Book Notes: Divergent by Veronica Roth

In Divergent by Veronica Roth, the author illustrates that while society and relationships strongly influence our identity, we ultimately choose to become the person we want to be.

In the world of Veronica Roth’s Divergent, society is separated into five factions according to the value each group prioritizes: kindness, bravery, knowledge, honesty, and selflessness. The factions live mostly separate but peaceful lives, each one contributing its particular gifts to society.

Each faction conditions its children to follow its culture and beliefs. When the children are sixteen, they take an aptitude test to identify their natural inclinations, and they have a chance to choose their permanent factions. Most choose to stay in the factions into which they were born. Others feel pulled toward a different way of life, and might choose to join another faction, even though it means leaving the familiar behind.

Picking 10

Through the controversial topic of Affirmative Action, our guest blogger Jahleese Ladson reflects on what we can learn when we are wrong.

I am generally open to challenges. I embrace them actually. If I haven’t experienced it before, it’s automatically more intriguing to me. Living in another country, learning a new language, eating exotic foods, jumping out of planes; all of those experiences have constantly taught me the value of pushing myself beyond what I think I …

Waiting for Cookies

Shannon writes about her hunch that anyone who is good at anything has to be comfortable with being awful at it, and you can’t wait for inspiration. You have to get to work, even if you’re living in a cookie-less world!

Inspiration is like cookies. It comes in batches. I don’t know why it works this way, but it does. I’m going along, when – bam – a photo, a book, a friend, a stranger, something gets under my skin and makes me want to pick up my pen. The world starts popping with creative energy, …

Ever since my daughter Winnie was born three years ago, I’ve been struggling with princesses. Well, with princesses and with all that seems to come along with them. The emphasis on beauty, the focus on being desired/getting married, the assertion that girls can’t (or wouldn’t want to) do the same things as boys. And, the …

I have a love/hate relationship with princesses. I love them out of nostalgia. As a child, my cousin, sister, friends, and I spent many afternoons at the public pool swimming around pretending to be mermaids. We were all Ariels – a legion of them – singing, undulating our “tails,” and whipping our long, wet hair …

So, what are you going to do after you graduate?” As a junior in college majoring in the liberal arts, this question plagues me on a weekly basis. By this point in my college career, I have a few standard responses. The hopeful: “I’m going to make cultural change.” The indignant: “I’m going to do …

When people told me that post-college life would be difficult, I believed them. I just didn’t believe that it would be difficult for me. I graduated from Smith College on May 17th 2010. I moved back home to Harlem and my mother’s couch ready for the next phase of my life. It’s August 2010 and …

Showcasing Young Poets

This summer, several of our campers at GLI – ranging from 6th through 9th grades – wrote poetry to express their perspectives and ideas. This is their original work.

This summer, several of our campers at GLI – ranging from 6th through 9th grades – wrote poetry to express their perspectives and ideas. This is their original work. I love being a girl I know when all bus partners are taken or when someone signals for me. It’s a social network, unspoken, in the …