Author Archives: Shannon

Election Watch Party #2: A Much Less Stressful Event

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Recently I joined several other members of Rose House in order to watch the results of the midterm election. Unlike many other students, I had actually registered to vote in Ithaca, so the results for my area were unsurprising. However, I watched in suspense as the votes were tallied for the various House of Representatives and Senate races across the country, and it was determined which political party would control each house. In the end, the overall results were what I was mostly expecting to happen: The Democrats flipped the House, and the Republicans kept control of the Senate.

Overall, I found this particular election watch party much less stressful than the one that I had attended in 2016. During that watch party, I stayed up well past midnight watching in shock and anxious anticipation as some states turned red by tiny amounts. I was also much busier that night, as I spent a good portion of it working on a group project (and constantly being distracted by the results). In addition, I remember having a prelim that night, and our professor came up with the horrible idea of writing the incoming election results on the board while we were all taking our exams. This year in comparison, all I had to do was write a short paragraph. In addition, the snacks were greatly appreciated.

Technological Connections

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Recently I had the chance to re-watch the movie Wall-E. I haven’t seen this movie in many years, so there were several parts that I had forgotten. One thing that stood out to me this time was how pretty much everything is run by one big mega-corporation. This corporation has essentially convinced all of the humans to follow all of their advice, such as the scene where they announce, “Try blue! It’s the new red,” and everyone instantly pushes a button that changes their outfit color from red to blue. Part of this phenomenon appears to be due to the fact that all of the humans are so engrossed with their devices that they no longer pay attention to their surroundings, so if they are told of a new fad (even if it isn’t really a fad yet), they just mindlessly go along with it. The particular lifestyle that the humans are living reminds me of how people respond to social media. Social media has the power to connect large groups of people–and indeed the people on the spaceship are very connected. However social media also tends to disconnect people from their environment. In the movie, people are constantly using technology to communicate with their friends, even if they are right next to each other. As a result they do not notice what is around them, such as the woman who failed to realize that there was a large swimming pool on the spaceship that she had spent her entire life on.

Important Voting Groups: Young and Independent Voters

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Last week, I attended the Rose Cafe led by Glen Altschuler on the upcoming midterm elections. It proved to be quite informative, particularly in relation to voting statistics. Even though there are more registered Democrats than Republicans, Republicans tend to have a higher turnout. This is in part due to the low turnout among young voters (who tend to be Democrats). Given that this group of potential voters incorporates most of the students at Cornell, that means that we have the potential to help change this. Vote! Tell your friends to vote! Make sure you know where your polling place is (if registered in Ithaca) or apply for an absentee ballot. Even if you are unable to vote, you can still encourage your friends to do so. Only we have the power to actually change the turnout of young voters, so if we want to increase our turnout, we must actually vote.

Another comment that Professor Altschuler made that I found interesting was on independent voters. He described them as being composed of three groups: those who always vote for Democrats, those who always vote for Republicans, and those who actually alternate which political party they vote for. From the independent voters that I have met, I have mostly found this to be true. Professor Altschuler also described independents as being the least informed group of voters. While I understand his reasoning, I do not completely agree with this statement. There are certainly independent voters who actually do research the candidates and make an informed decision. However, I think most people–whether they are independents or not–choose who they are voting for based on more superficial factors, such as whether or not they like a particular candidate’s face. While this is essentially what Professor Altschuler was saying, I think that this applies to people who are affiliated with a political party as well. The only difference is that those voters typically use “is part of my political party” as their reasoning for their voting decisions. I doubt that many of these people are actually doing research on the candidates ahead of time.

