Established in 2017 by Virginia Moriarty P'80, '91 to honor her mother Hazel Northrup Hyde '21, M'42, GP'80, '91, this fund supports students who are undertaking a research project in the areas of English or education.
Among the challenges facing today’s educators and students is a mental, emotional, and behavioral health crisis. In order to ensure that all children receive an education that fosters healthy development, emotional maturity, and overall success, profound adjustments must be made to the education system.
My name is Xi Chen and my graduation year is 2023. The inspiration for my topic is from an off-campus course from Japan called "A Successful Life and The Best Education in The World." In this class, we read an article called, “Japanese students is crisis and the event of the ‘school killer’ in Kobe.” The main subject of the article, a boy, had been repressed in school for a long time without the teacher’s attention and the parents in Japan always asked their children to follow their teacher’s lead.
Teachers are the backbone of the education system. Not only do they teach students the factual information related to their subject area, but, more importantly, they also teach students the essential life skills that they will use to work with others, solve problems, and remain motivated and engaged life-long learners. Given their direct impact on students, it is important that every teacher enter the profession with a clear idea of their values as an educator.
The conception of this project came during a class about feminist theater. I found these plays (Goodbye My Fancy, The Children’s Hour, Machinal), which were supposed to represent feminism, lacking in many ways. I’ve been reading stories critically through the lenses of gender and sexuality studies throughout my education. I wanted to insert my own voice as a writer into the gaps I’ve identified in creative conversations about gender normativity.
This project explores life in Northern New York, often through situations of desperation and extremity. The final four stories are divided evenly into the realistic mode ("Among the Ancients," "Spotter"), and the dystopian or science fiction mode ("Preservation," "A-1"). These stories intend to capture the darker aspects of a place, to explore where we are, and where we may be going.