Yesterday I attended a table talk event with Ryan Lombardi. Throughout the pandemic and before, I have received many emails from him about student and campus life as we prepared for returning to campus and started to learn what it would look like. It was great to be able to talk to him beyond these emails and learn more about his role at Cornell and how the administration planned the campus reopening. After talking, I could tell that Lombardi genuinely cares about students and wanted to hear our input and feedback. He was very attentive and listened to the concerns that people raised, even promising to follow up with individual students’ issues. When talking about what the spring semester will look like, he said that many more students will be coming back to campus in the spring compared to this semester. He said that he was confident in our ability to make this reopening plan work, and is glad that it has so far been successful. I am grateful that the administration worked hard to open campus, as I am so happy to be here in Ithaca and be able to have some college experience, even if it is not the same as usual.
Author Archives: eal257
Beginning the Internship Search
Today I attended a panel event of various students who talked about their internship experiences and gave advice. The students all had many impressive internships and got great experiences out of them, which was really inspiring to see. As someone who is beginning to stress about the internship search, this was a motivating event that gave me tips on where to start. The panelists talked about the importance of networking and encouraged students to not feel pressured to get an internship at a large company right away but to start small and build meaningful connections and experiences. A lot of them got positions by emailing people in various organizations, which is interesting. This definitely sounds like an effective strategy but is one that seems very daunting to me. However, seeing that it can work gives me more confidence to do that in the future. While none of the students were in job fields that I am considering, it was still really inspiring and helpful to hear from them and learn more about their experiences.
The Importance and Effects of Social Protest
This week, I attended the Table Talk event about social protest and American Democracy with House Fellow Ken Roberts. This was a very interesting event and a great chance to discuss the impact of our current climate of protest. Roberts stressed just how large the current protest cycle is, being a large movement and countermovement that has attracted more people than other protests almost even back to the 1960’s. In addition, he discussed the important role that protests play in the fabric of our democracy. One idea which he brought up was the cyclical nature of protests. Protests often gain momentum but, over time, their activity decreases until another instigating event occurs. I was surprised when he reminded us that issues from just a year ago, such as gun control, are now not even talked about in the presidential debates and campaigns. While this is probably in part due to the unique state of the world right now, it is fascinating to think about. This event left me wondering about how effective protests really are in enacting actual policy change, yet I realized that, while policy change might not always occur, protests bring major issues into public attention. Often, this is just as important. Overall, I enjoyed talking about these important issues in a conversational setting with Roberts and the three other Rose Scholars that attended this event.
Lessons for College Success
Today I attended the Thursday Seminar with Professor Schwarz about his book “How to Succeed in College and Beyond.” Professor Schwarz talked about the importance of intellectual exploration in college, stressing that students should take classes that challenge them and make them think. He emphasized the importance of the liberal arts education, saying that even people in stem should take liberal arts classes that challenge them to think differently and interact with others in a discussion setting. As someone who is in the humanities, I agree that lately the liberal arts have been highly undervalued. Another thing which Professor Schwarz discussed were the goals you should have from college as well as strategies to maximize your time. He said that, especially now, we should use our education to make sense of the world and give back to our communities. Some strategies that he talked about were getting to know professors to have them as mentors, surrounding yourself with other motivated students, and mastering time management. He particularly emphasized time management, saying that it was one of the most important parts to life that you learn in college. I definitely agree that most of college is learning to manage your time between schoolwork, clubs, and social life. This is an area in which I still struggle, but I am learning to become more effective. Ultimately, this event helped me refocus on my goals for college and take a step back from the day-to-day routine that I have formed to consider the broader picture.
Morning Yoga
This morning I attended a virtual yoga class taught by Lewis Freedman with other Rose Scholars. I was really excited about this event because I took Lewis Freedman’s Intro to Yoga gym class last semester and really enjoyed it. I was sad that the class got cut short by the pandemic because I learned so much and looked forward to class each week. That gym class was my first experience with yoga, but during quarantine I continued with yoga, taking virtual classes or following Youtube videos. However, since the semester has started, I have fallen out of practice. So, I was very excited for this opportunity to get back into it. This yoga class was a great way to wake up on a Sunday morning and stretch. The class reminded me of the basics of yoga and focused on using the breath to wake up and focus the mind while stretching the body and getting your blood flowing. Attending this class has inspired me to get back into doing yoga. It is such a good form of exercise and keeping your mind and body healthy, which is really important, especially now.
