Author Archives: Yabs

Cute Puppies

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Last Friday I attended my favorite Rose Scholar event so far, the Pet a Puppy event. Guiding Eyes brought in a few dogs for us to play with while they gave a presentation about their incredible program. Although they seemed like average dogs, we soon learned that these animals go through an extensive training program which essentially starts from the moment that they are born. I couldn’t believe the amount of training that these dogs go through to become certified. By the end of their training, these dogs can become life changing for their new owners. Some dogs are given to those who are visually impaired so that they can lead as independent of a life as possible. One incredible thing that I learned was a new purpose that these dogs are now being used for. They are being given to families whose children have autism. Autistic children are prone to running away and this can be incredibly dangerous. However these dogs can be attached to autistic children and if the dog feels tension on its leash, they know that the child is trying to run. The dog will immediately lie down and use its body weight to keep the child from running away. This tendency to run away is almost always eradicated from autistic children who have these dogs. It is amazing to learn about how capable these animals really are. I hope this program continues to grow because it is doing a lot of good for a lot of people.

Forever Hungry

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Last Wednesday I attended the final Becker/Rose Cafe where representatives from the Food & Brand Lab at Cornell came to discuss some of the work that they do. I was really excited to attend this cafe because I pass by the Food & Brand Lab everyday as I go to class in Warren. I have actually participated in an experiment with the lab where I was given different types of food and asked to react to them. The experiment seemed really interesting to me and I have since wondered about what else they study.

One topic that David Just, Adam Brumberg, and Gnel Gabrielyan talked about was the choices that people make in deciding what they will eat and what influences those decisions. There are many methods that can subconsciously influence us to make healthier decisions when choosing what to eat. For example, there has been a nation wide move towards having smaller plates. When people are putting food on their plate, they tend to fill the entire plate regardless of how hungry they actually are. If people are given smaller plates, even if they fill these plates they will be eating much smaller portion sizes than normal.

Another tip that I found really fascinating was that when setting up a buffet style dinner, it is best to put the low calorie foods first on the table. Most people will fill up their plates at the beginning of the buffet without looking at all of their options. So if the low calorie options are presented first, people will fill their plates with those options and they will not eat as much of the high calorie foods. This mentality is also relevant when eating snacks. For example, people should put healthier snack options like fruits in easily reachable areas. The high calorie and sugary snacks should be put high up on shelves and this surprisingly has a large impact on people’s choices.

Overall I think that this was one of my favorite talks in a Becker Rose Cafe. I really enjoyed learning about the Food & Brand Lab. I liked hearing about the research that they do and it was nice knowing that I have contributed to some of their work in the past.

Hungary and the Syrian Refugee Crisis

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For the past several weeks, I have been following the Syrian Refugee Crisis on the news. I think that it is an incredibly heartbreaking situation and when I saw that there would be a Becker Rose Cafe covering the topic, I knew that I wanted to go. Professor Holly Case led the cafe and spoke specifically about Hungary’s role and response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis. I had known that many European countries were against allowing refugees into the country, but I hadn’t realized that Hungary had erected a physical fence to keep the refugees out. After learning this, I was again surprised that this action had been taken without the approval of the majority of the public. Most Hungarians want to help the refugees. Of the Hungarians that don’t want to explicitly help the refugees, the majority of those people aren’t significantly opposed to having them in the country. There is a very small group of people in Hungary that really don’t want any refugees in the country. I found this fact incredibly surprising but I’m glad that I am now aware of this.

Another fascinating aspect of Professor Holly Case’s cafe was when she talked about a Hungarian activist group called the Two Tailed Dog Party. Victor Orban is the conservative Prime Minister of Hungary and the Two Tailed Dog Party runs anti-Orban campaigns. The members of this party are against Orban’s refugee policies and their campaigns are very satirical. Unfortunately, this party has no intention of becoming politically involved. Rather they just make their opinions known. I think that since this party realizes the harshness of Orban’s policies, they should become politically involved especially since many Hungarians seem to support their opinions.

Overall this cafe was very enlightening. I learned a lot about the Syrian Refugee Crisis that I hadn’t known from just looking at news media outlets. It is an unfortunate situation and I hope that European countries work to humanely solve the issue.

Amazing Food on Campus

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One of my favorite things about Cornell is actually the high quality food that we receive everyday in the dining halls. Our food on campus is nationally ranked and after attending the Becker-Rose Cafe last week, I now see that it is because of our amazing and passionate staff behind the scenes including Paul Muscente and Chef Daniel of Rose House. They both really cared about what goes into our food and how we feel about what we are eating.

There was one example during the cafe that really showed how much the Chefs care about our opinions on the food. Chef Daniel mentioned that he will oftentimes stand by the plate belt and see which items on the menu students were throwing away the most. This helps him gauge what was popular that day and he takes this into consideration when preparing menus in the future.

