An experiment with online academic paper-writing services and idea for providing a struggling neighborhood with public lavatories both have garnered the attention of national media outlets for students from De Marillac Academy in San Francisco and Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento.
The April 7 edition of The Washington Post includes a piece by reporter Valerie Strauss titled, “Are essays sold online any good? Teen buys one — on Dante’s ‘Inferno’ — to find out.” It tells the story of Christian Brothers High School senior Connor Gorry, who decided to investigate on-line services that students can pay to handle writing school compositions for them, ranging from simple essays to full research papers.
Ms. Strauss features most of Connor’s original account as it appears on the CBJHS online newspaper, The Talon. In it, he describes the experience of purchasing an essay on the literary work, Dante’s Inferno, then submitting the product to members of the school’s Literature Department for grading. The resulting critiques and Connor’s own conclusions offer an interesting exposé on these so-called “services”.
On April 8, Associated Press published an online report, “Toilets on Wheels Help Keep San Francisco Neighborhood Clean”, about an initiative inspired by De Marillac students that brings mobile restrooms four afternoons per week into parts of the city’s Tenderloin area. The story is also featured on the DMA website.
In the feature, AP reporter Olga R. Rodriguez traces the history and growing success of the program, which stemmed from the students’ poetry about the insanitary conditions with which they had to contend simply in order to walk to and from school each day. City officials took note and responded with the pilot program which is now drawing interest from other major U.S. cities.
