Category: Award Winning
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How has Independent Music Shaped the Music Industry?
Introduction “Independent labels and artists now account for nearly half of the global recorded music market” (Mulligan, 2024). Just 30 years ago, that would have seemed like an impossible statistic, as the music industry was dominated by six major labels and indie artists made up a measly ~15%. Throughout recent decades, indie music has evolved…
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Show Me the Proof: The Unstable Future of Bitcoin
A century ago, coal mining powered the industrial revolution. Then came the extraction of oil, gas, and precious metals to fuel the growth of modern transportation, electrification, and computerization of our modern society. Today, there is a new type of mining gaining prevalency. It is not the mining of raw materials from the ground, but…
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Exploring the Relationship Between Religiosity and Attitudes Toward Abortion in America
Among the sea of topics and issues that are frequently discussed and debated in the United States, abortion is currently one of the most heated arguments that has been raging for years on the internet, in debates, and even in the Supreme Court. In the light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973…
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The Weight that Stayed
I have carried weight my whole life. Not just the kind you measure on a scale, but the kind you feel in your chest when the laughter of friends shifts into laughter at you. From an early age, I knew what it felt like to stand out in all the wrong ways. On the basketball…
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Dear Mom and Dad
I’ve been thinking about my brother Sam lately, and the struggles he’s had. Having ADHD makes his everyday life a lot harder, especially when it comes to focusing, staying calm, and managing his emotional responses. I know how much you guys love him, and how hard you’ve both been working to help him manage his…
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Taking the Bottle
This was the fourth hospital our family had gone to in two weeks. The first was because my dad had to get cancer treatments. The second was my post-surgery check-up. The third and fourth were for my brother and his wife’s daughters, twins that were born about three months early. They had been rushed into…
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The Paradoxical Nature of Horror
Whether on Halloween with family or at a sleepover at midnight, almost everyone remembers the first time they saw a horror movie. Everyone knows the feeling of the adrenaline coursing through them when the jump scares don’t seem to ever let up, and everyone remembers how hard their heart was pumping when the characters…
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Writing Matters: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
The topic of “writing” elicits images of strict English teachers staring down their spectacles at wide-eyed students, demanding nothing less than Shakespeare from their young charges. Even experienced wordsmiths encounter angst over transforming their thoughts into artful written compositions. Consequently, many people today eschew writing in favor of vlogs and photo sharing. However, without writing, I would not…