FALL 2019

09/08/2019, 2020 Presidential Election – Rosario Rivera ’20 and Olivia Barney ’21
  • “We’d like to talk about the 2020 Presidential election, specifically what it will take for a candidate (either Republican or Democrat) to win. We’re interested in the topic of the upcoming election because we think it’s vitally important for people to keep an eye on politics and stay informed so that they can eventually vote.”
09/15/2019, News and social media – Ilias pihas ’20
  • “For my discussion this week, I wanted to talk about the connection between news and social media. I have found it to be an increasingly common occurrence that people rely on social media platforms to stay informed about world events and politics. I wanted to talk about the possible flaws and benefits of the use of social media for the spread of information. I also want to talk more generally about how we all individually get our news and what it means to be informed.”
09/22/2019, “Art: how far is too far?” – Jennie richardson ’20 and mario Sanchez ’21
  • “For Discussion this week, we were inspired by the recent news surrounding BStroy and Brick Owens. For anyone who doesn’t know, you can read our first article:
    Essentially, this fashion company made Sandy Hook Sweatshirts with bullet holes built into them as part of the design. It is horrifying, but it also brings up the question we’d like to discuss:  How far is art allowed to go in order to make a statement, until it becomes offensive? At what boundary must we stop?”
09/29/2010, Democracy – Jordyn Marlin ’20 and Ayat Husseini 
  • “My friend, Ayat, and I would like to discuss democracy at a
    fundamental level. It is no secret that America has some very
    undemocratic systems in place. We want to analyze the degree to which,
    our democracy is flawed while also questioning if democracy is what we
    should be striving for at all.”
10/06/2019, Religion – Cori davis ’22
  • “I’d like to leave this discussion open also to general questions regarding religion, such as does religion help or hurt our ability to accept each other?  Is religion an outdated concept now that we have a better and more advanced understanding of our natural world?  Is religion more prevalent now than ever?
    Please know that religion can be a sensitive topic, so please be respectful of all feelings and beliefs.”
10/20/2019, parenting – josh zhuo ’21 and aidy ung ’21
  • Josh and Aidy chose to focus on parenting and, more specifically, how children should be raised. Our conversation started by going around the group, with each of us giving a short overview of how we were raised. Questions naturally arose and further shaped our conversation, like: what are the rights of parents and how do those interact with their child’s rights? how does culture/context affect one’s parenting? what are the goals of parenting?Although none of our scholars are parents themselves, the discussion created a forum to discuss hypothetical situations as well as reflect on how much our parents shaped the people we have become.
10/27/2019, alcohol culture – natalie schmit ’21 and josie koury ’21
  • We first, and primarily, considered the drinking culture at Lafayette and how it might vary, depending on one’s interactions with certain groups and activities (like Greek life), as well as how it might compare to other, bigger colleges. We also considered how the drinking age (21) in the U.S. might affect the drinking culture, especially compared to other countries that have a lower legal drinking age. Our house was open and honest about their personal experiences and levels of comfort with the alcohol culture.
11/03/2019, traveling and tourism – jordan karp ’22 and stefano mancini ’22
  • “The discussion topic for this week is Traveling and Tourism. We want to hold our travels under the microscope and break down the reasons for why we travel; so, this discussion is less about talking about the coolest places we’ve been and more about why we chose to travel there and how we chose to portray our travels via social media. That being said, our ice-breaker will be: what is your favorite thing you’ve ever done or seen while traveling?”
11/10/2019, house bonding 
  •  McKelvy Scholars took discussion as an opportunity to bond and get to know our community better. Lulu Kirtchuk (’21, Social Chair) organized a lovely “show and tell” activity that allowed students to showcase one personal item that represents them or something they care passionately about. Even our guests participated! Next, we went on a room tour to get a better idea of how each student organizes his/her space and hear any fun stories they might share. Our night ended with a good ole fashioned game of hide-and-seek!!
11/17/2019, mckelvy – grossman discussion
  • We invited the residents of Grossman House to join us at McKelvy. Grossman is widely known as the “international house”, and many of its residents are international students, but it also hosts bi-weekly discussions. Discussion was coordinated by Lulu Kirtchuk (‘21) and the Grossman RA, Joseph Seyoum (‘20).
    Our topic was Politically Correct (PC) Culture around the World. Because there were well over 40 people in attendance, we split up into two smaller groups.
    Some of the questions we covered included:
    – what is PC culture?
    – at what point does PC Culture become too much? Or does it not?
    – does PC culture give us the excuse to overuse the word “problematic”? If so, what problems does the overuse of this word result in?
    – do the above questions even apply to the country/place you are from?
    – does PC culture take precedence where you’re from? Or does it not?
    – is the absence of PC culture an issue or is it necessary?
11/24/2019, “the social construct of sex” – victoria puglia ’21 and lulu kirtchuk ’21
  • Our conversation began with the question: Is the way we assign meaning to sex a social construct? and Why is there a stigma related to casual sex? Our conversation was an organic mix of people’s own experiences/observations as well as articles or recent events they had interacted with.Other questions included: How does the way we talk about sex differ by gender lines and cultural lines? Is virginity a social construct? and Whose responsibility is it to teach young people about sex? How does the way we are taught about sex impact our relationship with it?
12/08/2019, CGI technology: has it gone too far? – elbert saviñon ’20 
  • Our house considered the moral and ethical implications of CGI technology as it moves towards the revival of dead actors and the de-aging of Hollywood stars. The primary question we considered was: has CGI technology gone too far? If not, where should we draw the line?