Talking with Julia Felippe, at Prof. Avery’s apartment, I learnt that not always do you have to know what the next step is. During this time in our life, we sometime try to plan out our life. However, Felippe reminded us that sometimes you life path is carved as you go, and can not be pre-planned.

Here is a little poem I wrote after chatting with Felippe:

Unknown is your future,

Unknown is where you will go.

Unknown to you right now,

Will become known to you as you go.

Last week  I was able to attend the Rose Cafe event with Julia Felippe. Her story really resonated with me because I also am from South America. I came here as a child so it wasn’t my choice to come here, but my parents did. They chose to move to the United States for a chance at a better life. I can only say I truly appreciate this because without it I wouldn’t be here. Dr. Felippe’s story was an amazing one. She took risks and made decisions that I perhaps wouldn’t have. I learned a lot from what she told us, most importantly how many of her opportunities arose from people that saw what she could contribute. The important thing is that she dedicated herself to what she loved and people saw that. Furthermore, I also understand how she felt about leaving her family. Every time I go back to Ecuador it pains me to come back even though I still have my parents and little sister with me. There are a lot of things I have missed as well.  It is very hard to be separated from family. I truly appreciated Dr. Felippe sharing her life story with us and hope to keep the lessons learned in mind.

Attending this Rose Café event was meaningful and helpful for me. Dr. Felippe talked about how her interest in horses started when she was five years old and had a chance to take horse riding classes. From this experience, she was able to become a veterinarian specialized in horses. Although it may seem like her interest developed into her career path in a relatively predictable way, her life journey includes various unplanned events. Her journey to the U.S. and various events that happened weren’t necessarily planned, but these opportunities allowed her to be at where she is now. By attending this event, I was able to see that it is important to try various things to find our interests and experience personal growth. As we make our future decisions, we shouldn’t be afraid of uncertainties but willing to explore.

This week, I attended Julia Felippe’s talk “Crossing the Ocean: For a Career, For a New Life.” She spoke about how she moved form Sao Paulo, Brazil to study veterinary medicine in the US and basically never went back. Actually, one of the funny moments form her talk was how she would be on the phone with her parents, and they’d ask when she would come back to which she responded that it would be in a year or two, until they eventually realized that she was going to stay. In fact, I think her talking about these conversations with her parents gave some imagery to the theme of what her whole talk was about, which was that her path was not necessarily very rigidly planned. It was not that she was being untruthful when telling her parents she would be back soon, it is that she didn’t necessarily know when she would return because she was keeping herself open to the different opportunities life could present at any given time.

Hearing about Professor Felippe’s ever changing path was truly inspiring for me. It really invoked in me comfort in not knowing exactly which direction I want to go in yet. One of the memorable pieces of advice she gave was “not to over think or obsess about whether the job/position for you is the one you’re supposed to be in.” I found this very impactful for being in our Cornell community in particular where we can feel pressured to be engaging in activities that serve legitimate purposes for our long term goals or careers right now. Ultimately, statements like these throughout the evening really helped fortify me and assure me to just trust the process and lend myself to all the different opportunities this time in my life could entail if I let it.

I’m thankful that Professor Felippe took the time to talk with us about her life and pieces of wisdom she’s gained from it. The path she took to her current position was winding, unlikely, and very interesting to discuss.

Professor Felippe described various points in her life in which she didn’t have a crystal-clear idea of where an opportunity would lead her, and she stressed that this was of great benefit to her. Coming to the United States, she didn’t initially plan to stay permanently; instead, she expected that she would return to Brazil after a few years of education and experience in the states. However, opportunity presented itself, and while remaining in the United States wasn’t a part of her initial plan, she didn’t allow that to stop her from taking advantage of her situation. Most of us that were in attendance are currently in the stage of our lives in which we’re likely to receive questions centered on what we want to do for a career, where we see ourselves in the future, and so on. While I have a better answer to those questions than I would have had a year prior, my idea of my future is still relatively vague. It was reassuring to hear from someone who was able to achieve success without mapping out their life to the finest detail.

