Rampant Misogyny and the Avoidance of Accountability

To watch the recent debate was both painful and a reinforcement of the raging misogyny rampant and ubiquitous in society today.  Not only is Donald Trump wildly unqualified to be a Presidential candidate, he also acts inappropriately on stage time and time again, which is not a quality that someone who leads should have.

Trump repeatedly interrupts, yells, and the substantive content of his speech is always extremely misogynistic. The fact that he brought up Bill Clinton’s actions to smear Hillary Clinton’s name on national television was ridiculous. Especially given the fact that he was in the process of being held accountable for his “locker room talk.” How is she conflated with the actions her husband takes as an individual? Marriage to another person does not automatically mean that you are directly responsible for that person’s actions.

Another point about Trump’s response is the fact that he dismissed the language on tape as “locker room talk.” Even if we can all concede (hypothetically) that it was just locker room talk, that he was exaggerating his actions in a private setting, his speech is still offensive and has real, material implications. Bragging about sexual assault serves to uphold toxic ideas.  Nonchalant and casual mention of sexual assault in a dismissive, even in a private setting, is destructive, unhelpful, and reinforces a culture that allows sexual assault to happen.

Hand to God: Dark Comedy and a Possessed Puppet

This past Sunday afternoon, I went to see Hand to God at the Kitchen Theatre. This play was not at all what I expected. It involved puppets, religion, a puppet club at a church, adult actors playing young children, and a lot of dark jokes about morality.

I really enjoyed the set of of the Kitchen Theatre, which is an intimate stage that nearly involved the audience. It was a small space with seats close to the center of the room. It was as if we were literally sitting on stage with the actors. I have seen some shows on Broadway and I sat very far away so the nuances of the performances get lost in the distance. In the Kitchen Theatre, it was as if I were immersed in the story, and the actors were interacting with us. It was especially potent in this particular play where the fourth wall was broken a few times and the entirety of the performance only involves a few characters.

The story was about how at times, repressing emotions can lead to disastrous outcomes. A “possessed” puppet takes hold of a child and creates a long string of messy situations for him and his mother. This puppet claims to be satan and embraces sin. However, it seems that this “puppet” and its existence serve to show the destructive nature of the people that surround us.

 

The Nature all Around Ithaca

Sometimes, it can be extremely easy to fall back under the immediate needs of our attention – classes, assignments, our grades, and our friends. We are so caught up in our daily lives that we forget to take a look around our surroundings. We forget to realize that we are living in a unique landscape, with beautiful scenery and historic background. We forget Ithaca and all that it has to offer.

This talk was about the importance of keeping Ithaca’s nature alive, the need to protect its land. As disappointing as it is, the fact is that while we are studying in Ithaca, there are people fighting to preserve its natural landmarks. This is precisely what Andy Zepp, an ILR alumni from Cornell dedicates his time to. He is the Executive Director of Finger Lakes Land Trust, an organization dedicated to the preservation of natural bodies of water, land, and gorges here in Ithaca. This organization allows for owners of historic/scenic land to provide security of that land and to maintain it for future generations to enjoy the land. I had no idea that Ithaca is the home to the greatest number of waterfalls within a 10-mile radius in all of North America. This is something worth fighting for and protecting. Another land that is part of the Finger Lakes Land Trust is the Finger Lakes trails that extends thousands of miles, almost passing through the city and going through the hill country. Not only was this a beautiful trail with the quintessential wildlife that characterizes upstate New York, but it is also a place where I would like to visit during my time at Cornell.

This talk was very valuable to me because little did I know about the conservation efforts that are presently occurring. I consider myself someone who is passionate about preserving our nature, as I do much research on how regulation and new laws can affect our environment, such as the passing of the Keystone Pipeline XL. I admire Andy on his efforts, and I think that attending this event has opened my eyes to the importance of taking an active part in my own community to help preserve the nature that is exposed to risk.

NSYNC

I have been fascinated by physics since the middle of high school. When I applied to Cornell, I looked into its physics labs and found a place in which I wanted to work, the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS). The funny thing is that when I got here as a Freshman, I decided on being a Computer Science major and never worked in the CHESS lab. A couple years later I visited the lab I thought I wanted to work at for the first time. While I love the physics behind how the particle accelerator works, I was not as excited as I thought I might be while on the tour. I guess I just did not see the use of colliding electrons. Sure they find elementary particles, but why is it important? My high school self would start screaming about discovering how the world works, but I guess I’ve changed since then. These experiments are done to test a theory that seems inconsequential to me. Obviously the theory is why everything exists, but I feel like there are better things I personally can be doing with my time than proving or disproving an arcane theory. That being said, plenty of other research in biology and materials science goes on that is more practical. I don’t even necessarily think that practical is better; I am just not inspired as I once was with particle physics. Lucky I found Computer Science I suppose.

That’s Bad Too?!

Andy Zepp came to talk about natural land in the Finger Lakes. One aspect of his lecture that made me think about something I hadn’t before was how something as seemingly benign as a hiking trail can actually be fairly intrusive to an ecosystem. One might expect an environmentalist to support more hiking trails, so that people can enjoy the beautiful world around them, but little would they know that these trails and people stomping on the ground, making noise, displace wildlife and affect their habitats. While gross acts of ecological negligence, such as one he showed where the top of a beautiful, arborous, mountain was decimated to make way for fracking frackers, are the usual targets for people who like to live on Earth, less obviously detrimental acts can still have significant impacts on our world.

What’s the Right Word?

I’ve always wanted to know good synonyms for “good,” “bad,” and “sad” to use in my essays. Melancholy was one such word for “sad,” but it was always so difficult to use without sounding awkward and out of place. As an undirected and pensive sadness, it seems to have a highly specialized use. While I don’t often find the use for melancholy in essays, I do find use for it in real life. Melancholy and sadness are emotions that everyone needs to feel to take part in the human experience. They put one in a mindset to think deeply about difficult situations and questions that no other emotion does. Many times, sorrow is felt by oneself, so it allows for introspection that might be difficult to engage in at other, happier times. I always feel that I understand myself better and have grown into a stronger person after a bout of melancholy.

Everything is a commodity

The concept of people owning land is pretty weird to me. Not like the land where your house is built or something, but an entire forest, for example. It’s just kind of a shame that society developed into a system where literally everything is a commodity, from animals to trees. I completely understand the need to buy land for conservation, but it’s pretty depressing that this is necessary. If all land was free and open to the public then there would definitely be people destroying it for their own selfish purposes. Which sucks! I honestly can’t comprehend how some people can be so selfish as to destroy beautiful nature. 🙁 If some people weren’t so dumb then we could definitely have a system in which all of nature could be free for everyone to enjoy. People need to stop looking at a tract of land and imagining how they could build a supermarket on it; instead, they should look outside of their own selfish bubble and truly appreciate the beauty of nature and the creatures that live in it.

Andy Zepp’s presentation was very engaging and I really admire the work that the Finger Lakes Land Trust is doing to preserve beautiful Ithaca. This location was a pretty big reason why I chose to go to Cornell. However, I just wish the FLLT wasn’t necessary. It’s slightly depressing to see nature being bought and sold like a car or a house. But unfortunately, you can’t change the human race’s selfish nature!

Keeping Ithaca Gorges

Last Wednesday I attended the final Rose Cafe of the year and heard Andy Zepp speak from the Finger Lakes Land Trust. I think it is oftentimes easy to forget that we are going to school in a really incredible place. Ithaca is beautiful and we have access to gorges, waterfalls, and the Finger Lakes. I grew up in Rochester, NY so I have always known that the Finger Lakes existed and are a huge feature of New York. However I didn’t realize how difficult it is to maintain the land around the Finger Lakes and this is what Andy Zepp and his team at the Trust do. The Trust will purchase large areas of land around the Finger Lakes and help preserve the area (like maintaining hiking trails) so that people can enjoy the area when they visit. I was surprised to hear though that the Trust makes these purchases from donations that they get from private donors and their fundraising efforts. He also spoke about maintaining a balance between enjoying the land and using it recreationally, and then also using the land for farming for example.

Overall I am glad that I attended this final Rose Cafe, especially since this was a topic that I was not expecting to hear about but I found it really interesting. It was almost embarrassing to realize how little I knew about the amazing area that we live in, but I am glad that I was able to learn about it now.

And Bears, Oh My!

The nature of land trusts is interesting in itself– when you are in the depths of nature here, among deciduous forests and gorges, you rarely ever associate what you’re seeing with business. Yet, as we discovered last Wednesday, nature and the land itself is indeed closely tied to business. Andy Zepp told us about the amount of work put into negotiating with land owners and maintaining the land itself in order to preserve the nature around us in Ithaca–a great deal, in fact. So next time you hike the trails and gorges here in Ithaca, don’t just appreciate the beauty of the nature, appreciate the business behind it as well.

Trust in Land Trusts

During the last Cafe, Andy Zepp, the executive director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust and a Cornell grad came to speak to us about his job managing the land trust. Land trusts, nature protection, and environmental sustainability were all fields I never had an exposure to before Cornell, as I lived in NYC my entire life. The purpose of the FLLT is to conserve the land, since the US doesn’t have as much land regulation as European countries. Zepp described the job as a balance between conservation and economic development. They negotiate with property owners about their land, and they help oversee it so that no detrimental developments occur, and ensure that people who make bad decisions can’t exploit the land. It’s a delicate balance to strike between micromanaging and safeguarding the land. Zepp also described various other projects the FLLT tries to implement, like creating a world class system of trails across, maintaining agriculture, and keeping the land clean.  My first impression was wonder about how this small nonprofit could overlook all these acres of land surrounding Ithaca, and how they are able to negotiate with so many people to ensure productive conservation. It’s a massive job and Zepp just seemed to talk about his work so matter-of-factly. I know little to nothing about conservation, land trusts, and sustainability, so just hearing about all these efforts was remarkable. It’s really interesting how so many people developed a passion for land conservation, and after living in Ithaca, I can see why.

Ithaca is Gorges

Andy Zepp from the Finger Lakes Land Trust came to talk at the final Rose Café of the year. In this talk, he spoke about what he does around the Finger Lakes Area. Although I was only able to stay halfway through, I admire what he does and how he helps the Finger Lakes stay in the best shape possible. I found his talk very interesting for the main reason that he developed a love for nature once getting to Ithaca. I can completely relate to this. Before coming to Ithaca, I didn’t do much outdoors. I would go for runs, but never really appreciate what is all around me. Since coming to Ithaca, this has completely changed. A day does not go by without me realizing how beautiful of a place we live in and how lucky we are. When I can, I enjoy getting off campus and finding some of these beautiful places we are so lucky to have. Because of this, what Andy and the Land Trust does is so important. They work to protect this area and all aspects of it. Without Andy and his team, many of the places we get to hike through would not be accessible to us or might even be destroyed in later years. The Finger Lakes trail is an absolutely beautiful place to spend some time. Having so many beautiful places so close to Cornell makes it standout from other college campuses and makes Ithaca such a special and important place.

Particle Accelerator!

Last week I visited CHESS: Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source. A woman who works there named Laura and GRF David gave us a tour of the operation. The synchrotron is basically a half mile long oval track that carries particles. I was fascinated to learn how the synchrotron works. The aim is to accelerate subatomic particles: specifically electrons and positrons, which are basically positive, antimatter versions of electrons. The synchrotron does this by sending the particles through a large potential difference (voltage drop) to accelerate them up to nearly the speed of light in a fraction of a second. The particles start by whizzing around the synchrotron’s inner ring, and are then transferred into the outer storage ring, CESR. The particles are kept up to speed by going through further potential differences around the track. Their path is curved by magnets to stay in the track, and every few meters they are focused by other magnetic apparatuses.

The synchrotron was initially used to study collisions between matter electrons and antimatter positrons, by accelerating them in opposite directions around the track and then colliding them in a special chamber, where the emitted radiation and particles could be quantitatively and qualitatively measured. This chamber is now being dismantled, as the physicists have determined everything they can about the collisions. Presently, the accelerated particles are being used to produce X-rays which are useful in experiments. Shooting specimens with these X-rays and looking at the resulting diffraction pattern is a way to determine the mechanical properties of the specimens on an atomic scale. I was fascinated by the differing applications. Everyone was there: from the air force testing metal alloys for planes to biological researchers looking at the structure of proteins. I’m interested to see what new advances come out of CHESS in the future!

Ties Between China and Cambodia

For this Becker-Rose Café, Professor Andrew Mertha of Cornell’s Department of Government substituted Professor Benny Widyono and compiled a short talk about his research and discoveries in China, particularly it’s bureaucracy. I really enjoyed the talk that Professor Mertha held because he made it humorous and a lot his experiences were full of vigor and vivid detail. In a lucky turn of events, he found a bunch of old and secret documents that were allegedly blueprints of missile plans and factories. But on a serious note, his search was originally revolved around learning about China’s influence in Cambodia, but he ultimately did not find what he was looking for. I think that this shows how disorganized and difficult the Chinese government is, and likewise with what Professor Mertha has said, China has a lot to fix.

Finger Lakes Land Trust

This past Wednesday, I attended the Rose Scholars Cafe with guest speaker Andy Zepp. Andy Zepp is the director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust here in Ithaca. The focus of his talk was about the Finger Lakes Land Trust and the purpose of conserving land.

I found this Cafe to be very interesting. More specifically, I really enjoyed how Andy gave us an inside view of how the Finger Lakes Land Trust is run. I did not know that most of their funding came from fund raising. With all of the land that they own, their fund raising has to be extremely successful. Andy talked about his philosophy when it comes to fund raising and that is that you will not be successful just going door to door, asking strangers for money. In order to fund raise effectively, you have to cultivate a relationship with donors over a long period of time. I think that this philosophy can be applied to any situation that requires one to receive help from others.

Overall, I enjoyed this Rose Cafe. I liked listening to how why it is important to conserve land and how this conserved land is used. Without the many workers and volunteers at the Finger Lakes Land Trust, Ithaca may not be the same, beautiful place it is today.

Natural Lands in Ithaca

For the last Becker-Rose Café of the semester, Andy Zepp from the Finger Lakes Land Trust came to share his experiences about his occupation and the current stance of his group, which has acquired around 50,000 acres of public land. In an attempt to preserve these natural areas, the Finger Lakes Land Trust buys portions of a large piece of land as they open up. However, Mr. Zepp informed us that the funding for these purchases are often from private donations from around a 2,500 member base. He emphasized the value of preserving these lands, which not only serve as land marks, but also as trails for people to hike, relax, and admire nature. In fact, the Finger Lakes Land Trust has been working on installing conveniences such as ramps to make sight-seeing easier for any tourists that come across these forests. Overall, it was an interesting talk to end the semester and to learn how much effort people put in to preserve little of what we have left of natural sites such as forests and trails.

What are land trusts?

This week’s talk on the Finger Lakes Land Trust, led by one of our own, Andy Zepp, B.A. ILR ’85 and M.P.S. Natural Resources ’89, was incredible educational on the topic of Upstate New York sustainability and the methods by which the gorges land is preserved.

Andy Zepp is the executive director of the Finger Lake Land Trust and manages an enormous network of preserved land, countless selfless volunteers, and a small group of employees working towards sustaining the land that make Upstate New York. Going into the talk with little prior knowledge about how land is sustained in America, I learned a lot about land trusts and the way they function. It surprised me the most that land trusts are not government mandated and that often times, land trusts are formed piece by piece, only a little segment of land at at time, most commonly through deals with the current owners to preserve their land and promise to sell to the land trust when they are ready to sell.

What amazed me most was where the land trust gets their funding from to purchase such large chunks of land. They get most of their funding from their 1000 organization members. I did not know that local citizens would be so passionate about conserving the land and I am certainly grateful that they are!

Soil: Foundation of Our Existence

Soil is something I do not think about. So when I do, it is usually tied with negative connotations, such as dirty and impure. Little have I ever, in my life, stopped to think about the importance of soil, in terms of preserving it to keep our planet healthy and to keep all of the organisms on it alive.

Before attending this talk, I had no idea that 25% of carbon emissions are caused by soil. The amount of carbon stored in soil is up to 4 times more than in the atmosphere or in the vegetation. Soil, little do the majority of people know, has the potential to sequester carbon and become a carbon sink. The key, I learned, is to take the carbon and bury it into the soil.

What scientists today are trying to work on is to design a system which can enhance sustainability and food security. We do not know why carbon is bound in soil, but after finding out about this fact, I felt so much more hopeful. In the world of today, one of the most important issues is global warming and the existence of greenhouse emissions. The fact that soil is one of the key solutions to this problem gave me a much more optimistic view, and it makes me want to learn more about soil. I consider myself somebody who is green conscious and I try to help the environment in the ways that I can, through recycling, reducing waste, reducing meat consumption, etc. I firmly believe that education is key in finding solutions for one of the biggest problems the world is currently facing. This talk was the impetus that I needed to learn more about soil as a carbon vacuum!

A Sunday Afternoon at the Symphony

It was a beautiful day, mild temperatures and not sunny but not cloudy. After a long, rough week, I subconsciously yearned for an activity that would take my mind away from all of the stressful stimuli. Something that stimulated my senses and that helped me clear my head.

On this Sunday, it just so happened that the Cornell Symphony Orchestra was playing. As I walked there with the Rose Scholars group, I took in the refreshing views of Ithacan Spring, and breathed the fresh air. This was all a great appetizer to what was about to be the entree – the symphony’s performance.

It was exhilarating! As the musicians were preparing, my eyes remained glued to their concentrated faces. It was so impressive, I thought, how these students manage classes and other activities but still manage to come practice with the orchestra to prepare such beautiful, pleasing music.

