songs are too good to have a shitty recording, you know?” ‘n Waffles and Al’s Wine and Whiskey Lounge and are playing off-campus basement shows. When he graduates this semester, Hillman plans on continuing his career in another psychedelic rock band he’s in with his brother, called BACKHOUSE (@BACKHOUSEtheband).

Currently, though, Hillman is working with fellow student musician, Scott Greenblatt, on a single, and he also recently test-recorded a

few of his original songs.

His practice EP includes a cover of the Beatles’ “I Will.” If you have a long enough conversation with Hillman, he will sing verses from a Beatles song at some point, accompanied by an air guitar. “He’s just the biggest Beatles guy I ever met in my life,” Turnquist says.

Hillman has been tinkering with the harmonica, piano, drums, and guitar since he was a child, but he fell in love with the Beatles after his dad was kicked out of the house in 2018. “It was the only thing that made me happy, aside from marijuana,” he jokes and trails off. “So music has been a huge therapy to me. A lot of times, I write songs and they start out as songs for my dad.”

But, he wants to make music like John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Songs that make people happy. “I mostly want to make music that just puts a smile on your face and maybe makes

Not all of The Knu’s songs are happy, though.

At their second Funk ‘n Waffles show, they started their set with an original song about addiction, titled “Good For Me.” Hillman plays the bass and sings backup vocals, with Turnquist on guitar and lead vocals and Abner on the drums. The band is currently influenced

by Nirvana, and that’s clear in this song’s edgy rock bassline and raspy vocals. A crowd of about 20 of their

Snapchats of their penises with doodles over them. Hillman’s was injecting heroin and praying that President Oprah wouldn’t send it to jail. Abner’s was Kurt Cobain shooting himself. It was titled “Kurt Co-balls.”

Despite the dick pics, Jankowski refers to Hillman as a “cool guy.” It’s is a fitting descriptor for a 21-year-old musician who threw out his iPhone for a flip phone, has

been known to lock himself in his room to read for eight hours, and refers to himself as a rock star. But he’s determined. If he thinks he’s addicted to his phone, he gets rid of it. If he needs to read, he locks himself away from any distraction. If he wants to be a rock star, he will be a rock star.

Illustrated by Amelia Flinchbaugh

you dance a little bit ‘cause, why not?” So, he’ll tweak the lyrics to be about a beautiful girl and write the melody in a major key.

At the end of the night, he thanks me and expresses gratitude for his first ever interview.

“When I wear a suit, people call me sir. I don’t ask them to, you know. They just feel like they should.” friends danced and took videos. Hillman wore a black suit and red tie — not your typical rock star attire, but it was inspired by the Beatles, of course. He looks like a taller, blue-eyed Patrick Bateman.

As he hops around the stage playing a cover of “Say So”

by Doja Cat near the end of the set, he’s less American Psycho and more School of Rock.

The band plays for an hour, then goes upstairs to the green room. Sitting on the dusty couch in the tiny, lime-colored room, Hillman and Abner stretch out and reminisce about how they met. A mutual friend, Mark Jankowski, introduced them because they both sent him Photo by Sam Parrish @shlammyp)

Spring 2022 The Good Life | 6

Environment

Community Gardens The need for community greenspace

By Clara Olson

L

arge urban cities are seeing a rise in desire for shared community spaces where members can go to grow and gather their own food for a healthier lifestyle at a lower cost. Syracuse is no stranger to this need, and many SU students support the need for community gardens in the city.

Marie Claire Bryant is a graduate student in the food studies program in Falk College, Bryant specializes in urban foraging, or using land for food procurement in urban spaces.

Bryant grew up gardening and took an interest in foraging in her twenties while living in New Mexico. Coming to Syracuse for her graduate degree, Bryant became a research assistant with the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project, a group of students and faculty studying the accessibility and utilization of wild food in parks around South Syracuse.

“There’s a level of literacy that is very important in this,” Bryant says. “You can’t be an urban forager unless you have a sense of what is growing in your environment and have a sense of your own place in your ecology and your surroundings.”

