Starr Washington-Moo

The first time I ever heard the word “Juneteenth,” I was scrolling online in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I was 17. At that point, my idea of summer had always been shaped by one holiday: the Fourth of July. It meant backyard barbecues, popsicles in plastic lawn chairs, sparklers in my hand, and watching the grown-ups set off fireworks as we all laughed under the haze of grill smoke and blind patriotism. I genuinely believed it was a day to be grateful — to celebrate how “free” we...

It was just a few days before Christmas, and I was packing for a holiday trip with my family to Big Bear Lake, California — completely unaware that my life was about to change. I’d been feeling off. I figured I’d picked something up while traveling — maybe a cold or some random airport bug, nothing serious. But after ruling out the flu and getting a negative COVID result, there was one last test I hadn’t taken.It was early morning, and I was still groggy and not feeling well. My partner was spen...

If you’re an international student planning to go to college in the United States, your social media presence might soon play a much bigger role in your visa application — specifically due to the Trump administration’s latest crackdown on elite universities.On Tuesday, May 27, a State Department memo — first obtained by Politico and later verified by CBS News — revealed that U.S. embassies around the world have been ordered to stop scheduling new student visa appointments. (Students with existin...

Before Hannah Orenstein became a women’s lifestyle editor and a published author with five books under her belt, she was navigating the wild world of post-grad life in New York City — juggling internships, deadlines, and, unexpectedly, a job as a professional matchmaker. The gig wasn’t glamorous, and it definitely wasn’t her dream job, but it ultimately launched her into the writing career she hadn’t yet imagined for herself. “Zero marriages, zero relationships, zero situationships — like, I did...