The first piece was Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet piece. It took my breath away. As I sat in Bailey Hall with my eyes closed, I could see the images rise from the notes that were being played. Every single person on stage was in sync and it truly made seeing their precision entertaining in its own right. I had never been to see solely a symphony orchestra, but after this magnificent experience, I know that this will not be the last time.

The Rise of China and its Bureaucracy

This was a very interesting event held by Mr. Benny Widyono. He spoke about the growth of China in the last century, and about its relations with countries like Cambodia.

His discourse on Cambodia was specifically eye-opening. He spoke about how Cambodia started to arrest, torture and execute its own people. 1.7 million were killed, and there were pictures of people tortured into confessions – things that made no sense except to the ear of the regime. Horrific things happened in Cambodia during the regime in 1975. China’s role in this was not much of an influence. China had well military bureaucracy but so did Cambodia.

China, however, had dozens of different bureaucracies (factories, design institutes, ministries), but Cambodia did not have coordination on bureaucracies. This says a lot about the different government structures that existed at the time in China and Cambodia, how they contrasted, and how this paved the way for future development in both of these countries.

Additionally, Mr. Benny Widyono mentioned that policy in China is relatively uncoordinated. When I asked him for further clarification, he stated that China’s foreign policy is only as good as the institutions that manage its bureaucracy. The bureaucracy varies over time. Currently, China’s foreign policy is worse than it was back then, because of the lack of coordination that we have today. Where before there was more coordination under a planned economy, now because of local leaders, each area or locality has its autonomy, but this has resulted in unwanted coordination.

This was a talk I thoroughly enjoyed, because I learned a different aspect of China and its government organization; I looked at China from lenses which I had not looked from before. I took 3.5 years of Mandarin lessons, and through history classes, I believed that I had a decent grasp on China’s overall culture and structure. However, through this event I learned about the intricacies of China’s bureaucracy and how it affects its foreign policy. By far, it was so convenient to ask Mr. Benny Widyono exactly what the driving factors were.

A Taste of Ithaca

For my last rose scholar event, I went to the farmer’s market, as it was one of the first things I did when coming to campus last semester. The farmer’s market showcases the eclectic nature of Ithaca and gives small business owners a platform to sell their goods. I love going to the farmer’s market and seeing all the new products the vendors have to sell. Additionally, something about being on the water, with musicians playing in the background, and the rustic feel of the market place, makes the farmer’s market one of the most relaxing places I’ve been in Ithaca.

My favorite part of the farmer’s market has to be all the hot food that’s available. It’s incredibly hard to decide where to eat! I also love looking around the jewelry shops and seeing how the vendors make their product. The passion that the vendors have towards their work really is admirable. The honey vendor knows everything about bees and the honey process, and the soap makers will tell you the exact scent that’ll make you feel relaxed. In addition to the atmosphere, another one of my favorite parts about the farmer’s market is talking to the vendors. Whether its about Ithaca, their products, school, or life, they always have a unique input. The farmer’s market is a facet of Ithaca that really embodies a lot of character, and I plan to return many more times in the future!

Not Just a Cornellian, an Ithacan

This particular event has been one that I have been looking forward to all semester. The Student Assembly City and Local Affairs committee, which I have been a member of all year, organized a town hall meeting between students and the city council. The purpose of this was to increase communication between students and city government and give students a platform to voice their grievances regarding government matters. Things like housing, parking, road maintenance, are all issues that affect students that the school has little control over. These issues can only be resolved with the aid of city government and students rarely communicate with the municipality.

At the town hall, Mayor Svante Myrick spoke about his highly controversial legislation known as The Ithaca Plan. His effort to eliminate the drug problem in Ithaca has caught the attention of major news outlets such as the New York Times and CNN. The most notable clause in the plan is the implementation of heroin injection centers, were addicts will be able to use heroin under medical supervision. The aim of this plan is to prevent deaths from heroin overdose, which occurs far too often than it should. Whenever people visit the site, they are under clean and safe medical conditions, and are given a chance to talk about their addiction. The goal is then to help wean people off the drug. Hearing the Mayor talk about the plan that I had heard all over the news was a great experience and I loved having the chance to talk to the mayor himself about the plan. This event made me feel like I was a part of the larger Ithaca community, not just Cornell. Up on the hill, it’s easy to get caught into a bubble on campus. Ithaca is a “gorges” community that many Cornell students do not take the time to explore. After the town hall, I felt like I really was an Ithacan.

Land Conservation

This week’s discussion was on land conservation in the Ithaca and in upstate regions of New York. Ithaca has really beautiful scenic landscapes that are invaluable to the area. I think I take these for granted sometimes because I assume that they will always be there when I want to go visit, however a lot of work goes into making sure these unique lands are preserved. It is so easy to alter something such as land, someone builds an apartment complex and cuts down a large portion of the trees to make a parking lot or puts a pool and a playground in a community center. Once all of these changes have been made, which may take a few months to build, the characteristics of that land will be altered forever. The gorges, waterfalls, and mountains took years to develop yet they can be ruined overnight if we do not take care of them. I think the biggest takeaway from this lecture is that we can not get back the land once we have destroyed it so the best way is to preserve the marvels that we have so that we can ensure their continuity. Personally, my favorite landscapes are beaches and rough waterfalls that have a powerful presence reminding us that nature is beautiful and unable to be replicated. I hope that conservationists continue to secure the future of unique lands throughout New York, but also throughout the world because there are places all over the globe that have unique ecosystems and wildlife that may be endangered if the land on which they live on is altered or destroyed. This will require collaboration across multiple countries and governments, however I think it is something that is worth doing. As humans we are responsible for changing most of the land on Earth therefore it is also our responsibility to preserve some of the land that is irreplaceable.

Learning about College

I found the talk Professor Schwartz gave about college life to be one of the most interesting Rose café events I attended so far. Professor Schwartz spoke from many chapter of his book, How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning, about the many dynamics of college life. I found many of his points to be very relatable as a college student here. One facet he spoke about was financial aid and the cost if education. An interesting fact he mentioned was that almost half of Cornell students receive financial aid with a package averaging 25,000 dollars. I found this interesting as I wondered how this statistic was evident in campus life. A little less than half of students receive on average a little less than half off on tuition. I feel like this is a discrepancy I noticed here on campus in manifest ways.

Another aspect Professor Schwartz spoke about was the affect and influence of fraternity and sorority life on campus. He mentioned that he thought greek life will be relatively obsolete in the future and believed that people who join greek life often assimilate into their organizations. I found this interesting and feel that I have noticed it to an extent, but a benefit of greek organizations is that it allows for students to find a place on campus that they belong. Greek organizations sometime help form a person’s college identity and allow for them to have a place they can call their home away from home.

an interactive play

Every time I venture down to Schwartz to see a play I am always amazed. I leave the venue feeling like I experienced something that I will never get to fully appreciate in that time and space ever again. This play left a different after taste in my mouth. I was looking forward to seeing it because it was so heavily advertised and a friend of mine had a substantial role in the play, so I was looking forward to seeing all of his hard work pay off. The woman who played the wife in the play did such a great job that afterwards when all the actors were outside I was afraid to talk to her because she did such a good job embodying her character that in real life I thought she was the same mentally ill and lost woman. When in actuality she was very sweet and easy to talk to. My favorite actor would have to be the young woman who played Hattie, Jim’s sister. Hattie was played by a freshmen that I have known since the summer. She went to a performing arts high school in New York City, but I did not know she would knock my socks off. She did such an amazing job acting that the audience could feel her carrying the heavy burden of her character. I remember telling her the next day what great of a job she did and how she definitely stole the show. So I asked her how long they had been rehearsing for the play. I assumed that they started preparing for the shows since last semester, but she told me that they only started rehearsing in March. I was shocked that in such a short amount of time they could pull off  such a well done show!

More Than Maintenance

     The speaker at the last Rose Café was Andy Zepp and the topic, the Finger Lakes Land maintenance and Trust. I learned that there is a lot to consider when managing these lands, and a lot more work that FLL staff do than simple “maintenance” implies. Apparently staff have to consider both public access and sentiment when deciding how to regulate land access, one of several jobs I hadn’t considered that FLL and Cornell Plantation staff have. Other such jobs included their responsibilities to both the land and people as well as fundraising. I left with a better understanding of Ithaca’s conservation efforts, and realized that Ithaca is not an anomaly as I once thought. Coming from the city, being environmentally friendly is sometimes presented as an option, a hobby, or impressive, so seeing compost bins daily and such beautiful landscape, I thought Ithaca was “special”, but what I learned is that it’s not. Instead why newcomers may have that perception is because locals are so invested in the well-being of their land, and they show it. I think Ithaca is a great place to build a desire to care for the community, land and people, as well as to get the resources to do so knowledgeably.

Four-Years’ Time

     The lab is out of the way, so upon arrival, I got a glimpse of campus I’ve never seen before. My first impression was that the lab seemed a bit intimidating, and as our “tour guides” confirmed, on the older side of things. Walking uphill, I expected that it would be more flashy, given the university, but as my group was later told, the department is very frugal with the limited amount of funding they receive. So I thought it was interesting that even this university “struggles” with funding at least to some extent. My other expectation was that the building would be less underground, and so that was a bit distracting and nerve-racking. However, nervousness aside, I thought it was interesting that we, and students at this university, had access at all. Given that I’m a year out of high school, realizing that in four years I, like GRF David, could have official access to this lab, felt a bit like a culture shock. I don’t necessarily think I will end up working in this building specifically, but the fact that the option is available, was a bit of a wake-up call. In other words, it was stressful. So my last impression is that I, as an undeclared major, still have plenty to consider in my next three years, and that’s still intimidating to me.

Money Well Spent

My friend Deborah, from Massachusetts, came to visit the weekend of this trip. I’d been to the market before, however, this was the first time with company I knew. We did a lot of browsing, I imagine given the vending prices, most college students do. I do want to confirm, however, that there are cost-friendly ways to enjoy the Farmer’s Market, especially when you can split costs with a friend. Both of us bought from the Cuban vendor and shared cotton candy, so that we could buy more later. Deborah bought a necklace and donuts for us both, and so I can say definitively that coming with a friend is a better experience than being solo. Especially since a few hours, moreover, a weekend of uninterrupted of quality time is not usual here or otherwise, so it was appreciated. I’m looking forward to trying the market’s maple cookies and grabbing some food from the Ethiopian food vendor in my next three years, as well as getting a job so I can leave with some snacks for home. After leaving, I was well-fed, a little more broke, but I also had a good roll of photos, some of my best. I’ve shared three below:

Budding Young LadyIthaca Farmer's MarketIthaca Market Tags

Although urban areas offer a lot of things to do, my friend and I both agreed that our markets—maybe—don’t compare to the one here. Boston markets are great, in fact, they host my favorite donut place and are in the middle of some of my favorite squares, but they don’t necessarily offer the diversity in crafts that this one does. A bit different from other markets I’m used to, Ithaca Market isn’t crowded with other shops or some hole in the “hustle and bustle” of the city. It’s a nice place to get away from college life, which I really needed to do, and to spend money well and healthily. So five star grapes out of five star grapes.

On and Off the Courts

When Coach Silviu Tanasoiu came to speak to the Rose Scholars at the Rose Café, I immediately noticed his presence and attitude about his talk. He started by explaining how honored he was to have been asked to speak to us and was eager to share his story along with advice. Coach Tanasoiu worked hard in Romania to get to the point where he is today. He explains that once he got the opportunity to play tennis, he committed his whole self to it. Tanasoiu stressed how vital his parents’ support was to his career and speaks about the sacrifices they made to help him move further. One anecdote he told us was about a time his dad sold his prized car in order to afford a plane ticket to play tennis at a well-known tournament in Miami, Florida. He thanks his parents for his position today and hopes to instill the same determination and motivation into his players.

As a Cornell student, academic life is difficult as is. I can’t imagine having to play a sport on top of all the extra curriculars and classes I’m currently involved this. This talk proved that college athletes really need to have strong time management skills in order to handle all different aspects of their schedule. I have friends who are involved in athletics here and they seem to run on a strict schedule to accommodate their practices and games while also maintaining their grades and staying healthy. We all could learn a lot from the life of an athlete, and Coach Tansoiu showed us a glimpse of that!

Rape as a Culture?

The issue of rape culture has become increasingly prominent on college campuses. Kate Harding conducted a dinner conversation on this topic and addressed multiple facets of the topic such as what constitutes consent. Rape has become far too common in today’s society and the language that surrounds the issue is considered to be rape culture. In media, rape can often be portrayed as a joke or a way for males to assert dominance over females. Somehow in some way, people have started to think that rape is ok. As a woman, I have always been told to never walk home alone, and never wear clothing that is too revealing. The pattern of these statements is that females are often told to avoid making themselves a victim of rape while the pattern should be that people should simply know not to rape.

Harding touched on this subject as well as other things I had not known before. We spoke of the “red zone” which is the first couple weeks of the semester where students, particularly freshmen, are starting to go out to parties for the first time and test their limits with alcohol. During this time period, students are the most vulnerable to rape.

I think it’s incredibly saddening that I have to sometimes worry about rape or be aware of things like the “red zone.” So far the campus has had many great rape prevention programs such as sexual assault awareness week, but a real change can only occur once there is a change in the culture.

Conservation in Tompkins County

For the last Rose Cafe of the year, Andy Zepp, the Director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, came to talk about his organization that aims to buy and protect natural areas. The process of protecting land is quite different in each case. In general, Zepp and his team will approach the owner of the land and attempt to buy it or trade it. Sometimes the original owner retains some rights to the land after the transaction. In every case, the purpose isn’t to preserve the land and keep it stagnant, but rather to protect beautiful natural areas from excessive logging or degradation. Farming practices continue to evolve, and so does land use and urbanization. Zepp admits these can’t and shouldn’t be halted, but a sustainable and mutually beneficial solution for both the land owner and the natural area can be found.

It was interesting to learn about the slow and deliberate method of buying small parcels of land and putting them together over time to protect a more complete area. It was also fascinating to see how land use changed over such a short amount of time, and how this impacts the environment greatly. For instance, Zepp showed a sequence of images of the same cluster of houses and farms dating back over a hundred years. In the early photograph, the steep, hilly slope in the background was used for grazing sheep, which led to a lot of erosion. In the next, several years later, the hill was overgrown with a forest. Zepp also talked about the importance of conserving old growth forests, as these are the rarest kind in Tompkins county. As I went on a tour of the Fisher Old-Growth Forest just a few weeks ago, I could connect with what he was saying about the value of these untouched ecosystems.

I found this talk to be enjoyable and informative. I didn’t know that something like the Land Trust existed, but it makes sense to protect the abundance of beautiful natural areas in this region, as some environmental laws aren’t always enforced and some land owners might not know what is best for conserving their land.

Nutella Crepes and Good Company

I’ve been to the Farmer’s Market at least a dozen times, but each time is a treat. Joining a group from Rose, I ventured down to Cayuga Lake on a chilly, yet sunny Saturday morning. The usual local vendors were present, selling everything from fresh vegetables to hand-made jewelry to flavored honey. The fact that everything at the Farmer’s Market was made within 30 miles really puts emphasis on the down-to-earth and sustainable living aspect of the market. It’s also a great way of presenting Ithaca’s unique flavor. The beautiful wooden pavilion strung with fairy lights and the dock by the water make this one of Ithaca’s most charming destinations, in my opinion.

After looking around for a while and buying a strawberry and Nutella crepe (highly recommended), I wandered over to the dock where I spent time getting to better know people in Rose who I lived close to the whole year but never had a long conversation with. It was definitely nice to get off campus for a while and put some distance between us and all the stress.

Below are some pictures of this lovely excursion.

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Ithaca’s Premier Farmers Market

Who knew we had such a renowned farmer’s market right here at Ithaca? I went on this trip simply as a study break, but I ended up having more fun than I had imagined. The food, the music, the people! It was all so pleasant that I lost track of time and I didn’t want to leave.

My first stop was the Swamp Road Baskets! I looking at the baskets with my friend, and I remember gasping at the price because a small basket was $165. We were both surprised and wondered what kind of person would pay that much for a simple basket, but I argued that it’s possible that it’s very good material and it’s the work of a master craftsman. My friend thought it was unlikely. However, when we watched the craftsman (we later learned his name was Jamin Uticone) work on a basket, we saw how skilled he was and my friend and I both thought, “I want a basket now.” How ironic!

We also passed by the stall with the Apple Donuts! We enjoyed a conversation with the stall owner before buying some apple donuts from him. I personally don’t like cinnamon, but when I tried these donuts, they were amazing! We’re planning on going back next week for more 🙂 We also ended up buying 2 goose eggs and a half dozen duck eggs. Prior to purchasing them, I didn’t know that they were richer in texture and flavor, so when we cooked them later that night, I was pleasantly surprised. The goose egg was GIGANTIC! (In the picture, you can see the difference in size between a duck egg, which is slightly larger than a hen’s egg, and the goose egg!)

goose egg duck egg

The Ithaca Farmers’ Market was such a great experience; I’ve heard that people from across the country come to Ithaca for the Farmers’ Market. I loved the atmosphere there, and I realize how blessed we are to have the Farmers’ Market so accessible to us.

Peaceful Coexistence

I think some of the best Rose Scholar events have been plays, and I’m surprised that more people don’t attend them. This performance was no different. The acting was good, the theme was extremely relevant, the plot was moving, and whole thing was very thought-provoking. Not only did I enjoy the performance aspect, I was happily surprised to learn certain historical things that I had just never been exposed to before in school. Now to move on from all of this vagueness, I’m going to spoil the play, and if you plan on watching it (which I definitely recommend), I wouldn’t want to spoil that moment of realization that changes the tone of the storyline.

