Have you spent the past few weeks wrapped up in Cousins Beach? If you answered yes then you and a majority of Gen-Z have something in common. The Summer I Turned Pretty has taken over the end of summer by storm, and the battle between Team Jermiah and Team Conrad is getting more intense by the minute. However, this exciting classic didn’t start on the screen; it began as a book series written by Jenny Han. The books are what originally began this beloved series, but I think it’s safe to say that the show has proven to be a better platform for the story. 

 The books begin similarly to the show as the main character, Belly, is excited for summer to begin. Belly spends every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, specifically brothers Jeremiah and Conrad. The story in both plotlines follows her throughout her choice between the two boys as she completes side quests along the way. However, the way this plot is conveyed between the two platforms is vastly different. In the show, the story is engaging and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seats. The audience is able to follow the fast yet concise episodes with ease and is still left wanting more. The book, on the other hand, is a completely different story (no pun intended). 

The first book in the series is hectic and doesn’t allow the reader to get to know the characters well. In the show, the viewer is introduced to Belly’s brother, her best friend, her mom and Susannah the mother of the Fisher boys. Whereas in the book, it glosses over Belly’s relationship with almost anyone who isn’t Jermiah or Conrad. This doesn’t leave much room for character development or story progression as the series continues. Following this, there are plot holes throughout the first book as the reader struggles to connect dots. At one point in the book, Jeremiah confesses his feelings to Belly, and she isn’t sure how to feel about it at the time. Then the book fast forwards through important details only for it to end abruptly to make room for a second book. 

The novel seems more focused on finishing the story then actually taking the time to build a connection with the reader. Therefore, the show seems like a do-over where Jenny Han was able to develop her story into what it was meant to be originally. The show takes the opportunity to engage the reader on a personal level by allowing them to participate in the story arc as it plays out. You are sad when Belly’s sad, and you’re frustrated when she is making difficult decisions. All in all, you can see the process of the story take form in a brighter light with the show’s storyline as opposed to the books’. 

For the reader and viewer’s sake, the better storyline can be found in the critically acclaimed show. Not only is there a visible emotional connection between the characters, but the story takes its time to progress and blossom into something beautiful. As the last couple episodes are released in the coming weeks, audiences will be kept wondering what will happen next and if the right choice will be made. There’s only a little bit of summer left in Cousins and it’s time to see where Belly’s heart truly lies.

Kansas City is home to a handful of truly amazing plant shops. The two I visited this weekend were Virgil’s Plant shop on Cherry Street and Verdant which is in the Crossroads. Both shops offered gorgeous plants and surroundings.  

Virgil’s offers a wide variety of plants, as well as plant care tools and merchandise. They have just about any house plant you can imagine. These plants all seemed high quality and well taken after. Virgil’s Plant Shop caters to a wide audience. They have both cheap plants for the average plant parent as well as rare and expensive plants for the plant connoisseur. Notably, they had an Albino Monstera plant that caught my eye. While it was a beautiful plant, it was far out of my price range. I focused more on the large variety of cute and affordable succulents. Something else that makes Virgil’s unique is the potting station. For a small fee, the lovely employees at Virgil’s will pot your new plant for you. In the front right corner of the store, they also have a neon sign which is perfect for people to use for photos. Something that I believe gave Virgil’s a lot of charm was the polaroids they had up around the shop of past customers sitting in that space. Another thing I appreciated about the shop was its well-designed merchandise. Their tanks and t-shirts reading “Loosen your Roots” among other sayings are also available online at the store’s website. I really enjoyed visiting this shop for the first time and certainly plan on returning. 

Verdant also offers a large variety of plants and flowers. In addition, this plant shop also offers small home furnishings such as handmade ceramics and candles. Their candles are made by Convivial, another local business located in Kansas City. My favorite scent at Verdant was Lavender Seed. Something that I thought was really cool is that once you burn through your candle and bring it back to Verdant, they will give you 50% off your next candle purchase. Another thing that makes Verdant different is that they also offer flowers. The flower bouquets they had in the fridge within their shop were beautiful and well-balanced. The bouquets I enjoyed the most were the mini bouquets on the top shelf. I also appreciated the dried flowers they had for sale. This is a great alternative for someone who enjoys plants and flowers but has a hard time keeping them alive. Generally, the shop, its plants and its employees were very welcoming and I enjoyed my time there. They had a lot of small details throughout the shop that made the environment warm and inviting. Many of their ceramics and various other products are available on their website. 

