Author Archives: Vladlena

Channeling your inner tiger

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Last Friday, I I took a class on self defense along with other rose scholar students and it was quite an experience! I had to step out of my comfort zone, put aside any feelings of embarrassment and channel my inner tiger.

I learned that self defense is not about hurting others and expressing violence, it’s actually all about avoiding physical contact and using it only as a last resort. The way to defend yourself from the start is to show others that you are not a target, and that starts right from your posture. Crossing your legs or folding your arms is a sign of passivity meaning that others will perceive you as someone who is easy to pick on. So the first step is to spread your legs shoulder width apart and let your arms hang at your sides!

And when the worst comes to worst, you have to be able to defend yourself from attacks of others and phase them out just so that you have enough time to escape. As a group we learned a few moves and practice it among each other. It was fun, unconventional and a great opportunity for stress relief!

A Scoop into Campus Dining

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I didn’t realize how much work is actually put into feeding thousands of students on campus, three times a day everyday. Not only does Cornell Dining have to ensure that there is always something to eat for everyone and anyone with dietary restrictions for any course of the meal, but also that there are healthy options out there for us, even if it’s not what some of us are looking for. Chef Daniel mentioned that the goal is to push every meal toward a certain proportion on a plate, with protein being the smallest and veggies the largest. This is not just to ensure that we are leading a healthy lifestyle, but also so that we are more sustainable with our waste.

With so much work being put into our diet, I think many of us forget how lucky we are to have one of the top campus dining systems in the US. We are privileged to have a plethora of options offered to us everyday, to have veggies, meat, fruits and desserts at every meal!

 

Ocean Glass

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Last Wednesday, I had the chance to screen David Brown’s Film, Fragile Legacy centering around the work of Drew Harvell on her preservation of sea creatures and the sustainability of marine ecosystems. Our discussion initially started out with a little bit of a background on Blaschka glass pieces, which originated from Leopold Blaschka and Rudolf Blaschka, a father and son glassworkers who produced some of the most breathtaking and unimagenably detailed glass objects of marine life. They opened a new bridge between biodiversity and curious minds on land. They allowed direct access to ocean environment, which our co- founder Andrew Dickson White decided to take advantage off and authorized the purchase of 570 pieces of Blaschka models to be used for the purpose of teaching about marine biology. Today Drew Harvell, propagates the art of Blaschka glass models by finding living representatives in the ocean and restoring pieces which have been damaged over time.

We additionally touched upon other concerning issues that are endangering marine life, particularly sea stars. The cause of the disappearing of these creatures is a virus outbreak, which is unfortunately out of our control and a result of ecological changes.

Carving your way out of stress

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Pumpkin carving was a much needed break in between orgo studying. It allowed me to realize just how important it is to take care of yourself mentally and physically when life demands it the most.

When you have prelims and assignments due every week, there is constant stress and tension. You feel like any time you are not studying or doing something productive, you are just wasting your life away. However it is exactly in these moments that you should be doing something mindless and entertaning to relief stress, because the more at ease you are during a time of tension, the better your performance will be. A healthier mind, yields better results!

.This Rose Scholars event was definitely a hit, hopefully there is more of this type of events in store!

 

 

 

Michael Belkin: The Journey to Silicon Valley

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Just about 10 minutes ago, I was in the same room as Michael Belkin, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and an iOS developer, who built a successful LGBT social-lifestyle network from scratch. He attended Cornell and then went on to Harvard Business School, where he evolved his initial idea as single founder. As time went on the app few,  more people got involved and soon enough Distinc.tt got its big break.

Throughout the discussion of the logistics of how Michael got his startup from the ground, he opened my eyes on a lot of things. One of which was how much more difficult it is for individuals in the LGBT community to socialize with each other without running into awkward and uncomfortable situations, or how much harder it is for young teenagers to come out of the closet when he or she might be the only gay person in the local community. Belkin wanted to solve this problem by creating a platform to make it easier for these people to meet others like themselves and get a sense of what the community is all about. He combined his passion of business and LGBT community, and built his life around it.

When discussing app development and startups, he also gave insightful advice and revealed difficulties that this type of business entails. He mentioned that app development is all about fundraising, since a lot of the times startups spent a lot of time perfecting their ideas and don’t have a lot of funding to sustain their development throughout this period. He also highlighted the industry of software development and its fast pace advancement that is often hard to keep up with. After all apps are easy to make, but it’s hard to stay ahead and come up with an idea that will take the world over by a storm.

Origins of Last Night’s Dinner

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My Farm to Fork Dinner, it was delicious! The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but it was definitely related to the post so…

Come to think of it, you rarely question where your dinner came from. Yes, you know that it was the chef on campus or your mom back at home who prepared it, but where did the ingredients come from in the first place? Who actually grew the vegetables, who raised the livestock? Who should we be thanking for the raw materials?

The answer is rather simple and straightforward, the farmers! But why is it that they don’t gain the appreciation for what they are doing? Oddly enough there is a sense of disconnect in our minds between the farmers and the food we eat, the same food that they were responsible for cultivating. Most of us are clueless about the identities and backgrounds of the people who grow the ingredients we put in our bodies, and only yesterday I was one of those people.

Thankfully Justine Vanden Heuvel and Mary Jo Dudley were able to educate me on this topic during a Q&A session right after Cornell Dining’s Farm to Fork meal. I learned a ton of new information about the farmers themselves and the NY agriculture, but here are just a few random things wrote down during the event:

  • Cornell Farmerworker program was started by a group of CALS students, who spent a summer or a semester working on a farm, it seeks to improve the living and working conditions of farmers and their families through education and extension
  • Many of the farm workers are improperly documented and obtain knowledge at the level of 6th grade
  • These farmers hope to interact with local populations and learn what they can do to move up
  • They live in constant fear of getting identified as undocumented
  • NY wines compete great internationally
  • Justine works to improve the production of wines and make the whole process more sustainable
  • Walmart buys the majority of NY apples!

Well, there you have it!

 

Glimpse into the Life of Nick Carbonaro

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 Yesterday I attended my first art show ever and it was a really rewarding experience. Although I couldn’t stay for long, I had just enough time to appreciate the art characterized by vibrant colors, bold details, and an overarching theme of androgyny, and get to know the inspiration behind the artworks.

Carbonaro explained the ambiguity of sexuality and gender in his art pieces by revealing the environment in which he grew up. He mentioned that he was born in the suburban area of NYC and was surrounded by individuals who were struggling with gender dysmorphia. Many of them went through hormone treatment as early as mid 1900’s so that their appearance would reflect their inner state of mind. As a result Carbonaro said, “I grew up thinking I had to protect my sexuality.”

It’s fascinating how much you can learn about a person through the art that they create. Visuals really are worth a thousand words!

But to point out one of my favorite pieces, I’d like to mention the wall sculpture illustrating four heads of refugees. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to ask the artist the meaning behind this piece, but nonetheless this still remains one of my favorites. I guess the meaning is up to my own interpretation!