Author Archives: Kaylin Yu

Stress Relief with Guiding Eyes

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It’s unbelievable how much relief and joy a simple touch can bring after a stressful day.  During last Friday’s Pet-A-Puppy event presented by Guiding Eyes, we learned about the extensive training a single dog must undergo from birth in order to eventually become a guiding eye dog; some new programs involving those with autism; and the services currently offered by Guiding Eyes.  Upon entering the crowded room, it was immediately evident that all of the dogs were exceptionally obedient, calm and well-adapted to large audiences.  In all honesty, I entered the event feeling a little jealous of the seemingly glorious lives of the guiding dogs, who don’t have to endure the stress of prelims or the exhaustion of pulling an all-nighter.  However, after watching the dogs being pet and possibly harassed by dozens of hands for two hours, I realized that these guiding eye dogs are under a similar level of stress as us on a daily basis.  In reality, they must undergo critical diagnostic, intelligence and obedience tests in order to make it through numerous rounds before becoming a guide dog.  Moreover, those who fail to pass a test are eliminated from the competition to become a guiding eye dog and are placed into a loving home.  Ultimately, the joy and relief that we experience petting guiding eye dogs overshadows the hardwork that the dogs must undergo everyday.  Unlike most other dogs, guiding eye dogs possess the incredible ability to spread their calmness to everyone around them, although one could only wonder about the pressure and exhaustion the dogs must feel after living a lifetime of nonstop human interaction. 

Gimme! (More) Coffee

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54% of Americans over the age of eighteen consume an average of three cups of coffee per day.  I must admit that since coming to Cornell, I have fallen into this statistic.  In my daily struggle to wake-up and rush to Libe for a cup of coffee before class, I seldom consider the origin of my drink and the tedious and thorough process a single coffee bean must undergo before reaching my cup.  During last week’s Gimme! Coffee presentation, Lead Trainer Kevin Wilsea introduced the ins-and-outs of harvesting coffee cherries and discussed the sustainability and consumer-producer relationship missions that sets Gimme! Coffee apart from other coffeehouse chains.  Gimme! Coffee is particularly unique in its focus on forming bonds directly with the farmers who grow the coffee beans.  As part of this partnership, the farmer receives a substantial price premium that can be used to further develop operations.  The tight knit nature of this relationship enables the both sides to understand the resources of the local environment and to collaborate on techniques and scientific knowledge to grow the highest quality coffee without creating additional adverse effects on local agriculture.  From their valued sustainable growth model to their meticulous brew times and temperatures in local espresso bars, Gimme! Coffee produces coffee that tastes noticeably richer, stronger, fruitier and silkier than a standard cup of Starbucks coffee, ultimately forcing any coffee lover to instantly think, Gimme! more.               

The Power of Love

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To this day, I do not have a clear definition of love.  To attribute the same meaning and value of the “love” I have for my family to the “love” I have for pizza simply does not make sense.  The different levels and complexities of love are oftentimes unclear, difficult to articulate and misinterpreted.  This past week’s event on how we love opened up a discussion on various perspectives of unconditional and conditional love; what assumptions we hold about the actions of giving and accepting love; and how these assumptions affect our daily interactions.  Through our discussion, I realized the extremely contradictory nature of love.  Firstly, it is both deeply intimate, reaching the most personal and vulnerable sides of people, and widely public.  Secondly, it captures feelings of warmth and comfort, yet it also creates fear and requires courage.  Thirdly, love has the ability to unify strangers and sustain bonds, while unrequited love is capable of tearing relationships apart.  The list could go on; however, despite all of its contradictions, love is ultimately one of the greatest intangibles.  It is a transformative experience, a personal journey, and an invaluable sacrifice to share and honor to receive.  

From Ocean to Glass

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With modern innovations, it is oftentimes easy to instinctively reach for an iPhone to Google a question and answer.  Technology may efficiently provide a reference; however, images and adjectives lack the tangibility, size, texture and true color of a glass model, which is something Professor Drew Harvell highlighted during this week’s Becker-Rose Cafe.  As a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Harvell studies coral resistance to disease and the impacts of climate change on coral reef ecosystems.  Aside from conducting fieldwork in the Mexican Yucatan, Florida Keys, Hawaii and Indonesia, Harvell works hands-on in the restoration process of The Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka Collection currently held at Mann Library.  Unlike vertebrates which can be stuffed and mounted, invertebrates must be preserved in alcohol, which inevitably leads to color loss and deformation.  Glass modeling, however, offers an unparalleled facet of learning about ecosystems in that when constructed well, glass provides the ideal detail, fragility and color to recreate marine forms.  Harvell’s discussion on glass work proceeded with a screening of David Brown’s film, Fragile Legacy, which explored the sustainability of marine ecosystems despite climate change.  A large factor behind the decline in oceanic biodiversity can be attributed to human pollution and damage.  Considering the inevitable evolution and the unfortunate extinction of some marine species, glass modeling allows for the stories, structures and development of ecosystems to be tracked and preserved overtime.  Ultimately, the sheer intricacy of glass structures captures the true beauty of marine life that a picture alone cannot portray and possesses the ability to unify a broad audience of artists to scientists over a shared interest in exploring a less familiar, but awe-inspiring underwater world. 