Ethan Tyo is another graduate student in the food studies program. Tyo has been learning about plant-based lifestyles for about five years, and a year ago he and some friends published a cookbook that provides plantbased recipe ideas. The book, Fetagetaboutit,

7 | The Good Life Spring 2022

emphasizes sustainability and hopes to educate people on reducing food waste.

“We’re really focused on how you can create a plentiful, plant-based lifestyle while also being focused on minimal waste, thinking more about where you shop, how you shop, and how you can reuse ingredients and kind of make a more creative environment in the kitchen,” Tyo says.

Tyo is passionate about giving back to the land and making the most of your surrounding environment. He believes that community gardens are a great way to do this.

However, gardens outside of personal living spaces can be complicated. Bryant worries that city-funded community gardens can be used to make a city seem more sustainable, rather than for the benefits that these gardens can truly give to a community. She explains there are stakeholders involved with community gardens, and when those stakeholders include governing bodies, the morality of the gardens can get foggy.

However, these concerns don’t make people like Tyo and Bryant any less determined about the importance and need for community gardens. Tyo and Bryant stress that the importance of community gardens well surpass only their environmental benefits, they are also a community gathering space. Tyo explains how he’s seen a recent

Illustrated by Emma Lenz

By Sadiya Kherani The city of Syracuse contains an important landmark for the Onondaga Nation that is experiencing extreme environmental degradation since being taken over by the state of New York. This landmark is Onondaga Lake. push for community gardens as people realize their importance to struggling or redeveloping communities.

“They need access to safe environments, safe land, access to fresh foods in areas where we don’t have access,” Tyo says. “Access to recreational spaces, community spaces in these areas where a garden goes a long way through just growing food itself.”

When it comes to city planning, vacant land usage can be a complicated question, and to many it may seem like a community needs to pick between green spaces and housing.

But both Tyo and Bryant don’t think there necessarily need to be a choice.

“I think it doesn’t have to be one or the other, I think there is an avenue for a mixed use,” explains Tyo. Both Tyo and Bryant see a need for more space that could and should be fulfilled by community gardens. Bryant stresses that the urban landscape is an important place to implement shared spaces and that having shared space in general, even if it doesn’t provide food for the community, is vital.

“You can use land for foraging or for gardening, but also you may not want to do either of those things. You may just want to have access to space,” Bryant says. “And in cities, that’s really, really important.”

Onondaga Nation explains that Onondaga lake is where many Indigenous Nations including Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mowhak were all brought together. According to the Onondaga Nation, “At the lakeshore, these warring nations accepted the message of peace, laid down their arms, and formed the Haudenosaunee Confederacy – the first representative democracy in the West. The lake became a sacred place, one that must be cared for and respected.”

In a novel entitled Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kimmerer explains that there is a mindset that the Indigenous peoples have about their relationship to the planet which sets a guide line of rules that helps solicit how they go about caring for the environment. Kimmerer explains, “for all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”

At the moment, Onondaga lake is facing many environmental issues including but not limited to: excessive amounts of ammonia and phosphorus due to the dumping of human waste, decades of mining which has increased the sediments in the water and the waste bed caused by the dumping of salty waste which created the Solvay wastebed which actively released toxins into Onondaga lake.

Kimmerer says in the novel, “the buffalo are gone and the world has moved on. I can’t return salmon to the river, and my neighbors would raise the alarm if I set fire to my yard to produce pasture for elk.” As the connection between humans and the land evolves and changes, taking care of the planet is the most important thing.

To donate and help clean up Onondaga Lake, visit http://www.lakecleanup.com/.

Spring 2022 The Good Life | 8

Illustration by Amelia Flinchbaugh

The Cost of Crypto

The environmental impact of cryptocurrencies and NFTs

By Aryaan Anand

E

very week, NFTs of digital cartoons sell for millions of dollars, a price only trumped by the irreversible environmental cost that accompanies them.

A non-fungible token, more popularly known as an NFT, is essentially a unique digital piece that can contain anything ranging from artwork to music. They run on cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin which are encrypted, digital currencies. These currencies run on blockchain technology, which stores data in a digital ledger and allows the public to access information about transactions.

