Author Archives: jtc284

The Correct Way to Make Content for All Ages

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Last Friday, I attended Rose House’s showing of the movie Zootopia. This has been one of my favorite movies for awhile, and I was excited to be able to watch it again among friends. I’ve mentioned it before in my blog posts for Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Lynn Tomlinson’s The Elephant Song, but I always find myself falling in love with animated movies because of their unique charm, and Zootopia is no exception.

This movie is especially interesting in that it tackles serious themes in a way that’s nuanced yet still accessible for people of all ages. And therein lies this film’s biggest strength (aside form the adorable animation, of course). I genuinely believe that this film sets the bar for all media meant to be consumed by children. My mother runs an at-home day care, so I spent the first eighteen years of my life being exposed to a lot more TV/films directed at children than I would have liked. More often than not, it feels like these media properties take advantage of the fact that their audience is younger and put significantly less time an energy into making whatever it is they are making. To me, films like Zootopia prove what is possible, and shows what all similar films should strive for.

Industry or Academia?

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Last Thursday, I attended GRF Magdala’s event “How Not to Choose a Career” with Professor Filiz Garip. This event was definitely very eye-opening for me and the other students in attendance. Coincidentally, many of us are considering careers in academia, and as such it was very helpful to hear about Professor Garip’s own career path.

On a more personal level, I had (and still have, to some extent) a few concerns. The first of them, which I think if likely relatable for many students, is the concern of finances. While I do have my own personal career goals, my primary aim is to be able to provide for my parents and pay off my student debt. Going directly into grad school might make this difficult. My biggest takeaway with respect to this issue is that going into industry for a few years first might lighten that burden some, in addition to reaffirming whether or not academia is really where I want to be.

My other major concern was making sure I’m pursuing the right field. I am studying Environmental Engineering, and I definitely enjoy what I’m doing in my classes, but I’m also really enjoying the courses for my minor in Environmental and Resource Economics. I’m unsure which field I’d eventually like to go to grad school for, and I’m unsure how to choose. Similarly, there’s so much I still don’t know about how to choose a program that’s a good fit for me. I know Magdala mentioned hosting another event at some point next semester about preparing for grad school, and I really wanted to reiterate that I would absolutely love that!

Looking at the Interviewer’s Perspective

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Last Thursday I attended GRF Seema’s mini-seminar on acing your interview. In the past, I’ve consistently found interviewing to be the most difficult part of the application process; everything else is so much more structured. As for resumés, there is specific template that employers like to see, and there are very specific rules to follow (e.g. have as little white space as possible). The same goes for cover letters and other similar parts of the process. With interviews, however, there’s so much more that’s left out in the open. You can have technical interviews, more casual interviews, phone interviews, group interviews, panel interviews… the list goes on and on, and it’s difficult to keep track of all the intricacies of each.

This event really helped to assuage my fears and misgivings about the process. I think my biggest takeaway from the event was that the people conducting the interview aren’t robots—they’re human too, and, most importantly, everything they do is for a reason. For example, I had no idea that the reason the first thing they ask is almost always, “Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?” is because it helps them remember you and put a face to the application. It seems like common sense in retrospect, but knowing this now definitely has helped me to feel much more relaxed about the process. All in all, this event was very helpful, and I’m genuinely glad that I attended.

Thoughts on Animal Suffering

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This past Friday, I attended Cornell Cinema’s screening of House Fellow Lynn Tomlinson’s short animated film “The Elephant Song” (as well as the subsequent showing of the film Love & Bananas). Since I was a child, I’ve always had a passion for conservatism/animal rights and environmentalism—so much so that I’ve shaped my career path around it. Because of this, I was extremely excited to be able to attend this event.

As I am studying the fields of environmental engineering and environmental economics, the vast majority of the time I’ve looked at these issues from a more mathematical perspective. This short film really served to highlight the fact that it is incredibly important to have both an analytical and a qualitative perspective of these issues, which my formal education has greatly lacked (so far, at least).

The film tells the story of a “show elephant” brought to the US through the eyes of a farm dog. It’s a story of loneliness and abuse, all at the hands of the humans who own the elephant. The animation is wonderfully vibrant, done in a style that I’ve never seen before. I only barely grasped the explanation of how it was accomplished, but it seemed to be almost a sort of two-dimensional stop-motion that was incredibly reminiscent of water color. This really gave the story life, and fit very nicely with the soundtrack of the film. The entire time, I was enthralled by what was happening on-screen.

