About our Writers
Born and raised in the small New York village of Scarsdale, Alex is now studying as a freshman at Northeastern University. Scarsdale is more than the wealthiest town on the East Coast; it’s where Alex’s community was forged. It is a small enclave of shared culture, roots, and is very distinct from many areas around the country. Scarsdale is only a 40-minute drive from Manhattan and has a very large Italian, Irish, and Jewish population. These mixes of very different cultures help culminate what makes Scarsdale so special. Being raised in a small town brought a binding power between the residents, and especially, the residents’ children. These children were introduced to one another before they started school. It wasn’t until kindergarten when this band of children from a small town in New York truly became a community. Now 40+ strong, and across the country, and the world, the biggest threat for their community is staying connected. Thankfully, through the use of technology, and the will power of its members, they can bring themselves a taste of home even if home is many miles away.
Alex began supporting Manchester United after his dad gifted him his first soccer jersey, a United jersey, over a decade ago. Alex has played soccer since he was four years old and most recently played for his high school's team as a center defensive midfielder. Although he has never been to Manchester, he closely follows the team through thick and thin and engages in discussion, via social media, with fans supporting a wide variety of teams. Currently, he is a first-year student at Northeastern University, located in Boston, Massachusetts, where he is majoring in Business Administration.
In high school, Bridget served for three years as President of her Best Buddies chapter. Best Buddies is a global non-profit organization dedicated to promoting social inclusion for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is also currently a member of the Best Buddies chapter at Northeastern University, where she is a freshman majoring in business administration with a concentration in marketing analytics. With an older brother who has special needs, Bridget is passionate about fighting for greater inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities. She also appreciates the free food at meetings!
David has spent his summers living on Cape Cod from 2006 through 2020. He has been going to Chatham for over a decade and is basically a local, sans any real knowledge of the ocean or ability to fish. He has worked at Marion's Pie Shop from the summer of 2018 through 2020. David's efforts at the shop include helping hundreds of customers and traying an equivalent number of pies in the same day. David's ability to small talk with customers has earned him multiple $20 tips and even a few fax numbers from the shop's more elderly crowd.
Julian’s passion for guitar has allowed him to be a part of Northeastern University’s Kerr Hall, home to the musical motifs LLC, or living learning community. At Kerr, residents are studying across all areas of research, but are alike in their love of music, whether it be singing, instrument playing or any form of music production. Julian got his foot in the door of the musical world a year ago, through following his father’s footsteps and teaching himself guitar. In just over a month living in Kerr Hall, Julian has formed bonds with fellow college students as well as musicians, which he hopes to last a lifetime.
Lucy is a first-year student at Northeastern University majoring in computer science and business administration. She is currently a member of NU Stage (a musical theater club). She adapted scenes from famous musicals and participated in virtual shows. She is also enrolled in a musical crafting course. She writes songs and creates musicals with classmates. In high school, Lucy was the president of La Musique club in the 2018-2019 academic year. La Musique is a music club that performers, producers, and all music lovers. She organized shows on and off campus, both commercial and for charity, and conducted music workshops. She was also the guitarist and singer in the pop band of La Musique.
Like many immigrants in the United States, Julian knows the experience of having family separated in two different countries. Having been born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and then moving to the United States at a young age, Julian is part of the Brazilian-American community and shares his culture between the two countries. He is currently an undergraduate at Northeastern University studying Computer Science. Julian is looking to explore subjects within the Brazilian -American community such as recent events and politics, and he hopes to bring his own experiences and perspectives into his writing.
As a first year student at Northeastern University, Michael has a fascination in the field of robotics. His experience began with joining, and eventually captaining his world-class high school Vex Robotics team. His main area of focus is programming while also keeping up to date on the newest innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
As a first-year student at Northeastern, Nicolas is a new recruit on the university's Men's Rugby Team, or Maddogs, which he joined after playing since the day his father thought he was old enough to throw a rugby ball at age 3. His previous rugby team, Greenwich High School, located in Greenwich, CT, competed in nationals from 2012 to 2020. With more previous experience than most of his teammates, Nicolas filled in a needed position in the back line. Before moving to Connecticut, he was born and raised in Argentina where the sport of Rugby starts at an early age through youth club programs or schools teams. Kids form alliances to these teams, and so the rivalries start early. Since these clubs and schools have professional teams who play on weekends, rugby fanatics like his dad would take me to watch.
As part of the National Judo Association of Ethiopia, Rayan practiced Judo for 4 years, training 3 times a week and finally reaching the rank of green-blue belt. His local club competed against the other clubs of the country in intense tournaments where each judoka would participate in up to 10 fights! His experience as a Judoka changed his life as he integrated an amazing and welcoming community that he will always be part of. In the future, he plans to create a judo club at Northeastern University, where he his currently a freshman majoring in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Rayan looks forward to pursuing his passion alongside other judo enthusiasts.
Born in India, Satwik witnessed low-income, rural education first-hand. Since middle school, Satwik has volunteered hundreds of hours with U.S. charities dedicated to fighting education inequality.
Starting in the ninth grade, he began working with Ekal Vidyalaya, a charity that works to improve education in rural Indian villages. After being introduced to Ekal, he greatly increased the time he volunteered every year, resulting in more than four hundred volunteer hours throughout high school. Thus, 2020 marks Satwik’s fifth year volunteering. During his second year with Ekal, he helped organize a fun junior coding competition/workshop for elementary school kids. In the future, Satwik hopes to plan more workshops using his love for technology to raise awareness about education inequality.
Satwik is currently being educated at at Northeastern University as a first-year Data Science major. His interests go beyond volunteering for education equality, as he considers himself an avid sports fan and likes to spend his free time arguing about the latest NBA and NFL developments.