Like many other trends, the NFT movement began picking up steam during the height of the pandemic. Unlike many of those trends, this one seems to be here to stay. A study by BNP Paribas Bank showed that the sales of NFTs increased from $82.5 million in 2020 to $17.7 billion in 2021.

Associate professor Lee McKnight teaches Blockchain Management at the iSchool.

Mcknight highlights the trust between

currency users online as a driving factor of its popularity.

“No one is in charge because it’s an anonymous distributed network, decentralized ledger where there is no central authority,” McKnight says.

Blockchain technology is becoming an integral part of our economy, and McKnight believes its influence is quickly growing.

“Blockchain is driving innovation across not just the financial sector but other sectors of the economy,” McKnight says.

Proponents of these digital tokens also point to their potential as a mechanism of wealth redistribution and newer Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives by providing historically underrepresented artists with a platform to share their work and profit from it.

Although there are potential benefits, the large costs of such technology often go unnoticed. Environmental science journalist for The Verge, Justine Calma, describes NFTs as an “ecological pyramid scheme,” pointing to the millions of tons of carbon emissions linked to the cryptocurrencies used to trade digital tokens.

In order to understand the vast externalities of NFTs, it is key to understand what goes into a singular Ethereum transaction. The blockchain technology which Ethereum runs on requires new blocks of transactions to be assembled.

Ethereum runs on a “proof-of-work” principle where people, known as “miners,” solve complex puzzles using tremendous

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computing power in order to prove their work and claim their transaction blocks.

Their reward for solving these puzzles is tokens of cryptocurrency which they can then use to buy NFTs. This incentivizes more investment into digital networks that use enormous amounts of energy and emit tons of greenhouse gasses.

A small-scale study by Akten, a digital artist, analyzed over 18,000 NFTs and revealed that the average NFT has a carbon footprint of 20 kilograms of carbon dioxide, which is slightly greater than a month’s worth of electricity in the average EU household.

Despite the immense environmental cost, there are alternatives that could make cryptocurrencies and NFTs more sustainable. The most straightforward solution to this issue is greener energy.

Platforms like Ethereum and Bitcoin can encourage their users to transition away from traditional energy sources and significantly reduce the carbon cost of blockchain mining.

McKnight is among those advocating for a transition to greener energy sources. He is impressed by the adaptability of the industry, and pointed to companies like Coinmint, a bitcoin mining company located a few hours away from SU that recently took over a dormant hydroelectric power plant.

“The plant was sitting there. The whole facility was sitting there unused for several years and now it’s running,” McKnight says.

“I don’t see that as a bad thing.”

Another alternative involves platforms like Ethereum switching from a “proof-of-work” system to a “proof-of-stake” system. Rather than proving their work by solving puzzles, in this system, users will be required to “prove” they have a “stake” in the digital ledger. Users would do this by locking up some of their cryptocurrency in the system as a form of collateral to discourage criminal activity.

Assistant policy studies director at SU, Austin Zwick, studies autonomous systems with his research focusing on social and economic transformation brought about by technological change.

Zwick reiterated that switching to a “proofof-stake” system would get rid of the large amount of computing power required to mine blockchain technology.

“Ethereum’s move from ‘proof-of-work’ to ‘proof-of-stake’ will significantly decrease the

environmental impact of crypto mining for that individual digital currency,” Zwick says.

Zwick highlighted the importance of Bitcoin and other platforms also switching to proofof-stake systems in order to see a significant reduction in carbon emissions. Users on other platforms are reluctant to make the change. Zwick summed up the current state of NFTs and cryptocurrency by calling the industry an energy-intensive technology operating on a dirty power grid.

Despite this, many digital artists are leading the push for change toward greener solutions.

Artnome, a digital artist blog, is rewarding people who come up with feasible ideas for moving towards ecologically-friendly NFTs. Ultimately, NFTs are a small portion of the environmental issues posed by blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The high levels of innovation within the industry are a sign of hope that it can quickly generate and implement new ideas that will eventually move it to a carbon-neutral state.

