Author Archives: William Bennet Ford

Conserving Nature

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Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the talk given by wildlife conservationist and Cornell ILR graduate, Andy Zepp. As someone who appreciates nature, but dislikes government intervention in economic activity, I found it really interesting to learn about the Finger Lakes Land Trust that Mr. Zepp works for. It not only acquires its land through buying it in the market, but gets its funding solely through private donations, which I thought was a great method of promoting conservancy. Furthermore, it was great to hear how the land trust also interacted with local land owners and made agreements with farmers about growing crops in a sustainable way and a way that did its best to accommodate wildlife. Despite all the progress Mr. Zepp told us about, he said that it is still difficult to bring ecosystems back to their historical conditions because of different agricultural practices and invasive species that have come into New York. One example I particularly remember was his comment that upstate New York actually used to have a fair amount of grasslands and that it was only in the past 75 years that much of the forests grew in, which was something that was pretty surprising to me. Overall I was glad to have had the chance to hear from someone who is doing such great work for the environment and I hope he and his organization to continue to have more success.

Impressed and Inspired

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This past week I attended the Rose Café given by Mrs. Laura Rodriguez de Simons and came away both impressed and inspired by the story of her work in advocacy. Listening to the first part of her talk, in which she went over some of her personal history in the field, it really struck me how demanding the work that she does is. Not only does she interact with many people who have had physically and emotionally traumatizing events happen to them, but also she must always maintain a level of professional detachment from those people. Balancing helping out clients and preserving a separate personal life sounds to me like an incredibly difficult task, and I believe I have newfound appreciation for all people in that line of work. Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons also told us of how she had worked in several countries including some in Africa and South America, which I found to be also impressive because of how she must have had to adapt her methods of advocacy to all those different cultures.

Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons concluded the talk with some advice about finding the right career path based on her experience and what she wished she would have known. Although it is often said to “follow you passion,” it is not always that you find a person who really did just that and Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons was a perfect example. Having studied business in college and gone to work in a real estate company, she was in a great position out of college. While she told us that she did enjoy the job, she knew it wasn’t something that inspired her. As a result, after only a year working in the real estate business, she left to pursue advocacy and has been there ever since. Given all of that, however, she recognized that there were people out there that had different passions and she emphasized that no matter what that passion or dream may be, that you will be happiest if you pursue that. A great reminder that she also gave us as well was that no matter what you ultimately pursue, there is almost always a way to put that skill or field to use in serving the community if you desire and I felt like that was a very reassuring and positive note to end on.

The Surprises of Research

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Professor Andrew Mertha’s talk on Cambodian-Chinese relations was a very lively one, and one that was particularly interesting for me, being in the process of finishing a course on China. It was really great to hear not only about Cambodian and Chinese history however, but also a first-hand account of the research that Professor Mertha did that ultimately led to the writing of his book. One of my primary takeaways from his talk was perhaps how unpredictable the research process is and how often the findings diverge from the expectations. Professor Mertha explained that during his research process he only happened to stumble upon an old Chinese government document in a Cambodian museum labeled “top secret,” and when he asked the staff, it turned out they had piles of them. In a turn of events, however, the type of Chinese the files were written in was so technical that neither the professor nor his Chinese friends were able to read them. However, in another astonishing coincidence, one of professor Mertha’s students happened to have relatives that worked in technical jobs back in China in the 1970’s. As a result, Professor Mertha flew over to China and was able to have them translate the documents. This incredible sequence was truly fascinating, but the professor told us that after all that, it turned out that the Chinese proved to not have very much influence in Cambodia because their bureaucracy was too mismanaged to coordinate an effective strategy. Ultimately, I thought this past Wednesday’s talk was very unique and interesting, and I was lucky to have attended.

