Author Archives: Yabs

Keeping Ithaca Gorges

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Last Wednesday I attended the final Rose Cafe of the year and heard Andy Zepp speak from the Finger Lakes Land Trust. I think it is oftentimes easy to forget that we are going to school in a really incredible place. Ithaca is beautiful and we have access to gorges, waterfalls, and the Finger Lakes. I grew up in Rochester, NY so I have always known that the Finger Lakes existed and are a huge feature of New York. However I didn’t realize how difficult it is to maintain the land around the Finger Lakes and this is what Andy Zepp and his team at the Trust do. The Trust will purchase large areas of land around the Finger Lakes and help preserve the area (like maintaining hiking trails) so that people can enjoy the area when they visit. I was surprised to hear though that the Trust makes these purchases from donations that they get from private donors and their fundraising efforts. He also spoke about maintaining a balance between enjoying the land and using it recreationally, and then also using the land for farming for example.

Overall I am glad that I attended this final Rose Cafe, especially since this was a topic that I was not expecting to hear about but I found it really interesting. It was almost embarrassing to realize how little I knew about the amazing area that we live in, but I am glad that I was able to learn about it now.

Pursuing Your Passion

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Last Wednesday I went to the Rose Cafe and heard Laura Rodriguez de Simons speak about her career path and her work in advocacy. Laura Rodriguez de Simons currently works in the Advocacy center right here in Ithaca which provides free psychological support services. However she also described how she has done advocacy work in other parts of the world such as African and South America. Her work in Ithaca was admirable and it was interesting to hear about but I cannot imagine how strong someone must be to be in this line of work. I’m sure it must be incredibly difficult and an emotional struggle to help people who have gone through addiction or sexual abuse while remaining professional.

Although the speaker’s work was incredibly interesting, I really liked the part of her talk when she spoke about finding something that you’re truly passionate about and pursuing it. This is advice that I feel like is always thrown my way, but it’s difficult to actually do. I always feel like I should be safe and earn a degree in a field that I know will set me up well to live comfortably in the future. Oftentimes the things that people are most passionate are fields where it is difficult to make a living. The speaker described how she studied business, got her MBA and was working in the real estate industry in New York City. But after doing this for about a year she decided to pursue something that she was actually passionate about, which was social justice and advocacy. Going from an incredibly lucrative industry like real estate in New York City to working in social justice is a huge switch, and I truly commend Laura Rodriguez de Simons for taking that leap and pursuing her passions.

The Right Path through College

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Last Wednesday I attended another Rose Cafe led by Professor Daniel Schwarz and he talked about a lot of aspects surrounding the topic of college. What I really liked was that Professor Schwarz talked about the entire college experience including getting into college, life during college, and the struggles that some people face once they leave college. Although I have already gone through the phase in my life of applying to college and the Professor’s advice didn’t directly affect me, I was still glad to hear him talk about it especially since I have a younger brother who has yet to go through the college application process. I also found it interesting when he spoke about the divide between socioeconomic classes when applying to college. The upper-middle class has an incredible amount of resources and can start preparing their children for the application process at a very young age, especially in private schools. However the lower-middle class doesn’t have access to these resources such as tutors and SAT prep classes, and are much less guided on what the application process is like. I went to a public school in Rochester that was actually quite helpful in helping me apply to college, and I now realize how lucky I was in going to a school that gave me access to many resources.

Another point that Professor Schwarz touched upon was the struggle that students face after they leave college, and specifically the first year out of college and in the real world. He mentioned how leaving college for the first time can be really difficult and quite lonely for many people because you’re in an entirely new location with no friends, and you’re struggling to find your place again. It’s much like attending college during the first semester of freshman year. Although I am only a sophomore, this is something that I have thought about quite a bit. In college it’s easy to make friends during freshman year because you live in dorms and attend classes with people your age. However outside of college there is no structure to meet people besides through your job.

Sleep and Stress

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Last week I attended a Rose Cafe about a topic that is probably one of the largest issues that college students face, especially at Cornell. One fact that we were told during the Rose Cafe discussion was that college students should be getting 9 hours of sleep every night. I don’t think I know a single one of my friends that gets that much sleep every night, clearly demonstrating how much of an issue this is. One of the techniques that we learned to help deal with stress was making meditation part of our normal routine. I took two meditation classes during my freshmen year as my PE classes, and although at first I would be frustrated that this class took time out of my day, by the end of every class I was incredibly relaxed and glad that I went. I think it is incredibly helpful to meditate and it definitely helps in dealing with stress, but it is sometimes hard for me to justify taking 30 minutes out of my day to meditate when I could be finishing an assignment. We were also taught about having a pre-study routine which I thought was an interesting idea. If you can get into a habit of doing something right before you study, you will sub-consciously be in the mindset to study.

