After stuffing ourselves with nice home cooking, students are coming back to a city filled with exciting news in as wintery a fashion as this warm city can muster. Here are the top four things you need to know about NOLA as November speeds to a close:

• A real-life superhero made a stop at the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans on Nov. 26. Pride of Britain Award winner Jamie McDonald has been currently running solo across the U.S. in order to raise money for children’s hospitals. His idea was inspired from his own childhood of spending many years in and out of the hospital for a spinal condition, a weak immune system and epilepsy. On Nov. 26, McDonald made a stop at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, where he interacted with patients and shared his own experience with childhood illness. McDonald has currently run 3,400 miles of his 6,000 mile run all while wearing an Adventureman costume and raised $100,000 in donations.
• On Nov. 16, New Orleans crowned the first transgender homecoming queen. Dylan Ligier, a 14-year-old attending Morris Jeff Community School in Mid-City, conquered their fear of transitioning by relying on the support from the school and being crowned homecoming queen. “All the kids were cheering my name in the hallway. Everyone was giving me hugs and everyone was really supportive,” Dylan said.  
• The city is collaborating with researchers to figure out the reason behind certain regions of New Orleans sinking so quickly. According to hydrogeologists, New Orleans sinks six to eight millimeters each year. Pinpointing these areas is crucial, since one reason behind the catastrophe of Katrina was water flooding the low-lying areas of New Orleans. The project, called “Reshaping the Urban Delta” is taking a look underground in order to understand the sinking, and is predicted to take approximately 18 months to conduct. “New Orleans is one of the most vulnerable cities in the United States [due] to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. As we see more frequent and intense rainfall events, we have to adapt by living with water, reducing the subsidence of our soils, and preserving the quality of life and culture of our City,” said Tyler Antrup, the urban water program manager of New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability.
• There will be a runoff election for Secretary of State of Louisiana and the judge in our civil district court area on Dec. 8. Each of these positions has an intimate hold on various aspects of life here in New Orleans, especially the Secretary of State position, which plays an important role in deciding who and how people can vote in this state. It is crucial that we find the best person for the job for that position — and to do that, vote!