Professor Schwartz: Voice of Reason

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This past Wednesday I attended the Rose Café by Dan Schwartz about his new book, How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning, as well as the college experience in general. Professor Schwartz covered a lot of topics through the course of his talk, but one that stood out to me the most was his discussion of some of the myths surrounding the college process. He mentioned that despite the anxiety surrounding college admissions and the declining admissions rates of some of the top U.S. colleges, the nationwide average for college admissions rates has remained steady at around 65% and most students get in to a school that suits their ability relatively well. Furthermore, he added that most of the declining admissions rates are due to a simple increase in the number of applications students can send out using the common application. He also dispelled some of the fear around rising college cost, mentioning that students nowadays are able to pay back their loans faster than ever before and that the financial rewards of a college education continue to increase every year. Additionally, he noted that although the demographics for most colleges are still skewed towards the wealthy, the rising tuition costs have largely help to reduce the imbalance by acting as a progressive taxation on wealthy students to provide for poor students. Overall I found that Professor Schwartz’s insights to be very revealing of the overhype created by the media around about colleges and was glad to hear a measured voice of reason discuss the topic.

A Student Activist Success

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This past Monday I attended the Student Activism Series event on Anabel’s Grocery. I had heard about Anabel’s Grocery in the news before attending the event and knew it was supposed to be an alternative to the dining resources on campus, but I was intrigued to learn more. Nicholas, Kary, and Lizzie, the three student members that came to talk that day, presented all the information I could have asked for and I came away great impression of them and the organization. Part of what gave me this great opinion of them was hearing about the story of the program and how much work it had taken to get to where it is today. Nicholas mentioned that when he attended the very first meeting for the group as a first semester freshman he immediately recognized the value of having a low-cost, healthy food option for Cornell students, but had little faith that they would actually be able to see it come to reality. As the organization gained more momentum, however, each member of the group there remembered how they began to become increasingly excited and motivated to push Anabel’s Grocery further. Even though they did run into conflicts with the administration over funding, they continued to work and reach out to students about supporting the idea until it was eventually approved. For me it was just incredibly impressive that Anabel’s Grocery was not only going to happen with all of the work that it takes to start a business like a grocery store, but also it was all student-run and the members were deeply committed to that idea. Overall I think the benefits of having a low-cost grocery store like Anabel’s Grocery are innumerable and will have an enormous positive impact on the quality of life for Cornell students.

Practical Advice for Cornell Students

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The Rose Café this past week had some really valuable advice that I would be useful to anyone at Cornell. The main topic of the talk, stress, is a feeling that is ubiquitously complained about at Cornell. We all have so many things that we want to do or accomplish, but in trying to manage those everything we often become overwhelmed leading to this feeling of stress. Furthermore, once the stress has begun, it creates a vicious cycle, where it makes everything more difficult to do and things being harder to do leads to more stress. Now of course there are lots of “strategies” for dealing with stress that everyone has heard over the course of their lifetime, but they are usually pretty vague and either don’t have concrete steps, such as “get more sleep” and “schedule your time,” or are just not possible, such as “reduce your workload.” Where Ms. Sarah Rubenstein-Gillis and Ms. Andrea Gerding’s talk really stood out was in the precise practicality of the suggestions they had for us. One of the ones that really resonated with me was the idea of creating routines not only for getting work done, but also for getting more sleep, as I have read a lot about the power of habits and how effective they can be. For getting work done, for example, they suggested having a pre-work routine to get the mind ready to work as well breaking down or “chunking” work into manageable 20-minute blocks. For sleep they suggested a similar strategy of creating a routine, explaining that the mind needs help knowing when to start shutting down, and this can be accomplished by having a regular sleep schedule and a pre-sleep activity such as reading a book or listening to calming music. Overall I was so convinced by this talk that I tried some of the strategies they suggested the very next day and hope to continue to use them!

Inspiration and Motivation

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I think Coach Tanasoiu’s Rose Café is one of my favorites of all the ones I have attended so far. As a former high school tennis player, I was intrigued to hear about the Cornell Tennis team, and Coach Tanasiou did not disappoint. His passion for tennis and for coaching was evident in the way he spoke about every aspect of his job, exemplified in his repeated statement that he couldn’t believe he was actually getting paid to coach. I was really inspired by his story of growing up playing tennis in Romania and the sacrifices he and his family made that have shaped who he is as a person. It was really motivating to hear to how he brought those aspects of his character to his tennis coaching. In the way he described his team and coaching philosophy it sounded like he really cared about all aspects of the players, not just their results, but also their character, the way they carry themselves, and their attitude towards those who have helped them such as their coach or parents.

