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Written Work

I have over three years of experience in communications writing, including news articles, press releases, feature stories and more. Below, you can find my published articles in The Slate, SU's student-run newspaper, and from my communications internship with The Hershey Cubs.

The Slate

The Slate •

Let Women Be Indifferent Again

As Jo March says in the 2019 film “Little Women” — “Women, they have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty. I am so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it!”
Despite growing up in a traditional nuclear family, I have been lucky enough to grow up without the pressure to pursue the same. In fact, my mom continues to advise the exact opposite. However, marriage and children...
The Slate •

Gina Brillon brings the power of laughter to SUnity Week

Comedian Gina Brillon brought a mix of humor, heart and heritage to Shippensburg University on Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the CUB MPR, performing for a packed audience as part of SUnity Week and Hispanic Heritage Month.
Brillon, the first Puerto Rican comedian to be named a finalist on Season 16 of “America’s Got Talent” (AGT), delivered a high-energy set filled with jokes about being a native New Yorker, growing up in a Latin household and her parenting journey. She also touched on deeper topics...
The Slate •

Open Doors, Open Hearts: Inside SU’s DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship

DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship, one of Shippensburg University’s most active student organizations, has more than doubled in size since 2021 and continues to attract students from all backgrounds interested in exploring faith.
The organization, commonly referred to as DCF, is part of the larger DiscipleMakers ministry, which began at Penn State in the 1980s and now operates on more than 25 college campuses across Pennsylvania. The SU chapter has existed since at least 2011, but its recent g...
The Slate •

Celebrating leadership and advocacy with the 2025 Gero Award winners

The Gero Awards were held at Shippensburg University on March 5, alongside the annual International Women’s Day celebration. 
The awards ceremony honored three members of the campus community: a student, a staff member and a faculty member. Additionally, three more awards were given to individuals at SU for their impact on women's safety, inclusion and equality. Among those honored at this event were Jenna Cornell, Sharnine Herbert, Ph.D., and Marsha Bonn. 
Jenna Cornell, SU senior, received the...
The Slate •

Women’s History Month: Second annual Stitch and Bitch

The Shippensburg University Women’s and Gender Studies Department’s second annual “Stitch and Bitch” took place on March 17 in the CUB Airport Lounge in honor of Women’s History Month.
During this event, Karin Bohleke, the director of the Fashion Archives & Museum at SU,  educated students about the history of women sewing initials into various fabrics. While learning about this part of women’s history, students learned how to cross-stitch their own initials. Each participant had their pick of f...
The Slate •

Interactive presentation tells the history of African Americans and labor in the U.S.

Gettysburg College professor Scott Hancock, visited Shippensburg University to give an interactive presentation about the national theme of Black History Month on Wednesday evening in the CUB MPR.
During the presentation, Hancock explored the impact of slavery on America and the imbalance of appreciation for Black labor and work throughout America’s history.
He introduced and emphasized the word “Sankofa,” which means “to go back and fetch what you forgot.”...
The Slate •

Marlon Aristy: Connection, Community and Change

“Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your character.”
For SU junior Marlon Aristy, these truly are words to live by.
Aristy’s involvement on the Shippensburg University campus is extensive. He serves as the treasurer of the Latino Student Organization (LSO), a member of the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.S. Organization, a student facilitator for Building Bridges, a participant in the Reach Out Program and a Multicultural Studen...
The Slate •

Cole Pearson: ‘Be awkward, be cringey, be weird’

If you have spent any amount of time at Shippensburg University, you probably know Cole Pearson. In fact, Pearson is so involved that he can barely name every organization he is a member of.
When you walk across campus with Pearson, the connections he has fostered are clear.. He is not afraid to greet everyone he knows and is not afraid to be himself. Pearson sees each of his roles on campus as an extension of what he already does.  
“I go out of my way to be like, ‘Hey, how are you?’” Pearson s...
The Slate •

Grammy nominations 2025: Highlights and what to expect

2024 has been an exciting and overwhelming year for music, leaving the Grammys Recording Academy with an overflow of nominees to choose from. From record-breaking nominations to disappointing snubs, the 2025 Grammy nominations left much to unpack.  
Girl power is an overarching theme of the 67th Grammy Awards. Women dominate many of the major pop music categories, and some consist exclusively of women. Most notably, six of the eight nominees for Record of the Year are women, and all nominees for...
The Slate •

Charli XCX takes ‘Brat’ to an entirely new level

Hello “Brat-umn,” goodbye “BRAT” summer.
Charli XCX released “Brat and it’s completely different but still brat” on Oct. 11. This project is a remix album containing 16 refurbished tracks inspired by her sixth album, “BRAT.”
Five tracks on the album were previously released as singles, which left fans in anticipation for months after the original album’s release. The standout single from the album is undoubtedly “Girl, so confusing” featuring Lorde. Not only was this track extremely successful i...
The Slate •

WITF talks climate change and solutions journalism

A panel of WITF journalists visited Stewart Hall at Shippensburg University on Wednesday to educate SU students on climate change and solutions journalism.
The panelists included WITF’s director of journalism Scott Blanchard, StateImpact Pennsylvania reporter Rachel McDevitt and StateImpact Pennsylvania’s mass media fellow Unnati Akhouri. Each of these Climate Solutions team members shared their experiences with solutions journalism and gave advice about their line of work.  
Blanchard started t...
The Slate •

