Author Archives: Isaiah Brilhante

Finger Lakes Land Trust

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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.

Advocacy

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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.

Cambodian History

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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.

How to Succeed in College

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe with guest speaker Dan Schwarz. Dan Schwarz is a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences here at Cornell. The talk focused on Professor Schwarz’s book How to Succeed in College and Beyond. Professor Schwarz gave tips on how to be a good student as well as how to navigate college life.

One of the topics that he touched on was the Cornell Greek life. Professor Schwarz believes that fraternities create a type of ‘hive mind mentality’ within the fraternity. What I mean by this is that whenever there is an opinion, everyone in the fraternity agrees with that opinion because no one wants to go against the grain. Personally, I think that this is just a generalization about fraternity life. There are both pros and cons when joining a fraternity and each person just has to weigh them accordingly. I chose not to join a fraternity here at Cornell because I am on a varsity sports team and all my extra time outside of class goes to playing tennis. I also really enjoy the privacy that west campus gives me.

Another topic that Professor Schwarz talked about was choosing classes based on Professors rather than topics. What he means is that he suggests that you take classes from really good professors. Professor Schwarz said that the really good professors will be the ones who will care about you and will be the ones who will be able to write you good letters of recommendation if they are asked to. Being a junior, I have taken classes with professors who care about you and classes with professors who do not really care about you and I can tell you that it makes a huge difference. Having interesting professors makes you look forward to going to class and look forward to talking with them outside of class.

Stress Relief

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe event with Sarah Rubenstein-Gillis and Andrea Gerding. Sarah and Andrea work at Gannett Health Services and the focus of their talk was stress. They also gave us various mechanisms on how to cope with stress for the upcoming finals weeks. They began the talk by providing some examples of signs that can tell you if you are stressed. Stress manifests itself differently in different people. For example, stress can cause physical ailments such as physical exhaustion, muscle tension, or migraines. On the other end of the spectra, stress can cause mental ailments as well. Inability to sleep or focus are some examples of such mental ailments.

When I get stressed, I have a difficult time falling asleep at night. Sarah and Andrea said that the reason for this is that I am worried about things that I have to do. They suggested that I try listening to relaxing music or making a list of the things that I have to do so that when I sleep, I do not have to think about these things. Another thing I learned from the cafe was that it is always better to try and prevent stress. This can be accomplished by providing yourself with positive energy throughout the day. For example, if you are working on an assignment, break up the assignment into smaller parts. That way, when you finish a part, you still receive a sense of satisfaction that you completed something. This will help you to not feel so stressed out later on in the assignment.

I really enjoyed this Rose Cafe event. With finals week coming up, the information I got from the talk was very relevant. As I had mentioned earlier, stress keeps me from falling asleep sometimes, but since this event, I have already used some of the methods and have been able to go to sleep much quicker.

Soil

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Café event with guess speaker Dr. Dawit Solomon. Dr. Solomon is a researcher at the Department of Plant Sciences here at Cornell. His talk focused on the importance of the various aspects of soil.
As a biology major, I have learned of the importance of soil in various classes. It was very interesting to see someone give a talk about soil because when it comes to ecology, soil is never really seen as a key aspect. However, I know that soil is actually a limiting factor in terms of plant growth. For example, in a real world scenario, it is widely known that plants, especially trees, reduce the amount of CO2 that is in the atmosphere. This causes a lot of people to wonder, why don’t we just plant a lot of trees to help the environment? Well, that is because the nutrient content of the soil actually limits the amount of trees that can be grown in a single place. If too many trees are planted in a single place, then the soil will become depleted of nutrients and there will not be enough time for the soil to regain these essential nutrients needed to support plant growth.
Overall I enjoyed this Rose Cafe. The topic of the event was very unique and interesting. I thought that the talk might be boring due to the topic but seeing how passionate Dr. Solomon was about the topic made me enjoy the talk.

