Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “longform”
Nneoma Nwankwo hasn’t received her American driver’s license yet. Instead, at 16, she spent her gap year helping her mom plan a gender policy dialogue with the World Bank, working at her uncle’s advertising firm, and sitting in on her mom’s Oxfam meetings in Nasarawa and in Jos, Nigeria — both far northeast of her hometown of Lagos, Nigeria. By …
For one day last April, nearly 50 musicians took to the sidewalks on Virginia Tech’s campus to perform open-air, mini-concerts. It was a day 15 years in the works, and yet, without Emily Barritt and her enthusiasm, it may not have happened. Along with a small team, Barritt, a sophomore Honors student, McNamara Scholarship recipient, and neuroscience and chemistry double …
One of America’s most notorious serial killers was born to a poor family from Blacksburg, Virginia. He would go on to claim hundreds of lives—or so he said. “As the Texan judge set his bail for $1 million, Henry Lee Lucas laughed. The Blacksburg, Virginia-native was being charged with the brutal murders of three women, ranging from 15 years of …
When Lynn died, one of the first things I thought of was her office, with its eclectic and distinctive decorations: the stained glass horses in the window, the cluster of framed photos on the filing cabinets and shelves, the beaded mobile. I thought of dropping by, often unannounced, knocking on the door, and being welcomed in by a warm hello …
Maggie Carolan’s freshman year spring break was where it all started. “I was going to IKEA with my mum, because IKEA’s the best,” the Stafford, Virginia native explains, pronouncing her words with a hint of an accent she picked up from her Australian mother. “We were in the car, and I get a call. And it’s Dr. Marc Edwards.” Edwards …
In the 1980s, a historic Black community located at the south limit of Blacksburg fought to prevent the paving of a road on their own land that led right up to their cluster of homes. Backed by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, developers paved the road anyway, naming it after the nickname of the family’s late matriarch, Nellie, a …
When Kathy Siron dressed for the Donald Trump rally on Feb. 29, she draped her grandfather’s dog tags around her neck and pinned her other grandfather’s Purple Heart onto her shirt. Her grandfather received the Purple Heart, she said, after being shot in the head on the beaches of Normandy. He survived. And if he were alive today to see …
It took her months of processing before she could call it rape. Before it happened, her only exposure to the idea of rape came from movies and television. After it happened, she realized that it didn’t have to be as extreme as an episode of Law & Order for it to be sexual violence. “At the time, I didn’t know …