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By Katherine Gemmingen, former Review Head Copyeditor and contributing writer Photos from imgflip.com, unfspinnaker.com, mckendree.edu, and clipart-library.com You might remember me as the Review’s Head Copyeditor from late 2018 to summer 2020. I worked with a team of editors on some of the Review’s greatest hits, including “McKendree Does Not Care About You,” most notably. My time on the staff for the Review was truly one of the best parts of my McKendree experience. Fellow editors Magda Knapp and Victoria Sananikone and I worked incredibly hard to rebuild the Review. I felt confident upon graduation in 2020 that the new staff would maintain the Review. Imagine my disbelief when I heard from a current staff editor on May 7th, the day I travelled back to campus for the reschedule...

Feature photo by McKendree University As an assistant editor at the McKendree Review, I've had the opportunity to read and evaluate some wonderful news articles written by our talented students. Although this year has been a challenge for many of us due to the pandemic, I am impressed with the level of work students have presented and excited to browse the work of future students as a reader. The past four years at McKendree have been spectacular and I feel like I've grown immensely as a student, writer, and person. Thank you to my fellow Bearcats for reading and contributing to the McKendree Review and good luck with the years to come!– Claire Jennings This year was quite a time to be a part of the McKendree Review. Many of the stories we we...

By Madelyn Tepe, contributing writer Photos from Mckendree.edu and Google The 2021 school year has been a learning curve for students, faculty, staff, and administration. Classes have had to switch to online or remote learning, whether that be partial or full. This adaptation has been stressful and sometimes frustrating, whether that includes having to constantly do homework or course work through a screen, or simply having difficulties with group projects due to the inability to meet up with group members.  Most students at McKendree will tell you that they chose this university because of the family-like environment and the ability to connect with peers and professors. With the guidelines to stay socially distant, as well as the incorporation of remote learning, our interac...

By Emily Lease, contributing writer Photos from McKendree University and Google Since grade school, teachers have told us that if we do well in school, it will help us achieve all our dreams. We then get into high school and teachers tell us that if we get good grades, we will get into the National Honor Society (NHS), which will help you to look good on college applications. Then, for some of us, we get to college and we are told again that if we work hard and get into honor societies and pay all of the fees, it will help us even more. But here is the question: does it really help us?  Before I began interviewing some experts, I decided to see what a simple Google search would bring. According to Investopedia.com, the majority of people that do join honor societies while in...

By Haley Rey, Associate Editor Photos from Isa Scaturro, Aliyah Smith, and apastyle.apa.org Nonbinary identification is widely becoming more well known and accepted, but it is still on the rise as far as the general public’s overall understanding and respect of it. According to VerywellMind, “Nonbinary gender identity is just one term used to describe individuals who may experience a gender identity that is neither exclusively woman or man or is between or beyond both genders. Nonbinary individuals may identify as genderfluid, agender (without gender), genderqueer, or something else entirely.”  Most nonbinary individuals prefer the pronouns “they/them,” since these pronouns are neutral and do not immediately determine a specific gender or identity. As a society, most of us ar...

By Claire Jennings, Assistant Editor Photos from Unsplash Over the course of the pandemic, many people have panicked when they experienced the symptoms of typical illnesses because of the similarities to COVID-19. College students have had an especially hard time since a return to school in the fall because of the illnesses that already circulated in large numbers in years prior. The biggest question has become how to differentiate between COVID-19 and the symptoms of common illnesses both on and off college campuses.  Marcus Spiske, Unsplash Images Website “Everyday Health,” a reputable website about various medical conditions, identifies some different common conditions: meningococcal meningitis, cold and flu, foodborne illness, STDs and HIV, mononucleosis, strep i...

By Laurynn Davey, Assistant Editor Photos from Google Although we may be living in the world of 2021, this past weekend took us on a journey all the way back to the year 2008 when iPods were still around, and we still wore headbands with high-waisted shorts. But most importantly, it was the year we first listened to “Fearless” by Taylor Swift. Fast-forward 12 years later, Swift has done it again (literally) by re-releasing her “Fearless” album this past Friday. The catch? It’s all been re-recorded.  After publicly calling out her former record label Big Machine Records (BMR) and founder Scott Borchetta for selling her masters to Scooter Braun, with whom Swift has a troubling past, Taylor decided to re-record her first six albums. For those who do not understand what a musici...

Harmon Marien was one of three top essays chosen in the freshman writing essay contest held this fall. Essays were submitted by English 111 instructors and were judged by the students in the ENG 340 Fall Editing class, who chose the top three. The contest was sponsored by the Humanities division. Congratulations, Harmon! Photo from Unsplash I live in Eagle River, WI, in the Nicolet National Forest. With a resident list stacking up to just under 1,400 people, Eagle River and the surrounding small towns and community, known as the “Northwoods,” have an abundance of untouched land and water. Vilas County alone is home to more than 1,300 lakes and over 70 rivers and streams. When growing up in an area such as Eagle River, you are forced to appreciate nature’s natural beauty, and regular...

Lauren Wilk, contributing writer Photos from Google *Disclaimer: light spoilers about the content of the show (no names of characters in situations are revealed) The enticing world of subscription services has been a reliable companion during the ongoing stay-at-home narrative of the pandemic. Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and other services have been releasing plenty of series over recent years to provide specific content for a monthly or yearly rate. A streaming service I was able to obtain access to recently is HBO Max. For years, I missed out on HBO shows because I never had the channel growing up, which means I have not seen “Game of Thrones.” Worry not, it is on my list of things to watch.  The first show I completed on HBO Max was called Lovecraft Country that I heard about f...

By Emily Lease, contributing writer Photos from Google One occurrence that a lot of college students experience is having roommates. In a lot of cases, movies and television programs show these relationships as wonderful friendships that will last forever; this is not the case for most people. In reality, a lot of students deal with roommates that they are not compatible with, which can result in arguments or, in some cases, mental and physical abuse. When asking the McKendree Residence Life department about how they pair people to live together, they were willing to answer my questions and gave me a copy of the paperwork that they have students fill out as incoming freshmen. The first question that they ask incoming students is where they would like to live. Following this, ...