In the midst of COVID-19, William Jewell College will begin to reopen this summer. Starting June 1, employees will be allowed to return to campus to work and some students will be housed on campus. The College is currently in Level B of their Operation Safe Campus and will likely remain in this level throughout summer. 

Employees will be asked to take their temperature every day for fourteen days prior to returning to campus in addition to engaging in other self-monitoring activities regarding COVID-19. They will also be asked to submit a pre-screening form to Human Resources before returning to campus. Those with symptoms will quarantine an additional 14 days and be directed to medical evaluation.

Facial coverings and masks will be required on campus. Students, faculty and staff will be required to wear facial coverings in Levels B, C and D when they are in public and unable to maintain six feet of social distance. The College is in the process of buying personal protective equipment, masks and other cleaning and prevention equipment for use by all employees. Open and shared workspaces must not have more than one employee per 100 square feet. Plexiglass will be installed in high traffic consumer areas. Cleaning of all high touch occupied areas will be mandatory. 

This summer, Jewell will host a total of 23 student residents on campus. Seventeen residents will live in Mathes Hall, one nursing accelerated-track (AT) student will live in the Coventry House and five visiting students from Park University will live in Senior House. Ernie Stufflebean, director of residence life, explained that these facilities are those best suited for Jewell’s summer COVID-19 plan. The summer housing session will last from May 31 to July 28.

Summer housing was restricted to students who are enrolled in at least one summer course, have an internship or practicum, are working under a summer research grant or who are from outside the greater Kansas City metro area with a job to pay for college. 

Stufflebean described the protective measures in place this summer to minimize COVID-19 exposure: 

Each resident must complete a COVID-19 Screening Form one week prior to arrival.

Each resident’s temperature will be taken prior to moving onto campus. Anyone with a temperature over 100 degrees will be referred to the College’s Nurse Practitioner for screening.

Each resident will live in a single room (no roommate). We dispensed with single room fees for this summer.

Each resident will be assigned to use a specific restroom with their own non-shared sink, toilet and shower. The minimal number of summer residents makes this possible.

Residence Life Staff will facilitate “no contact” check-in.

All summer residents must attend a mandatory hall meeting the evening of move-in day at which COVID-19 education and wellness guidelines will be shared. The meeting will occur within social distancing parameters outlined in the wellness [guidelines].

We’ve added a “COVID-19 Preparedness” section to the Campus Residents Resources Moodle course. Included are the wellness guidelines and other COVID-19 resources for residential students. This information will be updated as needed.

– Ernie Stufflebean, director of residence life.

Summer residents were also asked to bring the following items to campus as part of our COVID-19 preparedness:

• Disposable or 5-7 washable face and nose masks/coverings
• Thermometer
• Alcohol-based disinfectant wipes
• Alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Disposable gloves

In addition to these measures, Jewell’s nurse practitioner, Paula Brown, will be available in the Student Wellness Center in Mathes Hall. Brown may be contacted at the Student Health Center at (816) 415-5020 or via email at brownp@william.jewell.edu. The summer hours for the Student Health Center will be Monday through Friday from 8-10 a.m. Walk-ins are welcome, but if one has been exposed to or exhibits symptoms of COVID-19, they should call ahead before visiting the Student Health Center. The Clay County Health Department will provide free COVID-19 testing for Jewell students. 

“I think we’ve assembled a good, comprehensive COVID-19 plan for summer housing, but it will require all summer residents’ support and cooperation,” said Stufflebean. 

Dr. Anne Dema, provost of the College, discussed the decisions regarding what programming to host on campus or virtually.

“All courses for summer are online, which is normally the case except for in the Nursing Program and some graduate [education] courses,” Dema said. “This summer those courses have also moved online due to the pandemic. That said, the Nursing Program will have students on campus for labs and simulation but they have plans to keep the group sizes to less than 10 and will implement social distancing, utilize PPE, and follow a rigorous cleaning regime. We are also hosting parts of the May AT orientation on campus Monday, [May 18] so they can get their iPads, ID’s, etc. and then they will have a virtual experience for the rest of orientation.”

