Author Archives: Thomas Ryan

Righting the ship

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Last week at the Rose Café Laura Rodriguez de Simons discussed her role in the advocacy center and some of the things that the center does to help people who are in need of support. Immediately during the talk I thought of the baseball player R.A. Dickey. When R.A. was very young, he was sexually assaulted by his babysitter. He grew up with this experience always with him, but he channeled his pain into sports. In particular baseball. Throughout his high school and college career, Dickey was considered to be one of best prospects in the country. He was even selected to pitch on Team USA for the Olympics. After the Olympics, Dickey was drafted in the first round of the MLB draft and signed a large signing bonus. But then a problem arose. When looking at a picture of Dickey from the cover of the Baseball America, the Rangers noticed that Dickey’s arm was bent at a abnormal angle. When doctors took a look at x-rays, they found that he was born without a UCL in his arm (a ligament that basically holds the arm together). The doctors said that he shouldn’t be able to open a doorknob without pain. Dickey described this feeling as being “damaged goods”. As a result, the Rangers significantly reduced his signing bonus. Coupled with his struggles off the field, Dickey struggled on the field as well. At one point, after cheating on his wife, Dickey contemplated suicide. After receiving help through counseling along with a new faith in god and support from his family, Dickey was able to turn things around on and off the field. Dickey became a knuckleball pitcher and eventually won the Cy Young Award (highest honor for a pitcher) while he was with my hometown METS. R.A. Dickey is an example of how people who have had very harmful experiences with the right support can turn things around and make their situations better. Laura Rodriguez de Simons’ work helps to turn things around.

Music to my ears

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Last Sunday I had the privilege of listening to the Cornell Symphony Orchestra in their final performance of the year. One of the main reasons I wanted to go was that I wanted to see my roommate O rock out on the viola one last time. While O said that the performance had a few hiccups along the way, I thought it was great. The only critique I have is that I wish the songs were played in a different order. The first piece was very good in that it had a lot of drums and had a decent pace. The second piece was Tchaikovsky’s famous Romeo and Juliet: Overture-Fantasy where I cant explain how it goes but if you heard it, you would recognize from other various TV shows and movies. The final piece was a Finnish piece about their independence from Russia and how people needed a national identity. Also just realized this but, they finished with a Finnish piece (bum, bum, tssh). I think the order should have been Tchaikovsky, Finnish piece, First one. The Finnish one dragged on at the end, not that it was bad, but that it seemed like it was never going to end. Putting that in the middle between the more enjoyable pieces would have made it more bearable. Also, ending with the more powerful drum piece would have brought the performance to a fever pitch. All in all it was a great performance and a nice way to relax before finals.

Its the journey, not the destination

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Last week, Professor Andrew Mertha discussed his research on Cambodia’s history and how the Chinese had a significant influence. To be honest, for me the discussion regarding how he researched this topic was more interesting then his actual findings (I’m not big on govt/political history). In discussing his research, Prof. Mertha provided interesting stories about how he obtained a lot of the information he used. For example, if I remember correctly, he was kicked out of one archive/library because the documents he was asking for were essentially classified. After that while in a Cambodian museum he stumbled upon a Chinese document that was labeled TOP SECRET that was very important to his research. He went to the information desk and said that he was from Cornell and that he was wondering if they had any more like that. Because the staff recognized Cornell, he was able to go through the documents upon documents of critical information (gotta love those Cornell connections).

The process of doing research and publishing the findings really provided me with an appreciation for what these researchers do. When I’m reading something for a class, I just think of it as another reading, maybe skim through it to get the main points and move on, but the time and effort that is put in to produce a given piece is truly remarkable.

Success with Schwarz

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Last Wednesday, the Rose Café speaker was professor Daniel Schwarz who discussed his latest book How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning. I thought it was interesting that he came to speak to us as the semester is coming to an end and final exams are just around the corner. Just a coincidence. Anyway, One key takeaway from Schwarz’s discussion was to try and take classes with the best professors. This is something that I myself have come two realize in my almost two years of college even at different universities (transferred from Fordham University this last Fall). A good professor, even if the subject matter is dull, can make a class more interesting resulting in more intrigue in the class and a better overall experience. One critique of the lecture, however, is that Schwarz at one point spent a lot of time talking about different admissions statistics and the process of getting into a good college. We’re already in a pretty good college and I don’t think we want to hear about SAT scores any more. Overall it was a very informative lecture that provided insight on how you should approach your college experience.

