Author Archives: Thomas Ryan

Coffee Business

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Last week, I attended the Rose Cafe with Keith Lemnios. As someone who is interested in business, this cafe was very interesting. At my old school (Fordham) the business school was introducing a new focus on social entrepreneurship, so what Mr. Lemnios was discussing was very familiar. Where something was produced or how it was produced is becoming a big deal for consumers. People feel better about the products that are doing the things that Sun Coffee does. I think it is smart that Sun Coffee has partnered with universities because students are one of the demographics that are becoming more conscious about Fair Trade items.

It is interesting to parallel Sun Coffee with Nike because of the differences in production. Nike is using sweatshops and are still one of the most successful companies in the world. They make a good product. I wonder how the Sun Coffee tastes compared to Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. All around campus I see people drinking these coffees. I am not a coffee guy so i didn’t try any of the Sun Coffee provided by Mr. Lemnios, but it would be interesting to see the lengths people are willing to go to get their desired coffee. Sun is more available because it is sold on campus, but Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are just in Collegetown.  I am not familiar with the production practices of Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, but I dont think they are doing the programs that Sun is doing.

I also liked the Ted talk video that was shown. I think the circle diagram shows why many lifestyle brands are taking off because people want to associate themselves with products that represent what they belief in. It will be interesting to see how these companies perform in the future and what new trends will emerge. All in all, this was one of the more interesting rose cafes this year.

Tying Ties with Ty

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Last week I attended the seminar series event in which we learned how to tie various ties. Coming into the seminar, I knew how to tie a standard tie, but what I didn’t know (and was always interesting in learning about) was how to tie a bow tie. First we discussed what was appropriate attire for various events, for example interviews or cocktail hours. One aspect about attire that stood out to me was the difference between the genders. After the presentation, i see why women might take so long to get ready. There are a lot of critical decisions that have to be made in order to meet the dress code for a given event. Guys have sort of a standard base in which they can base their outfit on (shirt and pants) while women, have to decide on whether or not a skirt is appropriate or what about a jacket, etc. Also, for guys it is easy to dress for events because we can always remove a tie or take off our jacket. If a woman picks the wrong piece of clothing, game over.

Because of this seminar, I have a new respect for people who wear bow-ties. Before this seminar, I always thought that people who wore a bow-tie were trying harder than they had too and that the bow-tie gave off a sense of a sense of arrogance like “Look at me, I’m wearing a bow-tie, I’m smarter than you.” After attempting to tie a bow-tie, there may be something to the arrogance. It is really hard to tie a bow-tie. Granted we didn’t have mirrors, but just trying to follow from the step-by-step instructions and even with help from Ty, it was tough.

Also, it was interesting to learn about the different variations of business casual. At my old school, business casual always meant jacket with tie optional depending on what the occasion was. In the seminar, there was a photo ranging from a guy wearing a polo and jeans to a guy with a sweater, jacket and tie all representing business casual. Regardless I definitely came out of that lecture with a better understanding of how to dress for success.

Views from the Scholars

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Last weeks cafe was unique in that it wasn’t just someone lecturing about a topic, but it was an open discussion about the state of the rose scholars program and ways we may be able to improve the program moving forward. As I am nearing the end of my second year of the rose scholars it was interesting to be able to reflect on my time in the program. Here are some of my opinions regarding the program:

I really like the Thursday seminars and I wish that they were weekly occurrences. These seminars provide information that is different than the standard lectures you hear from career services.  The people who run the seminars provide personal anecdotes from previous experiences that provide helpful tips. There have also been times when i have attended this event where we had to end our discussion early because we had ran out of time. If the seminars are weekly, then we would be able to cover more content and possibly hit more areas. During the seminar in which we discussed interviews, possibly we could do a follow up session in which you have the opportunity to do a mock-interview.

Another suggestion I would make is to maybe have more viewing party sort of things. Similar to the Super Bowl (even though i didnt attend it) and debate viewings, there should be events for if there is a big game on, awards show, or even weekly TV show that can bring people together.

