Author Archives: Monica Young

Coffee with a Cause

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Last Wednesday I attended the Rose Cafe with Keith Lemnios where he spoke about his company Sun Coffee. This talk enlightened me on the coffee I drink every morning (and often afternoon) at Cornell. This is a company with a mission. It does not just want to create great coffee, it wants to help the people that produce it. The coffee workers who produce the beans that go into my morning cup are paid a fair wage and the company helps to educate their children. In addition, the company uses sustainable production methods, so the company is good for the people and for the environment.

I honestly was very surprised to learn of this. I never thought twice about the coffee I drank at Cornell. I might have questioned if it was fair trade, but nothing past this. I did not expect Cornell to spend extra money on coffee to ensure that it is doing more than caffeinating its students. It is very reassuring and makes me wonder about other similar initiatives the university is taking.  It also makes me feel a little better about how much coffee I drink. I wonder how many workers are employed to help pay for my habit.

Rose Mingling

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Last Wednesday, some of us were able to sit down with Dr. Hill to talk about the Rose Scholar Program and possible improvements. Overall, the feedback for the program was positive. However, some improvements were suggested. One that stood out to me was the possibility of rotating the types of events through a set schedule of times throughout the week. I think this would be a great improvement. I am mainly only able to make it to the Rose Cafes, which are very interesting, but I wish I was able to be exposed to more of the events while not skipping my other engagements.

An improvement that I suggested was a type of forced bonding among the Rose Scholars at the beginning of each semester. I think that this would greatly change the dynamic of the program. If wanting to join became more about the people in the program and less about having a bed in Rose House the following year, this could help begin to create a culture that the house would be known for. It is also beneficial for each Rose Scholar, as making new friends is always fun but can sometimes be daunting.

This forced bonding could also be integrated into the application process to be a part of the Rose Scholars Program. If events were held where potential applicants were able to mingle with former Rose Scholars and learn about their experiences, as well as meet some of the other applicants, this could create a sense of camaraderie and further the creation of a Rose House culture.

The Transatlantic Series is for NARPs too

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Last Wednesday my fellow Rose Scholars and I were lucky enough to learn about an event that is close to Dr Hill, the Transatlantic Series. Paul Willcox, the president of the organization, gave us a presentation that displayed both the history and the importance of this event. It was emphasized how much the series can help broaden the track and field team’s world view while also strengthening their relationships and building ties with friends overseas. This even goes as far as affecting some of the travelers’ career paths, as Willcox mentioned one athlete who visited the US during the Great Depression and went on to become a global economist as a result.

I can only imagine the life changing experiences that these travelers have. I was fortunate enough to meet some of the captains before they had a dinner Thursday night. In the brief period I spent talking to them, I was able to learn a bit about the education differences in the UK, as well as their experiences in the US. I found it incredibly amusing hearing about what their take on Cornell was, specifically their take on drinking and American parties was great to hear.

I wish that I had been able to speak with them longer, as our conversations were cut short by their meal and my prelim. I was able to take so much out of 15 minutes talking to 3 of the athletes, I can only imagine what spending a few days with them would do. Hopefully, in the future Dr. Hill and Mr. Willcox will recognize that these travels are not only an opportunity for the athletes to broaden their world view, but they also pose opportunities for us NARPs (non-athletic regular people) to as well.

Brazilian Landscape, not Agriculture

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Wednesday’s Rose Cafe with Andre Simores seemed a little off topic and off the cuff, but it was very interesting to learn about the different parts of Brazil. Simores went into great detail about the different climates and landscape present in the country. The google images shown of the country I’m sure are only a small testament to how beautiful the diverse landscape of Brazil truly is.

Andre also spoke to the education system in Brazil. He talked about how the best universities are public and free to go to. However, it is mainly the wealthy who are able to go to these schools. This happens because the wealthy people are able to afford to go to private high schools and can get into the best universities. This is a really sad phenomenon, especially in a country that has such a divide between the rich and the poor, and a country that is trying to fix that and improve the overall economy. I’m not sure how this could be fixed, as tuition is already free. Also, if you bring in people who do not have as good of a base education by finding the brightest in worse high schools, they often fall behind in college which can lead to many issues, like dropping out and even depression.

I wish that Andre Simores spoke more about his work and the agriculture industry in Brazil. They hold a great part of the world’s rainforests, which are being compromised by the agriculture industry because of deforestation to create either grazing land for cattle or to plant crops. Brazil is a key player in agriculture, and hearing a Brazilian’s perspective on the issue would have been really interesting.

The Importance of Guidance

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Sam Beck’s Rose Cafe last Wednesday seemed like more of a sales pitch for the Urban Semester program that the professor runs than a discussion about how to become more engaged on campus. However, it still was a great experience that got me thinking about my time on and off campus.

Beck emphasized the importance of mentorship in achieving one’s academic and career goals. With the sheer size of my classes at Cornell, this seems like a hard thing to find. Professors often seem rather disinterested in even teaching, let alone personally getting to know and guiding a student. Seeing the passion with which Professor Beck talked about teaching and engaging students gave me hope though. Perhaps if I can’t find a mentor in my 100+ person lectures, I will be able to find one in my activities outside of class. Maybe I will even be able to find one through the Rose programming.