Spring 2022 The Good Life | 10

Lifestyle

Period Poverty Combating period inequality locally and globally

By Ava Lombardi

D

espite the fact that half of the population menstruates, the topic of period health and hygiene is often avoided. With the lack of conversation about periods in the broadest sense, the issues that accompany the need for feminine products generally go unrecognized.

Over 500 million women and girls experience period poverty, or a lack of access to menstrual materials, hygiene facilities, and education. Those who cannot afford period products are usually unable to attend work or school, their daily lives being greatly affected and damaged as a result.

There has been a 35% increase in the need for period products since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. Many women have suffered immensely over these past two years, and continue to do so as a result of the price discrepancy between hygiene products for women and for men, otherwise known as the Pink Tax. Organizations in the greater Syracuse area like Happy Period Syracuse and I Support the Girls, are doing everything they can to combat period poverty within the local community.

The Happy Period Syracuse chapter was founded in 2018 by sisters Madison

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and Quinn Searles. The organization is dedicated to providing menstrual products to those in need, while also trying to break down the stigma around menstruation that often makes it difficult for people to talk about the issue.

“Happy Period Syracuse regularly hosts donation drives, packs menstrual kits, and distributes menstrual products to the Syracuse community,” the Searles’ say. “We also facilitate donation pick ups and drop offs for people who host donation drives through their schools, offices, and other groups.”

Similarly, I Support the Girls has worked in communities and across the world since 2015 to provide essential feminine products.

The organization firmly believes that a woman should never have to choose between feeding herself, and her own personal health and hygiene.

Terri Lawless, the Syracuse Affiliate Director for I Support the Girls, explained that the organization is always looking to collect feminine products to help women in need.

“We are looking for groups as well as individuals to sponsor drives to college essential items, especially pads, tampons,

Illustrated by Lindsey Smiles

new underwear, and socks,” Lawless says.

Lawless explains that period inequality comes down to the needs of every woman, and explains that the lack of access to hygiene products can leave women feeling negatively about themselves.

“It is a matter of dignity,” Lawless says. “How can we feel confident in ourselves if we cannot care for our basic needs?”

Commenting on the issue of period poverty before and during the pandemic, Happy Period Syracuse notes that the issue was already exacerbated by the Pink Tax, and that COVID-19 resulted in a further limitation of access to menstrual items.

publicly discussed when COVID-19 surfaced. For those already struggling to survive, their situation became much worse.

“People lost their jobs and their sources of income, which made purchasing products even more expensive,” Lawless says.

Both I Support the Girls and Happy Period Syracuse offer advice to SU students about how they can get involved within their own communities in order to make a difference for women in need.

“How can we feel confident in ourselves if we cannot care for our basic needs?”

“Experiencing reduction in incomes due to limited working hours or loss of employment has impacted people’s ability to afford products that they purchased pre-pandemic,” the Searles’ say. “Another factor impacting access was panic buying, which limited availability of products for those not able to buy in bulk.”

“[We] welcome any individuals or groups that would like to sponsor a drive,” Lawless says. “Large or small donations are welcome, and I am able to assist in any way that I can.”

I Support the Girls saw a similar trend.

Lawless acknowledges that period poverty was just becoming something that was

The sisters of Happy Period Syracuse suggest that students host donation drives on the SU campus, and recommend gathering

a certain school within SU, a sorority, or a club to collect menstrual products. Happy Period is willing to assist outside efforts by doing everything they can to encourage participation.

“After donations have been collected,” the Searles’ say, “students can host a packing party to pack menstrual kits, or we can arrange for a pick up/drop off of products before they are packed into kits.”

Happy Period Syracuse and I Support the Girls encourage all students to help make an impact and combat period poverty. The Searles sisters explain that this starts by making small donations, and changing the way menstruation is talked about.

“We encourage people to discuss menstruation in an inclusive manner and not shy away from the topic,” the Searles’ say. “It is important to remember that menstrual equity involves all people. More conversations surrounding periods will lead to less shame and more awareness of the needs in the community.”