One thing i think would be interesting in terms of scholar and non rose scholars in Rose House would be to have house teams that compete in intramural sports. Maybe we could have a house softball or frisbee team or something to that extent. The fee for participating is either free of a small fee and many organizations have teams in order to build chemistry and unity. It doesn’t have to be competitive, but just an excuse for people to get out and do something.

Other than these few suggestions, I think the structure of the program has been great and i am interested to see how the program progresses.

Ivy League goes England

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Cornell has a lot of unique features in its athletic program because of its membership in the Ivy League. The Transatlantic series is one of those features. Even though I am a big sports fan, I had never heard of this track and field event. Throughout the presentation i recognized a few of the names like Roger Bannister and I read about the Penn Relays in high school, but it was interesting to learn about how the Ivy League competes against Oxford and Cambridge. One interesting tidbit that Mr. Willcox conveyed to us was that for the English teams when they travel to the U.S., they spend about 15 days moving throughout the different campuses and then to New York City and that the dates in which the competition takes place, usually coincides with the English examination period. He also said that in between events, some students will often be seen study for their upcoming exams. This reminded me of the cafe from earlier in the year when the Cornell tennis coach told us a story about how one of his athletes had to drive to and from a tournament while also attending all of his classes. A common perception is that university athletes have it easy and dont have to try as hard in school. These individuals discussed put this perception to shame. One of the themes of the talk was to look at life in a different way and after hearing Mr. Willcox describe the schedules that these athletes have and the performance that they have to obtain both on and off the track is truly astonishing.

Do everything the opposite of what you would normally do

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Last week was another great seminar involving career advancing tips. It was interesting to talk about the process of interviewing with a company. Having been interviewed and given interviews in the past I learned alot of information that I wish I had known. One interesting point was to ask the interviewer questions during the interview. While the purpose of interviews are for the company to get to know you, it is also a good opportunity for you to get to know the company you may be working at. This also allows the interview to become a two-way street which, as Sara described, is very beneficial.

Flashbacks came back when Sara discussed how some companies would use brain teasers to test the critical thinking ability of the candidates. When I conducted interviews in high school for the national honor society, my job was to go online and find brain teasers and unique questions to try and stump the candidates. Some of them were able to get them while others it seemed this would throw off their whole interview.

One of the main areas of discussion surrounded the extent to which one should pre memorize a story or monologue when speaking with the company. I am sort of in the middle when it comes to this debate. While I think it is good to have something to say prepared, I feel that an answer may be more genuine if it comes from the top of their head. That being said, I dont think you should just walk into the room and wing it. There is a gray area between being a robot and winging it. This is the area where i believe you need to be.

Ill have to use some of the advice that George Costanza taught us. One of my career goals is to get a job involving sports and George did a good job of doing that. Maybe Ill walk into James Dolan’s office and give him a piece of my mind about the team. Unfortunately, instead of getting a job, I think i would end up being dragged across the floor and out the door by a bunch of security guards.

In the end, this was a great seminar and I hope to attend more like this in the future.

Clear Eye View

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With the recommendation by my sports politics professor, and seeing that it was a rose scholar event, i decided to attend Heather Ann Thompson’s discussion about her book documenting the Attica prison uprising in 1971. While the talk provided great information about the uprising, one of the main lessons learned could be applied to our current day life.

One of the interesting points made by Thompson was about the obstacles she had to overcome in order to start working on the book. She said that a lot of the information regarding the incident was not permissible for the public to see and that she had to get special permission in order to look at it. This leads into the problems with how the information regarding the incident has been blurred. The uprising started because the prisoners were demanding better conditions and the stop to abuse and they took hostages. After negotiations fell through, the state police was then sent to take back the prison. One of the images from the presentation slides that stood out to me was where there was a group of state troopers ready to storm the prison and one of them was looking back towards the camera looking almost afraid and skeptical. Like “something bad is about to happen”- foreshadowing.

