Author Archives: Sayma

A Reflection on Daniel Schwarz’s Assessment of Students

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I attended Daniel Schwarz lecture for the Rose Cafe Series for the 2nd time and I found myself yet again wishing I knew all the advice he gave my freshman year or before in college because sometimes, like for myself, it is too late to take up some of the advice he gives. I really wish I had planned out since freshman year a time for me to figure out when to go abroad and schedule my courses better so that I could have done it. I am unable to do so now because I did not plan out my course load properly enough ahead of time and will not be able to take time off of Cornell for study abroad.

I also really want to emphasize that you should take courses for the professors rather than the class. There are classes that I was looking forward to that were completely miserable experiences because going to class felt like torture because the professors were either not a good speaker, very mean, or not helpful when asked for help. There are also classes that I dreaded but loved because the professor was incredible and made it worth it and enjoyable, even if it was hard.

Finally, to a point he made about Greek life not fostering diversity, there are a few Cornell fraternities that are taking great strides to take down the barriers for students of color or low income have the opportunity to join the brotherhood, such as removing the rush process Beta Theta Pi so superficial reasons do not get assessed but rather just personality, and they were pretty successful in having a really diverse pledge class.

Putting Carbon in the Ocean and Atmosphere Back into Soil

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Dawit Solomon spoke about how soil is able to store huge amounts of carbon and its affect on nutrition in the soil and plants growing. As someone who has taken oceanography, this conversation was like putting a puzzle together in my head. I’ve learned a lot in oceanography about how the ocean has been storing huge amounts of carbon being released into the atmosphere and that the ocean has been absorbing it which has done a lot to contain global warming from rising to crazy levels. This talk helped me realized why and how the carbon is being released into the atmosphere and that they should be naturally stored in the soil for good nutrient content for plants to grow.  It was interesting to see that third world countries are finding ways to combat carbon release from the soil and that as a more advanced nation, we are learning from them than the other way around, which puts us to shame. The carbon that is in the ocean and the atmosphere now needs to be put back into the soil and seeing that are some viable solutions to do so was good to hear.

I think what stood out to me most from Mr. Solomon’s lecture was the realization that no part or aspect of the earth is left unharmed due to greenhouse gases and our ability to destroy all we touch.

Sherman Jackson on Islam and the Common Good

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This past week, I was proud to attend an event as a Rose Scholar as I also had a lot of vested interest in with another organization (Muslim Educational and Cultural Affairs). As a American Muslim myself, some of the things Professor Jackson discussed really hit home with me. He mentioned that American Muslims are often called upon to prove their loyalty to the American common good, and blamed for being insufficiently American if they balk at standing up.

This point is a very real reality for me. Every time a terrorist attack occurs, my heart sinks. Beyond sorrow and grief for the victims and their families, and a heightened sense of fear of discrimination and safety for myself, I feel like I have to apologize for the heinous, deplorable, and inhumane crimes committed in the name of my religion. The Islam I know and have been raised with preaches love, tolerance, kindness, being good to your neighbors, charity, respect, and loyalty–so it is difficult to see my religion being synonymous with terrorism. All I see in the media or in comments of articles are people asking, why don’t the “supposedly good Muslims” stand up and get rid of ISIS and other terrorist organizations. I stand up as much as I can. I provide my condolences to the aggrieved, I apologize and actively denounce the crimes of terrorism, spread the teaching of the Islam I know to be true and peaceful, and even attend rallies held by Muslims to denounce terrorism. I do not know what more I can do, except to enlist in the U.S military. However, I, like other Americans, have dreams in life that I want to keep pursuing, such as attaining my degrees, having a successful career, and a loving family. In the eyes of others, by doing this, I am not proving my loyalty to America. This ties back to Professor Jackson’s point that we get blamed for being insufficiently American if we balk at standing up. So when I do what I can to denounce terrorism and keep working on my very normal dreams, I get accused of not doing enough to stand up to terrorism because I am not actually out there fighting them on the battleground.  I hope his lecture gave the people attending a more clear picture of Islam and what its true values are, as opposed to what they hear on the media.

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On a side note, while it is a difficult time to be a Muslim in the world, I am humbled by the support I have received by the wonderful human beings around me who are quick to stand up for me in light of recent events in the news and the political spectrum. This may not mean much, but truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Cornell Needs More Advocacy for DREAMers

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From this week’s Rose Cafe Series, Esmeralda touched on a point that I have actually seen at Cornell. She said that DREAMers generally get associated with a student label, and that they deserve to be in America and take advantages of its opportunities, while others who do not/cannot go to college are considered undeserving, and regardless, the parents get blamed for their kids’ situation.

