WRITING SAMPLES
One student lived the high life with her medical marijuana “buds.”
Senior Hyler Fortier co-developed a free app called MassRoots: The Medicinal Cannabis Community, launched in July. She and her buds—the app's users—regularly posted pictures and expanded their cloud to unite the medical cannabis community in one place.
MassRoots was for “really anyone who can appreciate the value” of medicinal cannabis, said Fortier.
Users regularly posted pictures of their use of medical cannabis and any concerts or even they went to in support of the drug.
The app operated as a mix of Instagram and Twitter. Users could upload pictures, tag their buds in them and use hashtags to make their posts more searchable.
Fortier worked on MassRoots with three other co-developers. Her brother developed and updated the app, and two friends from Virginia Beach worked on the marketing and financials. They hoped to eventually have in-app purchases of medical cannabis.
“I'm not just some pothead who wants to, you know, encourage people to smoke pot. It's a business decision,” said Fortier.
MassRoots
MassRoots Article - The Bluestone
Here is the visual representation (which I designed for the yearbook as well) and the readable text of just one of the many articles I wrote for 2014 The Bluestone during my time as their second-in-command editor. For more writing samples, feel free to contact me!
Fortier’s main role in the development was graphic design. This included designing the brochure they used while seeking investors. They hoped for a $250,000 investment in their app, and would use it to expand to one million users.
As of early October, the app had more than 7,500 downloads from primarily 18-to-30-year-olds who consumed cannabis regularly.
Users had to be be 17 years old to download the app, and only legal, medicinal use was allowed to
found, users could report it to Fortier and her co-developers, and they would take it down.
Fortier’s co-developer Isaac Dietrich, a 21-year-old from Virginia Beach, decided to start MassRoots because of the demand from their audience.
“There are tens of millions of cannabis consumers who can’t really share pictures about it because they’re afraid their bosses or parents will see and think differently of them,” said Dietrich. “This is an app where people can feel safe and comfortable about themselves and feel safe about sharing an aspect of their lives they wouldn’t normally be able to share.”
MassRoots didn’t have the ability to connect to other social media, such as Facebook, so only other MassRoots users were able to see the posts.
Fortier’s brother, Stewart, took three weeks to develop and write the code for the app. The app had no major problems since its launch. Fortier looked forward to the future of her app.
“It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m just looking forward to the day when I can introduce myself as the co-founder of MassRoots, and the person is just like ‘I have that!’ or ‘I know what that is!’”
Assault
Sexual Assault Article - The Bluestone
Here is the visual representation and the readable text of just one of the many articles I wrote for 2015 The Bluestone during my time as their second-in-command editor. For more writing samples, feel free to contact me!
It happened in dark rooms of unfamiliar apartments. It happened in shadowed corners of the street in the middle of the night. And, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexual assault happened to 19 percent of female college students.
In May of 2014, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released an official list of 55 colleges and universities, including the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary, to undergo investigation for possible violations of federal law related to sexual assault.
Since the release, James Madison University was added to the list on June 4, with the University of Richmond and Virginia Military Institute following close behind.
Colleges and universities were added to the list when the U.S. Department of Education determined that the school was not following federal protocol when dealing with cases of sexual assault. Over the summer, JMU came under fire when a specific case went viral, landing on multiple news sites and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
According to Joshua Bacon, the director of JMU’s Office of Student Accountability & Restorative Practices, the investigation at JMU had more than a few implications.
“It’ll be good because anytime it’s reported to any faculty or staff administrator, it all goes to a central place,” Bacon said.
All reports now went to a database in JMU’s Title IX office regardless of whether the victim wanted to press charges. Any victim or survivor had the right to choose whether they wanted to press charges, go to counseling or any other option.
“If they don’t want [to press charges] and they are adamant, we respect that wish,” said Bacon. “If [the accused] has been accused multiple times or if it was a violent act, if they had a knife or a gun in the act, or anything that we deem a safety hazard, we may go ahead with charges without the victim.”
Sexual assault was not defined as only rape; any type of sexual misconduct, including inappropriate touching or comments, could be reported by a student. With the undergoing investigation, students seemed to have mixed feelings on how campus handled these reports.
“It’s good that they’re cracking down on this,” said Brandon House, a sophomore engineering major. “It’s very traumatizing. This stuff is real, it actually happens.”
A female freshman health sciences major, who wished to remain anonymous, sometimes worried about her personal safety.
“I make sure I’m always with friends,” she said. “If I’m not comfortable at a place, I won’t drink as much.”
If a student experienced a sexual assault on or off campus, he or she was encouraged to report it to the OSARP. If the student then wanted to go through with charges, he or she had the option to do so through the OSARP or with criminal charges, which would take place off of campus.
With charges through the office, the accused was sent an email issuing a no contact ruling, during which they couldn't have any contact with the victim or survivor. The accused then needed to set up a meeting with an adviser for the upcoming process. The OSARP provided trained advisers for both the victim and the accused.
Punishment for charges through the OSARP varied.
“In terms of the university, the worst we could do is expel someone,” Bacon said. “They could go right off campus and live in any of these townhouses and any of these apartment buildings around campus, and there’s nothing JMU could do about it.”
Other punishment options included removal of the accused from residence halls and classes that he or she shares with the victim, suspension and no trespassing on campus past a certain date.
“Not talking about a specific case, but some people say ‘Well, why didn’t you just expel them?’ Well, if it’s a type of case that didn’t reach expulsion, suspension is the next step. You might decide to do no trespassing after graduation,” Bacon said. “It’s all based on circumstances and the needs of the victim and the needs of the community.”
The entire process could take anywhere from one to two weeks to a couple of months, according to Bacon. Bacon estimated that an average of four students go through the entire process each year.
Since the investigation began over the summer, the OSARP made a few changes to their system to better serve victims of sexual misconduct.
These changes included the exclusion of students on a review board. Cases went through an administrative option hearing, with an administrator from OSARP and two members of the faculty and staff. After the hearing, the case went to a written appeal. With these changes, the victim only had to tell his or her story once instead of having to repeat it multiple times.
Jon Stewart may have sarcastically called out JMU as the “classic Virginia safety school,” but JMU was constantly working to make campus a safe place for its students.