Ankeny, Iowa is the “biggest small town” in Iowa. I’ve lived here all my life in the same house. I was the first graduating class from Ankeny Centennial high school. Since I’ve been here, the population has hit one of the top in the state. Back in 2000 there wereRead More

I gripped the armrest of the seat on the airplane as we banked hard left circling the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, entering one of the most dangerous airports in the world. Looking to my left to get a better view of what country we were about to land in, IRead More

In mid-September of 2017, ProPublica launched a study attempting to see whether Facebook users could be categorized and targeted for advertisements based solely off of ideological views – particularly, hateful or racist viewpoints. Using Facebook’s algorithms, ProPublica was able to target an ad directly at “Jew Haters,” causing a lotRead More

I’m definitely not a world traveler. In fact, I’ve never traveled out of the country. But I’m curious. What does it take to travel internationally? I’ve enlisted the help of my peers, the internet, and Stacy Amling (a DMACC instructor and avid traveler) to pull together a list of tipsRead More

In the summer of 2016, I travelled with my family to France for 2.5 weeks. Getting the opportunity to go to overseas with my family was a once in a lifetime trip I won’t forget anytime soon. Our journey began from Minneapolis, Minn. at 9 a.m. when we flew toRead More

As a very young child, I was sick a lot.  My immune system was a mess, and by the time I reached kindergarten and received an allergen test, my family found out that I was allergic to everything in the environment including chocolate and grass. After seven years of allergyRead More

“I rescued him.” How many times has a dog owner said these words to you? These days people feel very confident that the only way they should obtain a dog is to rescue one. A person who is concerned with maintaining the moral high ground would never buy a pupRead More

It is important to remind ourselves that behind every government policy decision is a human being who is going to be directly affected by it. In the case of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it will be close to 800,000. The history of DACA is not aRead More