I think my biggest takeaway was the theme of animal suffering. “The Elephant’s Song” brings to light the trauma that animals often experience at our expense. Too often we seem to look at ethical or environmental problems like this with numbers and figures, but that only shows a part of the full picture. I genuinely believe that our choices as consumers reflect our personal values, and this film served to reaffirm that idea. Next time any of us wants to visit a zoo or a circus, or when we choose to purchase meat or dairy when grocery shopping, we all need to think about more than just our personal enjoyment. There is a living, breathing, emotionally intelligent creature on the other end of that purchase. Is a few minutes of your own pleasure really worth a lifetime of trauma for them—or even their death?

A Movie With Artistic Character

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This past Friday I attended Rose House’s showing of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. This has been one of my favorite films for a long time now, so I was really excited to be able to see it with the house (especially so close to Halloween!). I’ve always been a sucker for animated movies, especially stop motion, so I was thrilled to be able to re-experience it.

Stop-motion is a fascinating art-form. I remember in 9th grade, we had an assignment to create a short stop motion movie on the process of cellular meiosis, and I think that’s when I became infatuated with it—it’s such a labor of love, and I genuinely wish more films would use it. It lends such an interesting aesthetic to a movie that I genuinely don’t think can be achieved through normal animation or live-action. I think my inability to articulate exactly why I feel this way plays a big role in my fascination with it. When this aesthetic is combined with the already fascinating world of Halloween Town, however, especially the iconic curled hill with the moon, it’s no wonder that an entire generation fell in love with this movie.

I always find myself wondering when the next movie with the same level of artistic impact will come out (or at least, when I’ll see it). It’s tough to find these movies in a world with so much media to consume, and sometimes I worry that I’ll miss the next media property that I’ll fall in love with. It can definitely be tough to curate, but that certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try!

Making Career Fairs Feel “Human” Again

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Last Thursday I attended SA Beverly’s presentation on building a personal brand. This presentation was definitely very informative, and I’m glad I went. On the surface level, it was very useful because it was all about how to market yourself to employers and to land an internship or a job. I was slightly skeptical going in because, having been to a few similar events with different organizations, I was worried that I would simply be hearing the same information again though. I was happily proved wrong however, because Beverly’s presentation was much more about personal experience and what has worked for her.

For example, I can’t even count how many times I’ve had the concept of an “elevator pitch” explained to me. And conceptually, it seems simple—have a short, sixty second long blurb about yourself and all your relevant experience. But I’ve always had a lot of trouble figuring out how to use my elevator pitch in conversation with employers at career fairs and other events. Beverly was the first person to explain it in a way that really clicked with me. You’re not supposed to walk up to an employer and just start reciting your elevator pitch like it’s some sort of shopping list; it’s meant to be a jumping off point for the recruiter to ask you some questions about your experience and what you’re looking for. Most of the time, you can expect to not even get through the entirety of the elevator pitch. This explanation really clarified for me what a career fair is supposed to be like. Until hearing this, career fairs always felt so formulaic and robotic to me, but this explanation really helped me see how to make our interactions feel human in this setting.

This was just one example of the many ways this event helped me view the recruitment process in a new light. I genuinely hope to see more events like this one in the future!

Handling Project Management on a Large Scale

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This past Saturday I attended the community service event down in Stewart Park where we helped build a new playground. The entire project was done with the help of volunteers in the greater Ithaca community over the course of approximately a week, with twelve hours of work everyday. I really enjoyed the experience for a lot of reasons, beyond the fact that it’s always nice to contribute to a project like this.

One of my biggest takeaways was how important management is to the “flow” of a project. I’ve volunteered for a handful of projects like this, only they were always on a much smaller scale. The sheer amount of volunteers for this project was staggering, and it was clear that at times it was difficult for the project managers to keep everyone occupied with a job. There were only three people as far as I can tell that knew all the detailed plans for the project, and beyond that everyone was waiting for instruction. Because of this, there were definitely a lot of times I felt a little bit directionless. Not to undermine all of the incredibly hard work that was put in, but I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been more efficient if there were more project managers on site that knew what needed to be done and how.

The other thing that I took away from this was just how little I know about power tools. I’m definitely comfortable using a drill, but when it comes to things like circular saws I have next to no experience. At first I was nervous to ask for help, but the fear of hurting myself with the tool quickly outweighed that nervousness. Life lesson: never be afraid to ask for help if you need it! All in all, this was an extremely rewarding experience, and I hope to attend more like this with Rose House.