Author Archives: Judy Stephen

Science and Religion

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I’ve always loved science and mathematics and I was very excited when I heard the topic for the next Becker/Rose cafe series discussion was going to be about science vs. religion. The speaker was Dr. Gregory Sloan who works in the Astronomy department. We started off with learning about some major contributors to astronomy starting with Ptolomy. The discussion then turned towards the time of Galileo and his relationship with the Catholic church at the time he was publishing his ideas. Before Galileo everyone in Europe believed that the earth was the center of the universe. In fact, I’m not sure that they understood they had a concept of the universe. It was more of the fact that to them, everything revolved around the earth. It is interesting that astronomers in the ancient times went along with the geocentric theory even though they found compelling data that poked holes at the theory. One of the major reasons that the geocentric  theory was believed to be true for such a long time was because the Catholic church was a major contributor to research in science. In addition, the church believed that the earth was the center of all creation, because that was the story that fit perfectly with the Bible. If the astronomers came up with a theory that contradicted the church’s beliefs their lives would be at risk. Galileo entered this world with his telescope and he had compelling reasons why the earth was not the center of everything. Although it contradicted with the Catholic church’s teachings Galileo went on to publish his theories. I was already aware of most of the things that were discussed so I did not find the discussion particularly interesting. I had hoped we would delve more into modern science and religion.

 

Migrant Crisis

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Last week, I attended Professor Holly Case’s discussion in the Becker-Rose Cafe Series. Professor Case discussed the topic of the migrant crisis in Europe, a major topic covered by the media. Before coming to the discussion, I only knew about the basic ideas of the migrant crisis. The discussion with Professor Case helped in filling the many gaps in my knowledge about the issue. Professor Case explained the topic very well by showing pictures she took of Hungary when she was there in September. Authentic pictures from the places with migrants made it seem more real to the audience, than just talking about it. I note the importance of pictures in the presentation because this is similar to the situation that most of Hungarians face. One of main things Professor Case discussed was how most Hungarians have never really interacted with the migrants. The migrants usually follow the same path, which means that unless you live in their route, there is very little chance of seeing them. The government is trying to use pictures to manipulate the population’s perceptions of the migrants. Professor Case showed many pictures of the Hungarian government posting on billboards that they will make sure no one will take away Hungarian jobs. In addition to that, the government does not allow media to publish pictures of migrant women and children. They want it to seem like most of the migrants are young males trying to take away Hungarian jobs. It is very interesting to see how social media is being used by governments. As an outsider it is easy for me to see through the manipulation but I wonder if it is very apparent to the average Hungarian. The talk made me think more deeply about how different people may perceive a situation. Although I don’t think we will be able to solve the problem soon, especially with the attacks in Paris, I am optimistic that the countries may find a policy to deal with this situation.

Inside Cornell Dining

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I love Cornell for many reasons. One of the reasons is the great dining options that we have available and as a Rose House resident I get the opportunity to consistently eat in the west campus dining halls. As a student who enjoys Cornell dining, I really enjoyed last week’s discussion with Paul Muscente and Chef Daniel. Because I was Rose Scholar last year, I had heard Mr.Muscente speak last year about Cornell Dining. It was great to hear Chef Daniel’s experience here.

Mr.Muscente gave a good overview of Cornell Dining. I learned that Cornell Dining serves over 10000 meals to each day. The number was astonishing. It takes a lot of work and good organization to run such a large organization and still provide high quality food. I always had a great appreciation for the quality of food at Cornell, especially after trying campus foods from other universities. It was great to hear Chef Daniel talk about all the things they consider in making choice for meals. The staff really look at what is being thrown away the most to try to figure out if there is something better they can offer. They are always striving to improve which I think is one of the main reasons that Cornell Dining is always in the top 10 colleges for best campus food. In addition to learning about Cornell Dining, we also learnt about Chef Daniel’s experience working at the Ritz-Carlton and the Statler before becoming House Chef at Rose House. I really enjoyed the entire discussion and learnt a lot about the places I eat at.

Underwater Life in Glass

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I’ve always had a great interest in underwater life. Yes, I was one of the few kids who enjoyed the underwater life documentaries shown in middle school science classes. It was just as exciting to me to see the mysterious creatures right here on earth as it was exciting to see the millions of galaxies so distant from earth. The diversity in science and how us, humans, are able to not only understand science but use it to create our own world was amazing. It is one of the reasons I became an engineer. This awe for science was reintroduced to me this past Wednesday when I attended Becker/Rose Cafe Series with Prof. Drew Harvell. The discussion was about the glass collection that Cornell bought during President A.D White’s time. It is a vast collection of underwater creatures perfectly recreated in glass. I was awe struck at the level of detail and complexity of each piece of glass.

The talk showed two fantastic topics. At first sight of the glass pieces you cannot but help to be struck by the elegance and structural integrity of the pieces. In addition to admiring the craftsmanship of the collection, the audience learns about the diversity of life on earth. Even the most common of these creatures, for example the jellyfish were breathtakingly beautiful. Prof. Harvell shared with us that these were once used as study materials to show students taking biology classes the exact form of the creatures. I would have really enjoyed to be in a class where these were used to help students. However, these were later put in storage in the Corning Museum of Glass. For many years now, Prof.Harvell has been working with a glassmaker to restore these glass pieces.

I really enjoyed this talk not only for the beauty of the glass pieces but also because it reminded me of my initial interest in the sciences. As a child, I was amazed by the numerous and exotic creatures of the sea. It helped foster my excitement for the sciences. As an full time student now, I can sometimes lose track of the things that used to excite me. The talk with Prof.Harvell reminded me again of the creatures that I once started at in awe.

