by Paula Cerda A week ago, the APU students received an electronic survey aimed at identifying our university mascot. This brought back memory of a similar discussion that occurred in 2012, but unfortunately no clear conclusions were drawn that year. The Turnagain Currents reached out to Amber Peterson, ASAPU Chair, and asked her a few questions about the renewed discussion and what we can look forward to in the search for the APU mascot. Turnagain Currents:  How did the APU Mascot debate of 2014 begin? Amber Peterson: ASAPU has discussed trying to figure out what APU’s mascot was for as long as I have been here (2012), and this year…

by Evan Nasse Election season is here, and appropriately it is coinciding with cold and flu season as well. Much like a cold, the political advertisements have made many of us sick to our stomachs and assaulted nearly all of the senses save for taste (only because so many of the advertisements tasteless by nature). Having been a registered voter for quite some time and participating in the civic duty that is the democratic process as often as I remember to, I have been exposed to a fair share of campaign commercials, radio advertisements, tacky billboards, excessive fliers, stupid stickers, pedestrian promoters, political platform cereal brands, presidentially endorsed bottled waters, and…

by William Day The ground is flat beneath my inflated pad – no lumpy rocks or sticks or tussocks of tundra to disrupt my sleep. Compared to last fall, trekking through the Talkeetnas with Expedition Leadership, this feels luxurious. Alice Lake is a well-groomed campground just north of downtown Squamish, British Columbia. The roads are paved, the sites graded, trails regulated… there’s a shower house. You can even swim in the lake if you’d like. After spending last fall block camping here and there in the alpine tundra of Alaska, and all of May on the Chugach glaciers, it’s hard to believe this is an APU block course… Usually, during…

by Hillary Hafner Our world revolves around time and money. I believe a person’s moral standing is determined by how one chooses to spend one’s time and money, and that the most ethical way to spend time and money is benevolently. An individual’s responsibility is proportionate to their ability to affect. For example, corporations can influence multitudes of people and are now considered under law to be individuals. Thus, they ought to be affecting people positively and serving as examples of benevolence. However, we live in an egoist world and according to Hobbes, our egoism is innate. We are presented daily with choices-large and small- that give us the power…

by Mike Gordon Just because you’ve known someone your whole life doesn’t necessarily mean you’re friends with them. Never mind that you were raised in the same neighborhood, went through Boy Scouts together, played in the school band together, got drunk for the first time together, were in school classes together year after year; 7th grade through high school graduation. I remember more friction between Johnnie and me during all those years than anything else.  Sure, there were some good times we enjoyed together, but Johnnie was the big kid and I was the little kid, though we were the same age. When I turned 16 and got my driver’s…

by Ryan Shofner The ephemeral nature of life dawns upon all beings. One day, the powers that be remove someone special from our lives and from that day forth, life is forever changed. It is what we do with the loss and how we handle the days to come that matters. February 21, 2014: I interview Shelby and Connor, facilitators of the Young-adult, Peer-supported, Greif Group, Co-sponsored and supervised by the Hospice of Anchorage and the University of Alaska Anchorage School of Nursing that caters to 18-30 year-old individuals. Christina, an intern of the Hospice of Anchorage and assistant of Shelby and Connor sums up the group: “We provide a…