Last week’s Rose Cafe was incredibly relevant given that finals week is coming up and there is going to be an incredible amount of stress that every student faces on campus. Given the struggles that college students face regarding both stress and sleep, I am really glad that I went to the Rose Cafe last week to learn how to manage it.

Tennis and Life.. Thoughts from a Coach

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Last Wednesday I attended the weekly Rose Cafe and had the opportunity to hear Silviu Tanasoiu speak. He is the Varsity Tennis coach here at Cornell and it was fascinating to hear what he had to say even though I don’t have much of an interest in sports. Coach Tanasoiu had a lot of advice to give us about taking charge of our own lives and becoming more responsible for our futures. He grew up in Romania with a family who didn’t have much but made a lot of sacrifices to help Coach Tanasoiu be successful and make a life for himself in America playing tennis. It made me reflect on the sacrifices that my own parents had made to send me to Cornell.

What I found most interesting during this talk was the Coach’s advice about time management especially. He described the hectic schedules that his tennis players currently have. Balancing schoolwork with being an athlete is an incredible feat that is oftentimes unrecognized. I can’t imagine having to do all of my homework and worry about prelims, while also having practice and tournaments for a sports team. This talk definitely made me much more appreciative of the lifestyles that athletes at Cornell lead, especially given the amount of stress that everyone was under in the midst of midterms. It also gave me the motivation to stay more on top of my own school work, and I’m really happy that I decided to attend this talk.

Artistic Perspectives on Cuba

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Prior to going to this event, the only things that I knew about Cuba were from my history classes in high school. However after the recent re-opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, I thought it would be interesting to go this event and learn more about the county. When I signed up for the event I thought that we would be shown various paintings by Cuban artists. However I ended up gaining a lot of insight into the cultural clashes and political perspectives that have been prevalent throughout Cuba since their Revolution and under Fidel Castro’s leadership. We mainly viewed art that in some way criticized the Cuban government. For example, Operation Peter Pan was a period of time when families would send their children away to America following the Revolution. This was because they were afraid that their children would otherwise be taken away by the Soviets and sent to camps to be indoctrinated. Many of the artistic pieces showed a sadness related to families being split apart in this manner.

One thing that I really appreciated about this event is that we saw all different types of artwork during the presentation which ranged from paintings to movies to performance art. What was intriguing to me was the reason as to why performance art was so popular in Cuba. Many artists in Cuba that aren’t sanctioned by the Cuban government do not have a lot of money and cannot even afford to buy paper or paint to make a physical piece. Therefore in order to save money, they  perform their thoughts and emotions instead. Another interesting thing that we learned about was the evolution of Cuban film. During the mid and late 1900s, in order to make a movie people needed to buy physical film which was incredibly expensive. The Cuban government would offer to pay for the director’s film as long as the script was pre-approved by them. However with the succession of technology, citizens no longer need help from the government to pay for movies because they can all use their phones and laptops. This has really shifted the general perspective of Cuban films over the past decade.

Overall I really enjoyed this event, and I’m glad that I was able to learn all that I did about Cuba.

Different Facets of Love

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Last week I attended a dinner conversation with Dr. Eddy Alvarez where we discussed the complicated subject of love. I really liked that the focus wasn’t entirely on romantic love like these discussions usually lead in. The discussion didn’t even just concern love for family members or friends, but we also talked about love for objects or love for places. The most interesting love that I thought we talked about was love for places such as home. Dr. Alvarez read some poems to us, including some of his own work, and one poem described an individual’s love for his home in Los Angeles. The poem talked about their favorite aspects of Los Angeles and how even though it was something that they loved and somewhere that they felt safe, it was also a place that they had to leave in order to grow.

One interesting side topic that I enjoyed discussing was when Dr. Alvarez spoke of the hypocrisy that some people can exhibit. For example he was explaining how social movement are incredibly important and can be inspired by the love for others. However some people can work towards social change and peace, while being mean to those around them and being hateful to some of their coworkers. I found this discussion incredibly interesting and very true. People can get caught up in the righteousness of their work, but not evaluate themselves or the love that they should be emanating towards their peers as well.