 

The play Paloma is a tragic love story between an Islamic Moroccan American, Ibrahim, and a Catholic Puerto Rican American, Paloma. It starts out with Ibrahim talking to his Jewish friend, Jacob, who is a lawyer about his relationship with Paloma. From the very first scene, it’s clear that the playwright is trying to set up the tension between this couple in terms of religion and sex. I think what made this compelling is not only the stereotypical view of Muslim Americans, but of men taking advantage of women. As it isn’t clear why Ibrahim is on trial, when Jacob affirms that he did not force her to go with him and other such phrasings are discomforting.

Unlike the first performance I saw at the Kitchen Theatre, this play was composed of lots of flashback scenes, in which lighting changes and creative use of the staging allowed for very versatile storytelling. During admission, it was brought up that the minimal set made it harder to get immersed in the various storylines, but I thought the acting was compelling enough that it really didn’t take anything away from the story for me. I was actually really impressed with how well the whole story was able to flow with so many switches back and forth and very minimal costume changes.

While I enjoyed the overall concept of the romance, I thought the setup was very rushed (which I also understand is necessary for a play) and it was very cliché. Ibrahim and Paloma are reading Ibn Hazm’s The Ring of the Dove, a treatise on love for a class at NYU and with all of the talk about love, they fall for each other. The saving grace for me during this development was my ignorance. I don’t think I had ever heard of Ibn Hazm or knew that Spain used to be a country with peaceful coexistence of religions. I found myself thinking back to all the history I had been taught in school, and almost none of it talked about coexisting religions – most of it had been about how religious differences led to various conflicts.

As the play progresses, we see the characters deviate from the initially set up stereotypes. Ibrahim is actually a pretty devout Muslim and while Paloma thinks that he’s being coy by talking about bringing her home to “pray,” she learns that he while he’s definitely into her, he doesn’t want to have sex quite yet. While she grew up Catholic and still attended church services during holidays like Christmas, she had had her fair share of sex and seemed to not be heavily invested in religion. This conflict returns periodically throughout the play, and left me confused nearing the end.

As their relationship progresses, Ibrahim surprises her with a trip to Spain to visit historical sites that were at the core of what Ibn Hazm wrote about. While this should have been a clear sign of affection, Paloma still feels like Ibrahim might be holding out on sex because of reasons other than his faith. When they talk of possible marriage in the future, religion starts a fight that I felt conflicted about. Ibrahim mentions that if she were a truly devout Catholic or converted to Islam, his community would be more accepting of their relationship. She, not being particularly religious, thinks that either option is asking too much of her, and they fight. While I have no personal context for this, I don’t think that the request was outrageous, and would have thought that trying to be more religious when you have a positive connection to your church already wouldn’t be too difficult. Nevertheless, religion was definitely a source of conflict throughout the play.

Another major source of conflict I haven’t talked about yet is the family conflict. Ibrahim, afraid of what his parents and community will think of his relationship, keeps Paloma a secret until he is in Spain with her. Unfortunately, someone his family wanted him to end up with snitched on them and Ibrahim’s father was already mad, and refused to talk to him afterwards.

It was somewhat frustrating to sit through the first parts of the pay without knowing what Ibrahim’s trial was about, the realization that he was being blamed for being a part of terrorist attack on a train station in Spain that killed Paloma was heartbreaking. I think that I let out a barely audible gasp. The relevance of an accusation like that is so close to home that it felt too real. With this current election cycle, debates over how to treat refugees and immigrants, terrorist attacks around the world, the play, to me, became a lot more tangible. While the romance seemed like any other piece of fiction, this turning point was heartbreaking.

An honest mistake was all it took. While he was still injured, as seen through a hospital fever dream, Ibrahim had gotten up to find an available bathroom when the explosion happened. We saw the scene. They were in love, kissing each other, reading Ibn Hazm, making plans for what they were finally going to do once they got off the train. Ibrahim leaves, and the explosion happens. The verdict of the trial comes back guilty, and Ibrahim is expected to pay millions in losses to Paloma’s family. He also has a heart wrenching scene with Paloma’s mother (played by the same actor as Paloma) and finds little closure in the matter.

When he and Jacob travel back to Spain, Ibrahim is overwhelmed by his grief and wants to take his life so he and Paloma can be together in spirit, but she appears to him, talking him out it. This ending left the play open to a lot of questions about how many things. How is his relationship with his family and religious community going to play out? Will he ever be able to love someone else again? Will he end up winning the appeal against the terrorist charges? Would this happen if they weren’t an interfaith couple? How big of a role did undeserved religious stereotypes play in this whole ordeal and how can we as a society prevent rash accusations based on internal, baseless prejudices? This play definitely picks up on many contemporary issues that have been brought up a lot in the news lately, and I hope that society can move past the trivial profiling of people who are just trying to live their lives and live in peaceful coexistence.

Know Who to Ask

Laura Rodriguez de Simons’ gave an important lecture on her social work last week. She let people know about the private support that The Advocacy Center offers for victims of domestic violence. It’s incredibly important that people know how to get help when they need it in any context, especially one as personal and impactful as abuse.

Besides informing us about The Advocacy Center, Laura also explained the types of obligations that staff at Cornell have when faced with information about abuse. For example, for the most part, professors and GRFs are required to report knowledge of abuse to the school, but there are a few people including herself who have no such obligation. Not only is it important to know to get help, but it is just as important to know who to ask for help. If one wants his or her situation to be private, then it is vital to know who does and does not have to report to the school. This type of information can get to the school easier than one might imagine. Just last week I heard about a professor at a different school who had to tell her college about a situation involving one of her students because that student’s friend informed her about it. People must know all of their options, so they can make the best and most educated decisions for themselves.

A Pathway to Opportunity

Upon first hearing the topic for the week’s Rose Café, I was extremely excited as immigration policy has always been a strong interest of mind. With this year being an election year and candidates vying for the nomination, immigration policy has been a popular subject of debate. Esmerelda first spoke to us about the aspects of the DREAM act, an act aimed to repair the broken immigration system. The main part of the act was that it would grant amnesty to children who had been brought into the country illegally by their parents. This aimed to solve the issue that children who had grown up their whole lives here were unable to attend college or attain a job due to their parents’ decision. I’ve heard about this act many times and have done my own research as well, but an interesting aspect that Esmerelda brought up was the criminalization of the parents in this description. Many people in the US has harsh views regarding illegal immigration; due to this, the framers of this policy constructed its advertisement this way. How could you say no to innocent children who have to suffer because of their parents’ mistakes? While this approach was effective in that it eventually became enacted through President Obama’s executive order DACA, the stigma remains the same for illegal immigrants of any age in the country. As opposed to this condemning reaction many people have towards immigration, there should be a shifted focus to a pathway to citizenship.

In my senior year of high school, the senate introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. As a law major in my technical high school, every senior was required to pick a piece of legislation to center their senior thesis around. I chose this act and was given the opportunity to travel to Washington DC and interview lobbyists and senator staff members to gain more insight. What I learned through this experience is that illegal immigrants has developed a stereotype of immigrants leeching off the country’s resources and providing little in return. This stereotype does not include the people who are upstanding members of society, who pay taxes, and who have been given an opportunity to thrive because of their residency in the US. This act outline a comprehensive and extensive pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, which involved the payment of any unpaid taxes and no criminal history. America boasts this image of being the land of opportunity and freedom. However, we deny entrance to many refugees and only provide and handful of visas to hopefuls every year. In a nutshell, our immigration system is broken and there has been little traction to heal it, which continues an overall intolerance in our society to immigrants as a whole.

Do they know that we’re ALL God’s Children?

From the audience division, to the content of the play, and the post-play discussion, I found it intriguing how much surrounding race relations and family politics has changed, but has also remained the same. In the play, there was so much tension around their interracial relationship, but mainly because the Black man was doing everything in his power to please his white wife. As the play went on we were able to see that his wife would do everything in her power to sabotage her husband’s potential career as an attorney. I found this to be interesting because in modern day terms, outside of dating, Blacks still work hard to prove that in spite of tensions, they can still accomplish what they put their mind to do. At the same time, this can come at the cost of their well-being and stability. Thinking about being a Black women, I find that even when I’m working hard and trying not to fit stereotypes of Blacks in America, I can still feel that there are forces/individuals , who do not believe that I should succeed, and will do anything in their power to prevent that prosperity. All in all, this play helped me to further question how race relations affect my personal decisions and aspirations, and ways that I can consciously work to ameliorate those challenges.

Protecting Natural Lands

The final Rose Café for the 2015-2016 academic year was about the Finger Lakes Land Trust. I found it very interesting to learn about how local lands are being preserved. I think the Finger Lakes Land Trust mission is particularly important because this region has natural beauty that should be preserved. Also, it is encouraging that the land trust is active currently even though there is ample open space around Ithaca.

During the talk I was thinking about a previous Rose Scholars event in which the city planner for Ithaca spoke. Looking back, I am surprised that the city government official did not discuss preserving open space in the community. Luckily, private organizations such as the Finger Lakes Land Trust are taking the lead.

I was also surprised to learn that the Finger Lakes Land Trust allows land owners to harvest lumber from the protected lands. I had always though of preserved lands just being left to nature. I guess allowing lumber harvesting makes it easier for the land trust to persuade owners to protect their land from development.

It was encouraging to hear that most of the donors are individual citizens. I think this shows that people in the area recognize the need to protect natural lands from development. This is great news for the local environment and for people like me who enjoy exploring the regions natural beauty.

This talk was a good way to end the year of Rose Cafés. I’m looking forward to next year’s speakers.

Fun Facts

As my last Rose Scholar’s event for the year, I chose to attend the Cafe series with Andy Zepp from the Finger Lakes Land Trust. He had a lot of fun facts to share with the group, and I was very excited to hear what he had to say. For one, there are 50,000 acres of public land surrounding Ithaca and 35 Tompkins County unique natural areas. Thousands of these acres, according to Mr. Zepp, are productive and agricultural timberland, a fact I found quite surprising.

Additionally, there are apparently more than 140 miles of recreational trails, including 78 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail, which runs all the way from Lake Eerie. Mr. Zepp also showed us several pictures of many gorgeous waterfalls in the surrounding area, and that made me that much more excited to stay in Ithaca this summer, something I was actually dreading as recently as a few weeks ago.

Also, learning some of the interesting new facts about the very town that we live in also got me excited for my summer position as a tour guide/information specialist; having fun tidbits of information to share with prospective students, their families, and individuals visiting campus will make walking around backwards, talking for hours all summer a little more fun. 🙂

Just Do It

Well, it looks like spending an evening with GRF Laura Rodriguez de Simons ended up being my final Rose Scholar event of the semester. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay for the whole talk due to a seminar I had to attend. Nevertheless, I was able to get a good grasp of what Laura wanted to communicate in the time frame that she had. I have stated in the past that I take a lot of things for granted. I always try to reflect on how truly blessed I am to be at Cornell. One of the things that I usually overlook is that one thing we can all use every once in a while: help. As Cornell students, we are constantly bombarded with flyers, emails, and messages that relay available resources for those who are struggling in their personal lives.

As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in clinical psychology, I admire Laura for her dedication to serving others via The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County. She also has a global perspective on social work, as she has lived and worked in Ethiopia and Central America. How does one turn their passion into a career? Well, I personally must first know what my passion is. Although I love psychology, can I truly call it my passion? Recently, I have had a special desire for working in the entertainment industry. Perhaps, it is time to actually look into it and not just dream about it. Social work is not the only way one can serve others. Stop thinking about your passion: just do it 😉

Conserving Nature

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the talk given by wildlife conservationist and Cornell ILR graduate, Andy Zepp. As someone who appreciates nature, but dislikes government intervention in economic activity, I found it really interesting to learn about the Finger Lakes Land Trust that Mr. Zepp works for. It not only acquires its land through buying it in the market, but gets its funding solely through private donations, which I thought was a great method of promoting conservancy. Furthermore, it was great to hear how the land trust also interacted with local land owners and made agreements with farmers about growing crops in a sustainable way and a way that did its best to accommodate wildlife. Despite all the progress Mr. Zepp told us about, he said that it is still difficult to bring ecosystems back to their historical conditions because of different agricultural practices and invasive species that have come into New York. One example I particularly remember was his comment that upstate New York actually used to have a fair amount of grasslands and that it was only in the past 75 years that much of the forests grew in, which was something that was pretty surprising to me. Overall I was glad to have had the chance to hear from someone who is doing such great work for the environment and I hope he and his organization to continue to have more success.

Nature in Ithaca

This week’s Rose Café featured Andy Zepp, an ILR grad and an Executive Director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, which protects thousands of acres of land around the Finger Lakes. Most students are often stuck on Cornell’s campus and don’t recognize the beauty of Ithaca. I remember coming to Cornell and planning on going on all these nature walks and seeing all the gorges. We traveled down to Six Mile Creek and went to Buttermilk Falls but once the schoolwork started to pick up it was hard to find the time to go.

One interesting fact I learned was that there are a lot of forests used for growing hardwoods like cherry, maple, and oak. There are some sawmills around who actually ship wood all off the world. I really think this demonstrates a disconnect people have with nature nowadays. It’s easy to just sit on your laptop and watch Netflix all day and then think you have no time to spend outside with friends. Ithaca and the surrounding areas have so much to offer but yet students are secluded on campus. Instead, we spend our time at CTB, libraries and classrooms. We don’t really appreciate the location as much as we should. I think that it would be beneficial for students to get out more and visit the different Finger Lakes and gorges. Students would really appreciate Ithaca more instead of viewing it as a cold and dreary plac

Difficulty Developing Passion

     My friend has been in social justice youth groups, and is interested in social reform work. I don’t necessarily have the same interest, but do value such a career. I would like to be socially-involved, however, I don’t know if I have the energy to have both a satisfying and impactful job. My friend feels the same. 
     Laura Rodriguez de Simons, our speaker, talked about reconciling passion with a healthy personal lifestyle. I asked, “Do you think there is a place for the less passionate in social justice work?”, and she said, noting that she was an idealist, that she believes everyone has some investment in sociocentric issues. I pried a bit, and so it’s probably clear that I’m of a somewhat different mindset. I think most people, I won’t say all, have emotional investment in certain issues, but not all’s interests meet the threshold of activism. So how do you achieve the investment to prompt proactive and purposeful change? And can you? The answer I usually hear is education and or some variation of “you just do it”, but I wonder if passion is always “found” or if sometimes it must be developed more “painstakingly”.

Advocacy

Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe with guest speaker Laura Rodriguez de Simons. Laura’s talk was about her work at the Ithaca Advocacy center. The advocacy center provides free support services for anyone who has been a victim of any type of abuse. She started off her talk by first describing how she got involved in advocacy programs and also described her first couple of jobs in Africa and South America. From then on, she began to describe what her job entails and her own personal thoughts and opinions on the work that she does. I never realized that advocacy programs helped so many people not only here in Ithaca, but in Africa, South America, and the rest of the world. It must be extremely difficult for people who have been abused, whether it be emotionally, mentally, or physically, to open up to others and talk about it. It must also be difficult for those who work at the advocacy center to hear about all the traumatic events that these people went through and to see what effects those events have on them.

While most of her talk did focus on the importance of having an advocacy center, the take away message I got was to do whatever you are passionate about. Just from her talk, I could tell that Laura truly cares about helping all of her patients and loves being able to be there for them in their time of need. I find it inspiring to see people who are extremely passionate about the work they do and it motivates me to follow my passions as well.

Pursuing Your Passion

Last Wednesday I went to the Rose Cafe and heard Laura Rodriguez de Simons speak about her career path and her work in advocacy. Laura Rodriguez de Simons currently works in the Advocacy center right here in Ithaca which provides free psychological support services. However she also described how she has done advocacy work in other parts of the world such as African and South America. Her work in Ithaca was admirable and it was interesting to hear about but I cannot imagine how strong someone must be to be in this line of work. I’m sure it must be incredibly difficult and an emotional struggle to help people who have gone through addiction or sexual abuse while remaining professional.

Although the speaker’s work was incredibly interesting, I really liked the part of her talk when she spoke about finding something that you’re truly passionate about and pursuing it. This is advice that I feel like is always thrown my way, but it’s difficult to actually do. I always feel like I should be safe and earn a degree in a field that I know will set me up well to live comfortably in the future. Oftentimes the things that people are most passionate are fields where it is difficult to make a living. The speaker described how she studied business, got her MBA and was working in the real estate industry in New York City. But after doing this for about a year she decided to pursue something that she was actually passionate about, which was social justice and advocacy. Going from an incredibly lucrative industry like real estate in New York City to working in social justice is a huge switch, and I truly commend Laura Rodriguez de Simons for taking that leap and pursuing her passions.

Impressed and Inspired

This past week I attended the Rose Café given by Mrs. Laura Rodriguez de Simons and came away both impressed and inspired by the story of her work in advocacy. Listening to the first part of her talk, in which she went over some of her personal history in the field, it really struck me how demanding the work that she does is. Not only does she interact with many people who have had physically and emotionally traumatizing events happen to them, but also she must always maintain a level of professional detachment from those people. Balancing helping out clients and preserving a separate personal life sounds to me like an incredibly difficult task, and I believe I have newfound appreciation for all people in that line of work. Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons also told us of how she had worked in several countries including some in Africa and South America, which I found to be also impressive because of how she must have had to adapt her methods of advocacy to all those different cultures.

Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons concluded the talk with some advice about finding the right career path based on her experience and what she wished she would have known. Although it is often said to “follow you passion,” it is not always that you find a person who really did just that and Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons was a perfect example. Having studied business in college and gone to work in a real estate company, she was in a great position out of college. While she told us that she did enjoy the job, she knew it wasn’t something that inspired her. As a result, after only a year working in the real estate business, she left to pursue advocacy and has been there ever since. Given all of that, however, she recognized that there were people out there that had different passions and she emphasized that no matter what that passion or dream may be, that you will be happiest if you pursue that. A great reminder that she also gave us as well was that no matter what you ultimately pursue, there is almost always a way to put that skill or field to use in serving the community if you desire and I felt like that was a very reassuring and positive note to end on.

do what you want to do

Although I also live in Founders, I didn’t realize that the speaker at this Rose Cafe was one of our building’s GRFs, whose door I pass by every morning (shame on me), until I saw her when I walked in. I had been interested in the advertised topic of the Cafe, something that I had recently been thinking a lot about (what to do with my future). However, it was also nice to hear everything else that GRF Laura had to say, especially about her work at the Advocacy Center.

I began my freshman year considering myself as a math major, and then I changed my mind two or three more times before I ended up officially declaring myself a stat major. Throughout the past two years, however, I’ve thought a lot about what I actually want to do. Although I feel that I’ve found what that is in statistics recently (I actually enjoy it), I thought it’d be nice to hear a variation of what I went through from another person’s perspective. It was nice to hear GRF Laura recommend doing something you have or can develop a passion for, something that I didn’t seem to live by until recently although it might be obvious.

tuning an A

I often go to the Cornell Orchestra concerts, in part to enjoy the music, but also to relive my own days in orchestra during my high school years. I always have a sense of nostalgia when I attend these student concerts.

The program included two well-known pieces, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and the Sibelius Symphony No. 2, but the first piece was unique. It started with what seemed to be the orchestra “tuning” to an A, but this was actually the beginning of a piece. At first I was confused, but reading the piece’s description in the program, I learned that this was the intentional beginning of this piece. I was glad that I hadn’t read the piece description, as I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I enjoyed the remainder of the concert (particularly the harpist’s playing).

Righting the ship

Last week at the Rose Café Laura Rodriguez de Simons discussed her role in the advocacy center and some of the things that the center does to help people who are in need of support. Immediately during the talk I thought of the baseball player R.A. Dickey. When R.A. was very young, he was sexually assaulted by his babysitter. He grew up with this experience always with him, but he channeled his pain into sports. In particular baseball. Throughout his high school and college career, Dickey was considered to be one of best prospects in the country. He was even selected to pitch on Team USA for the Olympics. After the Olympics, Dickey was drafted in the first round of the MLB draft and signed a large signing bonus. But then a problem arose. When looking at a picture of Dickey from the cover of the Baseball America, the Rangers noticed that Dickey’s arm was bent at a abnormal angle. When doctors took a look at x-rays, they found that he was born without a UCL in his arm (a ligament that basically holds the arm together). The doctors said that he shouldn’t be able to open a doorknob without pain. Dickey described this feeling as being “damaged goods”. As a result, the Rangers significantly reduced his signing bonus. Coupled with his struggles off the field, Dickey struggled on the field as well. At one point, after cheating on his wife, Dickey contemplated suicide. After receiving help through counseling along with a new faith in god and support from his family, Dickey was able to turn things around on and off the field. Dickey became a knuckleball pitcher and eventually won the Cy Young Award (highest honor for a pitcher) while he was with my hometown METS. R.A. Dickey is an example of how people who have had very harmful experiences with the right support can turn things around and make their situations better. Laura Rodriguez de Simons’ work helps to turn things around.

Education, Exploration and Advocacy

I really appreciated Laura coming to speak to us. I always enjoy hearing about people’s career paths, because more often than not they contain surprises that lead the person to a place that they never would have predicted. As a college student who isn’t entirely sure of what she wants to do, this is very reassuring to hear, and it was certainly true in Laura’s case. Not only does her field of work differ drastically from her first job or what she studied as an undergraduate, she also transitioned from topic to topic around the world within the field of advocacy. Her path was very interesting and I admire how she developed such a fascinating career dedicated to serving others.

One of my favorite points that Laura made was that although not everyone is necessarily suited for advocacy or social work, there are many other ways to improve the world that are just as valuable. She seemed to think that knowing yourself and identifying your own strengths and passions were the most important things that can help you find a career that suits you. I appreciated this perspective, because it acknowledges the importance of supporting roles in the field of social work and advocacy, rather than just focusing on those who interact directly with others to offer help.

Advocacy in Ithaca

GRF Laura’s talk about her work as an advocate in various places around the world made me reflect on my own experiences doing similar work, albeit in a much less impressive manor.  I was fortunate enough to go to a high school with some great programs–one of them was that instead of descending into senioritis, we were given the option to spend the last trimester of our senior year working full-time in a service capacity.  For me, this ended up being an internship at a small non-profit 501(c)(3) organization on the Lower East Side.  Most of my time there was spend just generally assisting the case managers with their clients, many of whom had problems ranging from pending eviction to trouble securing their welfare.  I appreciated Laura’s talk not only because it reminded me of my own brief experience in the field, but because it gave me more perspective on the tireless work that case managers/advocates do for their clients on a day-in/day-out basis.  It really does take a lot of heart to put in the work for those who need it most.

The Synchrotron

The CHESS tour allowed me to see a part of Cornell University I would have never seen before—the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory. In fact, this laboratory is such a big part of Cornell as it consumes the most electricity on campus and it remains open 24/7 except on Tuesday mornings when it is shut down for a couple of hours for repairs (it also conserves some energy). The building has a very funny structure and is hidden from the rest of campus. Finding the building was as challenging as trying to understand the science of what they do there!

I was overwhelmed with the science of how exactly the lab operates. It’s definitely a world-class research laboratory designed by physicists to study particles—of course they could only study electrons because the lab equipment was considered too small to study other particles. Granted I thought this was crazy. Their machine for particle analysis is 3 stories high, how can that be too small!? But in comparison with labs near Chicago and Geneva, Switzerland, the circumference of Cornell’s lab is significantly smaller. Though they don’t use the particle analysis machine anymore named CLEO (the machine hasn’t been functioning for years and is currently being taken apart and the iron is being recycled), the entire lab still operates.

The CHESS lab has been a part of so many research projects. It uses high energy particles to further develop x-ray technology and analyze materials as well as further research in physics, biology, and chemistry. The synchrotron lab could be used to analyze the structure of proteins in viruses so that drugs could be designed to fight the virus. I learned a lot about applications and how research could be conducted to make significant discoveries. I am so happy to have visited the CHESS lab and seen a big part of Cornell.

Harmful Protection

Survivors of domestic and sexual violence, abuse, and assault often lack the proper resources to seek out help from someone who can provide complete confidentiality to them. In fact most survivors are more likely to go to their loved ones for help and solace before going to a professional. This is a very natural response because humans tend to go to the people who they are closest to in their hard times rather than complete strangers. The only problem with this response is that their loved ones can relive their pain for a few moments but cannot get them the proper treatment or guarantee complete confidentiality. Sooner or later, that confidant will reach out to another person they trust in order to seek out help for their loved one. In order o combat the effects of sexual assault and violence, one must seek out help from the right resources.

 

Laura Rodriguez de Simons, Client Services Director for The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County, gave an insightful talk on how she got involved with providing services to survivors of sexual assault and abuse and how she turned her passion into her career. Laura explained that she wanted to work for nonprofits, but after she got her MBA she decided to work for a real estate company for a few months. Often students don’t realize that they can work in a field that is not related to their college degree, and Laura explained how even though she doesn’t work in a business, she still uses her MBA to manage people around her. She strikes a good balance between her passion and education which I feel is very important to do if you want to be successful in the field you’re working in and make a big difference. Laura emphasized how patient confidentiality is vital to protecting victims of assaults, so that they get the necessary mental and physical treatment to recover. I can only imagine that if a friend ever confided in me with a serious problem like rape, abuse, or domestic violence, my first instinct would be to seek out the proper resources for him/her to get help. I would assure him/her that I would respect their privacy, but would also have to direct him/her to a professional like Laura who is capable of dealing with such survivors. I don’t want to risk my friend’s well being by protecting their issue, I want them to get the proper help that they need as soon as possible.

Combining the beaten and unbeaten path

For my Rose cafe, I attended Laura’s talk on how to pursue passions as a career. First off, I’d like to commend Laura for working in such a difficult field where you are liable to take on a lot emotional baggage everyday.

Laura’s path was first gaining a world class education. Then after working in a corporate setting for one year, she moved to her current field of social work.

She offered a view that working in her field didn’t mean she had to sacrifice an exciting career. She talked a lot about all the places she has traveled through her work and all the initiatives she has been a part of.

Another thing she discussed is how education has contributed to her success now. I think this is an important point for anyone attending a university. It might seem like you are destined for a very straight path to some large company or maybe a smaller startup. However, you want to be directly helping people in need. Right now you have the opportunity to gain skills that would greatly benefit those in need. The more educated you become the more valuable every hour you spend helping becomes.

That was the overarching theme that you can leverage your education to help fulfill your passions.

Life as a Social Worker

Last week I attended a talk by Laura Rodriguez de Simons, who is a counselor who has committed her career to social work. The ideas and lessons I took away from the talk were entirely unexpected and I am really grateful that I attended. The talk encompassed a wide array of topics from Laura’s educational background, to her career path, to social issues, to privacy in sexual assault protocol within the university, to how to build a career in non-profit social work.

The discussion about whether a career in non-profit social work was very educational. Some of the key things that Laura emphasized was that anyone who wants to go into non-profit or advocacy needs to care a lot about serving others, because at the end of the day, it is a career that tests your selflessness. A lot of us students want to better the planet some way or the other, but Laura made it a good point that advocacy may not be right for everyone, and that people need to find their own medium.

Another idea that Laura emphasized was that if you want to go into non-profit, you have to avoid the logical, straightforward, sensible, and secure route, and follow your passion. You may not be financial secure, but if it truly your passion, you will thrive. Laura was actually following a very practical and secure path before she joined the non-profit industry. She got an MBA from a premiere university and was a very successful project manager in commercial real estate before she realized that was not where her passion lies.

Finally, she stated that it was very important to pursue things you care about and are curious about during your undergraduate years.

 

 

Following Your Passion

Last week’s Rose Cafe featured Laura Rodriguez de Simons, who works at the advocacy center here in Ithaca. I didn’t know that we had an advocacy center prior to this talk, so it was really nice to hear about all of its wonderful, free services (24-hour hotline, shelter, legal advocacy, crisis intervention, and more). Laura also talked about her interesting path to her current career in social advocacy. She studied economics as an undergrad and later got her MBA. She then worked at a real estate firm in New York City for one or two years before realizing that she wasn’t following her passion.

Laura told us that we should strive to pursue careers that we are truly passionate about, not careers that are simply “safe” and traditional. She also advised us to work/intern for free in order to get experience in the nonprofit sector. Personally, I didn’t necessarily agree with that piece of advice; most of the time, it’s simply not feasible for students to devote time and energy into a job without financial support. Nevertheless, if people can afford to do so, they should certainly go for it – the experience would be really valuable.

A Time to Reflect and Project

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I’ve been to the Ithaca Farmers Market before but this time, it felt different. Surrounded by two of my closest friends, it started to dawn on me. This was one of the last moments I would have with them for quite some time. Sprinkled across the country for the summer and spread around the world in the throughout  the next academic year, we will only be together again the Fall of our senior year.

While we took the time to reflect on the year, as well as project how years to come will be, we spent the majority of time in the present – enjoying the winds breeze and rays of sun. As we walked past vendors and enjoyed our (food you could buy), I couldn’t help but think about how this year was been one of the most trying – emotionally and physically – that I’ve probably ever had. And it really was the kindness, grace and laughter of my friends that provided me the space to feel awkward, joyous, sad, and comfortable with the young woman I felt myself becoming.

Oddly enough, Ithaca had become my home and has played a large role in my personal development. I never imagined that a place that seemed so “small town”  would grow on me. But as I talked with farmers and heard their stories, they felt like my people. But I can’t even fathom the amount of new people I will be meeting this summer and in abroad in Europe this coming fall. If they are anything like the people I’ve encountered in my two years at Cornell, I should be good.

If the world has taught me one thing, its: to stop asking why me, and begin accepting my life as the divine, complex and beautiful exception that it is.

The Advocacy Center

Whenever I go to the restroom, I always manage to see the sign and contact information for the advocacy center. I have never really thought much about it, but Wednesday’s Rose cafe gave me a better understanding of what the Advocacy Center is all about.

Laura Rodriguez de Simons, a worker at the Advocacy Center described her work as helping people in the Tompkins County area by offering them free psychological and mental support. I was surprised to learn that even in a more rural area like Tompkins county, an organization like hers is constantly busy. I thought that this shows that no matter where one lives there will be people in need. As a student at Cornell, one can easily disregard all the suffering that occurs behind the scenes, even though he/she may not intend it. We usually leave this dark side up to places like the Advocacy center to deal with.

After the talk, I realize that that if we want to help a community, there is always room for more volunteers. Even in the countryside where one would not expect social problems, they actually do exist. While this might sound depressing, it is good to remember that there is always oppertunity to help others. No matter what career path one chooses or where they live, he she/ can always contribute his/her skill to a place like the advocacy center.

Advocacy as Means of Service

The speaker talked about the emotional subject of social justice in mainly sexual abuse, domestic violence with human services that are offered right here in Ithaca. Laura Rodriguez De Simons works for an advocacy center that deals with these issues and provides some form of social justice. She talked about her path in pursuing her interests that ultimately led into this line of work. She was initially interested in learning how poverty arises as she pursued her degree in economics. After gaining some experience in the field with non-profit organizations, she was able to decide that she wanted to go into advocacy work in relation to poverty as a factor to sexual violence. It is these non-profit organizations that are able to provide the services without financial help. Laura gave the major advice of volunteering in advocacy non-profit organizations to see if the person is actually interested in the work. Especially, with sexual abuse work it is important to see if you can handle the work and be dedicated to it. The organizations love volunteers since they are dedicated to the cause. She suggested that students even work for hot line with domestic violence issues. Laura mentioned that she got a MBA due to its practical use and she uses it everyday when managing a team of 10 advocates as she does in the shelter in Tompkins County for sexual violence advocacy. We also got into an interesting discussion about the opiate problem in Ithaca and it was sad to hear how many clients of the advocacy center are struggling with opiate addiction and shows how big the opiate addiction issue is in Ithaca and Tomkins County.

All God’s Chillun’s

Last weekend, I got the opportunity to see the play All God’s Chillun Got Wings. It was set in the 1920s during America’s blatantly racist past. The plot follows an interracial couple that have known each other since childhood. Jim is a black man who is struggling to pass his Bar exam, as he is an aspiring writer. Ella, the woman Jim is madly in love with, is a sought out for woman who ultimately marries Jim. The couple flee to France to escape the hatred against miscegenation that was prevalent at the time in the United States, especially with a white woman. However, when the got to France and were well received, the couple realized the issue was themselves. They were running away from an insecurity, which did not serve in dealing with that insecurity.

Once they returned to the United States, things took a turn for the worse. Ella was feigning insanity in order to keep her husband from passing his Bar exam. She could not be bear the thought of a black man becoming successful in a “white man’s world”. As a result, she did anything to keep Jim from achieving his dream. She oppressed Jim within his own household.

I think this play highlighted the battle of confronting and maintaining stereotypes about ourselves. Today, I doubt there would be that type of power dynamic in a relationship, but I still believe everyone has racial biases. This extreme scenario may have caused some people to confront their’s.

Social Working

The talk given at the Rose Café by Laura Rodriguez de Simons explained her work with the Tompkins Country Advocacy Center and the people in this area. She told us about who she works with on a daily basis. But on top of that, she showed us how your passion for something can become a job.
During her talk, Rodriguez told us about some of the difficult aspects of her job. One of the parts I found very interesting was how she said it was often difficult for the people she works with to separate outside life from her job. Being a social worker, you are working with specific people trying to help them in any way possible. Throughout this, you will learn all about them and their lives. Because of this, a connection may start to form in a way that you are truly concerned for the people you are working with. This can make it difficult to leave work behind when you leave the door because you are instead seeing the people and their issues, instead of it not just being another client.
Laura’s passion for helping others was clear. I think it is truly inspiring that she was able to turn her passion for helping others into her job. She did mention that it was difficult because of the fact that there isn’t necessarily a large salary waiting for social workers. But she was a clear example of how you can love what you do every day and be happy. I really enjoyed her talk and learning more about social working and also Tompkins County.

Balancing Passion And Practicality

Laura Rodriguez de Simons, the Client Services Director for The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County, led a great discussion on her work in advocacy and her unique career path. I found the somewhat indirect nature of her career to be really fascinating. She started out as a project manager at a large real estate corporation, but discovered her true passion was in non-profit and advocacy work. She discussed how she actually enjoyed her experiences in the corporate world, but there is of course a significant difference between enjoyment and passion.

At the same time, she also recognized that with any career, some degree of pragmatism is certainly necessary. This is especially relevant for college students, where taking unpaid jobs and internships for non-profit companies seems infeasible. Perhaps a willingness to do is a true indication of passion, but is it really necessary to sacrifice financial stability to pursue what we are excited about? It is a difficult question that depends on each individual’s beliefs, but one possibility is to engage in non-profit and advocacy work in one’s spare time and then have a more financially fulfilling career as a day job.

Osamu bin Playin

My suitemate, Osamu, has been playing Viola for six years and Violin for nine years. Last week I went to the Cornell Symphony Orchestra concert, and it was infinitely better than the Yale Symphony Orchestra concert I went to over Spring Break!

