Wise Monkey News is here to provide young people an opportunity to discuss the issues that affect their lives. We hope that, through your participation, this website serves as a forum for the development, exchange, and expression of ideas that will prepare us to assume our positions as the leaders of tomorrow's world. Have something to say?

Monologues help women

by: Sruthi Mathews - printed on 09-25-2002

It was on a whim really. I had no idea. I wasn’t prepared for the depth of experience and truth which would resonate the theater walls on the day of auditions. Some of the women recalled the basic and occasionally humorous frustrations of simply belonging to the female gender— PAP smears, tampons, etc.—

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Recognize the beauty that surrounds you

by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 11-07-2001

We are all Oregonians at the moment. I realize that this may not seem to be the case for many of us, myself included, because many University of Portland students are from out of the state, or out of the country. Right now, however, we all have something in common, no matter where we are from or where we might be heading: we are here on the west coast in one of the most beautiful cities in the country, Portland, Oregon.

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Deforestation, our two-faced friend

by: Nicole Ulacky - printed on 10-10-2001

The snowball of events that has caused our current planetary environmental condition was started long ago. It has been handed down, generation to generation, only to grow with each successive passing. We can thank our parents and grandparents, and grandparents’ grandparents, and all of those before them, for throwing us into a phase of environmental degradation that is nearly unfixable. To say the least, the environmental problem facing our generation is of enormous proportion.

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September 11th in Austria

by: Jared Frye - printed on 09-11-2002

September 11th started out the same as any other Monday. I woke up and went to classes. I was still getting used to living in Salzburg, Austria - half a world away from where I was born. I was still adjusting to the language and culture.

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A unique student shares her global perspective

by: Christy Scheuer - printed on 01-23-2002

"What do you mean, 'crazy'" Asima laughs at my word choice, and then pelts me with questions about the incongruities of American diction and slang. "You say 'crazy' and it means so many different things. Also, 'slick.' What does that mean? None of these words mean the same here as they did in my English classes. Like 'cool' ? people don't use it to mean cold!" She looks at me inquisitively, automatically adjusting her cranberry colored headscarf, and then her face erupts into a smile.

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The need for change in America's high schools

by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 01-23-2002

A bull's eye has been strapped to the back of the public education system. Republicans, Democrats, the Christian-Right, Libertarians, rich, poor, black, red, white, brown, everyone has discovered to root of societies ills-today's high schools.

Most public schools today are in fact a microcosm of society: numerous factions competing for limited resources, with those with the loudest, strongest, most visible, supporters commandeering the spoils.

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