I really enjoyed Sam Beck’s style of teaching, which he was able to get across even in the short time we had with him. His individualized attention and advice was really refreshing and intriguing. His interest in improving the heath of underserved communities also directly aligns with what I want to do with my life. I might just have to do Urban Semester to learn more from him and maybe even find myself a mentor.

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I attended last Wednesday’s Rose Cafe on the history of fats. I had never thought of fat in a historical context, only a nutritional and biological context. This way of viewing the macromolecule was exciting in its newness to me.

One thing that I found very interesting was the interchangeability of fats, as Jonathan Robins described it. If different fats can be used to produce the same taste in foods, then it (unfortunately) makes sense that companies would use the cheapest kind regardless of it’s affect on the consumer’s health. I guess this is why trans fats are being regulated by governments across Europe and in the US.

I also found it very interesting that the vegetable fat industry hoped to bring animal agriculture down, whereas it really had the opposite effect. This happened because as fats are extracted from vegetables and grains, what is left over can be used as cheap feed for animals. This makes me wonder about how far the fat industry’s reach is regarding the health of Americans. Fat in excess is already bad for us, and both fat and meat in excess is even worse. Also, the fat industry could have broad effects on the environment given rainforest is removed to plant palm trees and create land for grazing animals and given the agriculture industry as a whole is one of the leading producers of greenhouse gas emissions.

Overall, I had never thought about fats in this way. I had only really thought of their impact on my body and others’, not the economy or the environment. It’s great to be able to stay in the West community and expand my view in ways I never would have even thought of trying.

“Instead of being religious I’ll be creative”

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Last week I attended the opening of Rose Dining’s new installment of works by Nicholas Carbonaro. Roaming around the room, at first I was confused by the collection of works on the wall. The artist used a variety of media, from sheet paper and ink to t-shirts and dye. Despite the variation in the platform that the art was displayed and created on, each piece was focused on the human. Most of the art took an interpretive view on the face, with great asymmetry and interesting details added in.

To me, one piece seemed to be different from the others. Whereas the other pieces included a lot of detail and often lacked color, this one was vibrant and more simple. This makes sense with the title of the piece, Silhouettes. However, if I wasn’t told that this work was made by the same artist, I never would have guessed it. I think this is interesting with Nicholas’s overall message- that art and creativity is used by everyone and in many different ways. He embodies this not only in his work, but his whole life with his pursuit of creative work. Just like his pieces are all diverse and creative, his jobs are like that too. Nicholas brings his creativity into creating wax figures, photography, painting, hair cutting, and more. To me, this is inspirational. No matter what he does he brings his passion into it. It is lucky to be able to make a living off of your passion, and I am happy that he was able to share it with us in Rose.

What do I want to get out of college?

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Cynthia Hill ended her Rose Cafe by asking the room what we wanted to get out of college. The responses were varied and interesting.

Some had academic goals in mind, like learning to program or learning to solve engineering problems. Others had more personal goals in mind, like figuring out what they want to do with their lives.

Personally, I want to get a variety of things out of my experience at Cornell. I can already see myself growing as a member of the community. I grew up in the same small town my entire life and, although I tried, getting to connect with people very different from myself was hard to do in such a secluded environment. Cornell is so full of people with diverse backgrounds, interests, personalities, and beliefs that it is almost impossible not to get out of your comfort zone, and it is particularly easy to if that’s what you’re seeking. This exposure as well as my search for new experiences with new people at the school has helped me grow as a person and will continue to help me grow throughout my time here. I think that this is a very important thing to get out of college.

Another thing that I would like to get out of my time here is to learn how to think. This is connected to every aspect of my experience at Cornell. Not only am I learning to think analytically in my engineering classes, but I am also learning to think holistically from my classes outside of my major. In addition, interactions with different students and faculty members has helped me to think reflectively and more outwardly about my personal values and political beliefs, which is very important to do.

Overall, while I would like to be prepared for a career after my time at Cornell, I think that personal improvement is the most important thing to get out of the college experience.

Examining political biases

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The Rose Cafe event with Professor Enns was a great way for me to get back into the Rose programming this semester.

Professor Enns’s relaxed demeanor along with the new Cafe setting seemed to create an area free for discussion of concerns, questions, and comments about the current political state of affairs in our country. I greatly appreciated the professor’s expertise on the subjects discussed, and perhaps more so his admittance of his lack of answers and his own confusion over where our country is going.

Among his wealth of knowledge about current affairs and government, perhaps the most important thing he passed on to those at the Rose Cafe was his examination of personal biases and how that is shaping what we think of what is going on with our country. The example he gave was with the Republican’s strategy to place Senator Sessions’s hearing after DeVos’s so he gets a vote in her hearing. When he heard this happened, he was angry and thought of it almost as evil and wrong. With reexamination, however, Professor Enns was able to recognize that he would not feel the same if it was his party doing the same actions. This is contrasted with his anger over President Trump’s blatant lies to the country and his failure to correct himself. No matter the political ties of a president, this behavior is not ok.

Sharing these examples to the group, as well as Enns’s plea for us to look at intended outcomes instead of actions, really helped me reevaluate my anger over the state of our country. It helped me remember that although I do not agree with many republican ideals and policies, I can respect what they are trying to accomplish even if I disagree with how they go about it. It also completely solidified my belief that Donald Trump is not fit to run the United States of America, and that I would feel this way no matter my political affiliations.