International students face a variety of challenges, from adapting to different educational styles, to confronting language and cultural barriers, but navigating visa concerns is perhaps the most daunting. Audio reporter Abby Thayananthan speaks to four international students to understand some of the challenges they face and their experiences as international students considering their future.

Resident Advisors, otherwise known as as RAs, navigate a complex role in a residential community. They are students like any other, and yet they are also responsible for ensuring the well-being of their peers, and even policing them when necessary. The complexities of the role are complicated even further by financial considerations, time commitment, and so much more. In this Ear episode, reporter Abby Thayananthan speaks with current and former RAs to discuss the job as well as the unionizing, a hot topic on campus right now.

In this Spectacle episode, reporters Natalie Goldberg and Abby Thayananthan go behind the scenes of CMTS’s recent production of “In the Heights.” The show tackles issues of gentrification, complicated by Columbia’s role in gentrification throughout New York City, including in Washington Heights, the musical’s setting. Through discussions with the director, production team, lead actor, and sound designer, as well as audience members, Goldberg and Thayananthan provide a detailed picture of how the team worked toward an accurate and respectful depiction of Washington Heights and its residents.

In the second episode of “The grownups are talking,” reporter Abby Thayananthan, CC ’24, invites Narayan Kini, CC ’24, and Maya Nalawade, CC ’24, to reflect on their experiences working over the summer. In many ways, interning over the summer involves adapting to a lifestyle that is very foreign to us as college students but very normal to adults. We learned that adulting requires skills such as the ability to prioritize and balance multiple commitments and that ultimately, you learn a lot from just being thrown into it.