A Review of the 2026 Issue of Northern Light
By Ryan Ismail
The 2026 issue of Northern Light brings together three very different essays, but they all share one thing. Each piece asks readers to think more carefully about the systems, beliefs, and habits that shape people’s lives. Some of these questions are medical. Some are philosophical. Some are directly tied to student health. Together, they show the value of student scholarship at North Hennepin Community College.
The first essay, “Bone Age in Modern Medicine: Urging Clinics to Replace Old Standards,” focuses on the need for medical standards to keep up with the world around them. The essay argues that bone age assessment should not stay stuck in older methods when medicine, technology, and the U.S. population have changed. The piece is especially strong because it connects a clinical issue to real people. Bone age is not just a number on a chart. It can affect diagnosis, treatment decisions, legal status, and how patients understand their own bodies. In a country that continues to become more diverse, medical tools should be accurate for the patients being seen. That is the larger point of the essay. Standards should not be kept only because they are familiar. They should be questioned when better and more equitable methods exist.
Angela Aubart and her coauthors’ essay, “Problematic Internet Use and Influence on Quality of Sleep and Generalized Anxiety,” brings the issue closer to campus life. As a North Hennepin affiliated journal, Northern Light has a responsibility to publish work that speaks back to its own readers. This piece does that well. It studies a topic that many students already feel in their daily lives, even if they do not always name it clearly. Phones, social media, gaming, studying online, and constant internet use are part of the normal student routine now. The essay takes that normal routine and asks what happens when it starts affecting sleep and anxiety. That matters because student health is not separate from student success. If students are tired, anxious, or overwhelmed by internet use, then colleges should care about that. This paper gives readers a way to look at their own habits with more awareness.
Casey Hjelmstad’s “Why We Should All Study Religion” adds a different kind of strength to the issue. It is not a lab study or a medical argument. It is a philosophical essay that pushes readers to sit with difficult questions about morality, meaning, faith, and uncertainty. The piece is valuable because it does not pretend that every question has an easy answer. Instead, it argues that people should examine what they believe and why they believe it. That kind of writing is important in a student journal because scholarship is not only about data; it is also about reflection. A strong publication should have room for both research and personal inquiry, especially when the writing asks readers to think more deeply about their own worldview.
What makes this issue work is the range. One essay asks whether medical systems are keeping up with modern standards. Another asks how student internet habits may connect to sleep and anxiety. The third asks why people should study religion even when they are unsure of what they believe. These topics may seem separate at first, but they all point toward the same larger idea. We should not accept things only because they are normal, familiar, or comfortable. We should study them, question them, and improve them when needed.
That is the purpose of a journal like Northern Light. It gives students a place to turn curiosity into serious work. It also gives readers a chance to see what student scholarship can look like when it is connected to real issues. The 2026 issue shows that undergraduate writing can be personal, academic, and meaningful at the same time. More than anything, it reminds readers that good scholarship does not always begin with having the final answer; sometimes it begins with noticing a problem, asking a hard question, and being willing to think beyond the surface.