“Carnival Night” with APB

Shippensburg University students relived summer break for a night during the Activities Program Board’s (APB) “Carnival Night” in the Ceddia Union Building (CUB) Amphitheater on Friday. 
Carnival Night offered something for everybody to enjoy. Students played familiar games, such as ring toss and fish-in-a-bowl, in order to win prizes. The prizes included a variety of toys, accessories and inflatables. Each student who checked into the event was also eligible to enter a prize giveaway.
The carni...
The Slate •

3 Female musicians who have been defined by their love lives

Society is obsessed with the dating lives of women in the music industry. Fans of female pop stars have been accused of being parasocial and crazy, but in recent years, their haters take the cake. The obsession with these women’s personal lives has reached an all-time high. Because of this, women like Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift are routinely defined by their dating lives, rather than their talent.
Sabrina Carpenter
In 2021, Sabrina Carpenter was involved in drama with fell...
The Slate •

AAPIO Extravaganza 2024: "Everything AAPIO”

Shippensburg University’s Asian American Pacific Islander Organization (AAPIO) celebrated “Everything AAPIO” at the 2024 AAPIO Extravaganza on Friday night.
This annual celebration marked the final AAPIO event of the year, which was bittersweet as executive board members Jeremy Satyawan Putra and Skylar Walder are graduating this May. Satyawan Putra and Walder revitalized AAPIO in 2020, and this was the second extravaganza AAPIO has held since. 
Friday night was full of vendors, performances and...
The Slate •

Frederick Douglass Institute hosts ‘Black is the Color of Love’ panel

Shippensburg University’s Frederick Douglass Institute (FDI) hosted the “Black is the Color of Love” panel and discussion Tuesday to shed light on black love and intimacy. 
Sharnine Herbert, liaison for FDI, introduced the organization, the panelists and the purpose of the event. Each panelist had a specific topic to present and educate the audience on, all of which surrounded the topic of black love.
First to speak was Kennedy Holt, vice president of FDI, on radical love and empathy in the blac...
The Slate •

“Gospel”: The origin of Black spirituality through sermon and song

In honor of Black History Month, members of the community gathered in the Ceddia Union Building to learn about the importance of sermon and song at the WITF Gospel preview screening and discussion on Thursday night. The event was equipped with a preview screening of the new docuseries, “Gospel,” with a panel of pastors and performances from Shippensburg University’s Harmonic Voices of Truth Gospel Choir. 
“We are going to have church tonight,” exclaimed Marquis Lupton, host of the event and Ship...
The Slate •

Brainrot: TikTok’s harmful effect on adolescent minds

By now, the internet is well aware of the young girls on TikTok participating in anti-aging rituals or boys beginning to worry about the shape of their jawlines before they hit puberty. While it would be stating the obvious to say that short-form content is destroying all of our minds, I believe it is crucial to acknowledge those who are most susceptible to it — adolescents. 
“Brainrot” is a word that has been popularized on TikTok that means something similar to “chronically online.” Brainrot u...
The Slate •

President Patterson’s annual tree lighting rings in the holiday season

President Charles Patterson and Mrs. Colleen Patterson invited the Shippensburg University campus to the annual tree lighting at the Old Main fountain on Thursday evening. 
The event began in front of the Martin House, where everyone gathered for a holiday photo with the Patterson family and the SU mascots, Big Red and Shippo the Hippo. After taking multiple pictures and a drone video, attendants made their way down to the fountain.
Surrounding the fountain were refreshments, holiday crafts and...
The Slate •

The Reflector hosts Halloween open mic

The Reflector, Shippensburg University’s literary journal, held a Halloween themed open mic on Thursday evening, allowing students to share music, poetry and short stories.
Many students arrived at Stewart Hall in costumes ready to share pieces surrounding the Halloween theme. 
Members of The Reflector participated in the open mic, including editors Maggie McGuire, Jenny Russell and Katie Huston. There were many other participants eager to share their work too....
The Slate •

'It's a human thing:' MSA quilt reveal

The largest unveiling to date of the Quilt to Cover Us All, an annual project organized by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) at Shippensburg University, was last Friday on the Gilbert Hall lawn.
The quilt’s unveiling was the finale of Diversity Week 2023, which saw an uptick of nearly 400 student participants. There were “1,163 unique students in attendance this fall compared to 779 last year” at the numerous events, according to Manny Ruiz, SU Assistant Vice President for Inclus...
The Slate •

Welcome Back, AAPIO!

The Asian American Pacific Islander Organization (AAPIO) hosted a Welcome Back Kickback on Thursday evening to welcome new and returning members. 
There was a lot of ground to cover at this event as it was the first event of fall 2023 for AAPIO, and it did not disappoint. Students were able to meet the executive board, learn about the organization and enjoy food with other members. 
Jeremy Satyawan Putra, SU senior and one of three AAPIO execs, emphasized that the organization is open to all stu...

The Hershey Cubs