I was surprised to find out that the musicians don’t have to be at the concert hall until right before the concert starts as my other suitemate, Tom, and I left for Bailey before Osamu did — he was busy with his red bowtie. That being said, O and the other musicians are no slackers. They rehearse several times a week and had to get up at 8am to rehearse until 1:30pm the day of the concert.

One piece that really stuck with me was the first. It had a fantastic and powerful drum interlude towards the end, which awoke everyone in the audience.

Ultimately, it was great to see the culmination of O’s hard-work in an exciting performance.

A Musical Afternoon at Bailey Hall

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending Cornell’s Symphony Orchestra at Bailey Hall. As a performer, it’s always exciting for me to be on the other side of the curtain. Because I’m involved in dance community, I’ve seen many different shows at Bailey Hall, from dance showcases to Bill Gates, but I’ve never attended a Philharmonic Orchestra concert. I was amazed at how so many different sounds could be created by materials like strings and wood. It was incredible how I could hear emotion in the music, excitement, sadness, yearning, all of it. Not only was the show exciting to hear, it was also fun to watch. Every musician was in sync with the other in movement, forming their very own dance.

The program consisted of music composed by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, two well known musicians of the 19th century. Tchaikovsky is very well known for his music to the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty, which are coincidentally all very famous ballets. I personally have had the privilege of both watching these ballets danced by professional ballet companies and dancing in these ballets myself. I was surprised that I could recognize the composer and tell the difference between ballads. While classical art hasn’t been very popular in recent history, it has maintained its presence as entertainment for well off or well educated folk. I think this is because both witnessing, or participating, in classical art forms are very costly. Wether you are attending a show in a fancy auditorium, paying for lessons, or buying that instrument or pointe shoes. For this reason, I am glad that the CSO opens up the show to the whole community for free and allows many people of all backgrounds to participate in classical culture.

I was impressed by the amount of passion all of the musicians seemed to have towards the art. You could see the passion in their faces and movements and thereby feel the emotion that the music brings. Classical music is getting more and more obscure as times progress, so it was very exciting to see that there are still many students that whole heartedly dedicate time towards.

Morning at the Farmer’s Market

The Farmer’s market is one of the hottest spots in Ithaca Saturday morning. By the time we got there at 11 (which for any college student is early), it was already packed with people. The weather was beautiful and college students, vendors, and other Ithacans filled the earthy, rustic-looking farmers market. It was nice to get a sense of community and interact with other people. There really is a lot to do in Ithaca outside of Cornell and I was grateful for the chance to head over to the farmer’s market through Rose Scholars.

Walking through the farmer’s market from end to end, I realized the variety of vendors at the market. There were bakeries with delicious homemade goodies, farmers with some fresh vegetables, infamous apple cider donuts, homemade jewelry vendors, and even wine and hard cider vendors. The culmination of these vendors represent what the local Ithacans are all about. It highlights the creativity of the people through the unique homemade plates and jewelry. It highlights how environmentally friendly people are through the vegetable stands. Lastly, it highlights the diversity of people through the different food vendors from a Cuban vendor, to a gyro vendor to an Ethiopian stand.

I thought the Farmer’s market was a great trip to take to relax and really enjoy the last few weeks left in Ithaca until summer.

A Cambodian Surprise

About a week ago, the Rose Scholars received an unexpected guest speaker named Andrew Mertha who spoke about the history of Cambodia and how China played a major role in influencing its development. As a speaker, Professor Mertha was a very entertaining, well-spoken, and engaging lecturer who was unafraid of admitting the large amounts of stress that his research brought on. Much of his work stemmed from the changes in world powers after World War II.

Professor Mertha discussed being rejected by a an entire organization network in his search for classified documents until he was able to pay Cambodian workers to allow him access to a plethora of Chinese archives that held the information he was looking for. These documents detailed engineering plans for Cambodian development, but he was not able to decipher its contents until after a student of his was able to connect him to her grandmother who had friends that worked in the mines during World War II and could translate the information for him. Seeing and hearing how passionate he was about his work made listening to the journey all the more educational and interesting, for I never knew how closely tied China was to Cambodia.

It was a very informative session, one that none of the scholars could have expected, but it was well received especially during this period leading up to final exams. We hope that his study abroad program in Cambodia continues to grow and look forward to having him speak with us again in the future.

The Advocate’s Balance

Last week I attended the Rose cafe, and heard Laura Rodriguez de Simons lead a discussion about having a career in advocacy. I enjoyed hearing her diverse perspective, as she has done development and advocacy work in Ethiopia, Honduras, and now here in Ithaca. The major theme that I got out of the discussion was that finding a balance between compassion and practicality is important when doing this type of work.

One thing that struck me as interesting and non-intuitive was Laura’s tip that, if  you decide to do advocacy or development work, not to do anything “too sensible”. A mindset of  compassion, not one of efficiency and productivity, needs to take center stage in this type of work. It’s important to see people as people, not projects. Therefore, doing what you feel exactly equipped to do can actually take away from the experience. On the other hand, Laura has been able to use her “sensible” MBA in her current role.

Also on the practical side: in her current role at the advocacy center in Ithaca, Laura’s organization is careful to develop strict boundaries regarding advocates interacting with their clients. Many have heart-wrenching stories, so it can be easy to get too absorbed in their situations in a way that is ultimately unhealthy. Time not on the work clock is clearly personal time. Taking time off is encouraged, and it’s clearly stated that clients can’t contact advocates when they are not working. It must be difficult to strike this balance, but Laura maintained that it is healthier to operate in this fashion. It’s important to be able to take a step back from a situation and not get too emotionally invested.

I really appreciated Laura’s advice, and will certainly keep it in mind as I consider different types of missions work in the future!

Explore Your Interests

Laura Rodriguez de Simons, who currently works at the Tompkins County Advocacy Center, showcased her past work experiences through quality information regarding advocacy and helping people. Before coming to Cornell, she alternated between working in South America and Africa, supporting local people affected by harrowing issues, such as domestic violence. After sharing her story, she offered some pieces of advice. The one that resonated with me the most was to not go down a path you think you’re supposed to or to stick to the status quo. After Laura Rodriguez de Simons earned a degree in economics, she earned an M.B.A. and was then hired to a large company, where she worked for about a year before discovering her passion for advocacy. I personally think that more college students, and even some high school students, need to hear and understand this message because so many people set out to become doctors, lawyers, or corporate employees and then later discover they weren’t actually very passionate about that and would have preferred to work towards a different career goal earlier in school. I think people should always do some soul searching and subject exploration before forming any sort of career goal to really be able to brainstorm ideas and discover passions, especially if someone finds that they’re inclined to go into a field that is not very conventional or expected. College is the time to explore ones interests and I don’t think it’s good for students to only approach college as the means to an end goal of entering a career. I know I personally enjoy exploring different subjects and will joyfully continue to dabble in whatever sounds interesting for the rest of my time at Cornell.

Funny things about China and Cambodia

Professor Andrew Mertha came to talk about Cambodia and China on behalf of the original speaker who couldn’t make it. Mertha was hilarious. He mixed corny jokes with politics and  history. He poked fun at how disorderly the Chinese government and bureaucracy are throughout the talk. One doesn’t necessarily think of China’s policies as being unstructured and chaotic as they were able to enforce their strict childbearing laws, but I guess when China does succeed at issuing a policy, it is a miracle. Another part I enjoyed hearing about was how he was so easily able to obtain classified Chinese documents from an archive in Cambodia. He got a hold of classified Chinese files that explained “missile plans, no, no missiles, but outlines for rubber factories.” He had no inhibition for overused jokes, but they were funny in the context of the all-important Becker-Rose cafe. At some points it was difficult to concentrate on the material because I was laughing at the jokes, but that’s okay. Afterward, an old man stood up and said that he had come to the lecture under the wrong impression, expecting something else, but then he said that he liked it more than he thought he would have if it were just a normal talk. It’s nice to have a break from the countless, interminable, lectures we attend.

Social Work

Passion for activism and social work is something that I always thought was so important and I greatly admire the people that have dedicated their lives to helping others. I never thought that it was easy, for me I enjoy helping through volunteer work in nursing homes by being someone that can listen or assist in anything someone may need. Sometimes it can be extremely upsetting. I feel other people’s pain and it is difficult to let that go sometimes. I think many of the stories I hear tend to stick with me. I want to continue to help and serve others in my life because I think it keeps me grounded and it also feels good to know that I did something that will benefit someone else. I thought the advice Laura Simon’s had about making sure you truly love the work of serving others before making a career out of it because it is very tough work was honest and true.

Laura currently works at the activist center helping women, children, and men that have been sexually abused. The amount of individuals that are sexually assaulted on college campuses is hard to estimate because so many cases go unreported. The center is a place where a victim can get help dealing with what happened emotionally or can get help pressing charges if they decide to go that route. I think these services are truly great because speaking to a third party can be beneficial in the healing process.

Laura, also talked about following your passion. She said she wished she listened and embraced her desire to pursue a career of service earlier in her education rather than going the sensible route. I think it is difficult to find what it is we love to do because we think of work as something we need to do before we can do the things we enjoy doing. I really hope that I can find something that I love to do so that I am excited to go into work everyday.

Music to my ears

Last Sunday I had the privilege of listening to the Cornell Symphony Orchestra in their final performance of the year. One of the main reasons I wanted to go was that I wanted to see my roommate O rock out on the viola one last time. While O said that the performance had a few hiccups along the way, I thought it was great. The only critique I have is that I wish the songs were played in a different order. The first piece was very good in that it had a lot of drums and had a decent pace. The second piece was Tchaikovsky’s famous Romeo and Juliet: Overture-Fantasy where I cant explain how it goes but if you heard it, you would recognize from other various TV shows and movies. The final piece was a Finnish piece about their independence from Russia and how people needed a national identity. Also just realized this but, they finished with a Finnish piece (bum, bum, tssh). I think the order should have been Tchaikovsky, Finnish piece, First one. The Finnish one dragged on at the end, not that it was bad, but that it seemed like it was never going to end. Putting that in the middle between the more enjoyable pieces would have made it more bearable. Also, ending with the more powerful drum piece would have brought the performance to a fever pitch. All in all it was a great performance and a nice way to relax before finals.

Advocacy

Laura Rodriguez de Simons shared her care and devotion for helping others at the Tompkins County Advocacy Center this last Wednesday. She spoke about how her work, how we can become more involved with advocacy and our own community, and what sort of advise she has regarding our college years. With her broad knowledge and long history in this field from spending time with commercial sex work and exploitation of children in Central America to dealing with gender-based violence in Ethiopia, she brought a lot of awareness regarding domestic violence shelters and the services they provide for however long needed to people who survive sexual violence. Her advice for us: 1. Have a strong sense for serving others 2. Don’t go down the sensible or expected path 2. Pay attention to what you are passionate.

We have AMAZING musical talent here at Cornell

Sunday I attended Cornell Symphony Orchestra’s performance. Before learning of this performance I was unaware that our orchestra offered free concerts for the public. That being said, this was an amazing performance. The students in the orchestra must practice for hours and hours and hours every week to accomplish that level of perfection.

Sitting in the audience was an amazing experience. As I listened to the music generated by those on stage, it seemed unreal that such a beautiful piece could be created from all the different parts played by so many different people. It is absolutely amazing how students from so many places and backgrounds can come together to create such an astounding piece of music.

One thing I found fascinating was how in-sync everyone was, you could see the bows of an entire section moving as one. This says so much about the level of experience of each orchestra member and the conductor himself. I remember back in elementary school, I used to play viola in the school’s orchestra. The hardest part was not learning the music and my part but, simply being in-sync and playing at the right time. Attending this performance raised my appreciation for those who create music, they make it look so easy, even though I know they put countless hours into each piece.

I hope everyone can go attend some performances in their time at Cornell, and witness some of the amazing talent that is all around us.

Green is the New Black

House Professor, Garrick Blalock spoke to the Rose Scholars about the evolution of green technology and the practicality of it in today’s world. He started by speaking to the students about how familiar we were with hybrid technology and how many people we knew with hybrid cars. We all knew how much hybrid cars helped the environment and how they could even save us money, so how come everyone wasn’t driving hybrids? We concluded that it was because of sheer accessibility and a change in the norm. One worry of many people who consider buying hybrids is that there won’t be a charging station nearby when they need it most. Or the car may break down and the parts to fix it are inaccessible or priced extremely high. For reasons like this, it is hard to complete a shift to green technology and to get people to buy more hybrids—it’s simply easier to have a regular car. Blalock then used this comparison example to explain a phenomenon that occurs globally. He told us about the stone fires used in Uganda to cook and boil water. These fires are extremely easy to make- only requiring 3 stones, a base, and a spark. However, they release strong chemicals into the atmosphere that affect the people’s lungs and are also inefficient sources of heat. To solve this, people came to Uganda to give them a cleaner source of heat and newer stoves. What they noticed was that Ugandans were choosing to ignore the cleaner stoves and continuing to use the stone fires due to the ease and familiarity. This talk showed how turning the society isn’t as easy as it may seem, it requires a shift in culture and thought as well as additional resources to accommodate the changes.

This talk reminded me of an idea called the path of least resistance that I learned in a sociology class. It’s human nature to avoid change and take the easiest path, the path that will give you the least resistance. Changing to be a more green society to many people is not the path of least resistance, which is why it’s hard for many people to makes these changes. It’s easier to have a normal car, go to normal gas stations and to your local auto garage than it is to have a hybrid and make special accommodations for the car. This principle is what makes the path to a greener society more difficult and is a change we have to keep in mind when thinking about the future of the earth.

Musical Journey with CSO

Last Sunday, I attended the May concert by the Cornell Symphony Orchestra. The concert was free of admissions, but the musical experience was priceless. When I got to the concert, I took a quick look at the programme and I was nicely surprised at the number of chemistry major members in the orchestra. I recognized more than four names from laboratory classes that I have taken with them together. It was very cool to see some of my friends up on the stage and I am glad that I was there to support their hard work.

CSO warmup

It was very interesting how the first piece, Fanfare for Sam by David Ludwig, started as if the members were casually tuning to a note, but the conductor seamlessly continued on with rest of the piece. It was fresh and this was my first time seeing the technique performed on stage. My favorite movement was Vivacissimo in Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius. The music was beautifully expressed by the players and the conductor highlighted the delicate melodies and bases in harmony.

Having been a part of wind ensembles and orchestras in the past, I enjoyed listening for each instrument throughout the concert. One thing I appreciate about the orchestra conformation is how the wind and brass instrument players often have solos since there are only a few people playing each instrument. With trained ears, I could hear individual person’s playing and could tell that they were very talented and putting lots of effort into their parts.

The music very much calmed me down and I truly enjoyed seeing the CSO concert. In freshmen year, I decided to audition for the Cornell Marching Band instead of the CSO. Listening to this concert made me wish that I had also tried out for CSO as well. If I were to learn a new orchestra instrument, I would like to learn to play the cello or horn in the future.

Turning Activism into a Profession

I highly enjoyed Laura Simon’s talk last night on turning activism into a career. It was interesting to hear her experiences with providing services for survivors of sexual and domestic abuse. I found her talk inspirational; it revealed that pursuing a self-satisfying profession is more important than other rewards – such as higher financial returns. She taught me that our college major does not compartmentalize us into specific vocations; rather our college major can serve as a stepping stone for careers we find fulfilling. She had studied economics in undergrad and subsequently obtained an MBA. However, she realized that she can channel her skills to combating societal issues. It is within our power to change our life trajectory as long as we remain determined. I realized that I can do anything with my major – I had always thought that I would work in financial services in the future. However I now know that I could leverage my skills to work for the United Nations or non-profit organizations with missions that closely align with my interests.

Her enthusiasm for serving as Director for the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County was evident. She elaborated on what the Center does; it organizes “Take Back the Night”, an event with the mission of eradicating domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. Laura also explained that 1/3 of their clients are college students, but that many students are afraid to report the incidents. I think it must be extremely fulfilling to work at the Center, to be a source of comfort and to feel that you are making a difference in a victim’s life.

Overall, I had a great time at the talk. At the end of the talk, Professor Blalock said that it could be difficult to balance practicality with passion. I agree, especially if graduates have student loans or financial obligations. However, I do want to eventually work for an organization that is dedicated to improving humanity. There are fewer endeavors in life that are more fulfilling than that.

Social Justice will be Served

Today, Laura spoke about her career working at the Advocacy Center for Tompkins county, which is definitely an interesting and unique profession. She first started out talking about all the resources that the Advocacy Center provides to help people with trauma, survivors of abuse and domestic violence, with options in either legal advocacy or just emotional support. The center provides a shelter for domestic violence victims, a 24 hour hotline service, and forensic examinations for sexual assault victims. The center also organizes events to promote awareness regarding these issues, such as Take Back the Night. It makes me feel relieved and optimistic that as a student all these resources are accessible and covered. Laura also talked about her specific job of providing people the guidance to choose what available resources they want to use, and her background in working with local nonprofits and indigenous group leaders, and refugee families in getting them settled with jobs. I really liked this talk because it transformed from information about the advocacy center to a broader talk on choosing careers. Laura for example, originally started out majoring in economics and getting an MBA, but realized her real passion was in social justice issues. Her main advice was to pay attention to what you think about a lot, and for her, she loved service and social movements. Just hearing all that she does sounds exhausting, but for her that work is worth it because it brings her joy. We also discussed how even though many people would like to get involved with social justice that it is not very practical to, given student loans and the low pay. This is the most challenging dilemma, as many of us have to balance between what we really want to do, versus what is considered a practical job. Even if one isn’t as passionate about entering the social justice fields, there are many other ways to get involved, like volunteering for the hotline. I really liked this talk to get that exposure on the Advocacy center and just a general discussion of career opportunities.

