By: Grace Carballo ‘17

Nearly one-third of students entering two- or four-year college in the U.S. are first-generation students. Who are first-generation students? Those whose parents do not have four-year college degrees are considered first-generation. If you fit this description, you may have felt, as many do, at a disadvantage compared to your continuing-generation peers while adjusting to college life.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

…I’m in California dreaming about where we’ll go next week. Might I suggest a quick road trip out of the city and into the great outdoors?

By: Kelly Kinas ‘16

The absolutely wonderful thing about living in Los Angeles and going to USC is how close you are to Downtown LA and the opportunities are really endless. A couple weekends ago (January 28-30th), I decided to get out of the USC bubble and go around and see what’s new in the outside world, which I would encourage everyone to do.

By: Kelly Kinas ‘16

Another week, another lesson in a sport I find really cool. Tennis is my family’s sport of choice. Both of my parents still play, my sister was the captain in high school, and my brother’s being recruited for D3 in college. You can imagine my parents faces when I told them in 4th grade that, after a year, I didn’t want to play anymore and wanted to take up competitive cheerleading. I was the black sheep at that point.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

Today is Ash Wednesday so if you see someone walking around campus with what appears to be dirt on their forehead, don’t wipe it off for them! It’s actually ashes, obtained from burned palms from last year’s Palm Sunday.

By: Emily Young MA ‘16

Missed the game? Don’t care about football? Had too much homework? Here’s everything you need to know about the game to be a functioning member of American society.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

I first heard about Credits, a web series from Alex Burns and Alexandra Kyllingstad while I was abroad in Nicaragua this fall. I watched the trailer and then the season premiere on December 6th and was excited to see several familiar faces from around campus putting together a funny series about the nitty gritty realities of film school.

By: Kelly Kinas ‘16

You’ve heard of the 3 majors sports in the US: Football, baseball, and basketball. Other countries just make fun of us so much because our football isn’t the same as their football. But hey! We have other sports that we care about too! One sport that we all were forced to play in elementary school (and some of still enjoy watching) is basketball. Plus, with the Home USC vs. UCLA game coming up on February 4th at 7:30pm at the Galen Center, I thought i would be a necessary blog to go over the basics of basketball.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

I’ve found this particular Monday to be more exciting than most because not only am I in my 5th favorite state, Iowa, in the company of greatness (my grandparents), but also I’m here at a pivotal time- tonight is the kickoff of the presidential nominations process and I was more than willing to travel a few hundred miles and cross the Mississippi to see the Iowa Caucus in the flesh. (For the record, I came from my home state of Illinois, not SoCal - that would probably be taking things too far).

By: Kelly Kinas ‘16

You’re reading this because you probably saw this is on Facebook shared by me or posted originally on Trojans 360. This is a blog (and the sky is blue). I was one of the co-founders of this blog for USC Communications and the University itself. I had no idea what I was doing at that point. I had a lot of opinions. I had a tumblr blog of my own for 4 years but it was mostly for reblogging harry potter gifs.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

Last May, the Class of 2015 moved on to bigger and better things but they certainly made their mark, especially with their graduation photos. As the Class of 2016 begins their last semester at USC, they have a lot to start thinking about- their futures, ordering caps and sashes, and perhaps most importantly, how they will pose for their grad pics. Will they be able to live up to the high standard set by their predecessors? Only time will tell. For now, here’s a reprise of the 15 best #USCgrad photos posted by the Class of 2015.

By: Kelly Kinas ‘16

Have you guys ever seen that Little Caesar’s commercial where the dad says “We’re going offffff the grid” and they turn into a caveman family? If not, I think I described it pretty accurately. If you have, we both watch too much television. Either way, this is what I assumed a 24 hour technology/media would be like and I was scared. I couldn’t check FACEBOOK. I couldn’t watch FOOTBALL. I couldn’t watch NETFLIX. What is a millennial to do?