The campus will be closed through May 31. However, exceptions to this closure include some employees and a few research programs which will be allowed on campus in May and through the summer. These programs include the Pillsbury Scholars program and National Science Foundation-funded research in biology – with Dr. Lila Rahn-Lee – and in physics – with Dr. Patrick Bunton.

In order to make decisions about which programming would be on campus, Dema was in consultation with appropriate department chairs about various programs. They would discuss the potential to maintain in-person programming while maintaining safe practices in line with guidelines published by Clay County. 

Many classes needed to remain online or in a virtual format – in most cases this was standard practice anyways. Some programming could not be moved online – including scientific research, nursing arts laboratories, nursing practice simulations, etc. In these cases, the appropriate chairs developed plans for safe on-campus conduct. Once plans were developed, Dema shared the requests and recommendations to President Elizabeth MacLeod-Walls, who gave final approval.

Dema described the process of planning for summer 2020 during the time of COVID-19. 

“Early on the [COVID-19] planning group developed parameters for summer activities on campus. There was agreement that we wanted to limit the number of external groups on campus and to privilege our students making progress towards their educational goals,” Dema said. “This also meant that all outside groups that often came to campus in the summer to use the College’s facilities for camps were canceled. The Athletic Department also canceled any plans for student-athletes to be on campus this summer and planned instead to use online tools to promote conditioning and connections among team members during the summer, just like they have been doing since spring break.”

“We also moved new student activities virtual, including Cardinal Days and Summer Fling. The County guidelines for limiting group sizes, and our desire to limit crowds on campus, prevents these activities from happening in person – Admission, Academic Advising, and Student Life have been developing plans to accomplish the goals associated with these traditional events through online or virtual experiences. We are excited to see how the adaptations work and are open minded that some of these changes may create new opportunities for us when working with new students who are getting ready to attend in the fall,” Dema continued.

“The guiding rationale is that we want to do all we can to have a safe campus this summer and to ensure we can re-open in the fall. Limiting outside groups and keeping the density of people low, consistent with Clay County guidelines, should help us mitigate the risk of exposure to active COVID-19 cases or having cases on campus this summer. It also gives us time in the next couple of months to ready the campus for more people and new social distancing practices that will need to be in place in fall when more people return,” Dema concluded. 

Regarding testing, an email announcement about Operation Safe Campus provided the College’s recommendations.

“Clay County is in possession of COVID-19 tests available to all Clay County residents, without cost, and regardless of whether or not individuals being tested are symptomatic. You are encouraged to visit the Shoal Creek testing center if you wish to be tested and certainly if you believe you have been infected with or exposed to COVID-19. The College will not require employees to be tested in June or July, but will require testing as we return in August. Much more information about testing will be forthcoming later this summer,” the email stated.

Mikaela Papageorgiou, senior non-profit leadership and communication double major, has wanted to use her journey grant to visit Thailand for a while now. 

“It had been a dream of mine to go to Thailand ever since freshman year of college, just learning more and more about it and the different nonprofits that were over there, so I really wanted to go there for my journey grant,” Papageorgiou told the Hilltop Monitor

This summer, she got the chance to make that dream a reality. 

As a non-profit major, Papageorgiou wanted to not only serve non-profits, but to make sure that she was doing so in a sustainable way.

 “I started researching programs and programs that seemed to be healthy for the economies that weren’t just like white savior, volunteerism kind of companies,” said Papageorgiou. 

Papageorgiou settled on Operation Groundswell, a Canadian non-profit focused on ethical backpacking. After an application and interview process – plus the process of getting her journey grant approved – Papageorgiou was ready to set out on her two- month Thailand adventure. 

While in Thailand, Papageorgiou worked with four different non-profits related to organic farming. 

“I worked with a French architect who was creating green space in Bangkok, and he’s making living structures out of fig trees, he’s like trying to do that as a demo, like no one’s ever done it before,” said Papageorgiou. 

Other non-profits she worked with included an organic permaculture farm focused on sustainability and the Mirror Foundation, where she planted rice patties. 