Governments & Academic Research

In his talk last week Prof. Mertha offered insights on a number of different topics in Chinese/Cambodian history and the contemporary Communist Party of China. A number of points that Prof. Mertha touched on in his talk particularly interested me, and I am left with a couple of questions: what kind of aid and how much of it did the Chinese provide to Cambodia? How much of an impact did this aid have on the Khmer Rouge’s power and capability? What kinds of communication/coordination problems prevent the CPC from functioning more effectively today? Modern communications technology must overcome the physical vastness of the country, so is it just organizational problems that make it difficult for the party to delegate and implement policy plans? On another note, I also enjoyed Prof. Mertha’s humor and his accounts of the more fortuitous (the accommodating librarians) and serendipitous (the advisee’s relatives in China) moments of his research process.

Cambodian Perspective

Last week’s Rose Cafe featured Professor Andrew Mertha from the Government department and his recent studies about Cambodia and the role China had in influencing its development. This talk was interesting because our world history classes never discuss Cambodia’s history much, besides the Khmer Rouge and that it’s just a smaller country that China exerts its hegemonic influence onto. It was really fascinating to hear about his own travels to Cambodia, and how he discovered these secret Chinese government official documents. It’s jarring to hear how disorganized the Chinese government and bureaucracy can be, which is understandable given how it’s one of the world’s largest nations and it has influences in countries scattered across the Pacific, but still contrary to the established image as the terrifying next-world economic power. I think the most interesting part of the talk was about his experiences talking to Pol Pot’s former cook and now Chinese ambassador. I loved seeing the photos he showed, and the stories he told about him conversing with the cook in Chinese and how happy it made her feel. Overall, I loved the talk, and it was so refreshing to get that global perspective.

Super interesting overall

Last week, Professor Mertha gave an eye-opening talk about the nature of the Chinese bureaucracy by connecting it to his research in Cambodia. He also told a lovely anecdote about his issues with research being finally resolved by a helpful undergrad of his.

While I understand that the talk was last-minute, as he had not been the scheduled speaker, I wish he had gone more in depth about the flaws in the Chinese bureaucracy. During the presentation, he briefly showed a convoluted flow chart portraying the tangle that is the Chinese government, and I feel as though his argument that “the Chinese bureaucracy is a mess” could have been better supported if he had explained the chart rather than just saying, “take my word for it,” though I do understand it may have been too complicated to touch on all the key points in under an hour.

Social Justice as a Career Path

Today, we were lucky to have Laura talk about her experiences in public service and how her journey brought her to where she is today! She was talking about her experiences with working in East Africa and Central America, and one advice that she had for students who were interested in social justice was that they should not try “to go the sensible route”. She said that she went to graduate school for Economics and briefly worked at a large corporate real estate firm, and although she had a lot of fun working there, she did not feel “whole” by doing that everyday. And so she suggests that students who feel like they are passionate about a cause that is bigger than themselves shouldn’t try to go for the “safe” careers. But, as Professor Blalock mentioned towards the end of the talk, as much as we’d like to work for free and completely devote ourselves to the public good, there’s also issues of practicality. We still need to pay our bills and feed ourselves, so we could still go towards a “sensible” route and contribute/volunteer through services/skills that we have acquired as a result of our education.

In addition, Laura had given a small speech about going towards a path that you are passionate about. And I completely agree, because I think it’s extremely important to do something that makes you feel like every day is worth living. But an interesting question that one person asked was, “What about the people who are less passionate?” Because sometimes I am so focused on what I am passionate about, it is sometimes so overwhelming that I forget some people are just not really passionate about anything at all. But as Laura mentioned, everyone has something that makes them really happy or really pissed off, whether or not they realize it. And I guess it doesn’t have to start out like a deep, burning passion, but I think it can definitely grow to that point for every single person.

Overall, I’m very glad Laura came to tell us about all the resources that are available to us as Cornell students and residents in Ithaca, because I do hear of a lot of sexual assault that occurs on the campus, so I’m glad that such a support system exists for us. We are very lucky to be here!

Social Justice Careers in Tompkins County and Beyond

Tonight’s Rose Café talk was given by Laura Rodriguez de Simons who works at The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County. The talk was very serious and serious because The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County focus on sexual assault and domestic violence. Through the talk I gained a better understanding of certain problems facing Tompkins County. I was somewhat surprised to learn about the poverty problem in Tompkins County because I mostly live in the bubble of Cornell University were this problem is not apparent.

While the talk was sobering and serious I was inspired by the passion and commitment of Ms. Rodriguez de Simons. Through her description of her work and career progression it was clear that she is very passionate about her work. I was surprised at the path that she took to her current career in social justice. Based on her description of her work, I assumed that she came from a psychology of social work background, but she actually studied economics and received a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) before entering the social justice space. It is interesting that a business background could lead to a career in social justice. Ms. Rodriguez de Simons did say that her business degree was helpful for her job because she needs to manage teams and budgets.

I was also interesting to learn that many of the clients of The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County are addicted to heroin or related to someone who is. This is one example of the negative effects of addiction. I hope that public health officials, government officials, and advocates like Ms. Rodriguez de Simons can find solutions to reduce the current heroin addiction epidemic effecting Tompkins County and many other areas of the country.

Is a Career In Social Justice Possible?

I was extremely excited to hear Laura Rodriguez de Simons speak about turning activism into a career. I’ve always felt called to activism. I knew I wanted to help make the world a better place since before I knew that I needed a job someday. Hearing Laura Rodriguez de Simons speak about choosing activism as a career was simultaneously encouraging and discouraging.

I was thrilled to hear the story of a woman who had successfully turned passion into her life’s work. She told us about her work promoting sexual health. She detailed her experiences as an advocate for immigrants. She also told us about her work at the advocacy center.

I already knew that the advocacy center was a great place. This semester I assistant directed Cornell’s production of Vagina Monologues. All proceeds from the production went to the advocacy center. It was amazing to hear about all the great services that the advocacy center provides. They help thousands of members of our community.

It was so wonderful to hear about Laura’s fulfilling experience. It is so rare to hear about people who actually devote their life to social justice.

I was slightly discouraged by Laura’s advice to people who aspire to have a career in social justice. Laura’s advice was to volunteer at a nonprofit for awhile before working for one. This was extremely frustrating to hear.

Imagine it like this. You spend four years getting a degree in accounting. You put yourself into serious debt. You suffer for this degree, but its worth it because this is what you want to do with your life. Then someone suggests to you that you just do everyone’s taxes for free for a year. After all, thats the only way you’ll know if you really like being an accountant.

I don’t think that Laura’s advice was wrong. I understand that nonprofits do not have the means to pay people like businesses do. I recognize that I will probably have to volunteer for a while before I can work at a nonprofit. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

Sometimes it feels like you have to be rich in order to help people. You have to have the financial security to volunteer for a few years in order to work at a nonprofit. You have to write grant applications for money to fund your summer internships, rather than feeling secure in your financial situation.

I was excited to hear about someone making a career out of social justice. I am filled with more doubt than ever that I will ever be able to.

Impromptu Lesson on the History of Cambodia

As someone who considers themselves well traveled, the talk unexpectedly led by Andrew Mertha, who is a government professor, made me realize how little I knew about the history of foreign countries. Almost all of our history lessons from K-12 are told through the eyes of the United States or Europe and the British Empire, and so we end up learning little about the history of foreign countries, and more about their effect on us.

And so it was very interesting to hear of Andrew Mertha’s talk on the history of Cambodia, his research on the relations between China and Cambodia, and China’s influence on Cambodia.

One idea that really caught me by surprise was the fact that while China is perceived as potentially world dominating and insanely organized by foreign countries, internally, Chinese government and policies are incredibly disorganized.

Another story that was really cool to hear of was how Professor Mertha tried to get information about Chinese influence in Cambodia unsuccessfully, but was able to find high security documents on Chinese influence in Cambodia in China almost out in the open.

This demonstrates the disorganization in Chinese government and makes me wonder how high security level information is stored in foreign countries, and how it is distributed.

All in all, I’m glad I got introduced to the history of Cambodia. It made me curious about Cambodian history and now I am hoping to read up more on foreign history over the summer.

Cambodia and China

Last week’s Rose Cafe was one of the most entertaining to date. The speaker, Dr. Mertha, gave an extremely interesting and enthusiastic talk about Cambodia and his novel. I had very little knowledge of pre-Vietnam War Cambodia before this talk, and Mertha did a fantastic job of extremely briefly summarizing this period. Surprisingly, I was extremely interested in his talk, which was aimed specifically at China’s role in Cambodia at the time; this is surprising because usually, when I do not have knowledge of the topic, these types of discussions can be extremely dry. Mertha used his extensive knowledge on the time period to extract the essential information without boring the audience at all.

It was also very interesting to hear about his experiences in writing his novel and obtaining the information for said book. As he conceded, discussing one’s own novel can be very boring for the audience, but this was not the case for this cafe series. Again, Mertha brought excitement and enthusiasm into this portion of the discussion, bringing up interesting and entertaining points about his journey of gaining knowledge. The book seems very interesting, and perhaps he should consider a career as a book salesman if the professor gig does not work out.

Overall, this talk kept me interested for the entire hour, even though it was a last-minute decision due to unfortunate circumstances. I am extremely glad that I was able to attend this discussion and hope to hear from Dr. Mertha again at some time in the future.

Unexpected Discoveries

Last Wednesday, I was waiting for the Rose Café to start, and was wondering who was sitting on the couch, as he did not look anything the posters that had been up all week. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were surprised with Professor Andrew Mertha who gave a talk on his work in studying Cambodia. As I wasn’t familiar with Cambodian history, it was very interesting to hear him give a brief summary of the major power shifts after World War II. There were definitely surprising facts and more I want to look up when I find the time to delve into a Wikipedia spiral.

Professor Mertha spent a lot of time looking into the role China had in Cambodian development and pointed out something that I hadn’t heard put together. It is illogical for people to think that China is capable of having extreme influence and taking over the world, yet at the same time point out the deeply convoluted and possibly inefficient inner workings of their government. I don’t know if it was just in my head or if I made a slightly audibly ‘oh’ as I took time to think about this.

He talked about going to Cambodia and looking for documents citing Chinese involvement, and after being turned away from a certain location, found a wealth of top secret documents in Chinese, detailing engineering plans for Cambodian development. While I’m sure it was stressful at the time for him, it was reassuring to hear that professors go through the same struggle of trying to figure out exactly what a source has to offer. He mentioned talking to those who were proficient in Chinese and engineering, but the gap between technology now and then is so different that they could not make any sense of it. Then with one momentous encounter with an advisee, he was connected with the key to unlocking the meaning behind the documents he found.

It was definitely an entertaining and informative talk, and while I wasn’t expecting a crash course in recent Cambodian history and a lesson in patience when dealing with work, I was glad I got to hear him speak.

Cambodian History

Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe event with guest speaker Andrew Mertha. Andrew Mertha is a professor of government here at Cornell who specializes in Chinese and Cambodian politics. His talk focused on a brief history of Cambodia along with his own research that he conducted on the influence of China on Cambodia.

I really enjoyed hearing about the history of Cambodia during the Vietnam war era. I had heard of the Khmer Rouge before but I never knew who or what they were. I had no idea that Cambodia’s history was so bloody as the Khmer Rouge were an extremely violent ruling group. There were the one’s responsible for the Cambodian Genocide, which led to the deaths of nearly 3 million Cambodians. I find it saddening that in my various history classes I took in high school, not one of them mentioned the Cambodian Genocide. A lot of these smaller countries go through so much suffering and turmoil, yet they never get any attention.

Another part of Professor Mertha’s talk that I found was interesting was when he went to talk to a Khmer Rouge cook about some Chinese blueprints he had found. I find it amazing that Professor Mertha was able to make all of these connections just because he was fluent in another language. His talk actually makes me want to sign up for a foreign language next semester.

Arguing Against the Orthodoxy

What I found most interesting about Professor Mertha’s talk last week was his unique stance: while the general consensus is that China is set to surpass the United States as the world’s economic power, Professor Mertha argues that this may not necessarily be the case. In examining China’s relationship with Cambodia, Prof. Mertha has discovered great inefficiencies and a general lack of efficacy in China’s bureaucracy. Upon uncovering top secret Chinese government documents, Prof. Mertha realized how difficult it is for China– a massive country– to maintain and run an accordingly massive bureaucracy. Often when thinking to China, we cite the quantifiable: GDP indicators, the one-child policy. These data points drive us to the common conclusion that China will surpass the US– “When China Rules the World” by Martin Jacques is a perfect example. But beyond (and behind) these numbers exist other issues with which the cumbersome Chinese bureaucracy is tasked: working conditions, foreign investment, etc. In many cases, Prof. Mertha points out, only the quantifiable is accomplished; anything else that can be easily brushed aside or hidden is not prioritized.

Last summer, the NYT published a long piece on China’s investment in Ecuador. A running theme of the article was that in investing in Ecuador, China was “exporting its worst practices.” This amounted to poor working conditions and lack of concern for the environment, among other issues. Where China’s flaws are perhaps most evident are the foreign countries in which China involves itself– Prof Mertha’s research speaks directly to this point.

Want to go to Cambodia?

Last Wednesday, I met one of the most humorous professors I know thus far at Cornell, Professor Andrew Mertha. I had a chance to meet him as I walked into Rose House before dinner and he did not really know where to go. I had no idea he would be the speaker for the cafe that night– but from the beginning, I knew he was a person I needed to get to know better.

I was not wrong. At the cafe, I laughed the whole time and learned so much at the same time. He spoke of Cambodia and his experience with research there– the ups, the downs, the lessons.

He made me realize that Professors go through what we as students go through: times of walking without much direction. He was real with us and I appreciate that tons!

He also got me to consider a program that Cornell offers which gives students the opportunity to visit Cambodia. To be honest, I just really want to take a class with Professor Mertha.

If you want more information on it, visit: https://www.sce.cornell.edu/ws/courses/courses.php?v=2974

Research Tidbits

Last Wednesday, Rose Cafe hosted Professor Mertha, a professor of government specializing in Chinese and Cambodian politics. While his entire lecture was filled with interesting information and tidbits, the part that stuck out to me most was his personal story about traveling to Cambodia in order to collect information about past Cambodia-China relations and politics. While he wasn’t allowed access to historical documents in China, he found luck in Cambodia and was able to gain a substantial amount of access to related documents there. He expressed awe at the sheer amount of documents that he could read and learn from, including but not limited to documents detailing infrastructure projects that both countries were involved in at the time. These documents provided Professor Mertha with very clear insights into past Cambodia-China relations, vastly furthering his research. He also detailed a story where he had trouble decoding and translating some documents that had been written in very technical Chinese. He was able to solve this when an advisee of his offered the help of her Chinese grandmother who had been working in the Chinese government at around the same time as when the documents were written.

Having very little knowledge of Cambodian-Chinese politics, I found it very interesting to hear perspectives and stories about conducting research in a different part of the world as well as finding such a large wealth of very interesting information. This lecture has made me eager to discover and educate myself further on politics in that region in order to eventually gain a clearer understanding of Asian influences on global politics, both historical and current.

Its the journey, not the destination

Last week, Professor Andrew Mertha discussed his research on Cambodia’s history and how the Chinese had a significant influence. To be honest, for me the discussion regarding how he researched this topic was more interesting then his actual findings (I’m not big on govt/political history). In discussing his research, Prof. Mertha provided interesting stories about how he obtained a lot of the information he used. For example, if I remember correctly, he was kicked out of one archive/library because the documents he was asking for were essentially classified. After that while in a Cambodian museum he stumbled upon a Chinese document that was labeled TOP SECRET that was very important to his research. He went to the information desk and said that he was from Cornell and that he was wondering if they had any more like that. Because the staff recognized Cornell, he was able to go through the documents upon documents of critical information (gotta love those Cornell connections).

The process of doing research and publishing the findings really provided me with an appreciation for what these researchers do. When I’m reading something for a class, I just think of it as another reading, maybe skim through it to get the main points and move on, but the time and effort that is put in to produce a given piece is truly remarkable.

Another place that I need to see

Professor Mertha’s discussion about Cambodia was illuminating on several fronts.  Most importantly to me, I just knew very little about Cambodian history prior to the quick briefing that he gave us at the beginning of the talk.  Like many areas of Asian history, Cambodia’s bloody past is an era that is often overlooked in American history courses and text.  Most people understandably have little idea about what actually went down and how horrible it was, myself included, so receiving a quick lesson on it was much appreciated.

 

I also really just enjoy to Professor Mertha tell his war stories.  I took his class last semester (China Under Revolution and Reform, a GOVT class) and he always has a funny anecdote about his travels in Asia.  I’d highly recommend him as a professor for anybody interested in eastern Asia.

trees

Visiting the Old-Growth Forest was a nice break from my workload. I had thought the trip would just be a scenic hike through a nature reserve, but House Fellow Todd Bittner had a lot of relevant and interesting information to share. Since he has long been involved in the upkeep of the reserve, he readily answered any questions we had for him.

The hike began on a plot that was once farmland, overlooking the valley that contains Cornell and Cayuga Lake. As we went down in elevation, we entered the area of the reserve where the old-growth trees were. Professor Bittner had something to say about seemingly every variety of tree and plant we came across, including the biology of the plants and their role in the local ecosystem. Something I found interesting was that one variety of tree had been widely affected by some kind of pest years ago, and this variety was being kept alive solely because of Cornell Plantations (though controlled use of a pesticide).