Additionally, Coach Tanasiou’s talk served as a reminder me of just how hard student-athletes work, as he described it, “like being in the military and getting a medical degree.” It is easy fall into stereotyping athletes as people who do not focus on school and put sports above all else. Listening to Coach Tanasiou talk about the athletes’ rigorous schedule, difficult majors, and ability to succeed, however, it was clear that this stereotype is unfounded, especially in college.

When deciding whether to attend this Rose Café, I was definitely on the fence about going, but now, I am just really grateful for having had the opportunity to listen to such an inspiring and motivating person as Coach Tanasiou.

Insights on Immigration

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Immigration has always been a topic that has sparked a lot of controversy both in the United States and abroad, and lately it has become a topic of even more scrutiny. As such, GRF Esmeralda’s talk comes at a very fitting time. Wanting to become informed about this important subject, I attended the talk and came away with certainly a few more insights into better the situation of immigrants. One of the most interesting things that I picked up was just how much the Dream Act was intentionally designed to present undocumented immigrants in a favorable light. From it’s appeal to the idea of the American Dream to highlighting the innocence of undocumented children, the act sets up so many positive images that I can imagine it would have been hard to vote against. Another aspect of the situation of undocumented immigrants that Esmeralda brought up and I found intriguing was its parallels to the situation of blacks during the Civil Rights movement. In addition to having restricted rights due to their illegal status, immigrants are also usually of a different race than the majority in the U.S., and therefore I think there is a lot of merit to the comparison and hopefully some solidarity between the groups can be found because of it. Ultimately, after hearing this talk I believe that although the situation for adult migrants is still debatable, for those that crossed the border as children, America is their only country, and it’s hard to argue they should not be allowed integrate into American society.

Engineering isn’t Everything

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Professor Blalock closed his talk Wednesday night with the idea that it does not make slightest difference if new technology is better than old technology if people do not adopt it, and, while that may sound obvious, I think it was the most important takeaway. Professor Blalock explained this idea with the example of his work with trying to implement a new type of stove technology in Uganda. He described how the current method of cooking food using a “3 Stone Fire” has a wide variety of negative side-effects, most significantly that the smoke it produces caused the same effect on the lungs as four packs of cigarettes. In order to solve this problem engineers at the University of Illinois developed a new cooking apparatus that eliminated all the bad smoke from the process. While that sounds the perfect solution, Professor Blalock surprised us all when he said almost all Ugandans would choose the old cooking device when given the choice between the two. The reason for the choice was simply that despite the energy-efficiency and smoke-elimination, the engineered stove had no way to control temperature or enlarge surface area and, above all, had a high upfront cost.

For me this was the point in the discussion where I really took a step back to consider. As a CS major I spend a lot of my time in the realm of computer theory or attempting to optimize the performance of this or that program, and very little time thinking about real software products. I realized then that the point Professor Blalock was making clearly applied to this. No matter how much time I spend perfecting some aspect of a program, it does little good if it’s difficult to use or hard to understand. Also, as Professor Blalock described, there are much more problems than just meeting all the needs of the consumer, including availability, advertising, and price among others. Furthermore, Professor Blalock said that even when considering all these concepts and developing a new stove concept, it was still very difficult to get people to switch from the old stoves. Moving forward, I certainly hope that if I go on to design consumer products I will always keep Professor Blalock’s message in mind and others do as well because I am sure it will lead to better products and more success.