Slam Dunk Stress

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Last Wednesday, the main discussion of the Rose Café centered around stress and different techniques to relieve yourself of this stress. Two of the main techniques discussed were to get more sleep and to try and meditate and clear your mind. Sleep- fine, I could get more sleep. Meditating and clearing my mind- that’s a different story. When I am stressed about something, I cant stop thinking about what I have to do until it is done especially as it gets closer to a deadline. I am only able to meditate/clear my mind when I have no stress and can focus on just relaxing. My main stress reliever is to play basketball. While not necessarily playing a pick up game, but just going to the gym, listening to music and just shoot around trying different shots. The focus that I commit to making each shot, takes my mind off of whatever is stressing me out. Everybody has a different way of dealing with stress and basketball is mine.

Dirt

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When Dr. Solomon posed the question to the audience “What is soil?” you could hear crickets. The soil beneath our feet is taken for granted and it is hard to comprehend its importance. To be honest, the only thing I really knew about soil is that you can plant stuff in it and watch it grow into something. I didn’t know that the soil could trap carbon dioxide reducing the amount that ends up in the atmosphere which in turn helps to reduce the greenhouse effect. The debate regarding climate change is very controversial and who would have thought that soil could potentially play a role. What I also thought was interesting, was when Dr.Solomon explained his research regarding Africa and how soil degradation can lead to malnutrition and that cow bone fertilizer can actually aid in reducing this effect. Who would have thought that cow bones and some dirt could help the environment.

Balancing Act

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Last week at the Rose café, our speaker was Varsity Tennis coach Silviu Tanasoiu. Being a sports fan, I was very excited when I heard that he was coming to rose house to speak. Two of the more interesting parts of Coach Tanasoiu’s discussion was centered on the recruiting of athletes all around the world and the balance between academics and athletics that his athletes have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. I was not aware of this but the recruiting for college tennis players appears to be more competitive than the other major college sports (basketball, football, etc.). In basketball and football there is a wider talent pool of athletes for coaches to choose from. In tennis, as Coach Tanasoiu explained, there are only a handful of players from around the world that are considered to be part of the upper eschelon in terms of talent, many of whom are foreign. What makes it more difficult to recruit is that many of these foreign players want to go pro and it takes a lot of convincing to get them to attend college in the U.S. These players want to come to Ivy league schools because if they are going to pass on making hundreds of thousands of dollars (sometimes even more) they want the best education they can get. This leads to the next interesting aspect of Coach Tanasoiu’s talk about how being a college athlete is essentially going to medical school and military school at the same time. The joke at many other colleges that have superior football or basketball teams is that the players are paid and that either don’t have to go to class or are enrolled in bs classes (cough, cough, Alabama, cough, cough North Carolina). Many of the student athletes on the Cornell tennis team are actually studying to become engineers. However, I do not know if they are being paid (probably not).

Coach Silviu Tanasoiu, in my opinion, is the epitome of what a college coach should be. He is passionate about what he does, he supports his players and he encourages them on and off the court. The story about when he wrote a letter to a recruit’s mom and how he had it translated to Russian so that she could read it shows who Coach Tanasoiu is as a person and how it translates into his coaching.

 

 

I DREAMed a DREAM

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This past Wednesday, GRF Esmeralda discussed DREAMers and how the DREAM act could potentially help these people better their lives. The issue discussed is very significant as it is related to the larger debate about the extent to which immigration should be allowed. DREAM stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors. The DREAM act debate, while complicated, mainly breaks down into two main positions. One position is that the act should be passed so that undocumented immigrants can become permanent citizens after passing certain qualifications. The other position is that this act may encourage illegal and unauthorized immigration. Currently, the act is not in place and many of the DREAMers are having difficulty getting a job or receiving education because they are undocumented (which some of these people did not even realize they were). I believe that the DREAM act should be passed because as long as the undocumented workers are contributing to society (i.e. getting an education and pursuing a career) they should be able to become citizens of the United States.

So a environmentalist walks into a bar…

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This week’s rose café was one of the more enjoyable lectures of this series. Of course, it always helps to show some clips from The Onion to add some comedic relief. The part of the lecture that was most interesting to me was how risky comedy has become. Sachs discussed how current day comedians have to walk a fine line between making a joke and offending people. This past summer I watched Colin Quinn perform a stand-up routine called The New York Story where he recalled his upbringing in Brooklyn, NY and how New York has changed. Quinn talked about how different ethnicities were known for their different unique personalities when he was growing up, but now just by acknowledging a difference raises a red flag. I thought the show was funny, as being from Long Island and attending school last year in the city, I had the opportunity of experiencing some of the things he commented on. As for Sachs, comedy regarding environmentalists is tough because if you make a joke about them, they’ll probably say that “the earth is dying is that a joke to you” or something along those lines. It will be interesting to see if any comedians try to work environmental issues into their performances or if it will remain untouched.