One of the people who ran for the Student Assembly Minority Rep position had spoken about her story about being undocumented and her journey to getting to Cornell. Her story fostered a discussion in the end about undocumented people in the United States and whether they should get to stay, and I remember some of the responses saying, well if they work hard and attend college (like the candidate running had), they should get to stay. They proceeded to mention that it is not the undocumented kids’ faults if their parents brought them to America and put them in the situation they are in. This discussion was analogous to the points Esmeralda made in which people think that undocumented kids who can make it to college can stay and that the blame should be towards the parents.

It was shocking to me that as Cornell students, who are supposed to be thoughtful and intelligent, our analyses of such delicate situations can still be so shallow. It is a good thing indeed that Esmeralda came to Cornell to study AND advocate because we certainly could use her reasoning and logic to influence our narrow-mindedness.

The Future of Cornell Tech

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Last week for the Rose Cafe, Adam Shwartz spoke of the Cornell Tech Graduate School. Shwartz mentioned that in addition to a competitive tech program, the students will have to supplement it with lots of courses in the humanities. I could appreciate this point as both my siblings did a computer science major in college and they often mention that they wish they took more courses in a different field. For example, my sister does tech for a marketing company and she wishes she had taken a marketing course in college to more effectively relate her work in technology to marketing tactics. She said that knowing how to code and what not, does not mean anything if you do cannot understand the audience for the company you work for, so for Cornell Tech to take on this issue and attempt to bridge the gap between tech and other fields will make it a pioneer in its work.

I am also excited to see how Cornell Tech approaches and handles rapidly changing technology, as it is difficult to imagine what it would be like even 10 years into the future. 10 years ago, we did not have well developed Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, etc and no one could have imagined how ingrained these things are in our everyday lives. I was to see Cornell Tech be the leader in innovation and the products that we will use day-to-day in the next decades to come.

 

Aaron Sachs and the Dark Humor of Tomorrow

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This past week, a point Sachs made that really struck me was that upper to middle class whites were generally the people most concerned about climate change but the lower class minority communities were the ones who most suffered the effects of pollution. I’ve seen firsthand how much minority communities can struggle to find jobs and work an absurd number of hours with little pay to keep their families afloat. It makes sense to make why minority communities may not prioritize climate change when they don’t really have time to spare to care about it, or the source of pollution is also the source of their job, i.e. coal plants or factories.

Overall, inserting humor to such a serious matter takes delicate balance, which I felt was well executed. It’s been easy to pass off climate change and honestly, we’ve appreciate having a warmer winter but we should be concerned. The fact that we cannot find snow unless we went to the upper tips of the globe is very concerning and the data does not lie. Politicians denying climate change does not make the matter any better. Hence combining dark humor with climate change matters is really important to get the point across.

Empowering Women and Their Sexuality

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The Vagina Monologues was a powerful and insightful event that showed me how oppressed women still are to this day and how much stigma there is to women trying to be open about their sexuality and desires. There’s a double standard in our society between men and women, as women are often slut-shamed for being open about their desires. In addition, the event urged people to be more comfortable with saying the word vagina, and taught women (and men) to not feel shamed about talking about.

Overall, it was a funny, informative, powerful, and uplifting event that was well worth attending and I recommend everyone check out the event at least once.  Continue reading →

How does prosperity correlate to government involvement?

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Professor Nicolas van de Walle spoke about how high levels of corruption in African countries have impacted the democracy and economic development of those countries. As someone from Bangladesh, I was intrigued to hear that African nations are going through similar struggles. I thought that economic development without democracy was unique to Asian countries but it was interesting to hear otherwise.

It was also insightful to learn that an argument such as, well-off nations should give more money to developing nations, is somewhat invalid because corruption and other factors hinders proportional development to amount of money being given. Hence it is better to donate for education and prioritize education for everyone, because education has been what has proven best to improving living and working standards. Education has the ability to change mindsets and decrease the impact of corruption, so that corruption is no longer able to remain the norm.

I skate, you skate, we all skate

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Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend open skate at Lynah and invited my friends also! While I don’t know how to skate, it was great to get a short lesson which enabled me to even get on the ice. I also enjoyed learning about the history of skating and its role at Cornell.

GRF Andrew was so nice, offering to take pictures or help us in any way he can. Not to mention, his little daughter was so cute and a professional on the ice! I had a really great time and I’m glad Rose gave us the opportunity to have this. I would like opportunities like this more often!