Author Archives: bdm86

About bdm86

I'm a freshman in the ILR School from Princeton Junction, NJ. Outside of school I enjoy playing basketball.

Protecting Natural Lands

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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.

Social Justice Careers in Tompkins County and Beyond

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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.

Resourcefulness in Research

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This week’s Rose Café focused on Cambodia. The substitute speaker was well versed in the topic and very funny as well. My main takeaway from the talk was how he was able to conduct his research, gather sources, and interpret those sources. I thought it was fascinating to learn about his ability to gain relevant documents and his determination to understand the value of each document that he collected.

 

The speaker talked about how his search to find relevant documents for his research took him to China ad Cambodia. In China he was not allowed to access the documents that he needed and then he went to Cambodia. In Cambodia he was welcomed with open arms. This was partially because some of the employees of the Cambodian National Archives were trained at Cornell. The speaker was also able to rent out the entire Cambodian National Archives during a holiday to collected the needed documents.

 

Once he had the documents he needed to interpret the documents. One lesson I learned from the talk is that you never know where help will come from. By luck and coincidence, one of his students had a relative who was able to help him interpret the documents and connect him with other knowledgeable people. This connection ended up being critical for the success of his research.

 

Overall the talk was very interesting and well worth the time. I think his talk contained valuable lessons about resourcefulness.

Success in College and Beyond!

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The Rose Café last night was about “how to succeed in college and beyond.” It was an interesting talk because it is very relevant for me as a college student. It was also slightly overwhelming to digest all of the information presented by the speaker. Nevertheless, his enthusiasm of the topic kept the audience engaged throughout.

 

I do not think that current college Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors is the perfect audience for the talk because some of the talk focused on what do to before college in order to prepare. This discussion was interesting, but not very relevant for me because I have already gone through high school and the college admission process. If I was still in high school, I think this portion of the lecture would have been extremely helpful. In the future I will recommend the speakers book to any high school students asking for college advice.

 

I was surprised that the speaker did not define what he meant by “success.” I was not sure if his advice was focused on getting a good job, getting good grades, meeting good friends, or being a protective member of society. It would have been helpful if he had talked about what “success” means to different people. This could change the type of advice that would be needed to help someone succeed. For example, if getting good grades was a measure of “success” for one person then the best advice would be to study a lot. But for another person who’s goal is to meet good friends this would not be good advice.

 

Even after seeing the talk twice I was still glad that I attended. I think this is a testament to the quality of the speaker and the importance of the topic that he presented about. Unfortunately, I did not win the raffle so I will return next year to try to win.

Stress Reduction

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The Rose Café tonight was about stress reduction techniques. Two professional counselors from Gannett gave us tips about how to reduce stress and preform better during the final weeks of school. It was a very timely talk because classes are getting busy, papers are coming due, and exams are around the corner. Luckily, using the tips from Gannett you can try to achieve optimal stress levels.

The talk focused on little things that students can do to help reduce stress and increase performance on exams. Some of the suggestions included breaking up work into “chunks” to make assignments seem more manageable. This is a tip I will try to use for my upcoming papers. This makes sense because three papers of three pages in length seem much more manageable than one nine-page paper.

The speakers also stressed the importance getting a proper amount of sleep. Luckily I have been in the habit of getting a good amount of sleep at night, but I could definitely improve. I was going to start trying to get more sleep tonight, but I have to finish this blog post. Actually, I did not lose any sleep over the writing of this blog post.

During the last five minutes of the talk we did a group meditation session. It was my first time doing meditation and I was impressed with how relaxed I felt afterwards. After only five minutes I felt reenergized and hungry. I’m not sure if the hunger was related to the meditation, but it was noticeable. In fact, I went to eat another dinner following the meditation session.

I also enjoyed seeing college councilors in action because my mother is a psychologist at a university. When I was quite young, I would tag along with my mom when she would talk to groups of college students. I remember going to an event that she organized called “the stress free zone.” It was conducted during final exam week and had all sorts of fun activities for the students. I remember the therapy dogs, stress balling making stations, and more.

