Author Archives: Helena

The Art (or the Science?) Of Learning

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Last wednesday I attended Dr. Schwarz’s talk on his book “How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning.”

I felt like there was a some very good advice, but also some aspects of his talk that I did not agree with. He covered the general topics of the book in chronological order, starting with getting into colleges, and finishing with ‘success’ beyond college.

The advice about getting into college and the freshman year did not really apply to me as a sophomore, but he aknowledged that most of the audience was sophomore or above, and hurried through those sections. One thing he said about freshman year was that the first 6-12 weeks was the “red zone” by which he meant that most bad things happen. Although I found the first 12 weeks at Cornell to be the hardest, I found that most of my freshman year was extremely challenging.

Another thing that he talked about was diversifying the student body of top notch universities. He talked about the some of the challenges that low income students face. I am do not fit the mold of the typical Cornell student, and especially in my first year in engineering, I found it very difficult to keep up with students who had already been exposed to a lot of the coursework. Though this was one of my major struggles in adapting to the Cornell environment, I feel that Dr. Schwarz did not give the issue much attention. He seemed to have focused his advice to appeal to majors in the College of Arts and Sciences where this is not as much of an issue.

Another piece of advice that I think did not translate as well to the engineering curriculum, was to choose courses with great, caring, passionate professors. The engineering curriculum does not offer very much flexibility, so choosing a professor is often not an option. If it was plausible, I could see how that advice would be very useful.

Dr. Schwarz implied that Ivy League institutions such as Cornell often inflate grades. I also have not seen this to be true in the engineering department. Large survey courses in math and science especially tend to have long hard exams, and come out with a bell distribution which is curved usually to a B or B-. I think that this often does not reflect the abilities or the learning of a student very accurately, but not because it is an inflated representation.

Overall I thought the talk was very engaging and that Dr. Schwarz is a very interesting individual and most likely a fantastic professor, but that is advice was not particularly well suited for engineering students.

Stress Reduction Techniques

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At this week’s Rose Cafe, a couple of psychologists came in from Gannett to discuss stress reduction techniques. One of the things they talked about was conquering a big workload. They suggested having a pre-work routine, which is a routine of things you do before you start working on something. I like to relax and search the web after getting back from class but before starting homework, but I tend to get distracted and waste a lot of time before I actually start working. Another thing they mentioned was working for a little and then taking a break, but they said that breaks that involved social media usually lowered self esteem and decreased productivity. Instead they recommended making some coffee or tea, or taking a walk. I realized that a good break or pre-work routine for me could involve cleaning my room, because it always makes me feel better to have a clean room, but I can never find the time to clean it. The other main topic they discussed was sleep. They again suggested a pre-sleep routine. they also said that it was important to schedule in the sleep and not treat it as optional. At the end of the session we were guided through a short meditation. I have done meditation before, and I have always found it to be pretty useful in terms of stress reduction.

Digital is In.

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Last weekend I went to the Cinemapolis tour event. I have been to Cinemapolis a few times during other Rose events, and every time was great, so I was thrilled to hear about the tour.

It was really interesting to learn more about the history of the theater. It turns out Cinemapolis resulted from the merger of two different theaters and became non-profit. Because it is a non-profit theater commissioned by the city, they decided to show foreign films and films from film festivals. There is a division of Fox called  Fox Searchlight that specializes these types of films. The marketing and distribution varies from big commercial films in that not as much money is not spent on promotion before the release, but instead the film is seen by test audiences and critics, and interest is spread by word of mouth.

The presenter also talked about the recent transition in the industry from physical film to digital movies. This has made distribution of movies faster, easier and cheaper. And with it the projectors have also changed. The projectors at cinemapolis can be programmed to play pre-feature programming and the accompanying film at certain times. I was vaguely aware of the switch to digital because I heard that the Hateful Eight movie was on film, but it was nice to really learn about the transition and how it affected an actual theater.

Aren’t We All Dreamers?

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Last Wednesday I went to my first Rose Cafe. I didn’t really look at the topic of the cafe before I went, so I was really taken aback when GRF Esmeralda launched into the specifics of the DREAM act and DACA. I honestly hadn’t given much thought to illegal immigration, and especially not in the context of children. I have always been very far removed from these kinds of issues having grown up on a military base in Japan.

Esmeralda explained that the DREAM act was a piece of legislation that was intended to allow children who had been brought into the country and grown up in the country, gone through the US school system, etc. to stay in the US, and allow them to apply for a work permit. However, in the process of selling the bill higher education and the idea of graduates was heavily used, and the parents of the children were criminalized. This does not tell the story of all illegal immigrants who came to the country as children, and many did not support it for this reason.

I think The DREAM act may have been a good first step, but we have a long way to go. It needs to be easier to be a legal immigrant to the US to protect people from becoming trapped in extremely low paying jobs and also to allow children who wholly consider the US to be their home an opportunity to become an American in a legal sense as well.

Learning from Ourselves

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Last weekend I saw the movie “Where to Invade Next.” It was a playful film about claiming good ideas from other countries as American and bringing them back to America. The film featured several countries, mostly in Europe, and Micheal Moore, the writer and director would talk about one aspect of the country that we could claim for America.  Slovenia has free college, France has fantastic food for school children, and Tunisia has progressive women’s rights, etc.

A few of the countries that stood out to me were Italy and Norway. In Italy they have up to 8 weeks of paid vacation time, as well as 3-5 months of paid maternity leave. When interviewing Italian workers, Moore said that Americans do not get any paid vacation time, and the workers jaws dropped. And when interviewing Italian bosses, they said that their workers happiness was a priority, and that they were happy to give paid vacation time. This complete opposition of the two views is just so shocking to me.

