Southern Virginia University students are invited to submit their favorite or best photograph they took over spring break 2012. The winning photographer will receive a $15 iTunes gift card, second place will receive a $5 gift card, and the third place winner will receive a signed photograph of the Accolade News staff.

Be creative, express what you did during spring break. Show us how awesome your hard-earned vacation was.

All photos submitted will be showcased on &etc, and the winners will be posted on The Accolade News website. The contest closes on Saturday, March 31st at midnight. Please email all photo submissions to accoladenewsetc@gmail.com; remember, only one entry per person.

Good luck! 

In the spirit of awesome forums (I found last Friday's forum by Matthew Bowman particularly awsome) I decided I would make a list of my favorite forum speaches so far at Southern Virginia University. There are a lot that I like, but I decided the best way to do it was to choose my top 5.

Have you ever heard of the Glass Ceiling? The Glass Ceiling Congressional Commission defined it as "the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." Multiple spinoffs describe the invisible barrier in other professions and groups; including the Brass Ceiling (law enforcement and military), the Bamboo Ceiling (Asian Americans), and the Gray Ceiling (the lingering baby boomers keeping younger stock from moving up).  Now that we are familiar with the Glass Ceiling can you guess what the Paper Ceiling is?

 

Hipster. A word with an elusive definition, leaving behind - without fail - the question, what is a hipster?

Let's be honest here. I haven't the faintest idea. Countless people have tried to describe to me the hipster, and I've yet to truly understand what/who a hipster is. It's a topic of constant debate in our Accolade News meetings, usually ending with one among our ranks tossing his hands up with an exasperated "I don't understand what a hipster is!"

I feel like that quite often. 

(all images courtesy of LATFH)

THE ELUSIVE ANIMAL BECOMING EVER MORE POPULAR IN AMERICAN SOCIETY, ALTHOUGH POPULARITY IS A DIRTY WORD TO THE HIPSTER. 
THE FRINGE-DWELLERS WHO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES WITH ORGANIC FOODS AND VINTAGE CLOTHES.
THE GLAMOROUS HOBOS.






THE BANE AND KING OF FASHION.
THE PABST AND TEA, IRONY AND EARNESTNESS, WORLD CULTURE AND AMERICANA GURUS OF THE MODERN AGE.

If you’ve watched the hilarious show Portlandia then you’ve heard of hipsters. I hear this phrase pop up repeatedly at the mall, in the halls, and even at Goodwill. So what exactly is a hipster?

I’m not the urban dictionary, but I would split hipsters into two categories – the tragic and the chasers. The tragic should be addressed first since they really started the whole movement. They seem to be made of people are not willing to accept that they have grown up and the beauty of whatever epoch they came from is over. Whether it was the 80’s, 90’s, or coming soon the 00’s they keep bringing back forgotten styles, lingo, and music. It is almost like they found a real Never-never-land, where they will never have to grow up and act like adults e.g. wear grown-up clothes, get grown-up jobs, and talk about grown-up things – like realistic politics.