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Brotherhood & Sisterhood Foundation that is shaping the lives of children of Onondaga County

By Emily Bruck

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Big Brothers Big Sisters is a foundation run by PEACE inc. that works to aid disadvantaged children in the Onondaga community through the motto of brotherhood and sisterhood. The foundation takes in volunteers year round of at least 18 years-old, and pairs them up with a ‘little brother or sister’ in the community who is in need of support. The foundation pushes bigs to encourage littles to build connections and explore the community. Big Brothers Big Sisters has significant success stories, and works towards the goal of connection aiding future accomplishments.

“If they could just have somebody important in their life,” John Bruzdzinkski, Program Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, says, “to pay attention to them, to tell them a little bit about decision making, to help build their self confidence, to help build their self esteem.”

Bruzdzinkski has worked for the foundation since September of 2017, and he takes pride in the organization and his position within it.

He spent much of his early adult life involved in other social work, as well as working for local high schools in the Syracuse area.

“I was a square peg in a round hole. I didn’t belong in the education field, I belonged working with people, with teenagers, with kids,” Bruzdzinkski says.

Big Brothers Big Sisters involves an intensive

Illustrated by Bella Klug

S

yracuse is the city that many, both enrolled at SU or not, regard as home.

To students, Syracuse symbolizes not only the campus, but the opportunity to be educated and supported. But beyond campus is a plethora of local children who are in need of the bare necessities, a home, nutritious food, love and support. That’s where the Big Brothers Big Sisters foundation comes in.

application and match-making process between volunteers and youth members of the organization to ensure utmost quality of connection and safety. Senior mentor manager, Latasha Wilson, is deeply engrossed and dedicated to this matchmaking process. Wilson has worked at Big Brothers Big Sisters for three and half years, and her job is primarily about making the matches, but also includes keeping contact with families in the program, and handling events for her matches.

Currently there are roughly 50 matches total in the program, meaning 50 children are receiving love, care, and support that they otherwise may not have had.

“At the moment, I am handling thirty matches, and have three waiting,” Wilson

“Just remember: life is busy but it’s never too busy to take a moment to change a child’s life.” says. “Each match involves a big, a little, and the parents because they all have to collaborate.”

The contracted time for a big and little match is a year, but Bruzdzinski explains that many bigs grow fond of their littles and continue their relationship into the future.

“Littles and bigs can make promises to stay in each other’s lives even when the little ones age out of the program,” Bruzdzinski says.

The two matched in March of 2015, when Williams was in the first grade. Richardson, Williams’ big sister, decided to get involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters because of her interest in bettering the lives of Syracuse city students. Richardson grew up in the Syracuse city school systems, and understands the environment these children grow up in.

The two have both heavily influenced each other’s lives. Williams has been influenced by seeing a role model in her big sister, and watching Richardson’s success Richardson regards Williams as family and claims that even as her little, she is the most prominent influence Richardson has had on her life.

“Shajana is family, and her family is now family to me,” said Richardson, “she is one of the most thoughtful, caring, and giving people I know.”

Wilson expressed a multitude of success stories like Williams and Richardsons.

Wilson encourages anyone to get involved and volunteer, and promotes having an open mind from the beginning. She stresses the importance that the simplest things can make such a large impact on a child.

“Just remember: life is busy but it’s never too busy to take a moment to change a child’s life,” Wilson says. “This time could be the difference between the child turning left or right.”

This has been true for one of Wilson’s matches: Brenna Richardson and Shajana Williams.

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Illustrated by Morgaine McIlhargey and Natalie Muñoz

AFROFUTURISM The Afrofuturism aesthetic was originated in the 90s by Mark Dery and later revitalized through the release of the film Black Panther in 2018. It is a cultural aesthetic that surrounds itself with the re-imagining of art, technology, and “otherness” through the Black lens in a way that at times exudes royalty, power, and prestige. The fashion mixes sci-fi fantasy with age old traditions.

