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By Christian Mackey Background In 2017, national media attention was given to stigmatizing procedures in loaning school meals to students who did not bring a packed lunch, or could not afford lunch from the cafeteria. Deemed “lunch shaming,” these practices include stamping students’ hands, requiring students to perform custodial duties, and

By Kara Naseef Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s only. At midnight on December 21, 2018, approximately 380,000 “non-essential” federal employees were sent home without pay along with tens of thousands of federal contract workers. After twenty-nine days, most have not returned

By Rachel Pak Romulo Gonzalez begins his days early, tending to his maize field on the Southern Coast of Guatemala. He is part of the 31 percent of the Guatemalan labor force that depends on agriculture for their family’s livelihood. Frequent droughts have severely impacted harvests, causing Romulo’s neighbors to

By Jack Kramer We have a jobs crisis in America’s heartland. Despite positive indicators for the American economy across the board, dissatisfaction with jobs drove voters to seek candidates promoting bold change in the 2016 Presidential election. In the face of more automation and outsourcing of human labor to technology,

By Mariya Ilyas & Cassie Rasmussen Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors’ only. America’s relationship with faith is a prism of contradictions. On the one hand, religious freedom is central to American history and identity. On the other hand, dominant Christian culture

Obesity is a pervasive issue in the United States, especially in Michigan where 31.2% of adults and approximately 14% of children are obese. School-based policies are an integral part in addressing childhood obesity as children spend the majority of their time at school.

The United States’ image as the land of opportunity stubbornly persists despite mounting evidence to the contrary: American children’s prospects of earning more than their parents have fallen from 90% to 50% over the last century. According to Stanford University economist Raj Chetty, “It’s basically a coin flip whether you’ll do better than your parents.” The shock value of these facts masks a far more subtle and pervasive problem in our country—the way inequality, mobility, poverty, and success is measured in the United States is ineffective and incomplete.