Horgan Seminar Blog

  Mary Casey Professor Horgan HST 401 26 February 2026 Hail Mary, Full of Anxiety I believe I’m not alone when I say that long before I understood anxiety, I understood guilt. Culture, friends, family, and religion often influence how individuals understand themselves and how they respond in situations of stress or emotional struggles, and in my experience, my mental health is deeply connected to the way I was brought up in a heavily Catholic family. While religion can provide guidance and community, being raised in such a way contributed to feelings of anxiety and self-criticism that ultimately led me to seek treatment. As I reflect, I have a better understanding on how mental health develops and why treatment can be important.  Growing up, Catholicism played a key role in my family and academic life. Religious teachings were central both at home and at school, going to morning mass every Thursday with my class and trying to keep an A in theology courses, going to mass ag...

  Jillian Olear Prof. John Horgan  HST 401A Seminar in Science Writing- Paper #3 23 February 2026 I pledge my honor that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System. Anxiety- A Shared College Experience It took me a really long time to start this paper. The other two assignments came easy to me and I knew what direction I wanted to take immediately. With this one though, I didn’t even know where to start, which was stressing me out, so I admittedly put it off. Then I realized on top of it, I had to juggle other lab reports and homework assignments, keep up with grading for my course assistantship, work on my research project, and finish various applications for internships and stuff. It felt like I was drowning and couldn’t catch my breath. A feeling that a ton of other college students know all too well. Everyone talks about how college will be the best years of a person’s life. While that’s true in many cases, it’s neglected that they could also be some of the most anxiety-ind...

Growing up with a best friend who had an older brother was unlike anything else I had experienced. Watching movies and TV shows depicting the effortless, cool camaraderie of having an older brother made me incredibly envious. As the oldest in my own family, I mostly dealt with the minor annoyances of a younger brother seeking my attention. I am not exaggerating when I say I practically worshipped my friend's brother. I revered and respected Nick with the same gravity one might reserve for a head of state. He was a wrestler at a prestigious university, and despite his many accomplishments, he remained a humble, down-to-earth guy. He was genuinely the coolest person I had ever known. He introduced me to the things that still define my tastes today: video games, comic books, weird movies, weirder TV shows. To me, Nick was invincible. Things started to change during my freshman year of high school. The shift was subtle at first - the “cool older brother” I knew began to recede. Our con...

     As I write this paper, I am locked in my room due to a snowstorm. My roommate went home for the storm, and I am alone. While it's nice to have the room to myself, I haven't talked to anybody face-to-face in two days. I'm starting to long for human interaction again, and I know if I stayed here for a few more days the longing would increase. Humans are implicitly social creatures. The social connections we make have helped us to survive and populate the earth. Interacting with others and forming bonds is evolutionarily ingrained into our minds [ 1 ]. The loneliness we feel when we lack human interaction is not only unpleasant, but a powerful stressor that can cause and exacerbate negative mental health effects.      My mother has Bipolar II disorder. It is a serious mental illness which is characterized by depressive and hypomanic episodes. A depressive episode is a prolonged period of lethargy, poor mood, appetite loss, and loss of interest in activity...

  Clayton Yun Professor Horgan HST 401 11 February 2026 Insulin Spike and Price Spike: Who Owns Our Lives I sat quietly in the back seat of the car, watching the border booth lights reflect off the windshield as we pulled up to the U.S. Customs checkpoint. My parents rolled down the window and handed over their passports. The officer asked the usual questions in a bored, mechanical tone. Where we had been, how long we stayed, and what the purpose of the trip was. My parents answered calmly, but I could tell they were waiting for the one question everyone expects. “Are you bringing anything back with you?” There was a brief pause before my dad responded. “Yes,” he said. “Insulin.” The officer’s expression shifted slightly, not shocked, but suddenly more alert. He asked how much, and my mom explained it was a two-month supply. Then the officer leaned forward a little and asked another question, sharper this time. “Is it for you?” “No,” she replied. “It’s for our son, Jack.” Even thou...

  Jonah Diaz HST 401-A Professor Horgan 11 February 2026 “I pledge my honor that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System” -Jonah Diaz Holistic Medicine: My Personal Window into Pre-Modern Medicine My mother was never fond of doctors or modern medicine in general for that matter. This indifference can largely be attributed to a lack of familiarity or exposure to “standard” medical care given that she was raised in a low-income, rural setting under the Chilean Pinochet regime. Furthermore, my mother belongs to the Mapuche indigenous people, a people who have long resisted assimilation and subjugation from foreign actors to this day. The Mapuche practiced a systematic form of holistic medicine in which a machi (healer/religious figure) carries out ritualistic healing ceremonies based on extensive herbal knowledge. Current Mapuche society and culture is merely a shell of its formal self but fortunately, much of the knowledge remains preserved through subsequent generations. My pers...