I also really appreciated hearing about the many health initiatives that the dining system and houses pursue. Not only do they care about if we like the food, but they also want us to be healthy at the end of the day. Recently they have focused on making vegetables at the center of our plates, and pushing the meat off to the sides. Most people have noticed in west campus dining halls that the meat dishes have been given to us by student employees so that we only get one serving at a time. The goal is to decrease the amount of food that students eat so that we eat more vegetables. A few years ago, the dining halls also began to put out large containers of water that were naturally flavored with fruits or cucumber. This is a much healthier alternative to more sugary drinks for those who don’t want to drink just plain water.

Overall I really enjoyed learning about the dining systems on campus. I think that it was important for me to learn more about something that affects my life on a daily basis here at Cornell.

Old Treasures at Cornell

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I have always known that Cornell has an incredible collection of books, artifacts, and ancient pieces. Although I have always been curious about exactly what we have, I never found the time to research and look into it. Last Friday I went on the Kroch book and manuscript tour where I learned about some of the amazing pieces our libraries hold. One of the first things that I learned was that Olin and Kroch Libraries have a huge safe where they keep all of their unique pieces and books under the Arts Quad. What blew my mind was that this safe is the size of an entire football field. I couldn’t even comprehend the millions of books and rare items we must have in that space.

The librarian who gave us the tour had brought up about 10 items from inside the safe so that we could look at them. He took us through history by starting with artifacts from 4,000 years ago and eventually ended with something that was only a few decades old. One particular book that I found incredibly interesting was an old book that used be housed in a monastery. It had a metal chain on it which we learned was their version of “library security” because the books would be chained to the wall and you could only read them there. Looking at the writing inside of this book was incredible because the first half was completely handwritten. You could imagine the amount of hard work that would have gone into making a book with such small print. The second half of the book was actually printed by a press, and I liked seeing the contrast between those two.

Another artifact that I really liked seeing was a letter that Mark Twain had written. It was a recommendation letter that Mark Twain had written to Cornell University on behalf of a professor who had applied for a job. This professor was ultimately given the job offer and he went on to work for Cornell for many years. I had no idea that the famous author Mark Twain and Cornell were related in any way, and it was exciting to learn. We also found out that he would spend his summers in Elmira, which is right near Ithaca.

On top of these two items that I mentioned, there were more that were showed to us and many more within the library. It is important to note that all of these items are accessible for undergraduate students to use. For example, if you are working on a project about Shakespeare’s writing, you can request to work with the books that originally printed his plays centuries ago. I didn’t know that these times were available for us to use but it is amazing that they are.

Empowering Workshop

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Last Tuesday I went to the Love Your Body workshop to learn more about how we perceive our bodies. I think that in today’s social media age, it is really hard to to feel good about your body. We are always surrounded by advertisements and movies where everyone looks like a model and we begin to think that is the norm. In reality, those people spend hours working out and dieting. Even then, there is usually a lot of Photoshop involved to make them look like what we think is “perfect”.

This workshop taught me a lot about how food relates directly to body image. The interesting part was that even the foods that we liked had much more meaning behind them and they usually related to experiences or feelings that we have had in the past. We did one exercise where we talked about what our favorite food was when we were children and why we thought that was our favorite food. The workshop leader, Lyn Staack, mentioned how when she was a child and got to pick her birthday dinner, she picked what she thought was her favorite food. But thinking back to it now, she realized she would pick a food that she liked but also would make sure that it was a food that her sister didn’t like. It was interesting to see how much experiences in our past our feelings towards people influence what we eat now.

We also did an activity where we physically posed in a position of our favorite activity. Some people posed like they were running, or reading, or doing yoga. Doing these poses also brought on a lot of feelings for some people that made them remember what it was like to do these activities, or a time when they did these activities the most. For example, people that posed like they were running were brought back to when they did track in high school.

Overall this workshop was really interesting and I’m glad that I went!

Amazing Gorge on Campus

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I recently went on the Cascadilla Gorge Hike for the Rose Scholars program. I had actually  never been down into that gorge before our trip last week. This is why I was so surprised to see how amazing it was when I went down there. You would never suspect how beautiful the gorge is because you really can’t see it at all from up in Collegetown. The Cascadilla Gorge is a wonderful place to get away from the stress of classes and immerse yourself in nature for a while.

One aspect of this event that I wasn’t expecting was that we actually learned the history behind the gorge. It was interesting to hear that an alumni of the school actually bought the gorge and donated it to Cornell for educational purposes. That is a very generous gesture. This happened an incredibly long time ago and that is when the trails around the gorge were first made. Since I am a sophomore, I also didn’t realize that the gorge had been shut down for eight years prior. They did this to rebuild all of the trails because it had become dangerous. One fun fact that I enjoyed was that when the trails were first made decades ago, the estimated cost of the project was $2.8 million. When they rebuilt all of the trails a few years ago, the cost came out to be $2.8 million as well.

I’m glad that I was able to come to Cornell after everything was rebuilt so that I could enjoy the gorge during my time here. I wish that I had visited the gorge sooner, but now that I have gone and seen what the gorge really looks like, I am excited to go back.