My mom has an emergency on call phone for her university so I could relate to the councilor who was nervous about possibly getting an emergency call during the night. Luckily, my mom’s phone doesn’t ring very often.

Soils are More Important Than You Think!

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When I heard that the Rose Café was about soils I questioned attending, but I am glad that I did. I never knew that soils are so important to combating global warming and the talk was very worthwhile.

At the beginning of the talk the speaker asked the audience to define soils. Surprisingly, no one knew the definition of such a common and everyday substance. In addition to learning the definition of soil I learned so much more. One topic that especially interested me is how improving soil quality could help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. Essentially, soils can trap carbon dioxide which means that less carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere contributing to the green house effect. This could be a major tool in slowing climate change because soil can trap large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Another benefit of improved soil quality is that highly fertile soil can promote plant growth. Plants use carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis. Then when the plants die they can be used to return carbon dioxide to the soil. Some tribal villages use ancient processes to return the nutrients, including carbon, to the soil. These methods involve stacking food waste and chard plant material on top of depleted soil.

The researchers are now trying to replicate the ancient process with a new fertilizer made from chard cow bones and some other ingredients. I wonder if this process of charring and processing cow bones and then transporting the final fertilizer actually produces more carbon dioxide than it reduces.

I was pleasantly surprised with the talk and enjoyed learning more about soil. I hope that the solution described by the professor will indeed help combat climate change. It seems to hold promise and I hope that the cost will not impede adoption of the new fertilizer.

The Lack of Technology Adoption

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Last night’s Rose Café focused on the problems associated with three stone stoves and potential solutions to the problem. Currently, about half of the world’s population uses three stone stoves to cook. This method is harmful to both health and the environment because of the smoke that is created during the process.

Even though clean modern cooking devices are being offered to people who use three stone stoves they are not being adopted at a high rate. Substantial discounts also have had not convinced people to use the stoves. As a result, people are sickened by older stoves and use much of their free time gathering wood for fuel.

The current solutions seem to come with too many compromises. Modern stove heat cannot be changed during cooking and once the fuel is consumed the food quickly becomes cold. Even though the new stoves are much cleaner, they may seem like at inferior product to people who have been using three stone stoves for generations. More research and development should be done to produce a cleaner stove that does not compromise on important features.

Until a time when a satisfactory no-compromise product is developed, I think an innovated and novel approach to stimulating adoption may be needed. Maybe encouraging people to use the stoves outside of their homes would go a long way to improving health. Perhaps people could be encouraged to cook food for themselves and their friends at the same time to reduce health and environmental impacts.

Putting myself into the shoes of someone using a three stone stove I would view the new stoves with skepticism. From the view of a native: A foreigner that I have never seen before wants to sell me an expensive stove that does not have the capabilities that I am used to. They say that it is safer, but how would I know? I have been using it for my entire life and I feel healthy.

I think the solution to the problem will come in one of two forms: a low-cost efficient stove that does not compromise on important features or an out-of-the-box idea that helps convince people that the benefits of modern stoves outweigh the lack of features.

Cornell Tech – Is it Right for You?

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Today’s Rose Café talk was about the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. The presentation resembled an information session that you would attend while visiting colleges. Currently, the school is housed in Google’s building in New York, but within the next two years Cornell Tech will move to its own campus on Roosevelt Island. From the renderings, the campus seems beautiful and modern. The location of the campus also seems ideal. It is located on an island between Manhattan and Queens. This gives the campus its own identity while allowing easy access to the resources of New York City.

The curriculum at Cornell Tech seems interesting and somewhat unique. As someone interested in technology I was intrigued by the technology focused classes that also address a variety of non-technical subjects. I think this curriculum would give students a great background to enter the workforce.

I will be interested to see how Cornell Tech evolves over the coming years. It will be fascinating to see if it can retain its agility and flexibility as it grows into a large institution. I am also curious to see if the Roosevelt Island campus is large enough to accommodate the inevitable growth of Cornell Tech. At first it may be difficult to recruit top students into such an unproven concept, but the Cornell name may help in over coming that obstacle.

Doom and Gloom

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Professor Aaron Sachs’ lecture about humor and environmentalism presented me with new ideas that I had not previously considered. He argued that environmentalists are so un-humorous that they may be hurting their cause. In my personal experience, I have never met a funny environmentalist, but I can understand why environmentalists would not want to use humor when discussing issues that are so sobering.

I did think of one notable exception to the humorless environmentalists: Jon Stewart. I do not know if Jon Stewart technically qualifies as an environmentalist, but he clearly shares similar views on climate change with many environmentalists. When he was still on the air, I found his humor very effective at persuading viewers. Unfortunately, Jon Stewart is no longer on T.V. Perhaps this is the reason he was not discussed by Professor Sachs.

One memorable example of Jon Stewart using humor to advance his environmental views happened after a Senator brought a snowball into the Senate Chamber in order to disprove climate change. Maybe this was the type of humor that Professor Sachs was envisioning. I do think Jon Stewart’s satire would be more effective at convincing the general public than a dry lecture by an environmentalist.

I also enjoyed the clip that Professor Sachs showed from The West Wing. It showed a group of environmentalists making a presentation to a member of The White House Staff. The staffer was not convinced by the presentation and made some jokes about it. Even though the jokes were somewhat funny the environmentalists did not find any humor in them. Maybe if the environmentalists had joked with the staffer they would have had more success persuading her to support their proposal.

Melancholy Verses Sadness

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The Café about melancholy was different from most other Café lectures. Notably, it was given by a Graduate Resident Fellow (GRF) instead of a professor or other professional. It was also more abstract that other Café lectures. I enjoyed the change of pace and appreciated the passion of the presenter. It was clear that she was genuinely enthusiastic about the topic.

While I was able to understand the broad ideas of the discussion I found myself unable to grasp the more nuanced distinctions made about melancholy. As someone who is not familiar with the books and plays referenced, I had difficultly understanding the nuances of the topic. I think that I would have enjoyed the talk much more if I had a previous understanding of the books and plays being discussed.

I did appreciate the discussion about how melancholy is comparable to the seasons because it inevitably comes and goes. This was an interesting conceptualization of melancholy and one that I had never consider prior to the lecture. It also makes sense to me because it seems inevitable that people will feel some sort of melancholy throughout life.

I am glad that I decided to attend a lecture on a topic that was not familiar to me. I feel like it will expand my horizons.

Far Above the Busy Humming of the Bustling Town

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The Rose Café about the City of Ithaca development plans made me realize how separate the Cornell campus is from the broader community of Ithaca. Especially in the winter weather, I almost never get into downtown Ithaca. For this reason, I was happy to learn about different projects taking place within the city.

I think the city has to proceed carefully in order to maintain the qualities that make Ithaca special. In my opinion, one example of development projects diminishing the quality of Ithaca is the Lowe’s on Route 13. This big box store may be necessary for the local economy; however, I really don’t enjoy seeing it after hiking up Buttermilk Falls. It seems like this project diminished the natural beauty of Ithaca.

I was happy to hear that the city planning board pushed back against plans to build a high rise apartment building next to the Commons. It seems like this would have made the Commons feel very urban and unwelcoming.

After talking about the new hotels being constructed downtown I made sure to look for them on my recent trip. I was suppressed that the Marriott is so far along in the construction process. I hope it is able to blend in with the rest of the Commons.

Learning about the happenings of Ithaca is always useful, considering that I live there for the majority of the year. I am looking forward to seeing all of the projects once they are completed.

Good Intentions, Unintended Consequences

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The documentary Poverty, Inc. is thought provoking and somewhat disturbing. The film described how foreign aid to impoverished countries can harm the economy of poorer countries and actually perpetuate poverty. The film gives an example of a Haitian solar panel business which was thriving and providing numerous jobs to local workers. These jobs provided workers with economic security and the ability to sustain themselves. Despite the success of the Haitian solar panel company, they were put out of business by aid organizations providing free solar panels to Haiti. The donations backfired by causing local people to lose their jobs.

I had never considered the potential negative economic impact of providing foreign aid to poorer countries. The film made me question how wealthy people can make a positive impact to fight poverty if, as the film asserts, providing foreign aid actually hurts the recipient country. The film made it seem as if billions of dollars in aid was actually hurting the situation rather than helping.

Luckily, the film provided some possible solutions. The theme of these solutions was to increase the economic infrastructure of a society so, for example, more people can get loans to start new businesses. Ultimately, a vibrant economy would increase employment and allow people to provide for themselves. The film also suggests making “the rule of law” stronger in order to help people protect their property.

The documentary also highlighted the Toms shoe company. The company provides one pair of shoes to a poor nation for every one pair of shoes they sell. I had always considered this social entrepreneurship a creative solution to a problem. However, the film discussed how the free shoe program destroyed local shoe factories which lead to local people loosing their jobs. After hearing about the unintended consequences of companies such as Toms I will think twice before buying their products. As the movie suggested, I think a much better solution would be to produce the shoes in poorer countries in order to provide jobs to local people and stimulate the economy.

Overall I thought the documentary was very well done. It made me think about issues that I have never considered, but are extremely important. As someone who enjoys studying economics I hope to learn more about this subject in the future.

Anticipation and Letdown

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I was looking forward to attending the MLK Commemorative Lecture today. The lecture featured prominent activists who helped created #BlackLivesMatter. Given the impact of #BlackLivesMatter in todays society I was excited to hear the prospective of the creators. Was the reaction they have receive what they had expected? What would they have changed about their campaign with advantage of hindsight? What are the next steps? These are some of the questions that I had hoped to hear the answer to.

However, the lecture was full when the group of Rose Scholars arrived and they would not allow anyone into the lecture. Even after the staff let the crowd of people know that the building was full most people remained outside for upwards of 15 minutes. I think many other people were excited to hear the lecture and were simply in disbelief when they were not able to get in. I wish the lecture was in a larger venue, but I hope that everyone that got into the talk enjoyed it.

I heard that they were audio recording the event and I hope to listen when it is posted online.

“These Rappers Look Like Gang Members”

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The movie Straight Outta Compton follows a group of aspiring rappers on their rocky journey to fame and fortune. The film, which is set in the mid-1980s, depicts many issues surrounding race and law enforcement that remain important issues to this day. Numerous scenes in the movie show the challenges that the artists faced solely because of their race. In one scene the group is taking a break from recording a new song when the police arrive to question them about their activities. Even though they had done nothing wrong, they were targeted because of their race. The police harassed and forced them to the ground before letting them go.

Unfortunately, the portrayal of racial discrimination highlighted many similarities to the present day. I was struck that 35 years later many of the scenes depicting racial tension could, and do, still occur to this day.

Despite the challenges of being a minority from a difficult area, the group was talented enough to make it big. The group’s nationwide recognition led to concern that the lyrics in their songs promoted violence. However, the group never held back any potentially troublesome lyrics which led to a greater following and more confrontation with police. Lyrics such as these are still widely used and still are the subject of debate. However, unlike in the movie where the police shutdown a concert over inflammatory lyrics, today the free speech rights of rappers are more respected.

Ultimately, the group broke up thanks to an agent who pretended to work for the performers’ best interest, but in reality only wanted to enrich himself. I was frustrated that the agent would take advantage of the group’s hard-earned success in order to line his own pockets. I could not help but think what could have come if the group was able to stay together and productive. However, it is a good lesson for viewers to remember that when large amounts of money are involved people may not always have your best interests in mind.