I’d also like to acknowledge just how enjoyable the talk was. The nature of our meeting place made for a very welcoming and intimate discussion. It comes as no surprise that Professor Felippe is a very engaging orator, and it’s always a privilege to be in such a person’s company. While many of the topics were on the more serious side, we still had plenty of time for miscellaneous topics, such as how one performs surgery on a horse. It’s not something I’d given much thought to in the past, but, coming from an area with a largely horse-racing based economy, I’ve caught myself thinking about it quite a bit since our talk. To be able to sit down and talk about something other than a problem set or project was a welcome change of pace, and our discussion was a highlight of my week.

When at the talk with Julia Felippe, I found a lot of similarities with her life story and that of my own family. Julia Felippe’s story of her immigrant parents and their hardship when first immigrating to Brazil reminded me of my family. My family came over as refugees from eastern Europe during WWII and translated what they knew, or pretended to and later learned, to make a living. Julia herself, however, reminded me even more of what I hope to become later in life. Julia’s ability to translate her passion in equine studies and other veterinary disciplines into a successful career at Cornell is what I hope to accomplish with my passions in life. While I have yet to fully commit nor decide what I want to do out of school, I hope to enjoy my career as much as Julia Felippe does hers. 

One of Julia Felippe’s biggest messages that stuck with me was the idea of continually keeping in contact with many advisers. I have always struggled with keeping in contact with many of my teachers and professors from years past. I now realized from her messages that it’s important to keep in contact with them not just for the letters of recommendation but because they have been in our shoes before and many of them made the best of their situations to get to where they are now and can impart a great deal of wisdom to us to get us to the best place possible in our lives. I definitely can recall many times I could have benefited from that type of advice and the ability to know I am going in the right direction. I know that now I will make sure to get in better contact with my professors and elders in terms of my life decisions and make sure to have that type of support going forward. This was my first Rose Scholars talk and I highly recommend attending to learn about those of other cultural backgrounds.

It was good to see Julia Felippe sharing her experiences to answer to the needs of both graduate and undergraduate students.

One of the things that she mentioned that struck me was that students should not box themselves into a career too early on, and she re-stated this when I talked with her afterwards. In her own life, she went through several twist and turns and dealt with uncertainly or many years. She only landed where she is now due to trial and error. I liked how she emphasized freedom to choose in her explanation.

Another thing that she mentioned that interested me was her work on animals. Although she focuses on benefiting the animal, she inevitably ends up helping humans because of the physiological similarities between us. She is able to do what she likes and yet her work is more far reaching than what she anticipates. I find that to be inspiring and encouraging

This evening I attended the Rose Cafe event featuring Julia Felippe, a professor in the vet school. Professor Felippe provided a background of her life and education in Brazil before relocating to the U.S. to pursue research in clinical science. She spoke about her love for horses that she acquired from the age of five, and she later explained how she performs surgeries on them. Professor Felippe’s talk was informative and interesting, and it was certainly inspiring as well.

Something I personally struggle with here at Cornell is the intense culture around professionalism. Since the very beginning of the semester, I’ve been attending career fairs, going through recruitment processes for pre-professional clubs, and have been constantly networking, interviewing, and writing applications. Not to say that these things are bad; in fact, I feel like I’m gaining a lot of practice in these areas! They do make it easy to compare myself to others, however, and I have felt a lot of pressure to figure out what I want to pursue for my career. Professor Felippe put my thoughts at ease a little as she advised us not to narrow our career options too much, explaining how career paths are totally unpredictable for the vast majority of people. She touched on the value of social networks and acquiring mentors, not only for professional purposes but for personal ones, as well.

Meeting Professor Felippe and learning about her culture and academic specialties was a special experience. I’m glad to have attended the talk and I appreciate the advice she gave us.

Earlier this evening (1900h), I attended Dr. Felippe’s talk on her journey as an immigrant and eventually settling down in the States. She had lots of wonderful advice, and one of the (many) major takeaways that I think is worth mentioning wwas on deciding a career path.

Many students, especially those in the pre-med track, are expected to make up their minds on their career paths so early, to the point where they’ve got to start working their *** off since high school. Also, once they’re pursuing their MD, there’s no way around. Dr. Felippe talked about how each step in her journey to academia was unexpected, and she treated her education as “equipping her with the tools” to get to the next stages in her professional life. I thought that it was very meaningful, as many people’s careers do not turn out as they’ve expected 20 years ago. It’s great to treat college as a way to nurture and nourish ourselves in a way that best prepares for our future endeavors.