Models: Yaya Dilawari & Khadidiatou Faye, Photos by Anwuli Onwaeze and Jace Williams

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Models: Ifetayo Dudley & Emma Wasserman Photos by Olisa Tasie-Amadi

BLACK SPIRITUALITY Black Spirituality looks to decolonize Christianity by mixing African spiritual practices with religion. It centers around the idea of embracing oneself fully, while breaking away from Eurocentric Christian standards.

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Illustrated by Morgaine McIlhargey and Natalie Muñoz

This includes, but is not limited to, ideas of body positivity and the use of body charms and piercings.

It uses fashion to reflect ideas that exhibit self-love.

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Black Black Luxury is based around the idea of the Black elite. The aesthetic is a commentary and social statement on affluence as a response to deeprooted racism that has excluded Black Americans from depictions of wealth.

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Illustrated by Jace Williams

Luxury

Countering the discriminatory stereotype that Black culture has always been, and continues to be, lower class, the aesthetic and movement incorporates classic elegance with a modern twist.

Models: Leah Jones & Jordyn Pompey Photos by Andrew Prado-Alipui & Jonah Srulevich

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By Qianjia Ma

By Qianjia Ma

Soul Fulfill

By Spencer Hillman

If you know your purpose point away from its prevention your self and the vices you‘ve mentioned a time, there a Greater You took the helm to direct the ship’s steer in directions more becoming of soulful fill

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Designed by Abby Rosenstein

By Qianjia Ma

By Jace Williams

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Designed by Abby Rosenstein

By Jace Williams

Baby, Monkey

By Spencer Hillman

Baby On hand and shin Behind the breast On crimson car carpets & Bedframes Crawling toward becoming Man Meticulous mastery Sometimes thine own mind Cannot meet you -Everything you do Isn’t what you want From whom you want to be Oh, worker.

What wouldn’t I give?

To be a smiling monkey of the jungle To partake of flies & fruit To swim in a clear blue river & Climb atop a tree to dry Hot sunlight

By Jace Williams

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By Abby Rosenstein

Designed by Abby Rosenstein

By Abby Rosenstein

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Feature

TikTok’s Clean Girl trend promotes a new lifestyle obsession

By Sofia Abdullina

G

en Z operates in the social media space. Since the rise of social media in the past decade, trends, aesthetics, and even common language have come and gone through the filter of different video and photo sharing apps, and for Gen Z this filter has become strictly TikTok. Women empowerment has been amplified on many platforms for quite some time, stemming back to the trend that ran millennial women – the Girlboss. The Girlboss trend and aesthetic focused on promoting the image of a young woman being as confident, productive, and successful as possible. Though the Girlboss is still seen today, thanks to Gen Z and the obsession with TikTok, this trend has manifested itself into a new aesthetic known as the “Clean Girl.”

Chloe Weinstein, a student at Syracuse with 336.2K followers on TikTok (@ chloeweinstein), initially rose to TikTok fame in 2019 in her hometown of Randolph, New Jersey, when the app was just gaining popularity. After a while, Weinstein began

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to notice that her platform was growing, and she began to make a career out of her newly acquired following.

Girl encapsulates what many young adults believe it means to be the ideal woman in modern-day society.

“For a while, I made a lot of fashion-related videos of me putting together outfits and outfit inspo stuff. For a while it was that, but now it’s all over the place,” Weinstein says.

“I’ve been less of a perfectionist with it, I kind of just post random stuff now.”

Weinstein and other creators recognize that these trends can impact young women in

While Weinstein has participated in many trendy style TikToks in the past, she feels as though her recent content has changed.

Weinstein admits that she follows certain trends because she knows that they will get views, and she is one of many who subscribes to Gen Z’s new Girlboss: the Clean Girl aesthetic.

aesthetic. All of the

The Clean Girl trend showcases female creators on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram following a simple yet productive daily routine. The Clean Girl wakes up at 7 a.m. to hit the gym, and she never skips her 10-step skincare routine before bed. Like the Girlboss once did, Clean

“I see a lot of girls on TikTok who have the jewelry, the slicked back hair. Everytime I see it, it makes me want to look like that.” different ways. Parallel to the Girlboss trend of the past, videos depicting the Clean Girl can motivate some watchers, and make them feel a confidence boost when participating in the trend.

like Clean Girl, it motivates her to be more productive throughout her day, but that isn’t always the case. Weinstein echoed this acknowledgement of the pressures that come with engaging in these trends.