I’m glad to have been able to visit the Old-Growth Forest, especially with Professor Bittner as our guide.

Afternoon out to the Orchestra

The Orchestra performance was a great way to relax before the start of finals. Mr. Sung and the entire Cornell Orchestra did an amazing job. I enjoyed all three of the pieces.

The first piece was relatively short, but featured a broad range of sounds. The second piece was a famous piece by Tchaikovsky. Some of the parts were easily recognizable from films and shows I’ve seen over the years. The last piece was by far the longest, and the story behind it is quite interesting. In the program pamphlet, it discussed the significance of the piece to the Finnish people when they were striving for independence. It is an important remainder of how music is interwoven into society, and that historical pieces offer good reflections of the people that lived then and the things they experienced. Although it may have been written a hundred, two hundred, or five hundred years ago, music is common bond shared through out the ages. It might be hard to imagine the day to day lives of our ancestors, but it isn’t as hard to imagine them enjoying music as we still do.

Overall, it was great to see a performance put on by such talented individuals.

Cambodia

The talk given by Andrew Mertha was one of my favorite Rose Cafes of this semester. During this evening, he told us about Cambodia; both the history of the country along with his own experiences. Mertha delivered his talk with information and humor. He made the talk interesting, enjoyable, and informational. While I knew very little about Cambodia coming into this talk, I learned a lot from him. I think the most interesting part of his talk was his personal experience in Cambodia. He told us about his process of getting the reserves he wanted. Although it was an extreme struggle and he made some enemies along the way, he eventually got the reserves he wanted. Through this story, he was able to portray to us the passion he had for this knowledge and subject matter and how dedicated he was to this. I personally found the talk inspiring to find someone who was so passionate about what they are studying. In addition to be an extremely informational talk, Mertha was such an enjoyable speaker. He was engaging and funny. I truly enjoyed this talk and everything I learned from Mertha.

Cambodian History

The most recent Rose Café was not only very fun but also highly informative. Professor Andrew Mertha spoke about Cambodian history and the various Chinese influences found within. During the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s the militant group known as the Khmer Rouge basically kept Cambodia under its thumb with its brutal savagery combined with nationalist propaganda. Surprisingly, the Khmer Rouge was filled with child soldiers who committed acts of genocide. The picture shown during the event was quite shocking, one of the child fighters had a look of violence yet sadness in his eyes. I could tell that life had dealt him a crap hand, in his mind he probably though that he was doing the right thing. It’s the classic story of good intentions leading to bad consequences with history as his judge.

China supported the Khmer Rouge and thus played a huge role in the country’s economic growth. The comparisons to the Chinese cultural revolution were stark and shocking, one could even say that Cambodia took it a bit further.

My favorite part of the evening was a story that Professor Mertha told about how he found some rare Chinese documents in Cambodia that were very hard to decipher. He spent copious amounts of time trying, but he still made no progress. Funnily enough, a student of his connected him to one of the few people who could make sense of the documents and all the pieces finally came together.

A Tchaikovsky rendition by Cornell Symphony Orchestra

Last Sunday was the first time I heard the Cornell symphony orchestra perform. They took their audience on an hour and a half long journey at Bailey hall. I remember seeing their posters all of campus and I was so excited that they would be playing Tchaikovsky. I listen to Tchaikovsky and other classical composers when I need to do some deep mode studying. They played a favorite of mine Romeo and Juliet. It’s one of those pieces that everyone has heard, but they just don’t know the name of it. I even saw some acquaintances in the orchestra that I had no clue would be there. I enjoyed the guest director because he smiled a lot and shook the hands of the first stand each time he came out. I grew up playing the violin so I was excited to see a performance. I love looking at the left hand of the string players because I like seeing their fingers work and how effortlessly and swift the whole process is. Just thinking about how we are able to do two things at once, moving your left hand moving across the four strings doing vebrato and then your right hand has the bow increasing and decreasing the volume and crossing strings, and on top of it all your eyes are reading the music and you are counting without looking at your hands. The whole process seems nonchalant, while doing it, but when you take a minute to reflect on all that is happening you realize just how beautiful it is .

Ithacan Transformations

We’ve all noticed some changes happening in Ithaca lately, a few of which include the seemingly excessive construction in collegetown (or the excessive construction everywhere…) and the new Ithaca plan that Svante is attempting to put into action. While I recognize the need for new housing at Cornell and the improvement of the look of collegetown, it’s a little sad to realize that while I will be here for all the pain of the construction, with the noise, the detours, and the general inconvenience, I won’t be here when these projects are completed. But even so, Ithaca is taking steps to make itself better. As a student in a Drugs and Society class, I was most interested in hearing Svante speak on the Ithaca plan. The Ithaca plan is designed to reduce drug use in Ithaca and to keep drug users safer in Ithaca. The controversy of the plan is that it involves a safe injection room – a room where people can go to inject where a trained staff member will be on hand to treat patients in case of an overdose. The upsides of this are big: first and foremost it will save lives. You can’t help dead people. In addition, when injectors are put into contact with these centers they are also put into contact with people who can help them quit if they want to. Ithacans are worried that these centers will increase drug use: but in Vancouver, where one of these centers has been active for year, they found that there was no increase in use. Another part of the plan is for police officers to have a choice when they make a drug arrest – they can send the user to a judge and trial or they can put the user directly into treatment. Purely from a public health perspective, this plan has the potential to help a lot a of people. And in our current position in the war on drugs, where we have arrested thousands of people with no reduction in drug use, we need to try something new.

The Surprises of Research

Professor Andrew Mertha’s talk on Cambodian-Chinese relations was a very lively one, and one that was particularly interesting for me, being in the process of finishing a course on China. It was really great to hear not only about Cambodian and Chinese history however, but also a first-hand account of the research that Professor Mertha did that ultimately led to the writing of his book. One of my primary takeaways from his talk was perhaps how unpredictable the research process is and how often the findings diverge from the expectations. Professor Mertha explained that during his research process he only happened to stumble upon an old Chinese government document in a Cambodian museum labeled “top secret,” and when he asked the staff, it turned out they had piles of them. In a turn of events, however, the type of Chinese the files were written in was so technical that neither the professor nor his Chinese friends were able to read them. However, in another astonishing coincidence, one of professor Mertha’s students happened to have relatives that worked in technical jobs back in China in the 1970’s. As a result, Professor Mertha flew over to China and was able to have them translate the documents. This incredible sequence was truly fascinating, but the professor told us that after all that, it turned out that the Chinese proved to not have very much influence in Cambodia because their bureaucracy was too mismanaged to coordinate an effective strategy. Ultimately, I thought this past Wednesday’s talk was very unique and interesting, and I was lucky to have attended.

Future Plans for a Better Ithaca

Last Tuesday, I attended the Town Hall meeting held in the Klarman Atrium with fellow Rose Scholars. There, several other members of the Ithaca community including Mayor Svante Myrick discussed different plans for construction in Collegetown, housing in Downtown Ithaca, and the controversial Ithaca Plan.

Since I’ll be looking for off-campus housing myself in the near future, the segment about Collegetown was a deep interest of mine. Many Collegetown residents have had to deal with construction noises early in the morning as well as the unsightly views of building renovations along Dryden Ave, Eddy St, and College Ave. None of these projects are likely to be done in the near future, but the Director of Planning, Building, and Economic Development expects that these projects will not only be completed within the next five years, but will also bring more traffic to the Collegetown area. Myrick expressed concern for Collegetown as well, stating that he was embarassed to see the area in a state of such disrepair. But after more housing projects are completed and construction is finished, there should be more commercial business within the area for accepted families and current students to enjoy.

Initially before Myrick spoke of the Ithaca Plan, I was supporting him. I had talked about his plan for a supervised injection facility with my parents, who were more than skeptical. But after hearing Myrick talk about what kind of planning and research went into the Ithaca Plan, I am all the more for it. Myrick had wanted a new way to combat the war on drugs; he spoke with over 300 people within the Ithaca area to talk about their opinions towards drug use. Myrick and his officials composed research into the facilities, seeing the effects of supervised injection facilities in Vancouver, CA and Switzerland, where many people who visit supervised injection facilities not only can prevent overdose deaths, but also decrease usage of heroin and other drugs within the area. The main point of having a supervised injection facility is to save lives and help people recover. “Dead people don’t recover,” Myrick stated.

Transitioning Between Insider and Outsider Culture

I initially wanted to attend this concert because I recognized a name on the program: Tchaikovsky, which I became acquainted with through my Music and Diplomacy class. Going into Bailey, I recognized some kids from marching band and previous (and current) classes. I note this not because I was particularly surprised, but because it was a little odd to identify who the orchestra kids were when for the past four years I was in their position. In high school, I used to be in marching and concert band, so I had few opportunities to view or participate in performances outside my own. So Sunday was a little bit of change of pace for me, the music was soothing and as always I ended up with a few new pictures on my phone. Despite, the “culture shock” of becoming somewhat of an outsider to the “music world”, the concert was all in all enjoyable. Hearing the two Symphony’s flautists made me proud to one of their peers (in a musical sense), but also really sad that I haven’t touched an instrument for almost a year since graduating and a flag since last semester when I first joined color guard and the CU band. This concert gave me some nostalgia, but hopefully will prompt me to make something productive of the accompanying emotions.

Learning About Cambodia

Professor Andrew Mertha lead a highly engaging discussion on Cambodia and its relations to China. He discussed how Cambodia’s recent history has been dominated by the rule of the Khmer Rouge, who committed vast genocide against the Cambodian people. Unfortunately, because the United States was in the midst of a war with Vietnam during this period, they were somewhat reluctant to destroy the vicious and brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge.

He also discussed the relationship between Cambodia and China that has existed for quite some time. China has arguably had the most commercial and cultural influence on Cambodia, and in fact, China supported the Khmer Rouge. This was due to both ideological and political reasons, as the Khmer Rouge’s approach was perhaps a more severe implementation of Mao’s cultural revolution and also China viewed the Khmer Rouge as a counter to Vietnam. I found the professor’s adventures to study the relationship between China and Cambodia incredibly fascinating. For example, he discussed how he attempted to decipher dense Chinese documents he discovered in Cambodia and was actually able to do so through the help of a student. The professor definitely allowed me to realize that education, learning, and research are not necessarily linear activities, but require some degree of adventure and meandering to achieve truly satisfying results.

Watching a concert from literally a different perspective

A week ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Cornell Symphony Orchestra concert would be a Rose event. Since I play in the CSO, it was nice to know that I would be fulfilling my rose event at the same time performing in the concert!

In the concert I played the viola and was fortunately located right at the center of the stage where I could observe all the players. Like many other concerts we have had in the past, the performance was very different from our usual practice. In rehearsal, the orchestra concentrates on all the technical aspects of each piece which drains out much of the fun and makes the music seem lifeless and repetitive.  As performers, our main goal is not to mess up during the actual concert. However on the day of the actual performance, people are no longer nervous about making mistakes because there is no use worrying about it. All the musicians can do is do their best. Even the conductor always reminds the orchestra on the day of the concert to relax and enjoy the music, and not to worry about making mistakes during the performance. This way of thinking aways works and makes the music feel alive and transformed.  In many ways, I think the performance on the actual day is special because we too (not just the audience) are able to enjoy the music .

While this performance was just another great experience, it was also a sad one for many of the musicians because the visiting conductor would be leaving after this semester. Even though he is just a visiting guest conductor for this semester, the short time we had with him has created a bond. While many musicians (including myself) did not attempt to get to know him on a personal level, almost all of the people I talked to felt sad that he would be leaving. This is quite interesting because it shows that music crates a sense of attachment between people. Since successful performance requires the conductor to understand the characteristics of the orchestra, it is necessary for everyone to understand the conductor at a deeper psychological level. Though this usually happens naturally over time, it is interesting how this deep understanding of one another can lead to an unnoticed friendship between the orchestra and conductor.

IMG-459107932While this particular performance was very exhausting compared to others, it was also a great one. I am already looking forward to next semester’s performance!

Jeb!

I’m sorry to disappoint, but this blog post has nothing to do with Jeb Bush or politics. It’s far less exciting!

One thing about ‘Aferim!’ I couldn’t help but notice were the many references to folklore. Did people “back then” used to be so boring as to need to relate every event to some absurd story, which had changed five or six times due to being passed down by rote, about how the world started. I feel sorry for those who believe these narratives and use them to justify their dubious actions, namely slave-holding and wife-beating in the film.

At one point in the movie, the priest went on for five minutes describing every possible stereotype from the English to the Romanians to the Gypsies, which in the end warranted the beating of Gypsy slaves. This film took place in the Romanian territory of Wallachia in 1835. For many people during this time, priests were the authority on morality, so when they spewed their ridiculousness and reinforced uninformed generalizations about different types of people they turned their listeners into thoughtless, accepting drones, especially when it favored them, i.e. allowing them to own and beat slaves.

I remind you to question your beliefs and authorities.

An Afternoon of Stellar Music

Today I had the privilege of attending one of Cornell Symphony Orchestra’s performances in Bailey Hall. I was thoroughly impressed by the students’ abilities. Their dedication and passion for their craft shined through their repertoire. Today they played Ludwig’s Fanfare for Sam, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, Sibelius’s, and Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 43. My favorite piece was Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. The music was an accurate representation of the critical events of the play as well as the characters and their relationships. It began with a gentle chorale, which signified the voice of Friar Lawrence. The brash, hurried tempo that followed illustrated the feud between the Capulets and Montagues. As the piece began to wind to an end, the intensity began to wane, thereby exemplifying the play’s tragedy.

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Overall, I left Bailey Hall with an increased appreciation for classical music. It reminded me of my own days as a member of the orchestra from elementary school to the end of my sophomore year of high school. Also, I highly admire the orchestra students – it was clear that they had spent a lot of time perfecting their performance.

This was a wonderful event and I look forward to attending more student performances such as this one.

Cambodia

This week Professor Mertha gave a great lecture. He was so entertaining and made the lecture interesting. My knowledge on Cambodia was not great prior to this lecture so I did not know what to expect. Professor Mertha told us about the genocide that took place and how the regime killed different groups of people until it finally turned on its own members. It is crazy to think that about 1/7 of the population was killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge and most people do not even know that this event took place. Why is it that some events such as this are not well known yet everyone knows about the Holocaust? I think that the information we are exposed to is limiting in many circumstances. I am glad I went to this discussion to learn about the events that took place in Cambodia because it is important to learn about history and the awful events that took place to prevent them from happening again. Professor Mertha also had to investigate this time period and it’s amazing that he compiled all of the information for his book with the help of one of his students. They spoke to many people in China that were there and familiar with the events that took place at the time and were excited to share their stories. I think it is important for us to listen and learn from those that came before us because they have unique experiences to share with the rest of us that help us understand and appreciate the past.

what…the…F**k

Dealing with rape culture is an everyday contact. Women (of all ages and walks of life) have to deal with the utter nonsense that is spewed from the mouths of both women and men (however, we must acknowledge power systems and that men have the power in dominant societies and that what they say has more power because of the structures of society).

This is a shirt you can buy at Amazon.com8f5a1e7682f3252b7996067f658b7a9b_400x400

THIS IS OK TO SELL IN OUR SOCIETY – A profitable commodity.

These sentiments from Twitter are also highly liked sentiments:

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These are actually some of the most benign tweets I could find. These are really sentiments by ‘educated’ citizens of our society. How we stop them? We prevent rapes by stopping rapists, not by interrogating rape victims. The “he was such a nice guy” argument is far too used and one that I’ve experienced first hand here on campus. With a recent, highly publicized sexual assault case, here on campus, the “he was such a nice guy” argument was used just as much as the “why would he rape HER…Maybe she’s lying” argument.

Focusing on the .3% of rape accusations that turn out to be false over the 90% of rape cases that go unreported is rape culture (@Sazza_jay). Thinking that she is lying is not only inflammatory, it is, statistically, virtually not an existent argument.

There’s also the STUPID argument that only “women who respect themselves deserve respect”…Only respecting modest women means not respecting any woman.

I (and most women) really don’t understand what is SOOOO hard to understand about this statement. It’s not rocket science! Get your Sh*t together, society.

The History of China’s Involvement in Cambodia

This past week I was able to hear Andrew Mertha talk about the role that China has had in Cambodia’s history and economy. This is a topic that I am not very familiar with so I found it interesting to hear his personal stories of travelling to Cambodia and interacting with the people there. I found it interesting that the librarians he worked with were not being paid and therefore were willing to work on a national holiday, as long as they were paid. I also found it interesting how he found many materials that were entirely in Chinese, especially since that it is not the main language spoken in Cambodia. When he explained how China was a big influence in Cambodia at this time, it made a lot more sense.

I find the history of other countries to be very intriguing. We are taught US history throughout our entire time in grade school, middle school and high school and it is refreshing to hear what other countries went through and where they are at today. Andrew Mertha did a wonderful job presenting the information and kept the audience engaged the entire time. I also thought it was fascinating that we have a program that allows students to go to Cambodia during the winter January session and earn credits. Overall, this was definitely one of my favorite talks thus far.

Cambodian and Chinese Interactions

This past Wednesday I attended a talk with Andrew Mertha about the his interactions with Cambodia and China. Although I didn’t fully understand his role because I arrived a few minutes late, I really enjoyed his talk. He discussed how he spent time in Cambodia, trying to learn as much about China and it’s secrets as possible. Although I didn’t really understand the purpose behind his stories, I really enjoyed his talk.