How Not to Annoy Your Supervisor

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Last Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe led by Mary Opperman on what annoys supervisors in the workplace. Given my limited work experience, the information provided was very useful. One helpful piece of advice provided in the talk was to check with your supervisor periodically when working on a project to make sure that you are heading in the right direction. Supervisors are understandably annoyed when someone turns in work that does not accomplish what the supervisor wanted, but it can sometimes be difficult to know what it is that they want. Sometimes a supervisor may not be completely clear, in which case you should ask for clarification. Also, asking your coworkers, who might have done a similar project at some point, could be helpful. However, I think most people have had those moments where they thought that they understood something, but they actually did not. This is why I think that the idea of periodically checking with your supervisor is a particularly good one, as they can tell you if you are doing what they wanted you to do. This way, if you did misinterpret something, you will learn about it early on, and you can correct it before you have put a lot of time and effort into something that was unneeded.

Apples, Cider, and More

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Last Saturday I attended Ithaca’s annual Apple Fest. I always go every year with my friends, so I knew what to expect. This year’s Apple Fest probably had some of the best weather in all of the years that I have been going. Also, I found this particular Apple Fest to be surprisingly educational for me. Before we walked down to the Commons, SA Katie gave a brief talk on the history of Apple Fest, and on apples in general. My friend and I were surprised to learn that apples originated from Asia. I have always associated them with New York, so I never imagined that they could have come from somewhere else. I also never knew why Apple Fest started, so it was interesting to hear the story behind it. Apparently the person to start Apple Fest now is the vendor that sells the super popular apple cider donuts (On a side note, I noticed far more apple cider donut vendors this year than in previous years). Since this was the first Apple Fest where my friends and I were all over 21, we decided to participate in a hard cider tasting, which also proved to be educational. There I learned about (and got to taste) ice cider. The name is a reference to the process used to create it, in which the apples are frozen (leading to their sugar becoming extremely concentrated) before they are fermented. This leads to an incredibly sweet cider–almost like a syrup. The person running the tasting even suggested (and I completely agreed) that it could be used as a topping on desserts like vanilla ice cream. As I never knew that such a drink existed, I found it to be very interesting. Overall, I found this year’s Apple Fest to be very informative and delicious.

On Networking With Professors

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This past Wednesday, at the Rose Cafe, I had the opportunity to listen to Christa Downey from the Engineering Career Center. Although I have heard her speak before (she came to talk in one of my classes recently), I found this Rose Cafe to be extremely useful. The talk focused a lot on building a network, which is something that I have often struggled to do. This is particularly true when it comes to talking with professors. While I would say that I have a pretty good network of peers, I do not have very many adults in my network. I find professors in particular difficult to talk to because they all seem to know so much more than me, and because I often do not know what to say to them. Pretty much everyone at the talk agreed that they find professors intimidating to some degree, even though most professors actually want to be approached by students. I think that the main problem is that the professors just seem so distant from the students. This is especially true in a big lecture hall. I have found that the greatest way to reduce that feeling of intimidation that students feel is to have interactions with professors in more informal settings. At least in my case, I would find it much easier to have a conversation with Professor Avery after running into her in the hallways of Rose, than I would to have a conversation with a professor after class. As a result, I am very grateful for having a house professor to help make professors seem more approachable. However the other problem I have is that I often do not know what to say to professors, which is why I only ever attend office hours if I have a very specific question on the homework.

No Idea? That’s Okay!

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Last Wednesday I attended the Rose Cafe with Peter Cortle, where I learned more about entrepreneurship. While I have never considered myself to be a very entrepreneurial person, I found the talk to be very insightful. My main hesitation with entrepreneurship has always been the whole “You need to have an idea” part of it. For me, coming up with an idea would be very difficult, and I currently do not foresee myself ever developing an idea good enough to actually pursue with a startup. However Mr. Cortle raised the point that I do not need to have an idea in order to get involved with entrepreneurship. Instead I could do something like joining a startup based on somebody else’s idea. Even just beginning to interact with other people involved with entrepreneurship can be beneficial, and it does not require an idea to do so. Mr. Cortle spoke about various resources that students can use to get involved with entrepreneurship, most of which I was previously unaware of. Overall, while I still do not see myself getting involved in entrepreneurship, I now find myself more open to the possibility.