However, the pressure to live the lifestyle of the new and improved ideal Girlboss is not always empowering. Britney Kirwan, a SU student and editor-in-chief of the campus magazine University Girl, explains that through her work on the magazine and being a young female on a college campus, she sees the negative impacts the trend can have on her peers.

“My whole For You Page is literally all pretty girls, and obviously I get insecure a lot,” Weinstein says. “I want to look like them and have that similar aesthetic. I think there is pressure to look a certain way, or make me look a certain way, so I can feel better about myself sometimes, which obviously isn’t good.”

“I honestly don’t really think it’s healthy at all,” Kirwan says. “There’s no such thing as a perfect person. There’s no perfect day or morning routine.”

Weinstein noted that beauty standards in society surrounding these types of trends promote a certain image of a woman on social media that can feel unobtainable at times for young women on the app.

Kirwan acknowledges that sometimes when she participates in TikTok trends,

“I feel like for some girls, you sometimes see other girls who look a certain way, and you

feel like you can’t look that way,” Weinstein says. “Sometimes I feel like there are certain trends where I’m like, yeah I can’t pull that off.”

Though both the Girlboss and Clean Girl are aimed at promoting an image of successful women and building the confidence of the women who participate in them, neither need to be a mold for young women to attempt to fit in.

Illustration by Amelia Flinchbaugh

“Every time I wear my hair in that [sleek bun], I feel like a TikTok baddie,” Weinstein says. “When I am looking like that, I like to make TikToks because it gives me a good vibe.”

Weinstein and Kirwan promoted the idea of subscribing to these trends for fun, and not for a serious lifestyle. Weinstein expressed the need to use social media as a way to find trends and aesthetics that make you feel good and to find a community within them.

“If you’re into the same stuff, it’s relatable,” Weinstein says. “It brings people together in a way.”

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Illustrated by Morgaine McIlhargey, Natalie Muñoz, and Bella Klug

F

or many, the four years of school geared at earning an undergraduate degree can be overwhelming and stressful.

With consistent deadlines and accumulation of work paired with the pressure to balance a social life, many students across college campuses are forced to sacrifice sleep for more time to complete their daily activities.

Students are often faced with choosing between a failing grade and their mental health.

Pressures to keep up a work-life balance are amplified for college students through social media platforms, including the professional social media platform LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows users to use links through the platform to apply to jobs, which a lot of college students utilize when looking to enter the workforce following college. According to Omnicore as of 2021, the app has 310 million active monthly users, and upwards of 15 million active job listings. Users can also post achievements, shared either as posts or updates to one’s profile.

LinkedIn, like any other social media platform, is extremely connective in nature.

It allows users to see immediate updates about the success of peers in their job hunts, and this extreme connectivity can lead to interpersonal comparison and anxiety about personal image and success.

The pressure of success

By Ariana Centeno In an instagram poll which polled 160 college age students, 56% said that they post their personal achievements and success on their LinkedIn feed. Axel Corlobe, a recent college graduate, explained the stress that comes from the constant barrage of his peers’ career success.

“It’s tough not hearing back from most of the jobs,” Corlobe says. “It’s not very encouraging and there isn’t much else to do besides working and applying for jobs.”

Like Corlobe, many college students find themselves trying to keep up with their grades while also working to keep up with their professional profile. The pressure from being able to instantly be able to see the success of others can cause students to neglect their mental and physical health and overwork their bodies to keep up and attempt to achieve what they see as adequate success.

Katie Kidwell, an assistant professor in psychology at SU, explains how the stress that college students feel from the pressures of school, as well as the looming pressures of the professional world, can impact their personal health, especially through lack of sleep.