In Norway they have outlawed the death penalty, and the longest time one could spend in jail is 22 years. The jails have minimal security, and the prisoners live like normal people. they even have cells with tvs and individual bathrooms. At first the thought of a 22 year sentence for a murder frightened me, but the interviews with the prisoners showed that norwegian methods are effective and that prisoners want to return to normal lives after their sentences.

The most shocking thing was that most of the countries leaders said that the ideas were originally American. I think maybe all we need to do to better our country is to take a better look at the ideals on which we are founded and reform our laws and practices to better adhere to the original american ideas.

Start With One Thing

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Last Monday, spur of the moment, I decided to go to the Racing Extinction event. I was completely blown away by the film. I am very passionate about environmentalism and finding climate change solutions, and the film was beautifully made, but also very informative and compelling. I probably spent at least half of the movie in tears. The film was mostly focused on two things, climate change and its effect on species extinction and illegal trade of endangered species, which also contributes to species extinction.

One of the hardest things to watch was the scenes showing the trade of illegal animals. There were some shots taken in China of exotic animal trade where there were hundreds of shark fins and stingray gills covering roofs and filling rooms. There was also part where they followed a hunt for a stingray of the coast of a small Indonesian town. The men speared the majestic ray and gripped tightly as it flailed desperately, creating a giant pool of blood in the water. When interviewed later one of the men said that he thought that there would not be enough rays to sustain the town long term but he also needed the money to support his family. I think when we are fairly far removed it can be difficult to think about the harmful global effect that these illegal animals can have, and for those who do consume the products of the trade it is hard to make the connection between shark fin soup and a real life endangered animal.

I was very inspired by the segments of the film that talked about climate change and how to prevent it. Particularly because the film brought up the issue of animal agriculture and its effect on climate. Many people are unaware that cattle and other agricultural animals produce massive amounts of methane, which is an even more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Between 18 and 51% percent of total greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture, while all of transportation combined is only about 12%. Additionally vast areas of rainforest are cleared daily to make space for grazing and growing grain for feed. I am vegan, and my main reason is to help the environment. I truly think that as food become scarce and climate change becomes an even bigger threat society will shift more and more towards a plant based diet. And although it would be great if everyone could immediately give up animal products, just small amounts of change, such as skipping meat once a week could make massive changes in the health of our planet.

One of the messages in the film was to start with one thing. If you are a person who eats a lot of animal products, maybe reducing how much you eat would be a good “one thing” to start with. As for me, I could work on my water usage. I tend to take very long showers, and I know that’s not sustainable long term. I have hope that if we work together to educate each other and to hold people accountable for pollution, illegal wildlife trade, ect. that we could stop the progress of climate change and the loss of species to extinction. If we don’t we run the risk of becoming extinct ourselves.

Totally Relatable

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Last Saturday I went to the Science Behind Inside Out event. I love pixar movies, so I went to see Inside Out when it came out over the summer and I was really impressed with the movie. So I jumped at the chance to see it again.

One of the things I liked so much about Inside Out was how much I could relate to Riley and the emotions she was experiencing. During our discussion of the science of the film, the topic of depression came up. Someone at the event said that they didn’t realize that Riley experiences depression in the film, but to me it was all too clear. I have moved several times in my life, once at the same age as Riley in the movie, and I had many of the same experiences and emotions as she does.

I was really interested to learn more about psychological development, and how at different ages children can begin to feel multiple emotions at once. I also was very intrigued by the discussion of cultural upbringing and its effect on emotions. I also didn’t know that people are genetically predisposed to depression and that its onset can be triggered by traumatic events.

All in all, it was fun to rewatch the movie, and I learned a lot about psychology as well.

Not the Aid We Thought It Was

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On Saturday I watch the movie Poverty Inc. It was a very well produced documentary about how there has become a “poverty industry” that makes a profit by providing aid to poor countries, and it does not help the countries, and can sometimes even hurt them. For example, an organization that provides clothes to poor areas can put local businesses who produce clothing out of business. Then when the clothes are gone, there are no local businesses to provide more.

I was a little upset coming away from the film however, because there didn’t seem to be a good way to stop this kind of thing from happening. The director that we talked to suggested not donating to aid organizations, but I don’t think that everyone in the world will stop donating to these organizations. He also suggested to look into the products we buy before buying them, but I still don’t think it is readily apparent which companies are good or bad. The documentary talked about TOMs shoes, and how they put shoe manufacturers out of business, and I feel bad now for supporting the company, but I don’t think you could have known that by just researching the company.

One thing he did say that resonated with me was that you vote with your dollar, and I want to pay more attention in the future to what I’m buying, and what I’m voting for.

Getting Cold Feet

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On Saturday I went ice skating for the first time. I definitely would not have chose the event on my own, but several of my friends wanted to go, so I agreed. I was a little apprehensive before hand, but excited to go out and give it a try.

It was an experience like none other I have ever had before, I have never skied, snowboarded, or even rollerskated before. As soon as I stepped on the ice I was horrified at my lack of control, and terrified that with every move I might land face or butt first on the ice.

However, with a LOT of coaxing, tips, and handholding from my friends (who were laughing at my newbie terror throughout) I actually built up a little confidence and made it around the rink a few times. Although I probably wouldn’t go again, at least not for a while, I did have some fun, and was awestruck by my peers’ ability to gracefully glide around the rink.

 

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