Ivy Years

This will probably be my last blog post here.

NEW (OLD) BLOG: www.ivy.phoebeyu.com

Words cannot express the immense amount of gratitude I have for Cornell. Three years ago TO THE DAY, I arrived in Ithaca for the first time, having only before caught glimpses of the campus on glossy brochures, Google Maps, and friends’ Facebook albums. I brought with me two suitcases that contained my entire life, and left behind in Vancouver everyone I knew. As the Prepare volunteer’s car sped toward West Campus and the scenic beauty of my alma mater came into view, I distinctly remember feeling a combination of excitement, awe, and trepidation. I wondered (didn’t we all?) if I was the right fit for Cornell and vice versa. I wondered if I would do well here. I wondered what it would be like to look back on my college experience and how I would’ve given anything, in that moment when I first saw the clock tower on Ho Plaza, to know what the future had in store for me.

When I first walked into that second-floor suite in Flora Rose, I would have never guessed that the girls in my suite would become my best friends at Cornell. I would’ve never guessed that we would take weekend trips out of the country together, meet each others’ families, and celebrate every success and drink to get over every setback together.

Three years ago, if you told me that I would meet the love of my life on a Shortline Bus from New York to Ithaca, I would have laughed, checked your sanity, and laughed some more. Yet here we are.

I took a gamble by switching from two very sensible and practical majors – finance and computer science – to something I have to explain every time I introduce myself – industrial and labor relations. Boy, was I lucky I did. It’s true, ILR has the most amazing and caring professors at Cornell. Under the guidance of Professors Friedman and Compa, I managed to cobble together a thesis on labor relations and multinational-companies in China. Professor Gold let me TA for his labor law class, even though I spent an entire semester being terrified of getting called on, socratic style. Professor Jackson taught the first economics class I’ve ever understood. My advisor, Professor Lieberwitz, is a role model, though I will never forget the time I lost my voice and she made fun of me in class and threatened to dock participation points. Christina Homrighouse asked me to co-teach a seminar with her in the Johnson School, which pretty much makes her the coolest faculty member ever. Professor Nelson taught me the value of rhetorics and introduced me to a wonderful debate partner who’s off to do great things. The list goes on and on. The point is, my education at Cornell was not a process in which authority figures passed on knowledge to students. Instead, it was a collaborative learning effort where professors respected, valued, and even learned from what each of us contributed. More than anything, Cornell as an institution recognizes the dynamic, ever-changing world we live in and seek to provide education in a way as to be relevant, engaging, and globally-minded.

Without Cornell, I would have never had the opportunity to study abroad at Oxford. I’m sure you guys all know how much I enjoyed my time at St. Catherine’s College given all that gushing that permeated this blog.

 The Cornell in Washington program afforded me the opportunity to work for what I think is the greatest institution in this country.

My experiences with my business fraternity, Phi Gamma Nu, was also one of the important highlights. This network of brothers is so supportive and talented. Also, shout-outs to Mock Trial, Forensics, KAPi, CCG, Hilltop, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, etc.

I started writing this entry with the aim of covering the major components of my Cornell experience. Now I’ve realized that it’s simply impossible to do these three years justice. I came to university with very little and it was thanks to Cornell’s generosity that I was able to finish college. Truthfully, I counted my blessings every day to be able to simply wake up and attend class. Through it all, I’m incredibly grateful for the love and support my parents have provided me along the way. I know I don’t say this enough, but mom and dad, you guys rock and I love you guys so much.

As I spend the next few years in New York City trying to make my mark on corporate America, I will never forget the humble place I came from and the warmth and fervor with which Cornell welcomed me into her embrace.

Any person, any study.

Phoebe Yu
Industrial and Labor Relations
Cornell University
Class of 2012

P.S. – I will go back to blogging at ivy.phoebeyu.com. Hopefully the posts will be a bit more frequent!

When I was at Stanford for a conference last year, a student there explained the “Duck Syndrome” to me. Imagine a duck gliding gracefully on a calm lake. While everything seems to be smooth on the surface, underneath, the duck is paddling furiously. This, according to the student, symbolizes the culture at Stanford. There are a ton of students there seemingly doing it all without major effort – top marks in school, leadership in extra-curriculars, position in sought-after internships, and CEO at their own start-up to boot. Did they study for that test yesterday? “Barely!” Are they stressed? “Not at all, just loving life!” Behind this facade of ease, however, Stanford students are supposedly working extremely hard when there’s no one around, like a duck paddling on a lake.