“When we don’t get enough sleep, the prefrontal cortex is impacted and does not

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function as well,” Kidwell says. “Sleep loss increases activation in the amygdala, which is a part of the brain that helps with processing emotions.”

Kidwell explains that young adults should be getting between seven to nine hours of sleep.

However, according to a Harvard study from May 2021, 70–96% of college students get less than eight hours of sleep each night, and over half of college students sleep less than seven hours a night.

Esther Anderson is a 20-year-old student at SU who struggled with her mental health and online classes. Anderson eventually decided it was best for her to take a gap year.

“I had noticed that while I was keeping up with my classes I couldn’t devote enough time to both my mental health relapses and my classes,” Anderson says. “I soon realized my mental health was going downhill, and my therapist actually recommended I drop out of my classes for the semester before the financial deadline.”

Pressures coming from college and the need to secure a job lure young adults into a vicious cycle of choosing between health and success. There are consequences students face as they try to balance everything in their lives, along with the internal and external pressures they feel to be successful.

By Chloe Langerman

S

TIs can often be a taboo topic, collectively pushed out of public conversations. This stigma, usually installed in minds at a young age, makes it more difficult for people — especially those who are at an economic disadvantage — to get help or learn about preventative measures.

The 2019 Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance released by the CDC reported that cases of syphillis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia had reached case numbers of 2.5 million. This was the sixth consecutive year that STIs reached all-time high rates.

However, the impact is not uniform. Racial and ethnic minorities, as well as gay and bisexual men, have borne the brunt of this issue. These disparities are a result of inequalities that have limited people of color from accessing quality sexual health care. According to the CDC, STIs are “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.”

Upheaving the systemic racism in society is a process that is extremely complicated and will take the commitment of communities around the world. However, local and national organizations are fighting to provide equal healthcare opportunities for all people.

Their action plans include a wide range of solutions, including unbiased sexual health education in schools, free STI testing, and support groups for those who are diagnosed with a STI. One of the many organizations around the United States that is committed to breaking down the stigma around STIs is Colours Organization in Philadelphia.

The group focuses more specifically on

supporting POC members of the LGBTQ+ community. On the organization’s website, they state that their purpose is to “focus on holistic wellness and safety, intersectionality, and community mobilization.” Offerings of STI screenings, hygiene kits, education workshops, and counseling services all work together to aid the most vulnerable members of the community.

population, particularly Black and Latino patients, see a higher rate of STIs than the white population.

Robertson emphasized the importance of education in preventing possible STIs. Starting these conversations when children are still in their formative years is a necessary step in normalizing mindfullness of one’s sexual health and destigmatizing STIs.

Another organization dedicated to providing adequate health care to underrepresented populations is MyHealth, a clinic in Hopkins, Minnesota. The clinic works to provide affordable reproductive healthcare and mental healthcare for children and young adults. Connie Robertson, the director of clinics at MyHealth, explained the services they provide and how they are working to prevent STIs in youth.

“We have a health education team that actually goes into those schools and is part of a healthcare curriculum that talks about STIs, prevention, healthy relationships, all of those topics and makes sure these young people are aware and able to make healthy and informed decisions about their sexual health,” Robertson says.

“We provide testing and treatment that is free for those who cannot afford it. We do not want finances to be a barrier to testing and treatment,” Robertson says.

While providing services and education is crucial to prevention and treatment, Robertson explained that the way that clinics and organizations go about interacting with patients is also necessary in order to make them feel as comfortable as possible.

At MyHealth, 60% of the clientele are white and the other 40% are of a diverse population. Those who fall into the diverse

Illustrated by Morgaine McIlhargey and Lindsey Smiles

Closing the racial disparity gap in sexual healthcare

“One of the reasons that young people come to a clinic like MyHealth is because we don’t judge,” Robertson says. “There’s a lot of shame that young people go through, so it’s important for them to know that this is actually quite common and that they’re not a bad person for getting an infection.”

Rising rates of STIs over the past decade have created health problems for millions of people in the United States. While the journey to bridging the gap in systemic inequalities will be long and strenuous, organizations in the U.S. are taking steps to protect and support those who are most vulnerable.

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