Incarceration and the Family
Yesterday I attended the event “Criminal (In)justice: How Mass Incarceration Disrupts Families and Communities.” I learned so much in this hour and realized just how many major problems there are with the criminal justice system. I was especially excited about this event because I attended a couple lectures about mass incarceration last year and found them to be incredibly eye-opening and important. Furthermore, my professor who taught Intro to Sociology last semester, Professor Haskins, was a speaker yesterday, so I was excited to hear her talk about this.
The effects of mass incarceration go beyond the individual but extend to their family and community as well. Professor Haskins mentioned that 1 in 10 kids in America have experienced parental incarceration, yet this statistic is not the same for all socioeconomic and racial groups. Kids with incarcerated parents are especially affected in multiple ways, such as potentially hurting their performance or involvement in school. I was surprised to realize that child support payments often remain the same for someone when they are incarcerated, even though they now are under-employed or unemployed. This has caused a huge build-up of child support debt that cannot be paid which in turn harms people’s families and children. Another thing that was discussed in the event was the importance of rehabilitation and the role that family plays in it. One speaker told a story about a man who was afraid to leave prison once his time was served because he had spent most of his life there and he had no family or support on the outside. This was especially heartbreaking and illuminates real flaws in the system that must be addressed.
Starting to Think about Grad School
On Thursday, I attended a seminar about how to start planning for graduate school. Among the very useful tips that I learned, I realized just how little I actually know about the process and grad school in general. As someone who is not completely sure of their career goals, I have never really considered the details of what grad school applications would be like. Considering that I have not even officially declared my major, grad school is not something I am currently thinking about. However, I am glad that I attended this event, as I learned just how important it is to start thinking about it early. One of the most important things stressed in the seminar was that, before applying, you must consider if grad school is necessary for your professional goals and, furthermore, exactly what you would want to study and research. After hearing more about the details of applying, I feel that I can start to consider how my experiences and classes at Cornell now would translate into a grad school application. Another aspect of this event that I found really interesting was the differences between undergraduate and graduate school applications. I am used to the undergrad college application mindset that it was in part surprising to hear about how grad schools are considered to be good based on their programs, faculty, and research rather than a national ranking and “prestige” such as with undergrad. Putting myself into this alternate mentality will definitely help if I decide to apply to grad school in the future!
Learning about Chernobyl (via Zoom)
This Friday’s viewing of the first episode of “Chernobyl,” the HBO dramatized mini-series, was an incredibly interesting and moving experience. Going into watching this, I had a general idea of what to expect, but was completely surprised by the level of detail in both content and production quality. While the subject material was very heavy, especially for a Friday night, it was fascinating to learn about this historical event which I had known very little about. What struck me especially about Chernobyl was how it depicted the political and social context surrounding the event. The scientists and board members who ran the nuclear plant completely underplayed the situation to both the public and the other people who worked there, which added to the tragedy of this event. While watching, I couldn’t help but think about how the politics of the USSR affected how the tragedy was handled and if it would have been handled differently if not for the effects of communism.
What made the show so impactful was knowing that this was a real event and knowing how it would end. The show juxtaposed the destruction and confusion at the nuclear plant with the almost relaxed attitudes of the citizens of Pripyat, the town close to Chernobyl. It was very stressful to watch how the children danced around when ash fell from the sky, knowing as a viewer that that was really radioactive material. The show’s creators did a good job of setting the tone of extreme anxiety through dramatic, dark lighting and music and sound effects.
It was interesting as well to see everyone else’s reaction to the first episode and to have a discussion about it. I enjoyed sharing this experience with other people in Rose, despite it being virtual over Zoom, and look forward to attending future movie nights!