While not as severe as that of our West Coast brethren, the Duck Syndrome definitely manifests on the Cornell campus. I am constantly amazed at the feats people pull off around me. Though when it comes to my own undertakings, I think I’m that slightly awkward duck who’s paddling three strokes behind everyone and kind of going in a circle.

Here’s to shattering the illusion that everything is easy.

Every year, my business fraternity, Phi Gamma Nu, organizes a trip to New York City to do firm visits and meet with alumni (both Cornell’s and PGN’s). This year, we visited Citi, Deutsche Bank, and PwC and had small meetings with representatives from Accenture, Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Barclays, BofA Merrill Lynch, and ELLE Magazine, just to name a few. After distributing resume books to the firms, a few of our brothers got interviews/call-backs on that day. At dinner, a dozen or so of our PGN alums came out to dinner with us near Time Square. Nothing makes me happier as an organizer on the trip to see both professional successes and personal friendships forged like that. But let’s be real, when shuttling 25 people to NYC for two days and running around Manhattan like a mad person for 12 hours, it won’t be all smooth sailing. This is what I learned organizing this year’s PGN trip to NYC.

It’s always the darkest before dawn. Whoever came up with the saying, “blessings never come in pairs, and misfortunes never come singly” pretty much nailed it. It just so happened that the day I picked for the trip months in advance, Friday, November 18th, coincided with firm-wide events at two other Wall Street bulge brackets. That Friday also happened to be the one day when the PGN alums who normally house the brothers were out of town (the traveling perks of being consultants!). On top of that, everyone who were supposed to drive had car issues, license problems, or a combination of both. There were literally moments when my co-organizers and I just sat in Libe Cafe and sighed, and then racked our brains to come up with alternatives.

Things will always work out. When you’re rock bottom in that pit of despair (let’s see how many cliches I can dump in this entry), some angelic force will always come and bail you out. Sometimes they’re just in the form of awesome co-organizers, HR folks, and MDs at investment banks.

Alums are usually amazing and will be willing to talk to you. The folks we reached out to at CAA Sports Management, Teach for America, ELLE Magazine, and the Fashion Institute of Technology were all alums or friends. Some were totally cold-emails to contacts we found in alum databases. Listen up Cornellians: our alum network is AMAZING AND FAR-REACHING. The word “Cornell” will open countless doors for you. In the same vein, when you’re an alum, remember to help out the young’uns who hesitantly send you overly-polite and formal emails. They’ll really appreciate it.

If you ask nicely, people will accommodate you. You’ll never know if you don’t ask. The rejection will never be harsh and the worst response you can get is a silence.

People are smarter than you think and can typically figure things out. For those of you who know about my Europe adventures, you are aware of my neurotic need to plan every single details of an outing. On our trip, I wanted to tell the PGN girls what kind of shoes to bring (flats), the guys what kind of ties to wear (stripes – rising to the right signifying a bull market), and everyone the exact route they should take in between coffee chats (get on the 4/5/6 at Bryant Park, get off at WTC, cross the overpass to WFC). I needed to constantly tell myself to just “chill” and let everyone figure it out. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? Have three pledges locked out of a Queens apartment and forced to wander around Manhattan til 5 A.M.*? Pssh. No big deal.

* Okay I was genuinely concerned for you guys, but I’m glad it worked out OK… kind of. 

This was written while I was abroad in England last semester (through Cornell Abroad). I’m taking HADM4800 – Introduction to Wines this semester and thought this was especially fitting.

Dear Potential Employers,

I see you. I see you at your desk with a stack of names – candidates with seemingly-flawless resumes and stellar academic credentials. By this point you may have become bored with the monotonous process of Googling names. Or you may be Facebooking your potential interns and gleefully chuckling to yourself as you come upon some blurry shot of said intern doing a keg stand while making a lewd gesture to scantily-clad female cohorts who are in compromising positions.

As a freelance web designer and a (very eager) past intern, I have an especially great interest in my online reputation, which is why I had my hesitations about this blog entry. You see Dear Potential Employers, I have picked up a hobby while I’m here in England. While not exactly self-destructive or harmful to society, this hobby has the potential to burn holes through my wallet, make my evenings go by in a hazy blur, and raise questions about my status as an alcoholic. The hobby? I am currently a card-carrying member of the Oxford Wine Tasting Society.

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