No Barriers
A Final Reflection
By Juliana Pearson (June 11, 2002)
The sun shown brilliantly September eighth as my family and I made our way to the capitol grounds. My senior year had just started the week before and the summer heat mingled with the autumn breeze.

No Barriers
The Bright Side of Bad Poetry
By Juliana Pearson (May 8, 2002)
This fall, I entered a poetry contest that was posted on the writing board outside of Ms. Raeder’s room. Worthy verse would be published in a poetry anthology, "A Celebration of Young Poets."

No Barriers
Your Mother Doesn’t Work Here
By Juliana Pearson (April 18, 2002)
On a recent spring afternoon on my way out of the building, I glanced out the glass paned door to the senior courtyard and saw a fellow member of the class of 2002 picking up our classmates’ leftover lunches.

The Admissions Process
Senior Offers a Little Advice for the Long Haul
By Juliana Pearson (April 8, 2002)
I’ve concluded that no high school senior should stay at home during spring break. I did, and it was a mistake. 

No Barriers
Pied Piper: Cheating Scandal in Kansas Offers Relevant Insight
By Juliana Pearson (March 9, 2002)
The rural community of Piper, Kansas, may seem a world away from suburban Washington DC, but the events that have unfolded there in the past few months are an excellent (and rather frightening) addendum to Lasso Online’s special edition on cheating (See Special Edition, January 14^th). 

Title IX Law
Writer Says, ‘It’s Time for a Change’
By Brian Coleman (March 7, 2002)
In 1972 Congress passed Title IX, an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law intended to rid education of discrimination. Instead it became a despicable law especially when applied to sports at the college level.

Olympic Report
Our Eyewitness is Present at History Being Made
By Sara Kaplow (March 6, 2002)
Figure skating is a sport that is largely ignored outside of the Olympics, but every four years it steps in and takes the stage at the winter games.

No Barriers
Seventeen Meets Ivy League Prep
By Juliana Pearson (February 3, 2002)
Clear your mind and imagine the following: Seventeen Magazine meets Ivy League prep. It seems like an improbable combination, doesn’t it?

Commentary
High School Classes: The Long and Short of It
By Beth Pyne (January 25, 2002)
Count to 6,000. 
This should give you a fairly accurate idea of what high school students at George Mason do, three times daily, with just short breaks in between.

No Barriers 
Little Words Go a Long Way
By Juliana Pearson (January 22, 2002)
Let’s face it, no matter how routine oral presentations may have become by the time senior year rolls around, they are rarely easy.

Commentary, Baseball Blues
Still Waiting After All These Years
By Matt Bond (January 19, 2002)
In my freshman year at George Mason, I played baseball on a scraggly, uneven baseball field. Before and after each game, the players groomed the field in the vain hope of making the surface infield a little smoother and more playable.

Commentary
Tired Senior Discovers ‘Playtime Doesn’t Exist’
By Folake Ojumu (January 11, 2002)
I'm tired. I'm really tired. I'm sitting here staring at the computer screen wondering what in the world I can complain about for two pages and my mind is a total blank

On Leaving
Magic Envelope Delivers Promise of Freedom
By Mike Denny (December 14, 2001)
Some say that where you are going is not important, but the key is the journey you experienced along the way. Sadly, in high school the value of the destination takes on the soul of the journey, one’s final destination becomes a burdensome load of the unknown.

No Barriers
A Tribute to Bridge Building
By Juliana Pearson (December 12, 2001)
Nearly two weeks ago, a brimming envelope filled with letters from China arrived in Mr. Hoover’s school mailbox. The letters were addressed to "pen pal" and "friend." Among them was one letter addressed to Mr. Hoover from Jennifer Weise, a 1995 graduate of George Mason.

No Barriers
Buy Nothing Day Especially Relevant this Year 
By Juliana Pearson (Nov. 21, 2001)
Every year on the Day after Thanksgiving, my Aunt Jo wakes up early and drives to the local K-Mart to begin her Christmas shopping, still full from the last night’s feast.

No Barriers
Finding Peace in the Ohio Countryside
By Juliana Pearson (November 5, 2001)
My shoulders have been just a little too tense since the September 11 attacks. I knew it was a problem one morning last week when the sound of my breakfast popping out of the toaster startled me, I tossed my glass of orange juice into the air. I knew then that I had been watching too much CNN, and something had to be done.
 

Placing Too Much Emphasis on SATs
By Juliana Pearson (October 23, 2001)
Last week, as I perused the pages of the October 11^th edition of the Falls Church News Press, I was not surprised to read the headline "Wants GM SAT Scores Put in Proper Context" over a long-winded letter to the editor. Yes, I thought, here’s another person who has placed an excessive amount of importance on one set of standardized test results.

Thanks, Cal
Remembering One of Baseball’s—and Life’s--Greats
By Sara Kaplow (October 17, 2001)
Although the phrase "thank you, Cal" has become a cliché over the past few months, it hasn’t lost its meaning. In a country where heroes have been redefined to not include athletes, Cal Ripken, Jr. stands out as a definite icon in the sports world.

Take a Minute
Should You Take a Year Off Before College?
By Alice Newhall (October 14, 2001)
To be done with school. Isn’t that what every high school senior dreams of? At George Mason that thought is supremely misleading to say the least. Next year, probably 90% or more of us will still be in school, working hard, slacking off, or perhaps breaking down.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Junior Class Debt;
Help Wipe It Out by Attending Tonight’s Dance
By Becca Parson (October 5, 2001)
As usual at our beloved George Mason, rumors are flying. One of the current ones – is there a Junior class debt? Some say, "If you see it in the Lasso, it’s so." Yes, Virginia, there is a Junior class debt.

 An Uncertain Finish Line 
Juliana Pearson (October 3, 2001)
This weekend, when my grandparents arrived from the Midwest, I embraced them with newfound connection. A Sunday morning nearly sixty years ago, my grandfather was engrossed in the funny pages when he heard the startling news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He was twenty years old.

Double Parking the Guilded Lot
By Grant MacHamer (October 3, 2001)
In the final stretch of junior year late last spring I think all of my now fellow seniors felt a little "cocky" with all those senior privileges just barely escaping our grasp. It seemed like we’d jumped on every chance we got to show our senior "pride" and bask in the bustling cornucopia of senior privilege, one being the right to the senior lot.

Redefining Normalcy 
By Alexis Baker (October 3, 2001)
At one time, driving down 395 and seeing the Pentagon was as normal as drinking coffee. Now as one drives down the newly reopened, almost sacred stretch of pavement, heads turn and traffic slows to witness the destruction that has occurred.