What I Learned This Year: Senior Edition.

Last week, 88 Afghani girls fell ill due to poisoning attacks for which local authorities suspect the Taliban. Only five months after Greg Mortenson’s inspiring speech at Mount Holyoke, Afghanistan is still struggling to educate its girls and, hence, its communities.

On Monday, Microsoft announced that it will be releasing a new social phone, called the Kin. But is there a more interesting target market for the product than the one envisioned?

Now that Congress passed the universal health care bill, immigration, some might think, will be the next reform on President Barack Obama’s checklist. Well, not so fast.

On Feb. 24, 2009, President Barack Obama said that by 2020 “America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” With the signing of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act on March 30, the Obama administration made a firm step towards achieving this goal.

Politician Sonia Gandhi is behind India’s recent government bill to increase women’s membership in the federal and state assemblies. Gandhi, the Economist reported this week, consistently faced political opponents and pushed for a change in India’s constitution.

In mid-February 2008, two members of the class of 1960 quietly entered Dickinson at night. They held flashlights and black trash bags full of treats, and were in search for the then-sophomores inhabiting the dorm. This adventure was part of an “elfing” project to show love and support for all members of the class of [...]

“Next we have Somalia,” were the first words I heard as I entered Chapin auditorium this week and saw students rehearsing for the 2009 African Caribbean Day show. Crystal Boateng ’10 was calling the names of one African country after the other as students catwalked onstage with wide smiles glued onto their faces.

They are four Afghan judges praying for peace: Kamila Noori, Rahima Rezaee, Zakia Heravi and Alia Rasoully. They are four women who didn’t want the holy month of Ramadan to end because 10 to 12 days after Ramadan the winner of the 2009 Afghan election results will be announced and his victory might bring new ethnic conflicts to their country.

Bar de Tapas in Seville, Spain is a touristy place. It offers traditional Spanish cuisine at reasonable prices. It has a terrace overlooking the street’s orange trees. But it no longer has an olive-eyed waitress to tell you not to eat these oranges.

“Everybody asks if the oranges are edible,” said Mira Kireva ’10, who spent the summer working at the bar.