He talked about how we spent time in Cambodia, and how many people were motivated by money. He mentioned that he wanted to spend time in a library, but it was closed due to holiday. In order to open it, he said he had to pay their salaries for the day, and he had it open to him self. Additionally, they were more than happy to make him copies of top secret documents because they made money.

I thought it was funny to learn about a culture that was so motivated by money. I originally thought that our culture was like that, but based on this, it seemed like we were less.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the humor and anecdotal talk.

How cultural capital determines whose artwork gets shown to the toddler

This was the first time that I ever got to play with clay in this manner. However, the white/ Asian participants seemed to have a better grasp of the material and how to use it. Perhaps a function of socioeconomic status/ exposure to dominant culture values, these students were able to successful sculpt what they wanted to form out of the clay. While my friend and I alike (among other black/Hispanic individuals that I noticed) were having a harder time a) determining what they wanted to make and b) molding the clay into something “neat and perfect”.

There was a family there – a mother, a father, and a young boy that the father and mother took turns going around and showing the boy examples of the different sculptures that everyone was making. The parents praised the sculptures that were being done by other white/ Asian participants because, to be honest, they were a lot neater and more pronounced – they also exhibited things that dominant culture(s) value, such as head sculptures and bowls.

I’m not saying that all art pieces should be praised, but given perspective, ‘we’ didn’t have the cultural capital – the art classes from elementary/secondary schools, from private tutors, from museums, from our parents – to create something worthy of the gaze of the young.

Blackness/ Colorism

Colorism is a type of discrimination that affects ALL people despite racial categorization. Many believe that this term is exclusive to the black community and the dark-skin/light-skin ‘debate’ that is found in many communities. However, as displayed in the film and as examined in cultures that range from Asian to ethnic whites, displaying darker pigments (of any amount) automatically puts you in a socially inferior pool.

The film, Aferim!, is about Romanian – Gypsy racial conflicts; who is a slave and who isn’t (or who is perceived not to be) is based on a conversation surrounding blackness. The Gypsy’s were often referred to as darker, while the Romanians were whiter. The way that Costandin (the law enforcer of the town) was able to ‘bully’ people/ find the slave was based on how dark the people around him were, regardless of actual identity – If the person was darker, they were violently questioned.

Aferim is a term that connotes a job well done – a literal ‘Bravo!’…This term is exclusively held for the white men from the white men. These legacies of slavery are seen in all cultures and affect the whole world in ways that are beyond the time frame of the movie.

Cambodia History and Chinese Influence

I knew little to nothing about Cambodia before tonight, and my previous knowledge consisted of knowing that it was somewhere in Asia.  When I discovered that it borders Vietnam I was surprised that I hadn’t learned more about the country, especially since I studied the Vietnam war in US History classes in middle and high school.  Professor Mertha explained that Cambodia was an United States ally, but were reluctant to become involved in our war with Vietnam.  Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge rise to power and its subsequent genocide of Cambodia’s people removed it from the United State’s attention.  Regardless, I was surprised to learn about the genocide by the Khmer Rouge, its lack of participation in the Vietnam war, and China’s attempt to pull the strings of Cambodia’s leaders.  Perhaps more surprising was Cambodia’s ability to push back against Chinese influence and maintain its own volition.

The second part of Professor Mertha’s talk was devoted to his finding top secret and classified Chinese documents that related to Cambodia and his subsequent adventures in understanding them.  It was incredibly lucky for one of his students to have had the connections to help him understand the documents he found, and this is a prime example of why teachers should discuss their current research/projects with their classes.  Moreover, Professor Metha’s successes in understanding the documents highlight the importance of persistence and hard work.

CAPS

Professor Mertha is one of my favorite professors here. Hilarious, vibrantly knowledgeable, and–as he told us the first day of class last semester when i took a class with him–has a pepper on ratemyprofessor.

I’ve always had an interest in Asia. When i took CAPS 3403 with Mertha, that interest became something like an obsession. There is so much to be learned, studied, and enjoyed through China. Even the Chinese language is great.

What was fun and fresh about this talk however, is that it wasnt all about China. The Cambodian Experience of the Khmer Rouge was brought into light.

Mertha is really interesting in the sense that he has such a bank of analogies. In this lecture, he told the story of when he interviewed, in Chinese, Pol Pot’s cook-turned-China ambassador.

After the lecture was over, I went up to Mertha and asked him about Beijing, which he is familiar and where I’ll be for two months this summer. He told me of the Chinese War Museum, which should have a connection to the Khmer Rouge as well as China at large. I’m pretty excited to check it out, and pretty happy to attend another one of his talks after my time in his class has elapsed.

CiLo

I became a part of CiLo this year when the Student Assembly committee was formed by a great friend of mine, Milicent Kastenbaum. We do things to better community relations between Ithacans and Cornellians, and to try to kind of gray that very bolded line by doing events like this one. Most Cornellians barely even think about the City they live in, but it really is an astonishingly vibrant community and great place to live.

That said, it does have its issues. And there are issues that pertain to students, and there are issues that pertain to the community at large. Our group wanted to aim for a student based discussion, but at the same time acknowledge the big changes that are coming (Related to the new drug program here).

The panel was great. Plenty of great questions were asked and plenty of even better answers were given. It seems a big step to try to prove to students that the government is actually trying to help fix the housing market, or to help boost the economy in the area, or to give incentive to landlords to renovate their homes.

The best part about these events however, is that after they’re over, you can actually reach out to the community to get a sense on their situation, and how they feel about anything mentioned in the talk. There are always two sides to these issues, and there is a huge population in Ithaca that some people barely know about.

sexual assault awareness

It’s hard to talk about sexual assault. Kate Harding made it a little bit easier.

Kate was refreshing and interesting, she brought her own experiences together to shed some light on sexual assault on college campuses. One interesting thing she said was a study, where plenty of universities were asked “is sexual assault prevalent across college campuses” to which most college administrators said yes. Then, when the administrators were asked if they thought sexual assault was prevalent across their own college, most said no.

Also, we talked about a “red zone” where there’s the acclimating time for new college freshmen. Generally, the most rapes and sexual assaults happen within that O-week period, so it was interesting to learn how some universities are trying to combat the problem.

Living Through My Camera

     It had been a while since I last went hiking. I got a little messy, learned about some forest dynamics, and, because I was warned about ticks, later that day I learned about those too. I think going on my hike through Cornell Plantations was a good opportunity to get some fresh air and some nice pictures, all of which I would have missed otherwise.

     Starting off the trip, I got a few snaps of these dogs who live in a house neighboring the plantations. We were initially scared when we had the bigger one coming towards us, but luckily he was friendly and the little one loud but not bold. If you look in the background you can see them walking away, and in the front is our guide, Director Bittner.

Dogs walking back home

So we continued on, and as you’ll be able to see from most of my photos I stayed behind taking pictures.

Peeking through the trees

Mr. Bittner was telling the group about the meaning of the red marks, and about differentiating between the meaning of the single and double dash. After taking my picture, I ran up to meet the rest of the group, and that was kind of the dynamic for the rest of the trip.

Panoramic Shot

 

In between my allergic reactions and listening to Mr. Bittner, I played around with the panoramic feature on my iPhone. Luckily for me, no one was moving here so I ended up with one good wide-shot. So we continued, stopping every once and a while to hear from Mr. Bittner, and to sneak in some photos. The weather was a little chilly at first, but as we continued on uphill more tolerable. On our trip, we started out talking about finding clues of human land development.

Looking up

Tagged trees

Tagged trees

From the use of barbed wire, population regulation, and tags, such as the one in the photo above, we learned how both humans and other organisms interact with the environment to suit their needs. This led to a conversation about how species interact with one another, deer with native plants, humans with the growing number of deer, and my favorite bird courtship, which I thought was kind of funny. Apparently birds aren’t just superficial, but some are driven towards the bright and vocal as opposed to the strong because the aesthetically-pleasing give off the illusion of strength by drawing so much attention to themselves. Other such interactions include tagging trees that need to be injected with pesticides to mitigate the impact of invasive species. As Director Bittner explained the holes we’d seen were dug out by large woodpeckers.

The place where I ruined my shoes

The place where I ruined my shoes

Apparently some large woodpeckers over here...

Apparently some large woodpeckers over here…

All in all it was a nice trip, we were both greeted and shooed away by some cute dogs, and on our way back I found a country restaurant, Stella’s, that I can check out in my next three years. I ended with a nice set of photos, I learned a bit about the plantation as well as photography. Going back to campus, Director Bittner introduced me to the thirds-rule, and now I have a new term under my belt. We looked through my photos, I found a few gems, my favorites being some of my last.

Back Again

Bye, Dogs

Looking through my pictures afterwards, I saw this dog's expression and realized it was very expressive

Looking through my pictures afterwards, I saw this dog’s expression and realized it was very expressive

It was a trip I’m glad I had the opportunity to take. Thank you to the Rose Scholar’s program, Director Bittner, Cornell Plantations, and the other scholars for a nice day. For more pictures contact me through my netid, kaj93, I’ll be glad to share.

The Two C’s: Cambodia and China

I’ve probably learned more about China in my two years at Cornell than I have in my entire life. It might be helpful to note that my roommate is an international student from China (thanks Marco). I actually attended a talk on China with Thomas Christensen, author of “The China Challenge,” a couple of weeks ago. I found the talk to be quite interesting and insightful. Throughout my time at Cornell, I have been learning more and more about a country that can be considered as both “developing” and “powerful.”

The original speaker for this Rose Cafe talk, Benny Widyono, could not come due to health issues. I would like to take this moment to wish him the best in whatever complications he is going through. In Dr. Widyono’s absence, Professor Andrew Mertha took his place. Professor Mertha talked about Cambodia’s history and China’s influence for the majority of the hour. He was very lighthearted and provided comic relief for the moments in which he discussed some of the more darker days in Cambodia’s history. It was interesting to hear about the Khmer Rouge regime. After the talk ended, I actually looked up Pol Pot. Although I was familiar with his name and reputation, I never really knew the man himself.

Professor Mertha gave us a glimpse at how challenging research could be. He had some difficulties in accessing information from the libraries/archives in Cambodia. In fact, one of the individuals in charge of a particular information center refused to give Professor Mertha access simply because the official didn’t like him (haters gonna hate). After talking about Cambodia, Professor Mertha moved on to China. Is China as “dangerous” as some people make it out to be? Does China want to take over the world? Why is it making investments in Africa and South America? Does China “own” the United States? Will we all have to learn how to speak Mandarin eventually? According to Professor Mertha, this perception of China is inaccurate. It is a very large country with its own issues that it has to deal with. Overall, I thought this talk was quite informative. I was especially intrigued with Cambodia because I didn’t know too much about it before the talk. Can I call myself an expert on Cambodia and China now? Well, probably not Cambodia. But, China on the other hand… 😉

 

 

Each One Reach One, Each One Teach One

Today, Ithaca College professor Cynthia Henderson came to Flora Rose House to hold a workshop  on racial discrimination and race relations in America. Though the topic is a very relevant one, especially in today’s world, I was unpleasantly surprised to see that only one other person showed up for the workshop. All I can say is that everyone else really missed out because it was one of the best events I have ever attended.

The three of us (the other Rose scholar, Cynthia, and I) began by writing on three different boards the first things that popped into our heads relating to “black people”, “white people”, and “privilege”. Attached is a photo of what each of us wrote down, and the circled items were things that we felt have brought us, or people that we know, pain in the past. Some of the things that I circled included the words “discriminated”, “affirmative action”, “black-on-black crime”, “appropriation”, “Black Lives Matter”, and “misogyny”.

This activity was extremely important because it not only gave me the chance to share how certain things have brought me pain in my life (such as intersectionality, #AllLivesMatter, and colorblindness), but it also allowed me to expand on why they’ve done so. But on top of that, I was able to hear the feelings of the other Rose Scholar in attendance (who happened to be White), feelings on race issues and how she felt stereotyped against at times, a perspective I never thought to take. Sometimes, it’s so easy to get so wrapped up in a cause that we forget other individuals who are indirectly being affected by it or who are indirectly being prejudiced against as well, and this activity enabled me to recognize this and make plans to amend my way of thinking.

Following this, we were given individual mini notebooks to do a modified Privilege Walk, where we were asked a series of questions, to which we either wrote a minus sign if it didn’t apply to us or a plus sign if it did. An example of such a statement was: “If you learned about your ancestors in elementary social studies class, take a step forward/write a plus sign.” By the time we had completed the activity, I had a total of 12 pluses and 13 minuses, while the other Rose Scholar had 21 pluses and 4 minuses. This was an observation I was half expecting, yet I was still surprised to see such a divide between the two of us….And that was only after 25 of such questions. Something Cynthia was sure to remind us of, and something that I really appreciated during the duration of the workshop, was the fact that someone’s privilege as a White person, or someone’s discrimination as a Black person, isn’t a result of our own doing, but rather a result of the way society has unfortunately been structured for centuries. That point probably resonated with me the most, even though I already knew that it was the truth: being African-American is not my fault, just how being born White in a country that caters to White people is not the fault of every White person in America.

Something else that I particularly enjoyed about the workshop was the last activity that Cynthia had us do: taking what we’d written down on the boards and writing a poem about an race-related event that we’d experienced in our lives that we hadn’t said anything about at the time. I won’t share what I wrote in this blog post, but being in such an intimate setting with just Cynthia and GRF Antonio gave me the confidence I needed to share three events (of many) that had occurred that I’d never had the courage to talk about. And that’s something that I’ll honestly treasure for the rest of my life. As a writer, I know the importance of writing things down and the emotional release that accompanies doing so; that’s why I’m so thankful that Professor Henderson allowed me to keep the notebook, so that I can continue this practice of reflecting on my experiences and allowing them to shape me into a better person.

The last thing I did before I left was ask Cynthia  few questions that I had, of which included what I was supposed to do about my younger brother and cousin who will both start college in the fall. As young black men, they are in constant danger of having their lives taken from them for simply walking down the street and/or for simply being black, and I told her that sometimes I feel personally responsible for “waking them up,” so to speak, so that they’re aware to the differences that will exist between white people and black people in college–from blatant racism to smaller microaggressions. “My mom always used to say to me, ‘Each one reach one, each one teach one,'” Cynthia said in response to my question. And by that she meant that as each Black person scales a hurdle or achieves a milestone in life, it’s important to reach back and help bring along our brothers and sisters, never forgetting to only take on what we can handle, but always striving to advance the successes of our race in this country.

Starting a Conversation

Let me start by saying that I LOVED Professor Henderson, I loved the program, and I thoroughly regret the fact that not more people signed up for such an incredible event.

Prof. Henderson got us talking about privilege – a topic that simultaneously nobody and everybody wants to talk about. I admit that it was very uncomfortable for me at first, being that I, thankfully,  have never experienced discrimination. I felt as though my opinions were not valid, and therefore didn’t deserve to be voiced.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Professor Henderson made me feel more than welcome to speak my mind, and I finally got off my chest the types of things that have been bothering me for so long. I would constantly negate what I had said, saying it was “petty” or “invalid” and every time, she would correct me and remind me that it was a safe space.

So much love. So much respect.

I really wish I could have stayed for the whole presentation. Truly inspirational, and would definitely recommend to everyone. Please come back, Professor!!!

Research is a Struggle with Great Rewards

This Rose House Cafe Series was interesting to see how a researcher goes about searching for sources in writing his book. It is obviously not easy to write a book, but I had no idea the exact challenges that went into making one. The speaker’s adventures opened new insights to me about the research process.

I thought it was hard to select one specific topic that the speaker wanted to focus on for the book but how he involved so much history to support his main idea/point. He talked about the history of the regime of the Khmer Rouge and how people under the regime worked on construction and mechanical projects that brought upon great influence and connection to China. I liked how he made that connection in his research and presented that in the book.

It was interesting to listen to his adventure of finding Chinese documents on the projects worked under regime of Khmer Rouge. It was impressive in how he tried to use the documenter center in China but was not allowed access and did not give up and tried the national archives of Cambodia, where he stumbled upon numerous research secrets. It was a great lesson to see that even if one door closes another door opens for a new opportunity. Also, I thought his story showed a great lesson on the Cornell community where the librarians at the national archive actually were trained at Cornell and they helped him to gain access into the archives.

His story also showed the importance of networking where his post-doc student was able to gain him contacts with people who actually worked on some of those projects in the Khmer rouge regime and was able to interview with them. It was great to see how he enjoyed the interviews with the people.

Overall, this talk gave some great insights and lessons in how to pursue research for a book or anything in life in general.

Learning in an outdoor classroom

I really enjoyed the opportunity to get off campus last Saturday on the Fischer Old-Growth Forest field trip. Special thanks to Rose House Fellow Todd Bittner for leading the trip and for all of the information he shared with us about the geology and history of the forest. One of the things I found most interesting was the differences we were able to see in the vegetation between fields of different ages. The first field on the outside of the forest had been farmed up until fairly recently, so shrubs/trees/etc. hadn’t taken up root yet; the next field had been abandoned earlier than the first, and it had been overgrown by a thicket of invasive shrub; the next field was older still, and was more of a forest than a field by now: it had tall trees and some underbrush; the last environment we saw was the old-growth forest, which was populated by evergreen trees that are hundreds of years old–because of the denseness of the canopy, this section of the forest had little undergrowth, because there wasn’t enough sunlight to support it. The delineation between each of these different environments was very clear as we walked through them. It felt a bit like entering a textbook diagram. Considering that the old-growth forest is one of the spaces Cornell uses as an “outdoor classroom”, I guess it’s pretty ideal that that’s the feeling it gives. At any rate, it was exciting to learn how to read the signs given by the landscape and vegetation to make inferences about their development. I think I will look a the local landscape with a slightly sharper eye now.