Self-Care and Pumpkin Carving

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Academic life at Cornell is undoubtedly rich and valuable, although it can also be one of the most stress inducing aspects of a college student’s life.  Everyone has his or her own way of coping with stress.  Some people like to run marathons and others, like myself, prefer to binge eat pounds of chocolate and peanut butter.  In attempt to avoid extreme weight gain, however, I’ve adopted a healthier alternative to relieve stress, that being practicing yoga.  Over my past two semesters at Cornell, I’ve learned that taking just thirty to sixty minutes out of my daily life to stretch, exercise or even meditate has truly improved my productivity, motivation and energy.  During last Saturday’s Self-Care Workshop, Rose GRF and CAPS counselor Sarah Rubinstein-Gillis discussed various ways to manage stress during busy, high-pressure times.  Some techniques Sarah addressed involved taking the time to exercise, color, reach out to friends, utilize on-campus mental health resources or even carve a pumpkin, as we had the opportunity to do during the workshop.  Even though I failed miserably at carving a scary looking cat and I left Rose with pumpkin hair under every fingernail, pumpkin carving was the perfect break from studying organic chemistry nevertheless.  Manipulating something other than a molecular model kit and meeting and speaking with other human beings were exactly what I needed to clear my mind and to mentally prepare myself for a stressful upcoming week of prelims.  Aside from learning that I would make a horrible surgeon, I ultimately realized that that self-care and mental breaks are the keys to stress management.

From Farm to Fork

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We frequently associate fresh produce with Wegmans and forget where, how and really by whom the produce is grown.  During this week’s Becker-Rose Cafe, Justine Vanden Huevel, an Associate Professor in the Department of Horiculture, and Mary Jo Dudley, the Director of the Cornell Farmworker Program, presented compelling stories about the origins of our food and discussed the future state of New York agriculture.  Huevel and Dudley opened with farm safety, transitioned to immigration enforcement, focusing specifically on the work and living conditions of migrant workers in the fields, and ended on the future of the grape, wine and agriculture industry in the U.S.  
 
As I was eating dinner after the discussion, however, I realized the significance and limiting nature of the social stigma associated with farming.  While farmwork is undeniably physically demanding and oftentimes poor paying, it offers much more than just providing food for a population.  As Huevel and Dudley touched upon during their discussion, farming allows people to better understand agriculture, immigrant communities and cultural inequalities.  From the lens of a scientist, farming also offers innumerable opportunities for investigation and problem solving, for instance in optimizing the quality and sustainability of crop performance.  Ultimately, the stories and facts that Huevel and Dudley shared forced me to reflect upon the origins of produce and the strenuous work necessary to deliver the food our society consumes daily.

The Truth About Freshman Year

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As a freshman, one of my greatest obstacles was the inability to mentally separate myself from my equally intelligent, passionate and overachieving peers.  It took me nearly eight months to learn the necessity and importance of carving out at least one hour per day for personal time; celebrating both my mistakes and accomplishments; reaching out for help before I needed it; and seeking out friends with completely different backgrounds as me.  Over the course of my past two semesters at Cornell, I have realized that college has so much more to offer than academic success.  As Dan Schwarz, a Professor of English at Cornell and the author of over fifteen books, emphasized during a recent Becker-Rose Café session, “It doesn’t matter where you go, it’s what you do that matters.”  It is the undergraduate research, the extracurricular clubs, the athletics, the service and leadership events, and the shared experiences of learning from and struggling with a diverse community of peers that truly makes a college experience so valuable and rich.  Schwarz added to this by highlighting key focuses of each year of college and giving advice on time management, reaching out for help and planning ahead in order to succeed in college and beyond.  Even though each year of college involves new motivations, for instance networking during sophomore year and focusing on graduate school applications during junior and senior year, one key aspect that unifies all four years is the three R’s, those being Resolve, Resilience and Resourcefulness.  Without the resolve to power through a problem set at 1 AM; the resilience to change up study habits to improve after failing a prelim; and the resourcefulness to finish an essay by a deadline despite having a broken laptop, we wouldn’t be able to survive at Cornell.  Much of Schwarz’s advice resonated with the changes I had to make during my freshman year in order to find happiness.  Similar to what Schwarz advised, I decided to allocate a small chunk of free time everyday to myself, whether that be an hour to exercise, (several hours) to binge watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or half an hour to simply walk to West to eat dinner with friends.  Ultimately, it is the relationships, struggles, interactions and experiences that we obtain in our four years of college that enhance the person we are already.