Intricacies of International Criminal Law

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On Wednesday October 7, I attended the Becker/Rose House Cafe Series with speaker Jens David Ohlins. Professor Ohlins spoke to us about international law. He weaved together current news with some history about the institutions who preside over international cases. It was a thought provoking discussion which helped me realize how important international agencies are to keeping peace between countries.

Normally, I would consider myself someone who knows just enough news to stay current. Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the news the week that I had attended this Cafe Series. As it seems, I missed very important news that the United States had bombed a hospital in Afgahnistan by accident as they were targeting a terrorist. Prof. Ohlins made sure everyone understood the importance of this topic by explaining collateral damage in war time. It is a war crime to target civilians during a war. However, it is not a war crime if the civilians are killed in the process of attacking a strategic military position. That is to say, killing civilians during a war is considered collateral damage as long as the ration of killing civilians during war time is small. Like many things in law, the definition of small is subjective. Prof. Ohlins went on to describe some situations when the ration is particularly “small” so we could understand the situation. An important consideration to make about the ratio is that we cannot only consider the number of targets you were aiming at. More specifically it is essential to consider the importance of the target when we are trying to see if the collateral damage is justifiably small. There is a lot of complexity in trying to decide if the collateral damage is small enough to not be considered a war crime.

We covered a lot of topic in just the one hour and I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. Although I try to stay current with the news around the world, I know I do not spend much time to understand it in depth. This Becker/Rose House Cafe Series helped me understand not just the current situation but also helped me understand some inner workings of international agencies.

Farming Insights

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The past Wednesday, I attended the Becker-Rose Cafe Series  with Justine Vanden Heuvel and Mary Jo Dudley.  Although both speakers talked about different topics, both touched a bit about a few things required for farms. Heuvel spoke about farming grapes and how she helps farms in the fingerlakes make good business decisions. I thought the series was well suited to go with the theme of farm fresh foods at the dining hall.

 

At first, Mary Jo Dudley spoke about her work with helping farm workers. Although I did not grow up near farms, I knew some of the issues that farm workers would face. Farm workers have to work long hours, out in the sun. Dudley spoke about more problems than just job problems. She spoke specifically about the problems that farm workers face outside of work. An important topic to note is that there is a large labor shortage for farm workers. Because of this most of the farm workers are immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala. Before the year 2000, most of the farm workers in NY were migrant farm workers who would move place to place depending on the season. However, now two-thirds of the farm workers live in New York. Although most of the farm workers live in one place now, all year round, they still do not get to engage with the local community. They are socially isolated from the community. It is rather depressing that we do not engage much or even know much about the people who make grow our food.

Relations with Native Americans

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The past wednesday, I attended the Becker/Rose House Cafe series with speaker Eric Cheyfitz who talked about America’s history and current relationship with Native Americans. I enjoyed this talk not only because it was on a topic I did not know much about but also because the speaker was excited to share the information with all the students. It was clear that Prof. Cheyfitz was knowledgable about the topic. He wanted to make sure he could answer all our questions on Native Americans because although it is bad to not know much about them, it is even worse to have misconceptions about America’s relationship with Native Americans. In high school, I once had a realization that I had not had much exposure to the history of with our relaitonship with Native Americans, so I read some books on the topic. I definitely agree with Prof. Cheyfitz that the current middle/high school curriculum does not do enough to teach students about this topic. I came away from the Cafe series this week with more knowledge and understanding of Native Americans than before. It was definitely one of the most memorable cafe series I have been too (I was a Rose Scholar the previous year as well).

I learnt a lot from this week’s cafe series. It was interesting that Prof. Cheyfitz talked about how Cornell is currently situated on Native Indian land. Although I hadn’t known for certain, I had a vague idea that this used to be part of Native American land. America’s history with Native Americans is also very interesting. One of the most important take away points was how the Supreme Court under John Marshall treated Native Americans. High school curriculum teaches students well that President Andrew Jackson was not kind to the Native Americans. But we are not taught how that affected our policies regarding indigenous people. I really enjoyed the discussion with Prof. Cheyfitz because rather than just going over things that we might have already learnt from high school, he gave us new information about the topic. He made sure we learnt something new and a better idea of America’s current relationship with Native Americans.

Optimizing Time in College

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On Wednesday September 16, 2015, I went to the first Becker-Rose Cafe Series. Prof. Dan Schwarz talked about what a student must try to accomplish each year that they are in college. As a returning scholar, I had went to the same cafe series last year but it was definitely different for me going into it this year. It is my junior year at Cornell and I would say I have had some time to think about things I might have done differently if I was a freshman or even a sophomore now. When I heard Prof. Schwarz last year, I tried to take note of all his ideas and tried to see which ones might work well for me. Now, as a junior, I was able to think more critically during the talk and understand exactly what might fit for me.

One of the most important things I liked about the talk was Prof. Schwarz’s idea that you should work everyday but not all day long. I believe it is important to learn something everyday, most likely because I also think learning is fun. It is also important for me to work everyday. As an engineering student, I have to spend a lot of time doing readings, going through problem sets and working in the lab for three hours. If I didn’t work everyday, even for say two hours, it would be difficult to stay on course. But even when I am not at Cornell, I try to do work everyday because it is important for me to learn something everyday. Although I do work everyday, I try to put in fun activities in the day as well.

Prof. Schwarz gave good advice for junior year. He suggested people try getting internships, especially internships that pay money. I think its very helpful to get an internship because it might help you decide on your career. I had an internship this past summer which helped me decide I want to focus more on Computer Engineering. In addition it gives you experience in the work place which is not only good to show employers but also good for you to understand the difference between working and studying in college. Prof. Schwarz gave some good advice through out the one hour. If students are able to accomplish at least two things from the many things Prof. Schwarz suggested, it would help them have a really good experience in college.