In reality, during the uprising many of the prisoners were shot and killed or hit with tear gas (keep in mind that most of them were unarmed). What the public heard through the media was that the prisoners were the ones who escalated the events and caused the killings. On the front page of the NYT, there was a headline and story regarding the uprising that apparently had no corroboration. This informed what i took away most from this talk. The main lesson that i took away from this talk was that you have to read everything with a grain of salt and always be skeptical/questioning- look at all of the facts. There is alot of “fake news” and “alternative facts” swirling around the media nowadays and it is important that we do not rush to conclusions. It is worth it to take the time and find out the truth.

A personal statement about personal statements

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One of the reasons I signed up for this seminar was because I did not know what a personal statement was used for. Was it for job applications? Grad school? Something else? What i learned was that a personal statement is used usually when applying to grad schools and that you include your interests in terms of where you want to go and what you want to do once you get there. Basically, it is a business proposal in which you are asking for a school to invest in you. This differs from a cover letter because a cover letter is written in response to a specific job advertisement in which you write why you are the best candidate for the job/internship. I was glad to clear up this distinction because I did not know whether personal statements should be included when applying for internships. That would have been great to hear that i have been missing something in my applications for the last 3 years. Nevertheless, this information was very helpful.

When cover letters came up, what was discussed wasn’t so shocking to me. When Dr. Hill said that most letters are read by computer programs and also by the slim chance it actually reaches a human being to read it, they only look at it for about 5-7 seconds, many people were shocked. I was not shocking to me. My dad once told me that some companies when they are looking for their interns, have a program that scans resumes and if the word “excel” is not on the sheet in any capacity, it instantly gets tossed aside in the rejection bin. This process seems cruel after all of the time spent by people crafting their letters, but to businesses time is money.

In the future, I hope there is a second part to this discussion as I would like to see some examples of personal statements as well as time to try and write my own. Overall, it was a great discussion in which I learned something new.

Eye Opening Discussion

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Last week, I attended the Immigration Policy panel discussing President Trump’s executive order. I have to say, this was one of the most eye opening lectures/talks i have ever been in attendance for. As Atticus Finch once said (paraphrasing), “you have to walk a mile in another person’s shoes in order to truly understand what they have to go through in life”. I went to this panel just as a casual learner trying to get a better grasp on what the executive order would entail. I had seen it on the news, but I did not have a strong understanding of what the outcomes of the order would be. While I was casual, others were attentive. For a majority of the people in the room, this executive order would have a direct impact on their lives. Before the discussion started, a sheet of paper was distributed to everyone in the audience. On this sheet was a list of personal rights and various questions in which officers are/ are not allowed to ask when travelling. It blew my mind, all of the things that people from outside the country would have to deal with when travelling or even just at their house. On set of bullet points listed what to do if some officer comes to your house. When Trump won the election, there were the various “cry-ins” and the beginning of an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear and I never really understood why. After the panel discussion, I found out why. I am very fortunate to not have to worry about many of the things listed on the hand-out. While I have not yet exactly walked in another person’s shoes, I have at least put the shoes on and got a feeling for what some of the international members of the Cornell community are going through and experiencing.

Cover Letter 101

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Last Thursday I attended a seminar in which we learned about the basics behind what makes a good cover letter. This seminar turned out to be very useful as the next day I had an internship application to submit. Most of the information I have heard from previous lectures from career services, but it was great to have a smaller group in order to answer specific questions. One interesting aspect of the seminar was seeing how people from different schools and different interests would have to change what they present. For example, im in ILR looking for an internship in the sports management industry and all i really have to put down (besides the obvious stuff like name, e-mail, etc.) are relevant courses, clubs, skills, and previous experiences working. Some of the science/medical students were asking questions regarding lab procedures, publications, and a bunch of other intricacies that i had never heard of. They not only have to worry about that, but also the previous information that i said earlier. Cover letters are tough because you have to tailor your information to the employer as well as what the job description entails. I thought the online dating analogy was good because there are many parallels between that and applying for a job. Overall this seminar was very helpful and i look forward to attending more events like this in the future.