Last Wednesday, I attended my very first Rose Cafe (in three semesters of being a Rose Scholar!). I had always wanted to attend, but I usually had a class on Wednesday nights so as soon as I had the room in my schedule I jumped on the opportunity. The first thing I noticed was how cozy Rosemary’s apartment was, and how nice it was to be in a home. I haven’t been home in some time so just the action of taking off my shoes before walking in and sitting down on a sofa immediately made me feel so at ease and so much more comfortable.
The fact that the Rose Cafe chat was with Vice President Ryan Lombardi the evening even better. I had always heard really good thinking about him. I remember he sent out an email to Cornell parents regarding inclement weather or some safety concern on campus, and my mom, being the overly polite woman she is, responded to him individually and thanked him for informing them. Vice President Lombardi actually took the time to personally reach out to my mother and respond to her note, making sure that she knew where his priorities are when it comes to student safety. I thought that this was so extraordinarily thoughtful of him, that he would take time out of his busy schedule to respond to a single parent, and it made me realize that the gap between the administration and the student community really isn’t quite as large as we see it.
Our discussion evolved into one surrounding fraternities throughout the night, and we were able to get some unique insight into what the administration is trying to do, trying to avoid, and even capable of doing when it comes to disciplining fraternities and their actions. I also hadn’t realized that Cornell’s judiciary committee is separate from the actual administration, an independent body, and found that extremely interesting. In the 60s-70s, Cornell students decided that the students should make these decisions, and the administration should stay out of it. Now, it seems as though students are demanding the administration to act even though they no longer have that power. I learned a lot about this dynamic and definitely have heard bitter sentiment and conspiracy regarding the administration, however meeting Vice President Lombardi helped me to understand that they aren’t faceless bureaucrats behind desks, they actually care about students and are trying really hard to make this campus community a great one.
Author Archives: ctc95
what is real?
On Friday night, I joined the Rose Scholars to watch the Matrix for the first time. I was really looking forward to seeing this movie, since I had never seen it before and so many people have talked about it and how much of a mind warp it is. What is real? Are we awake? Upon watching it, I understood the hype. I also really liked the unique perspective of a neuro-biological lens. Looking at the mind as a separate entity from the body while at the same time, one cannot live without the other, is an intriguing concept, especially because I myself am I neurobiology concentration within the bio major. Every once in a while I’ll have an existential crisis regarding who I am in the big scheme of things, how small humans are compared to the vastness of the universe, and, of course, is any of this even real?
I remember reading one insight regarding something similar and I thought it was interesting to include. Basically, at the end of our lives, we experience a memory flash of all our experiences, our life flashing before our eyes. But at the end of that flash, we will see ourselves dying and reliving those memories, so once again, in that memory flash we will remember the flash itself, and so on and so forth. Essentially, we become trapped in the infinitely shrinking flashes of our lives, forced to relive every moment for eternity. I thought this was really cool, although I obviously cannot vouch for its scientific validity. The fact that we determine and we define what is real for ourselves makes everything relative and overall is really cool.
spirited away- dream like
Friday night, I joined the Rose Scholars to watch “Spirited Away.” I hadn’t really been exposed to this genre of film before, and the subtitles took a little while to get used to, but once I was accustomed to it I was able to get really absorbed into the story.
The way the plot and the visuals were constructed almost seemed like a dream to me. There were so many things that didn’t make sense at first (later explained) in this mysterious shadow world that served as a sort of resort for spirits. Some of the things that occurred were borderline traumatic for the young ten year old protagonist, Chihiro, who, throughout many attempts, found it difficult to leave.
By nearly forgetting her name, and, as a result, her identity, the filmmaker represents how even though we change and evolve in our experiences as we grow, we cannot forget who we are or where we come from, because that is an integral part of our identity.
This spirit movie was perfect for Halloween season, and I found it really interesting.
crafts and clothes
Thursday night, I joined fellow rose scholars to learn how to sew with Beverly! She face-timed her mom in, who is a seamstress, to show us useful skills to fix our own clothes. Her mom was so sweet, and I really enjoyed this event because we got to learn practical things. Instead of how to use a sewing machine, or complicated stitches, we learned the basics that we could use to fix a rip or how to hem something. We also received a little emergency sewing kit to use. I found this extremely useful, as I am constantly losing buttons and tearing my clothes and sort of just keeping them in the back of my drawer because I really like the clothes but I couldn’t fix them. Hopefully now with my new skill I can finally wear them again!
