Author Archives: Kaela Noble

Everything is a commodity

Posted on by
4

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!

How to succeed in actually getting to college

Posted on by
1

Although Professor Schwarz’s book is titled How to Succeed in College and Beyond, the portion of his discussion that stuck out the most to me was his thoughts about succeeding before college; in particular, applying and getting accepted to a university. In one part of his discussion, Professor Schwarz talked about how private or upper-middle class schools tend to prepare kids for college from a young age by offering resources such as tutoring, advanced classes, etc. I went to a private middle school and I can attest that this is true; I remember doing a project in 7th grade in which I researched different universities and picked out the ones I most wanted to attend. Our curriculum was also more advanced in comparison to the public middle schools in the area.

After I graduated from this private middle school I went to a public high school in a middle-lower class town. Although I liked it better than my private school, there were some clear differences in the caliber of academics. Out of my entire graduating class of 550 students, I think only about 100 ended up going straight to four-year universities. I had friends at the private high school in the area, and if I recall correctly, 90% of the graduating class went straight to four-year colleges. There’s clearly a wide discrepancy here.

I think part of the reason for this discrepancy is that upper-class schools and families simply have more resources to prepare their children for college. Upper class students probably also feel more pressure to get good grades. However, I think the biggest reason is that lower-class students are discouraged from even applying because they think it’s unaffordable. I knew so many smart people with good grades who didn’t even apply for four-year colleges because they thought their family couldn’t afford it. When word got out that I was going to Cornell, countless people asked me how I was going to afford to pay the exorbitant $60,000 tuition. To be honest, I got a $45,000/year grant, and scholarships and loans covered the rest. My family paid very little out-of-pocket.

So anyways, I think the main reason why lower class students tend not to go to college is because they simply don’t know how much aid is available to them. Of course they know financial aid exists, but I don’t think they know quite how much a school can offer them. Professor Schwarz briefly touched upon this lower/upper class divide in his talk, but from firsthand experience I think the reasons for this divide are a lot more than a lack of resources. If lower class high schoolers simply realized that it is possible for college to be affordable, I think they would try harder to get good grades and apply to universities.

What’s the difference between the flu and depression?

Posted on by
Reply

Stress is such a difficult feeling to describe. Although some of the physical symptoms are similar for most people, I feel like the mental state that it produces can be different for everyone. For me it makes me feel simultaneously antsy and worn out, and it’s a strange feeling. Stress is also like a bad cycle; I stress out about having so much stuff to do that it wears me out, which makes me fall behind on my work which stresses me out even more. Since stress affects everyone in different ways, it follows that people manage stress in different ways, and it’s often hard to find the best way that works for you. Last week I went to a talk by Rubenstein-Gillis and Gerding, two therapists in the CAPS department at Gannett, and I gained some really valuable insight into some ways to manage the huge amounts of stress that come with being a college student.

One piece of advice that Rubenstein-Gillis and Gerding suggested that really stood out to me was the idea of chunking your work, and doing only a few sentences at a time. It’s so hard for me to sit down and do all my work at once, and sometimes I do try to divide it up into chunks; however, I didn’t really realize until this talk that it’s perfectly okay to make your chunks really really small, as long as it motivates you to do the work. Plus, I find that oftentimes when I finish one chunk of work it makes it much easier to move on to the next. The whole concept of having very realistic, reachable goals is very helpful in finishing my work. Even if it’s only a couple sentences at a time!

I don’t think there’s anything more important than taking care of yourself, and oftentimes society emphasizes taking care of yourself physically (i.e. exercising and eating healthy), but we often neglect mental health. Although it has gotten better in recent years, mental illness has long had a negative stigma attached to it, and I find that we often try to hide our mental problems and put on a brave face. It’s easy and socially acceptable to tell someone you have the flu; however, it’s not really socially acceptable to tell someone you’re depressed. Why is this the case? Why is physical ailment more acceptable than mental ailment? I feel like some people think that your mental health is more within your control than your physical health is, and I think this is totally untrue. You can’t control your brain chemistry, just as you can’t control a virus invading your body. Sure you can take preventive measures such as thinking positively or washing your hands, but when it comes down to it a mental illness is just as real as a physical illness.

