Serena Puang

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As Colleges Strive for a Return to Normal, Students With Disabilities Say, ‘No Thanks’

The pandemic has accelerated the conversation about disability accommodations on college campuses, as requests long labeled impossible, such as remote learning and recorded lectures, were universally adopted overnight. Now, as many colleges roll out plans for a return to “normal” this fall, students, professors, and disability activists are questioning the way people conceive of normalcy — and whether or not it’s a state that’s even desirable to return to.

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Between Lee Isaac Chung and Me

Besides, the writer-director Lee Isaac Chung is Korean, not Taiwanese, and Arkansas is a big state. When Asian Arkansans say they’re from Arkansas, they usually mean they’re from near the state capital, Little Rock, where the Asians actually live. “Minari” was set in rural Arkansas, and the movie was about farming. I didn’t grow up on a farm. What if I wasn’t “Arkansas-y” enough to identify with the film? Besides being Asian and from the same state, what would Chung and I have in common anyway? As it turns out, a lot.

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Schools Are Canceling Spring Break 2021 Because of COVID-19

Halee Molina, a freshman at Washburn University, was watching a recorded history lecture when her phone blew up with messages from friends about spring break 2021 getting canceled. Her school had sent out an email minutes earlier, and the revised calendar had students in 16 weeks of classes with no break. Molina says members of the Washburn Student Government Association (WSGA) promptly started a discussion in their group chat on the toll this would take on students’ mental health. “No one is do

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Law professors discuss the ADA, accessibility

On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which extended protections against discrimination to people with disabilities, was signed into law. In its 30-year history, the ADA has facilitated strides in educational accommodations and workplace accessibility for people with disabilities, but there is still work to be done, even at Yale. The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy is hosting a yearlong Zoom series called “ADA @ 30” to examine the history and legacy of the ADA. In the

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YCBA features Hew Locke in At Home Series

An elaborate cardboard ship once stood pressed against the pillars of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The installation challenged the boundaries of its space. It was covered in signs that read “EXPORT” and barcodes corresponding to museum objects with themes such as blackface and slavery. This was “Hemmed in Two,” a sculpture that was created by British artist Hew Locke and had once captured the attention of Martina Droth.

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FGLI peer mentorship groups extend reach to sophomores

When Vanessa Cheng started her first year at Yale earlier this month, many questions weighed heavily on her mind: What classes should I take? How can I manage my time? What Yale College resources should I use? Last week, Cheng discovered the newly expanded first-generation, low-income peer mentorship groups — a program designed to help answer these questions. The program was founded last year exclusively for first-year students but was expanded to include sophomores as well.

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NHSO fellowship supports underrepresented groups in classical music

As a child, Aurora Mendez lived a mere train ride away from Carnegie Hall. From the age of four, she wanted to play violin — but there were few music programs for young students in the Bronx. Each month, her grandma sacrificed part of her social security check to help pay for Mendez’s classical violin lessons. Today, Mendez is a Harmony Fellow at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, or NHSO. The Harmony Fellowship is a two-year program that provides career development and community engagement opportunities to groups underrepresented in classical music. Through the fellowship, Mendez helps provide the public music programming she lacked as a child to students in New Haven.

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Living With Aphantasia, the Inability to Make Mental Images

If visualization were essential to learning, the inability to do so might constitute a learning disability, but the reality is not that simple. Aphantasia is not a monolithic condition. People who believe they have aphantasia, known as aphants, debate in online groups about whether it should be deemed a disability. Some who are just finding out about their condition in their 50s or 60s say they never felt hindered, while others believe they failed courses in school because of it.

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Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl: Teacher of Teachers of Languages

The first thing you notice when entering Dow Hall office 102 is the three towering bookshelves. Linguistics reference books are obscured by a handmade leather laptop case, a giant orange top hat with “Holland” emblazoned on the side, fine china from various countries and other souvenirs from students and faculty. These are the pieces of cultures Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl has collected over the years, a testament to her desire for cultural understanding.