Author Archives: asdfjkl

Following Your Passion

Posted on by
1

Last week’s Rose Cafe featured Laura Rodriguez de Simons, who works at the advocacy center here in Ithaca. I didn’t know that we had an advocacy center prior to this talk, so it was really nice to hear about all of its wonderful, free services (24-hour hotline, shelter, legal advocacy, crisis intervention, and more). Laura also talked about her interesting path to her current career in social advocacy. She studied economics as an undergrad and later got her MBA. She then worked at a real estate firm in New York City for one or two years before realizing that she wasn’t following her passion.

Laura told us that we should strive to pursue careers that we are truly passionate about, not careers that are simply “safe” and traditional. She also advised us to work/intern for free in order to get experience in the nonprofit sector. Personally, I didn’t necessarily agree with that piece of advice; most of the time, it’s simply not feasible for students to devote time and energy into a job without financial support. Nevertheless, if people can afford to do so, they should certainly go for it – the experience would be really valuable.

Taking Professors Instead of Classes

Posted on by
2

Prof. Schwartz was an incredibly engaging speaker. Although none of the people in the audience were freshmen, he spoke on a wide range of college-related topics that applied to all of us in some way: financial aid, study abroad, Greek life, and much more.

One of the most interesting things that Prof. Schwartz mentioned was taking classes for the professor, not the topic. Unfortunately, many of us won’t be able to do much about that until junior or senior year (when we get out of core/major/prerequisite classes). Even so, many of the classes in my major are huge, and people fight for spots during pre-enroll and add/drop. As a result, it is difficult to get to know the professors on a personal level because they are so busy tending to a massive number of other students. I feel like Prof. Schwartz’s advice would be more applicable to humanities students; their classes tend to be smaller/more intimate, which translates to more opportunities to get to know the professors.

Nevertheless, I’ve never really thought about the “taking teachers” approach before – now that I think about it, I definitely would much rather hear a great professor talk about something mildly interesting than take a fascinating class with an absolutely horrible professor.

Being Good to Ourselves

Posted on by
3

I sincerely enjoyed last week’s Rose Cafe. Ms. Rubenstein-Gillis and Ms. Gerding, who both work at Gannett, came to talk to us about mindfulness, meditation, and stress. We began by discussing the physical and emotional effects of stress. It was really interesting to hear what other people experience under stress – for example, somebody said that he gets a locked jaw; somebody else said that her shoulders tense up.

Ms. Rubenstein-Gillis and Ms. Gerding also spoke about the importance of getting enough sleep (9ish hours?) and establishing a pre-study routine. The pre-study routine idea is a pretty good one. Ms. Gerding said that we should consider working in chunks as well (because it allows us to focus on one thing at a time).

At the very end, Ms. Gerding led us through a short, 5-minute meditation exercise. Surprisingly, I actually felt a lot less stressed afterwards, and I could tell that other people in the room enjoyed it as well. I definitely look forward to checking out some of Gannett’s mindfulness meditation events in the future.

Talking About Soil

Posted on by
Reply

Dr. Dawit Solomon, who works as a researcher at the School of Integrative Plant Science here at Cornell, gave a talk about his work at last week’s Rose Cafe. His research focus involves soil fertility and biogeochemistry, and he primarily spoke about soil degradation and the environmental importance of soil.

I had never really thought about soil much before, so I wasn’t sure what he was going to talk about exactly. Turns out Dr. Solomon had a LOT of interesting things to say about soil – like soil carbon sequestration, for example. Apparently, soil acts as a carbon storehouse, so we could potentially reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by storing carbon in soil. By taking advantage of this process, we could also improve plant growth and reduce soil erosion/nutrient loss.

Dr. Solomon also talked about his own research in soil degradation. His team of researchers developed a special fertilizer made from cow bones, an approach that has long been favored by indigenous African communities. He was even nice enough to pass around a bag of the cow bone fertilizer, which was pretty cool to see.

 

DREAMers

Posted on by
Reply

At last week’s Rose Cafe, GRF Esmeralda talked about the DREAM Act, which helps students who have spent their entire lives in the United States pursue higher education and gain legal residency. I had never heard of the DREAM Act before this talk, so all of it was new to me.

I was surprised to find out that many people actually criticize the DREAM Act for placing blame on the parents and suggesting that only those who are getting an education are “worthy” to stay in the United States. Specifically, the language used in the legislation criminalized the undocumented parents. However, these parents are the ones who are likely hoping for a better future for their kids – so then why should the parents be blamed for the situation?

We also looked at posters/signs about the DREAM Act and talked a little bit about the power of these visual aids. It was clear that the DREAM Act only focuses on undocumented students pursuing higher education; after all, the figures in the posters were depicted wearing caps and gowns. Overall, I felt like the posters purposefully put forth a very positive connotation and implied that DREAMers are simply hardworking students who just want to stay in the United States to get a degree.

Better Cooking Stoves

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve heard and read about the problem with cooking stoves in the developing world, but I’ve never considered the complex social and economic issues behind attempts to alleviate it. At last week’s Rose Cafe, Prof. Blalock began the discussion by asking us several questions – do we care about the sustainability issues? What kind of cars do we have? If we care about the environment, then why don’t we all drive Priuses (Prii?) or Teslas?

It became clear that social and economic issues stand in the way of people owning environmentally-friendly vehicles. Even logistical issues like family size came into play; one girl said that she has a big family that wouldn’t even be able to fit in a Prius.

Prof. Blalock then told us that the same types of issues are relevant for the cooking stove debacle. He had worked on a long project to convince people in Uganda to choose cooking stoves that are better for their health and the environment. Unfortunately, people don’t tend to embrace change immediately. Prof. Blalock said that only a small fraction of people decided to give the better stove a chance. More importantly, however, even the people who decided to buy the better stove ultimately didn’t embrace longterm change. When Prof. Blalock went back to Uganda four years later, they had stopped using the better stove.

