Wild Knights
The University of Bridgeport's English & Professional Writing Blog

By Comie Edmund A positive experience since returning to school at the University of Bridgeport as an adult student completing my nursing prerequisites has been learning to navigate Canvas, the online platform where all my course materials and assignments are organized. After several years away from higher education, I felt unsure about how well I would adjust to academic expectations again. What surprised me was how much the structure of the digital learning environment supp

Professor Donna Oropall Close your eyes.  Take a breath. No, really. Do it right now.  Stop looking at the computer screen for a second.  Close your eyes. And take a breath. Are you done?  Did you do it? If so, you are probably feeling slightly better. Slightly refreshed. You may have experienced a decrease in your cortisol level. You may feel that obsessional thoughts and anxieties that had been closing in on you a few seconds ago suddenly seem less ominous, less formidable.

By Janine Oliva Melia flying Do you remember what it feels like to be 9 years old?  What moments helped teach you about perseverance?  I have a little girl who loves to fly - and she has the pleasure of learning about perseverance at a young age in her life.  Her name is Melia, which translates in Hawaiian to the frangipani flower.  She likes to go by "Me-Me" or "Grace." Grace is her middle name.  Melia is younger sister to Dylan, and even with their 10-year difference in age

By Ashley Cartagena   Here I am wondering what do I do next? I picked Psychology as my major, since it has always piqued my interest. But now I want to help my community. Mental health is so important. I see the need for the Human Services field. Do I switch to Human Services? All these questions whip around my brain while I schedule a call with my advisor. Already anxiety ridden, I see I will be scheduling with someone other than my normal advisor. Still, I made an appointme

Hi folks, we’re back with Carl the Carlson Hall kangaroo to talk about the joy of the season.  WK: Carl, you just finished your first semester at UB as an English major .  How’d it go? Carl: It was great.  I learned a lot.  Did you know that there’s a book called Leaves of Grass ? WK: Isn’t it like poems or something? Carl: It’s a long book of poems by a guy named Walt Whitman, and it actually tasted really good. WK: You ate the book? Carl: My final project was a kind of fo

By Sebastiao Dossantos O ne of the most meaningful experiences I have had since I started studying at the University of Bridgeport happened during the summer semester while I was taking a Microbiology class. At the same time, I was working as a CNA and caring for a patient who had an MRSA infection after having brain surgery. I remember feeling nervous because I did not want to make a mistake, and the patient’s wife did not understand much about the medical field because of h

By Mahbubul Hassan I most certainly did not expect the most encouraging moment of my return to higher education to happen in a Zoom meeting at 9 am after a grueling 36-hour shift, but life is full of surprises. Logging into my advising meeting at the University of Bridgeport, I was mentally prepared to leave disappointed and discouraged. My previous advising experiences at other campuses were character-building, to put it nicely. Previous advisors had dodged my questions abou

Us / Them.   Good guys / Bad guys.   Police / Gang members.   These bitter divisions shatter our communities, dehumanize people perceived as “other,” and perpetuate a destructive cycle of violence and retribution.   This is the powerful argument at the heart of a new documentary, Us vs Them , which examines the chronic conflict between police and the communities they patrol.    The filmmakers argue that a paradigm of confrontation masks an ironic mirroring effect that links t

It’s hard to look at an atomic explosion.    In a recent Lunch & Learn presentation hosted by UB’s College of Science and Society, Associate Professor Dr. Elizabeth Haas described the elaborate precautions taken by the witnesses of the Trinity test, as represented in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film, Oppenheimer .  Assembled military personnel, scientists, and other people attending the atomic test are instructed to avert their eyes from the blast itself, and to only look at the

This is what bravery looks like By Janae Small On Sunday, November 1, 2025, at 3:30 PM, I met in person with firefighter Jamel Small to interview him about his career. Jamel was born and raised in Bridgeport, CT. He is 40 years old with two daughters, ages two and twelve. We talked about his passion for helping people and his commitment and dedication to the community he grew up in. When Jamel turned 21, his mother wanted him to consider firefighting as a career. The thought