Jacob’s School

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On March 2nd, I attended the Rose Café with guest speaker Adam Shwartz. Professor Shwartz’s talk was about the new Jacob’s graduate degree at Cornell Tech. The campus for the Cornell Tech school is located in New York City. The Cornell Tech school is focused on training students for jobs in the various fields of technology. For example, the school offers a wide range of courses dealing with health technology to media and communication technology. Despite still being a relatively new school, the Cornell Tech school is growing quite rapidly and according to Professor Shwartz, its growth is expected to continue over the next couple of years.
Although I am not directly interested in going to a tech school after graduating from undergrad, I still found the idea of the Jacob’s program to be very appealing. The amount of real world opportunities that a student could get going to school in New York City is infinite. In addition to that, you get to work in a field that is directly related to the field of technology that one finds the most interest in. In other words, the amount of specificity and variety in the Jacob’s program seems like a very great benefit. I can also see the need for these types of grad programs increasing in future as the world becomes more and more reliant on technology. After undergrad, I hope to go to dental school and become a dentist. However, even in the dental field, more and more procedures are integrating technology, making things more efficient and accurate.

Barriers to Adaptation

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On Wednesday, March 9th, I attended the Rose Café with Professor Garrick Blalock. Garrick’s talk focused on his research in rural Uganda. His research involved getting the local Ugandans to switch from using their traditional three-stone stoves to a new gas-burning stove. I remember at last year’s Rose Cafe Garrick gave the same talk. I remember that it was very interesting to see the statistics on the “barriers of adaptation.” For example, on the houses that Garrick just offered the new stove for sale, there was a very low buy rate. However, the buy rate jumped significantly when Garrick offered things such as a warranty, weekly payment plan, and a free trial period. The most interesting part of the talk was when Garrick related trying to introduce these new stoves to buying a hybrid car. Buying a hybrid car is more feasible when you have these economic support systems in place. Just like a hybrid car, the new stove is more expensive at first, but the health, long term cost, and environmental benefits far outweigh those of the three-stone stove. Another interesting part of the talk was that this year Garrick went back to Uganada to follow up on his research. It was both interesting and saddening to hear that almost none of the stoves that Garrick had sold were still being used. Very few of the families still had the stoves in their homes. I guess the takeaway from Garrick’s talk was that culture maybe the biggest barrier to adaptation as the Ugandans had every economic support offered to them and a year later, not a single one was still using the new stoves.

Silviu Tanasoiu: Motivational Speaking

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Last Week Wednesday I attended the Rose Café with guest speaker Silviu Tanasoiu. SIliviu Tanasoiu is the coach of the men’s varsity tennis team at Cornell. Coincidentally, that also makes him my coach as I am also a member of the tennis team. The topic of his talk was about motivating yourself to be the best that you can be. Being one of his players, I have heard Silviu give us (the tennis team) very similar lectures before. What I find most interesting about his talks is that he is able to make the topics relevant to every single aspect of your life. What I mean by this is that Silviu’s talk about striving to be the best can be applied to many different areas of life, not just specifically tennis or sports. For example, one of the things that Silviu talked about at the Café was the idea of staying positive. Whether it’s on the tennis court or inside the classroom, it is imperative to stay positive. Often, people become so focused on the outcome or the results of a situation that when they do not get the desired result, they let their emotions affect them in a negative way. Even if you do not get the result you desired, whether it’s a test score or a job interview, you have to stay positive and analyze the things you did well and things that you need to improve on. I really enjoyed listening to my coach speak at the Rose café. Obviously Silviu wants us to excel on the tennis court but I really respect him for wanting us to achieve in all aspects of life, not just tennis.

DREAMers and the DACA

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Scholars event with guest speaker Esmeralda Arrizon-Palomera. The topic of the discussion was the DACA program and DREAMers. Prior to this event, I never heard of the DACA act or DREAMers. Having grown up in Hawaii, undocumented people are not really an issue as it is probably impossible for them to get to Hawaii undocumented. I never really had thought of the dilemma that would arise from undocumented immigrants bringing in their children to the U.S. I do not think that it is fair for the children to have to suffer for something that their parents did. While the DACA program is definitely helpful for these individuals, I think that more action is required to help those eligible for DACA become full time citizens. If these people do meet the requirements for DACA I think that they would make decent citizens and should have the opportunity to become “documented” citizens of the United States. The United States is the land of opportunity and kids who were brought into the U.S. should not have to pay the price of their parents’ mistakes with their future. Overall it was a very enjoyable event as it is not everyday that you learn about a topic that you have never heard of before nor ever thought existed. I guess this also speaks to how secluded Hawaii is as a state from the rest of the U.S.