The Hilltop Monitor asked Papageorgiou what she saw as the benefits of studying non-profit leadership at William Jewell College. 

“I’m already seeing the benefits of having a basic structure of knowing the inner workings of a non profit can set you apart in the field from the get-go,” said Papageorgiou. 

Papageorgiou mentioned that one non-profit leader did not know the nonprofit’s mission statement, which she considers to be extremely important when working with vulnerable populations. The non-profit training that Jewell offers can help graduates be better equipped to help these populations right out of school.

Papageorgiou considers human connection to be one of the most rewarding aspects of travel. She encourages travelers and volunteers to talk to the people that they meet and try to learn from them in order to have the best possible experience. 

She learned not to assume that she wouldn’t have anything in common with new people. Even when the people she was volunteering with didn’t speak English, Papageorgiou found ways to connect. 

“A group of people didn’t speak any English, but we were all listening to Spotify together and they loved The 1975, so we bonded over that,” said Papageorgiou.

Papageorgiou’s trip to Thailand was not without challenges. At one non-profit, she ended up teaching kids of a wide variety of ages and learning levels who did not speak English.

“The teachers didn’t speak any English either and we also didn’t want to step on the teachers’ toes by thinking we knew more than the teachers,” said Papageorgiou. “That was one of the hardest things I think I’ve ever done, because I wanted to make sure everything was being done ethically.”

Ethical travel is extremely important to Papageorgiou.

It’s hard, because I love traveling, but I feel like the more I travel the more I’m seeing the impact it has on the environment,” said Papageorgiou. “ I know with planes, they have a huge carbon effect, but that being said I think when you travel you make the world feel smaller and smaller which is great, like people can learn from each other and a lot of hope can be spread.” 

Operation Groundswell is very conscious about combating the negative environmental impact of travel. 

“For each volunteer they send somewhere, they plant the amount of trees that will offset their travel,” said Papageorigou. “We walked a lot and tried not to rent cars, we tried to bike just so we weren’t adding to the emissions in Thailand, but it was kind of inevitable at certain points.”

The volunteers also brought their own reusable shopping bags.

“It’s  a very plastic-heavy country, as is the US, but with food and vendors they often triple bag things so we would just make sure to bring our own bags,” said Papageorigou. 

She also learned some sustainability tips from the farmers she worked with.  

“You used everything, like I didn’t know you could use the outside of the garlic cloves that you usually crack into and then throw away,” said Papageorgiou. “You can cook with that, you can use every single piece of vegetables, which was really cool.”

Papageorgiou tried banana flowers, which are used as a meat alternative. She said they were delicious. In fact, the food was one of her favorite aspects of her trip.

“Food, food there is so amazing. I had Michelin star food from a stall,” said Papageorgiou. “And the food is for the people, it’s not like an elitist kind of thing, so that was just wonderful.” 

She also notes safety as one of her favorite things about Thailand.

“I felt safer in Thailand than I do in the United States. I never once was catcalled or anything in Thailand walking the streets in Bangkok by myself,” said Papageorigou. “Which I was shocked [by], because everyone had said the opposite was going to happen, so that was cool. It made me feel empowered to travel alone as a woman.”

Papageorgiou does love to travel, but she grapples with the environmental impacts as she strives to live more sustainably.

“The program there had us write down every resource we used in our day-to-day lives to see how many Earths we would need, and I needed 6 and a half earths, and I was one of the lower amounts,” said Papageorgiou. “The farm we were on, the family, needed 1½ Earths because they fly twice a year, and that’s why they needed that extra ½ Earth. But other than that, they don’t have electricity, they don’t have fridges, they don’t have washing machines or anything, and they only needed one Earth.”

The family’s carbon footprint was so small because they do not use electricity. She thinks we all need to work to live more like the families she met during her trip.

“It just goes to show how much we need to dial back on what we’re doing,” said Papageorgiou. “We all need to do our part in making things better, because they are doing so much.”

However, she says the family does not think everyone needs to give up electricity. There are things we can all do to make our lifestyles more sustainable.

“They were so adamant that everyone can do their part. They were like even though we live this way, we aren’t doing anything better than you guys are,” Papageorgiou said. “We can still do just as much in our own lives.”