Life is a balancing act

Posted on by
Reply

In all honesty, I wasn’t too excited to go to last week’s Rose café after I heard that the speaker would be the Cornell tennis coach. Sports are just not my thing; I’ve never played on a sports team before in my life, so I thought it would be hard for me to relate to Coach Tanasoiu’s talk. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. The coach’s talk was actually very relatable and inspiring in many ways, such as when he told the story about his dad selling his car in order to pay for his son’s plane ticket to play in a tennis tournament. This made me feel grateful for all the sacrifices my own parents have made for me to go to such an expensive school.
Although I loved Coach Tanasoiu’s talk, one thing I felt was lacking was a discussion on how important it is to take care of yourself, mentally and physically. While it is important to plan out your time in order to get all your work done, I think it’s also important to prioritize your own health over anything else. Following a strict schedule isn’t good if you’re wearing yourself out and feeling overwhelmed. Despite the stability that most student athletes have, there must be times where they are feeling depressed or exhausted, and in these cases I think it’s really important for them to take care of themselves first by taking a nap or simply taking a break and relaxing. Even if it means breaking their strict schedule! This applies to all students, not just student athletes; sometimes you just need to skip a class or get a lower grade on an assignment for the sake of your mental health. This school is full of perfectionists, and I think it’s important to spread the message that a low grade does not mean you’re stupid or a failure!

Old Habits Die Hard

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I attended a really interesting presentation by Professor Blalock about an unusual topic: cook stoves in Africa. Professor Blalock began the presentation by getting to audience to agree that electric cars are good for the environment; however, only two people in the room actually owned a Prius. He then went through a laundry list of reasons why someone wouldn’t own a Prius, and provided solutions for most of them. Despite this, only a small fraction of the population actually owns an electric car, despite clear evidence that gas-powered cars are very bad for the environment. Professor Blalock then turned his attention to three stone cook stoves that are very popular in African villages, but also very bad for the environment as well as human health. He told us about how he and his colleagues clearly explained these health risks to the African villagers and offered a cheap new cook stove alternative; however, almost none of the villagers agreed to buy one. Some of the same barriers to buying a Prius were the same as the barriers to buying one of these new, environmentally-friendly cook stoves; particularly cost and not knowing if a new stove would meet their needs. Professor Blalock solved these problems by offering financing options and a free trial period, and ended up selling quite a few stoves.

Professor Blalock’s talk made me think about the psychology behind humans resisting change, even when it’s good for them. It’s understandable why someone wouldn’t get a Prius even if it’s good for the environment due to other factors like cost, style, and already owning a car. However, in follow up studies, most of the African villagers in Professor Blalock’s endeavor were not using their cook stoves, even though they had already paid for them! The reason for this was clearly not ignorance on the health issues of their three stone stoves. This had been drilled into their heads. Was it style? Were they worried about their fellow villagers’ opinions of them for using a “Western” device? Or was it simply a desire for familiarity? Old habits die hard, and it’s very easy to just put three stones together and get their old stove back. Perhaps they rebuilt the stove with intentions to use it only once to cook something that was hard to cook on the new stove, but they just continued using it after that one time. Because that was the easy and familiar thing to do. Change is scary, and history has shown time and time again that humans do their best to resist it.

The interrelationship between business and technology

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I got the opportunity to listen to Professor Shwartz’s presentation about the Jacobs Institute at Cornell Tech. Although my career goals aren’t really in the tech field, I found the Jacobs Institute’s teaching style to be very interesting. I think personal interaction between instructors and students is the single most important aspect of learning, and it’s hard to have one-on-one interactions like this when hundreds of other students are trying to do the same. I found it particularly noteworthy how the professors sometimes do their work in the same room as the students, so they can be approached easily if a student needs help. I really like this model of teaching and I think the Jacobs Institute should try to keep their future student admissions at a minimum in order to facilitate this.

I also found the idea of combining business and technology interesting; I’ve always thought of them as separate entities, with engineers creating technology and businessmen advertising and selling it. It seems really efficient to have knowledge in both of these aspects, and I think more tech graduate schools should adopt this approach and offer a few mandatory business classes.

“Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”

Posted on by
Reply

Melancholy is probably one of the most difficult feelings to describe. I think part of the reason why is because everyone experiences it in different ways. For me, melancholy is not necessarily a negative feeling. From my perspective, melancholy is a state of being contemplative, in kind of a somber way rather than a joyful one. I think this state of being is really important in order to reflect on things in a realistic way, rather than just constantly seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. If you are always happy and satisfied, then there really isn’t much motivation to contemplate things from different perspectives, which is really really important in order to avoid close-mindedness. Because in reality, the world is not all roses and daisies. In my opinion, melancholy is an important feeling that leads you to contemplate perspectives that you wouldn’t necessarily think about if you were constantly feeling satisfied with life. It’s a crucial part of open-mindedness and seeing the world realistically.

Sara Schlemm’s presentation was very thought-provoking, and it got me thinking about the influence melancholy has on artistic expression, from paintings to movies. Some of the most beautiful works of art that have been created, including the movie “Vertigo” that Sara discussed, have been inspired by melancholy, and it’s pretty obvious when they are. These are the works that get you thinking. A joyful movie about puppies can obviously be really entertaining, but it doesn’t necessarily stimulate your mind. And to me, that’s what art is all about. I love it when I watch a good movie and I’m given a glimpse into the director’s (usually melancholic) perspective about life.

Side note: the title of this post is a really good Smashing Pumpkins album. If you got that then you’re awesome!

melloncollie

“Ithaca is gorges”

Posted on by
Reply

During Lisa Nicholas’s talk last week, I learned quite a lot about future plans for the city of Ithaca. Personally, I really liked the projects that called for building more hotels downtown; my boyfriend graduated last year and his parents ended up having to stay 45 minutes away from campus because they couldn’t find anywhere closer, and I’m sure a lot of families had to go through the same ordeal! I also think that the plans for future development of Collegetown are really important, because honestly, parts of Collegetown are pretty ugly. I think future developments in the Collegetown area should be modeled in part after the commons, because that area is really nice-looking for an urban area. I only wish I could live here long enough to see these projects come to light!

This talk also opened my eyes to many parts of Ithaca that I have not yet explored. What stood out to me in particular was the bike trail around Lake Cayuga that Ms. Nicholas talked about. It made me realize that I should really try to take advantage of the beautiful nature around here, particularly the lake. It’s easy to live in a “Cornell bubble” and just spend all your days on campus. One weekend in the near future I want to take a break from my schoolwork and ride a bike around the lake!

Why do we spend so much money on killing people???

Posted on by
1

Last week I got to enjoy a talk by Professor van de Walle about the political development of African countries throughout the past few decades. He focused particularly on the effect of foreign economic aid on these countries. I won’t pretend to be an expert on this topic; in fact, I know almost nothing about it. However, I learned quite a lot from this talk even though it was only an hour long. One of the best things about Cornell is how you can find experts on pretty much everything within a few miles radius of yourself. In this case, all I had to do was walk down the stairs from my room!

I found it particularly interesting how the US tends to give aid to African countries that establish democratic political institutions, and withhold it from countries with dictatorships (with a couple exceptions). I think that’s awesome because it could give incentive for these countries to overthrow their dictatorships, and I’m sure it has played a major role in establishing democracies across Africa in the recent decades. Although there are probably economic benefits involved, I like how the US and other democratic countries are able to look outside their borders and offer aid to those in need even if they live halfway around the globe. On the other hand, our country’s defense budget is probably like a hundred thousand times larger than our foreign aid budget, and that’s really a shame. I think the world should spend less money on destroying other countries and more money on helping out their fellow human beings. If an alien were to visit Earth, I think it would be really perplexed as to why we hate other people simply because of arbitrary borders.