The talk ended on a slightly depressing note, but the takeaway is this: if we want people to commit to using a new product, we can’t simply consider the cost and design. We need to consider social norms, economic barriers, and a slew of other issues as well.

Saturday at the Museum

Posted on by
Reply

I went to the Museum of the Earth last Saturday. It was my first time there, and we had a tour guide who took us through most of the exhibits. She told us that the museum was organized in chronological order (starting from the Big Bang).

I really liked how the museum was organized. Having exhibits in chronological order helped a lot. We were able to see specific geologic periods (Devonian, Jurassic, etc.) and concentrate on one at a time. My favorite was the Triassic period because the exhibit featured a giant snake-looking fossil (turns out it was some sort of ammonoid).

I was slightly disappointed by how small the museum was, but I felt that all of the exhibits had some interesting fossils and artifacts. Also, the museum was very kid-friendly and had a lot of signs that explained each collection in great detail. I like how the museum is clearly focused on education young kids about Earth’s history, and I hope to go back again soon.

Humor in Environmentalism

Posted on by
1

Last week’s Rose Cafe was pretty different from previous ones. Professor Aaron Sachs talked about humor, satire, and environmentalism. I wasn’t sure how these topics would come together prior to attending the talk, but Prof. Sachs managed to link them together in a natural and coherent way. He showed us various clips from the Onion that poked fun at environmentalists – my favorite one was “New Prius Helps Environment By Killing Its Owner.” We also watched a clip from West Wing that featured clueless environmentalists who want to build a trail specifically for wolves to use.

But why do these jokes exist? What makes it so easy to poke fun at environmentalists? Prof. Sachs (an environmentalist himself) suggests that environmentalists are easy targets because they are so earnest and serious about their work. Perhaps they could advance their goals and causes by laughing at themselves once in a while.

He ended up with a Modern Family clip featuring Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Mitchell’s crazy environmentalist neighbor in one episode of the show. I thought this was a good example of stereotyping environmentalists, who are often portrayed as passive-aggressive and unnecessarily abrasive.

What’s Melancholy?

Posted on by
Reply

Last Wednesday’s Rose Cafe featured Sara Schlemm (my GRF!), who talked about the history of melancholy and the differences between sadness and melancholy. We began with a short discussion about our personal definitions of melancholy. Someone said that melancholy differs from sadness because it is categorized by a feeling of numbness; on the other hand, sadness is more of an outpour of emotions. I had never really considered the different facets of melancholy or sadness before, so this discussion was fairly interesting to me.

Sara spoke about the origins of the actual word “melancholy” and how those tie into its modern interpretation. Melancholy, or black bile, was one of the humors of Hippocratic medicine. It was also connected to autumn/fall. As a result, we can think of melancholia as something that is completely natural because its origins come from the human body and nature itself.
We then watched a few clips from Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) that conveyed elements of melancholia pretty well. Personally, I was enthralled by the museum scene. The colors, music, and camerawork were so incredibly haunting. I plan on watching this film eventually (even though Sara spoiled the ending :P).

A Brand New Commons

Posted on by
Reply

Last week’s Rose Cafe featured Lisa Nicholas, one of the city planners of Ithaca. She gave a really great talk about some of the different projects happening in the city right now – the new hotels in the Commons, the student housing plans in Collegetown, and the potential development of the polluted gun factory site (near Ithaca College). Additionally, she talked about the reasons behind the growing housing problem in Ithaca (low vacancy rate + very expensive).

Ms. Nicholas spent most of the time talking about the newly revamped Commons. I’ve really enjoyed the new Commons, but I never thought about how much work went into revitalizing it. Ms. Nicholas talked about how the general vibe of the Commons affects the inclusion of any future buildings. For example, the construction plans of the future Marriott/Hilton hotels promise a “homey” and welcoming feeling. A student housing project was shut down because the proposed building didn’t fit in with the rest of the Commons. Clearly, a lot of effort goes into maintaining the growth and development of the downtown area!

 

 

Changes in Africa

Posted on by
Reply

I went to Prof. Nicolas van de Walle’s talk on political and economic development in Africa last week. He shared his thoughts about political reform as well as his personal experiences from past field work, which I found very interesting overall. I especially liked the way he summed up colonization (the Americas went first because they had a lot of resources and were relatively easy to colonize, Africa went last because it had little resources and was difficult to colonize). He also spoke about different levels of corruption and foreign aid in Africa. More specifically, he pointed out that many (or most) attempts to counter corruption actually contribute to further problems.

One particular subtopic stood out to me – Prof. Blalock told us that he saw a lot of Chinese people in the airport in Ethiopia recently. I found this to be absolutely bizarre until Prof. van de Walle explained that a lot of Chinese immigrants are attracted to Africa’s open spaces and untapped potential. As a result, people are moving there to open up Chinese restaurants/stores, own farms/land, and pursue new opportunities.

Ice Skating Newbie

Posted on by
Reply

I went ice skating for the first time last Saturday with other Rose Scholars – AND I DIDN’T WIPE OUT (probably because I’ve rollerbladed before, but still)!

I really enjoyed this event despite the painful rental skates. In fact, I probably enjoyed it more than the pumpkin carving event from last semester (and not just because my pumpkin went moldy 3 days later). At the rink, we started off with a much-needed beginner’s lesson from SA Caitlin, who taught us fundamentals like how to stop and how to skate backwards. Unfortunately, I still can’t really do either. Oh well.

I hope we have another event like this in the future. Everyone really seemed to have fun, and we even had the opportunity to learn a little history about Lynah as well – the rink was built because the hockey team couldn’t play on Beebe Lake during a particularly warm season.