It was also really relaxing and stress relieving to do the stitches once I got in a flow. I really enjoyed this event!
intellectual inquiry >>>
When I joined the Rose Scholars this past Thursday, I was able to participate in an interactive experience that allowed me to reassess my priorities, in a sense. We were asked what kind of activities we participate in, and almost everyone’s answers involved some form of academic inquiry or career step. What was your learning experience? Working in a hospital, a technology conference, an internship, a business shadowing experience, etc. This says a lot for the state of mind of the Cornell student. There is obviously nothing wrong with wanting to further your career or learn more about the facets of your major, but I found it interesting how almost no one (myself included) mentioned an experience that wavered from something that could be mentioned in a job interview, or be a step in a five year plan.
As Cornell students, we all seem to prioritize our future selves over our present selves. When we were split up into groups to look at what kinds of learning we were most invested in, almost everyone went to “academic inquiry.” A few students including myself looked at health and wellness, but the overwhelming majority wanted to look towards that future, that goal. This is by no means a critique of that attitude, just an observation. I wonder what kind of responses this activity would receive in a different university, maybe one more focused on art? Or maybe a high school? Either way it was a really interesting event and helped me learn a lot about myself and how I prioritize learning.
two hours, ninety nine lives
This past Friday I joined a group Rose Scholars at St. Catherine of Siena church to participate in the annual Feed My Starving Children event. Having participated in this event last year, I already had some expectations about what the event would be like, but I definitely underestimated the energy and excitement I would feel. While packaging food to send to starving children in the DR, there was chanting, challenges, chatting, and singing. One of the event coordinators sort of acted like an MC, motivating us to keep packaging and challenging us to beat the records set by sessions the days before. I actually got chills when she told us that we had packaged enough food in one evening to feed ninety nine children for a whole year. “Ninety nine souls, ninety nine futures, ninety nine sets of parents who can name their child and know that they can grow up healthy…” The fact that just two hours on a Friday night could make such a lasting impact on a community and on so many lives simply unreal.
Learning about the process
This past Wednesday, I attended the board of trustees forum with fellow Rose Scholars and really got a lot out of it. I hate to say it, but I am not exactly involved when it comes to student government and getting involved in the issues that affect Cornell directly. A lot of the time, I’m so wrapped up in my own world that I don’t ask questions about the construction sites, or the budgets, or the number of students in my chem classes. This forum made me realize that so many people are behind this decision. Cornell has one of the largest board of faculty trustees in the country (I think the exact number is 64) and all of them are so invested in all of these decisions. For example, the North campus construction project doesn’t exactly cross my mind all that often (except when I have to deal with driving through North and avoiding the mess) but the level of thought and planning that went into that astounded me. Trustees mentioned how the reasoning behind that was that Balch Hall (where I lived freshman year) needs renovations, something I can definitely vouch for firsthand (the elevator broke as I was moving out last year and my parents and I almost got stuck on it). While Balch is being renovated, there needs to be space for all those freshmen to live, hence the new building on North.
However, when both are built and finished, Cornell can then accept a larger freshman class. However, that means we need to expand in other areas, including more faculty, more academic buildings, more upperclassmen housing, etc. Overall, it was just really interesting to think about all the things that go into running a school, things I would never really think about otherwise.
how to…
Last night, I attended an info session with house fellow Zachary Grobe to learn how to write a blog post that is more engaging and more interesting to read and to write. I really liked the focus on film, because the Friday night movie nights are usually my go-to for Rose Scholar’s events. Now I can focus on an entirely different aspect of the movie when I’m writing my blogs; the stylistic elements. I always used to focus on the content, when, as I learned, that doesn’t make a film any different from a novel. What really distinguishes a film from a movie is that style. This includes music, costumes, color palettes, and more.
One movie I could have applied this new lens to was one we watched last semester, V is for Vendetta. The music in this film was so artfully integrated, oftentimes I couldn’t distinguish between when the sounds were coming from within the movies, actually in the scene, or a part of the narration. The transition between the operatic and orchestra music made everything vey dramatic and suspenseful. Instead of focusing so much on content and message (which are also important), I could have talked about how the director’s choices when it came to the film created this message.
The seminar was overall very useful and I will definitely apply what I learned to future blog posts.