By: Ann Nguyen ‘22

Quarantining has left us with a little extra time on our hands. If, like me, you are looking for new reads to add to your list, I have the perfect book for you: Third Culture Teen: In Between Cultures, In Between Life Stages — written by USC student, Jiwon Lee.

Happy Black History Month, Trojans! In February, we take time to celebrate Black students, professors, history, and culture on this campus and beyond. In honor of the month, here are a few events you can still hit!

By: Camila Grases ‘21

One of the biggest struggles for college students is finding affordable housing near campus, especially if you live in a city like Los Angeles. The area around USC has turned into a place where companies can invest and charge thousands of dollars in rent to college students who are already struggling to get by. In a community like this, it’s wonderful to have found the GAK house, where rent is $375 a month and whose mission statement is “financial and personal support, diversity of culture and ideas, opportunities for leadership, access to our alumni network and all that is best in the Trojan spirit.”

By: Antonia Le ‘22

I might be an outlier when I say this, but there is nothing that I hate more than club recruitment season. It’s hard enough handling classes and homework, but trying to fill out a million applications and schedule a dozen interviews? Forget it. They say it’s supposed to get easier over time, but if it does, I haven’t hit that point yet. I won’t lie. There are times where I’ve applied to a club/program just to apply to something and then regretted it. However, there are also clubs and programs that I will be thankful for every day, and CIRCLE is one of them. If you identify as an Asian or Pacific Islander, I suggest you read on and learn all about the amazing CIRCLE program.

By: Ann Nguyen ‘22

International Women’s Day was March 8th this year, and I knew the perfect way to celebrate — by spreading some love, appreciation, and confidence throughout USC. After all, the first step of female empowerment is believing in yourself, ladies!

By: Lindsey Hamilton ‘22

Challenge: name one woman scientist… other than Marie Curie. While Ms. Curie certainly earned her title as the quintessential female scientist with her discovery of radioactivity and the elements radium and polonium, she is just one small piece of the larger picture of women in science. Women have made invaluable contributions to science, despite many obstacles preventing them from succeeding in a field not historically welcoming to females. But times are quickly changing, spurred on by passionate, brave, intelligent women in all fields of research. It is therefore with great pride that I would like to feature some of these incredible women making big strides in the world of science right in our very own USC community.

By: Jordan Bucknor ‘22

Just because Black History Month is over does not mean people have to stop celebrating Black history. As a testament to that, the creators of the Black Love docuseries, Codie and Tommy Oliver, were invited to USC for a screening and discussion. In addition to having the creators visit, Hollywood stars, Michael White, Jillian White, and Jo-Ann Turnman were invited. The event was organized in collaboration between the USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC’s Black Alumni Association, and USC’s Black Student Association. Black Love has already aired two seasons on the Oprah Winfrey Network and features couples opening up about the joys, challenges, and realities of romance in the Black community. It is the most-viewed unscripted series debut in the network’s history and features couples (outside of the ones already mentioned) such as Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, Meagan Good and DeVon Franklin, Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict and many more.

By: Natalie Oganesyan ‘22

As an intersectional feminist, I love going to events around campus which feature panels of successful and powerful women. I’ve seen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie being honored, Roxane Gay and Amanda Nguyen tackling the pervasive problem of sexual assault, Grammy-nominee artists TOKiMONSTA and Cam discussing the lack of gender parity in the music industry, Sandra Bland’s sister calling for police accountability, and much more. All these events uplift women and give them a space to talk about the struggles they face not only as women but also within the intersections of race, sexuality, and class. While these events on campus are phenomenal and I am grateful for the plethora of opportunities available at USC to engage in thoughtful discussions about activism and social change, I feel that engagement on a mass scale is lacking.

By: Antonia Le ‘22

According to Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. As a woman of science and perpetual optimist, I’m usually the first to tell you that Murphy’s Law is absolute garbage. It’s not even a real scientific law! However, as an intern for USC’s Student Coalition for Asian Pacific Empowerment (SCAPE), I witnessed the effects of Murphy’s Law firsthand. On Thursday, February 28th, SCAPE put on its signature event, inspirASIAN. As part of my intern duties, I had to help the executive board make sure that everything went according to plan (spoiler alert! It did not.). Yet, as I think back on that exhausting Thursday night, what sticks out to me the most is that fact that despite all the bumps along the way, the SCAPE E-board ended up putting together something pretty great.

By: Alexandria Frank ‘21

It is, of course, that magical time of year – Black History Month. And even though February never lasts long enough (like can we please get a do-over BHM in March, please), USC churns out wonderful alumni all year long. Still, the Black alumni of this university can be overlooked at times in favor of Steven Whatshisname. No more! This February, we’re looking at some of USC’s notable Black alumni and letting them have their day in the sun. Of course, there are plenty more wonderful folks that can be found through USC’s Black Alumni Association. But for now, I’ll just give you a little taste.

By: Ann Nguyen ‘22

A martial arts master, a ninja warrior, a mystical and wise old mentor, an annoying know-it-all, the main character’s shy friend, the second person to die in a horror movie… These are just some of the stereotypical representations of the Asian community in film. (You know what I’m talking about!) Though Hollywood definitely isn’t perfect in regards to representation and diversity, it has gotten much better for the Asian-American community with the great strides of improvement that were made thanks to the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018. Not to be forgotten in its shadow, however, are works like Japanese drama Shoplifters, which is nominated for an Academy Award, and Sundance-hit Searching, which was made, in part, by USC alumni. And let’s definitely not overlook the great works that Asian Pacific and Asian American filmmakers are continuing to produce about Asians that also feature Asian actors.

By: Jordan Bucknor ‘22

If you don’t know about the Tuskegee Airmen, you should. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps. They’re best known for the extraordinary efforts in the aerial warfare of World War II and for challenging the stereotypes that had kept Black Americans from serving as pilots. Together, they encouraged the eventual integration of the U.S. Armed Forces. If what they’ve done already wasn’t amazing enough, to this day, they continue to give back to the world with the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation.