Author Archives: Chelsea Kennard

Succeeding in College: Off-Campus

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Tonight I had the pleasure of listening to the very enthusiastic Professor Daniel Schwarz. He has written numerous books about various subjects and is the winner of the Russell Distinguished Teaching Award in the College of Arts. He discussed his new book, How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning.

Beginning with the crucial freshman year of college and continuing through the senior year, he discussed that his book offers suggestions on how to negotiate the challenges of each year as well as suggestions about specific issues such as time management and whether to study abroad for a term or even a year. In specific chapters he addresses how to choose classes, why the humanities are essential, and how to prepare for the future after graduation.

One section that I found most interesting was about the suggestion for college juniors to study abroad. Having lived abroad in Finland as an exchange student before coming to Cornell, I feel that I have experienced some of the points he made and could not agree more.

Schwarz stated, “ If at all possible, take a junior term or year abroad and participate in the Global Village.”

I feel that going abroad made me a better citizen by offering me a more cosmopolitan perspective on how the world works than I could have gotten at home. Some of this came from meeting students from other countries. By encountering new challenges, I learned more about myself. Schwarz stated that students usually return with greater self-confidence, poise, and maturity. Nothing teaches you how to think better and at a higher level than new experiences and new situations.

Living in a different culture outside my comfort zone, my learning took new forms. I was not simply reading history, but I was immersing myself in another culture. My assumptions about how the world is organized politically and socially were challenged. I discovered that many of the truths that I was taught and take for granted were questioned.

Learning about other cultures and languages is best done, in my judgment, through travel. Students from other countries need to visit the US and we need to visit other countries. Travelling is education by life experience and complements education by books and professors. While abroad, students should travel as much as possible. Be sure to visit as many countries as you can and to see as much of your host country as you can. My year abroad turned me into a lifetime traveller.

Who knew soil could be so complex

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Tonight I had the pleasure of listening to Dawit Solomon, who is a Senior Research Associate at the School of Integrative Plant Science, Soil and Crop Sciences Section, present about his research that focuses on identifying and quantifying the processes and the causes of soil degradation in natural and managed ecosystems.

First he asked us the question: What is soil?

Having never thought about this question, I was shocked when numerous definitions were produced. Soil can be thought of as the dirt between our fingers when we garden or farm, a medium for living organisms such as plants, and a complex biomaterial that is integral to Earth’s environment and the central organizer of the terrestrial ecosystem processes.

He then asked: Why study soil?

Again, I had never pondered this question and realized how key this is.

The soil sustains most living organisms, being the ultimate source of their mineral nutrients. Good management of soils ensures that mineral elements do not become deficient or toxic to plants, and that appropriate mineral elements enter the food chain. Soil management is important, both directly and indirectly, to crop productivity, environmental sustainability, and human health. Because of the projected increase in world population and the consequent necessity for the intensification of food production, the management of soils will become increasingly important in the coming years. To achieve future food security, the management of soils in a sustainable manner will be the challenge, through proper nutrient management and appropriate soil conservation practices. Research will be required to avoid further degradation of soils, through erosion or contamination, and to produce sufficient safe and nutritious food for healthy diets.

This was only one small area that was touched upon at tonight’s Rose Café and I am very glad that I was able to attend such as informative talk about a topic that I had previously not had much exposure to.

The Reality of Varsity Athletics: Don’t overlook it, Don’t underestimate it

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Tonight I had the pleasure of listening to Tennis Coach Silviu Tanasoiu talk about the privilege of being a student athlete, the responsibility of participating in a varsity sport, the adversity, how adversity should be your best friend, and the relationships that form.

Coach Tanasoiu tries to remind to players often that they are in a position of privilege. They are fulfilling a spot of only 48 players in the entire world that competes in the Ivy League. He also recognizes the challenges of balancing academics and athletics.

Student athletes face the same difficulties that everyday students face, such as taking challenging classes, balancing workloads, and meeting deadlines, all while adding another daily responsibility to their schedule. Not only are varsity sports time consuming, they are physically demanding. An athlete goes the extra mile by committing to their team and representing their school.

He spoke about how the adversity that varsity athletes face should not be avoided but should be embraced. Through adversity you have a chance to explore how far you can go.

A statement that resonated with me was, “Don’t be too hard on yourself when facing adversity.” Coach Tanasoiu advises to not get caught up in the outcomes, but instead focus on the details that you have control of.

When you are focused on the outcome and you attach your worth to the outcome, you will find yourself very resistant to trying new things and putting forth your best effort. When you define your worth by your performance rather than your effort, you stop yourself dead at the starting gate.

When your sense of worth is attached to the effort you make and putting forth your very best, then the process itself becomes exciting and rewarding, regardless of the outcome. In fact, people who define themselves through effort rather than outcomes do not think much about the outcome. While they have goals, and they certainly want to achieve their goals, they are not focused in the future on the goal. Instead, they are in the present moment, putting forth full effort in their desire to be all they can be.

Listening to Coach Tanasoiu speak about his passion of excellence, tennis, and development of his players was an honor and his advice was pertinent to life on and off the court.

 

 

A Single Story

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This evening in the Rose Café, Esmeralda Arrizon-Palomera, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of English, talked about the Undocumented Youth Movement and the cultural production that has emerged out of it.

One aspect of the conversation that stood out to me was when the rejection of the term DREAMer was discussed. This term is a very narrow narrative about who the undocumented immigrants are and what the experience is like.

I strongly related this to “The danger of a single story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

We are impressionable and vulnerable in the face of a story. Showing a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, creates a single story and that is what they become.

It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by a phrase “to be greater than another.” Who tells these stories, when are they told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

Stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.

Carbon Credits

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Today the Rose House Dean, Professor Garrick Blalock, gave a discussion that was very interesting. In the beginning of the discussion he asked a series of questions, including:

Do we think that we should leave the planet in a same or better state for future generations?

Do we think that cars emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming?

How many of us own a car?

He then led us through a discussion, which included the voluntary carbon market, which is a carbon-credit trade. I had never heard about this concept and decided to further inform myself of this concept. The questions I explored and the answers I found follow:

Where do carbon credits come from?

Carbon credits come from GHG emission reduction projects that deliver measurable reductions in emissions by either replacing the use of dirty fossil fuels with renewable energy; reducing the use of fossil fuels through energy efficiency; or capturing and storing already released carbon in trees and other plants. Professor Garrick Blalock mentioned that capturing and storing already released carbon in trees and other plants is known as carbon sequestration and requires the protection of existing forests or the planting of additional trees and plants. The atmosphere has no national boarders and does not care where GHGs are emitted or prevented. The most important factor in terms of fighting climate change is reducing the total amount of emissions worldwide.

How does carbon offsetting provide a solution to climate change?

Carbon offsetting on its own will not provide a solution to climate change, it will need a multi-layered approach with different schemes working in conjunction. However, carbon offsetting does have a large role to play in the overall approach to carbon management. Reducing emissions internally takes time and money; carbon offsetting is a quick and cost effective way to balance a carbon footprint. At the same time, the emission reduction projects paid for by offsets introduce clean technology and investment into developing countries, helping communities to improve their economy and industry but not at the cost of the environment.

Are carbon credits just permission to pollute?

Carbon credits are not permission to pollute, because even with the clean technology we continue to develop, our society as a whole is going to carry on polluting the atmosphere. It is not possible to not pollute, but one thing we can do is regulate it. Under Emissions Trading Schemes there is a maximum amount of CO2 that countries, or companies, are allowed to release into the air every year. Countries and organisations can buy or sell carbon credits, that is, the allowance to put more carbon into the air, from other countries and organisations. Where one might lose a carbon credit, the other is gaining it. In fact, having carbon credits is believed to help reduce pollution as it encourages companies to continually reduce emissions. Buying obligatory carbon credits is an additional cost to a company, it therefore motivates companies and countries to look for ways to internally reduce the amount of CO2 they emit. Likewise, there is an incentive to pollute less than the allocation as selling the surplus carbon credits is also lucrative.

 

 

A University Not Bound by University Rules

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Adam Shwartz, representing the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, gave a very interesting talk about this graduate institution. Cornell Tech’s campus is currently located in Google’s landmark building in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, a hub for a number of leading tech companies. In 2017, the Roosevelt Island campus is opening and will be unlike any other.

The premise of this institution is that the rapid pace of innovation in the digital age calls for new approaches to commercializing university technology, new levels of strategic collaboration between companies and universities, and a new curriculum to foster the production of visionary ideas grounded in significant needs that will reinvent the way we live.

To emphasize that increasing pace of innovation, Shwartz told us to think back to 2007. This was not even 10 years ago, and we would not recognize this world. In 2007, Facebook did not exist nor did smart phones, which is now very much apart of our everyday lives.

Being a Nutritional Science major I was interested in how technology could benefit the health industry. Shwartz discussed that they were educating students in addressing critical health challenges for all of society. He used the example of the numerous people that are dying from chronic diseases. They are not dying from lack of care, but dying from the lack of adherence to care, and technology could close this gap.

Cornell Tech is a small academic institution that is blending technical depth, business knowhow, design skills and a “builder” mindset into their programs to offer students a unique educational experience and it was very interesting to hear about all it has to offer.

The Newest Subject of Knock- Knock Jokes?

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Last night I had the pleasure of listening to a talk by Professor Aaron Sachs about environmental humor, or the lack of it. I really enjoyed how he presented the information, by using videos to demonstrate his points.

He discussed the differences between tragedy and comedy. Professor Sachs said that tragedy was good at grabbing our attention but not good at keeping it. He posed the question, Why aren’t environmentalists using comedy?

Here are some beneficial reasons to include humor in your work:

To address uncomfortable or confrontational subjects. Humor is often the only vehicle to address such topics. Professor Sachs made the point that along with tragedy comes judgement and you are less likely to reach common ground. With comedy this common ground can be reached.

Keeps people engaged. Humor keeps you engaged, instead of just briefly catching people’s attention.

Makes your work memorable. Environmentalists are concerned that if they use humor then their work will not be taken seriously. Currently, environmentalists are the center of other’s jokes because they lack humor. They are not laughing at themselves, so others are doing it for them.

You have to remember that there is a balance and that comedy has become risky. Current day comedians have to walk a fine line between making a joke and offending people. But in the case of environmental humor, that extra risk could definitely be worth it.

One of the Most Expensive Places to Live: Ithaca, New York

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Tonight at the Rose Café, I had the pleasure to attend a talk by Lisa Nicholas, a senior planner for the City of Ithaca. During her talk she mentioned that Ithaca is thriving in many areas, except in the area of living costs.

When thinking of cities likely to have the least affordable rental housing, New York City is a good bet. It only makes sense that the financial capital of the United States would be an expensive place to live. So I thought it was very surprising that Ithaca would rank to be one of the top cities where rents are highest relative to median gross income. 

The simplest explanation that Lisa Nicholas gave for why Ithaca’s rental housing market is skewed is supply and demand.

One of things that makes rentals expensive in Ithaca is that the supply of rental units is really limited. Thanks to a constant stream of renters supplied by Ithaca College and Cornell University students, landlords in Ithaca find themselves with very few vacancies. Nicholas stated that the current rental market in Ithaca has a vacancy rate of less than 1 percent. A desirable vacancy rate in a real estate market is typically 5 percent. In addition to increasing rent, a housing market that prioritizes a student population leaves the rest of Ithaca’s rental market in the dark. 

Not only is the presence of Ithaca College and Cornell University dictating the city’s housing trends, the institutions also create jobs. This brings new faces to Ithaca looking for a place to live, and Nicholas shared that the majority of people that work in Ithaca, commute, because of the limited housing. It would be more beneficial for the city if they lived in Ithaca, and she predicted that many would if they had the means.

Overall, it was a very interesting talk about something that everyone at Cornell could relate to.

Informed Worldview

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I was able attended a very interesting Rose Cafe, where Professor Nicolas van de Walle from the Cornell government department attended. He spoke about governmental and economic reform in African countries, which was of great interest to me, because I was just accepted into Cornell’s Global Health program and I will be traveling to Tanzania this summer.

I was particularly interested in the governmental reform aspect, because of the way that Tanzania’s republic formed. Julius Nyerere, known as the founder of Tanzania, ruled from 1961 to 1985, and was an impassioned advocate of socialism, but often mauled by his critics who state that his idealism failed to deliver prosperity to his people.

To his credit, Nyerere stepped down peacefully and voluntarily, long before it became fashionable for Africa’s self-appointed life presidents to subject themselves to the verdict of their peoples in multi-party elections.

In 1967 came Nyerere’s Arusha Declaration, his policy on socialism and self-reliance. Its cornerstone was ujamaa, or familyhood, which was imposed on Tanzania in the following years. The aim was to collect people into villages or communes, where they would have better access to education and medical services. Nearly 10 million peasants were moved and a substantial majority were forced to give up their land. But to most Tanzanians, the idea of collective farming was abhorrent. Many found themselves worse off; incentive and productivity declined, and ujamaa was effectively abandoned. It was a measure of Nyerere’s international prestige that the failure of this fundamental policy at home in no way dented his global standing.

Even to this day, Nyerere, is revered in Tanzania, and in East Africa, due to him providing a moral leadership to Tanzania, and indeed Africa, when the continent was taking its first shaky steps after independence.

N.W.A gets the Biopic They Deserve

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One thing that can’t be disputed is how many rappers past and present have chronicled injustices experienced by urban and African-American communities in the U.S. through their music. Few of them, however, have been as groundbreaking as N.W.A., the quintet who rhymed about the grim realities of their immediate, volatile surroundings. Formed in the late ’80s out of South Central Los Angeles, the group put the West Coast, specifically the city of Compton, on the map during what had been an East Coast-dominated hip-hop scene. While critics of their hardcore and vulgar lyrical content ranged from white politicians to conservative black community leaders, their message and meteoric rise, chronicled in Straight Outta Compton.

Straight Outta Compton is an explosively entertaining hip-hop biopic that raps home truths about race and police brutality as timely now as they were during the 1980s in Compton, California. The atmosphere is charged as cinematographer Matthew Libatique creates striking visuals that pull us into the fray. For me, the film’s righteous highlight is a Detroit concert where the cops threaten to jail the bandmates and shut the place down if they sing the rap that has demonized N.W.A to Middle America. Of course they sing it. And the crowd roars. The movie is never as potent as it is in that groundbreaking moment, when artists and audiences connect.

I throughly enjoyed watching Straight Outta Compton, especially at the Cornell Cinema, where Cornell’s very own BreakFree Hip Hop group put on a phenomenal performance to introduce the movie.