A Unique Addition to Cornell

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Before attending Professor Adam Schwartz’s talk on Cornell Tech I really did not know much about the program besides that it was going to be in New York City and I didn’t really have any preconceptions of it either. Given that, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the program seemed to be very unique in comparison to both the undergraduate and graduate programs offered in Ithaca. Unlike a traditional academic institution, Cornell Tech seemed to have a considerable focus on the applications of knowledge, in this case, the application of technology in different areas of business. One example of this Professor Schwartz specifically mentioned was the Health Technology program that trains people in the intersection of medical practice and computer science, an area that is of increasing importance in the professional world. Cornell Tech seemed further connected with the business world in the collaborative structure of its programs—Professor Schwartz told of how students apparently work in relatively large teams on most of their assignments. Furthermore, all of the departments at Cornell Tech are relatively small especially in comparison with what one might see on the Ithaca campus, and as a result, are able to adapt as new technologies continue to be developed. Professor Schwartz mentioned that on the advice of one of the professors, they were able to totally restructure one of the degree programs within a few months. Overall it seemed like Cornell Tech is an amazingly unique addition to Cornell’s existing schools, and once the new campus is built, I’m sure it will grow very quickly.

The Art and Theory of Lasers

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The Johnson Museum’s opening reception for its new exhibitions had a really impressive array of art, but what stood out to me the most was definitely Matthew Schreiber’s Crossbow. The exhibit was of a geometrical design created with lasers that occupied the space of an entire room, which was completely dark to enhance the effect of the lights. The moment I stepped into that room, my jaw just dropped, and I could tell that the people coming in behind me had the same reaction. Although I have seen light shows before, like the one we have at Cornell at Homecoming, and artwork done with lasers, there was something about it that was just indescribably captivating. Standing amongst all those lights, I felt I was part of a scene from the movie Tron, or inside of a diagram from a multivariable calculus textbook. Whichever the more accurate analogy, the work of art ultimately inspired a feeling of being in a hidden world of technology, and it was a really cool experience.

After seeing this incredible exhibit I almost had to attend the follow speech by Mr. Schreiber himself, which a really amazing opportunity, after just having seen his artwork. It turned out that Schreiber had been interested in the intersection of art and technology from an early age, and was inspired by the introduction of the laser effects in movies from the 1970’s, including a mention of Star Wars, one of my personal favorites. The amazement generated by new technology and science seemed to be a theme of his career from then on. Currently, Mr. Schreiber said, he has developed a fascination for theoretical physics and philosophy, which often refer to concepts and ideas that are real, but only explainable in abstract terms. Mr. Schreiber commented that one of his artistic goals is to try to capture that paradox and make the theoretical visible in his artwork. I, for one, definitely felt like his artwork evoked the exact ideas, and I am so glad I was able to both see the exhibit and hear his talk.

I took some photos of the exhibit while I was there, but honestly they don’t do it any justice, so if anyone is interested in the exhibit, you have to go see it in person!

A New Perspective on Rap Music

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I have often found rap music difficult to relate to. The lyrics of so many rap songs seem to me to glamorize crime and promote immoral behavior, and I have tended to wonder why anyone finds this type of music to be “cool.” The songs by the group N.W.A, that the film “Straight Outta Compton” depicts, fit in pretty much exactly with the idea that I had of the rap music. As such I expected that I would not particularly enjoy the film. However, I found the movie to be riveting and enlightening.

As someone who has never intentionally listened to rap music or grown up around people that listened to it, I had minimal exposure to its community and the stories of the artists. “Straight Outta Compton,” however, provided a captivating account of some of those very stories. Although it is not unheard of, it was incredible to witness through this movie, the rise of a group of people living in the poorest conditions, some with criminal backgrounds, to the pinnacle of success. Not only did these guys have to overcome their economic situation, but also the culture they lived in, where violence, even deadly violence, seemed almost commonplace and being imprisoned was not an unordinary event. Even after the group became successful, the movie showed that the group never really left trouble and violence behind with the struggles of contracts and money. Watching the unbelievable story of these men unfold, I think, gave me a new perspective to view rap music in, at least parts of it. It’s almost no wonder that rappers seem to use crime and violence as common themes in their music, as some have experienced it throughout their lives. I can now see the possibility that rap songs do not necessarily glamorize crime and misbehavior to make it seem “cool,” but rather to reach out to the people that experience that those things in their daily lives. While I may not listen to any more rap music now than before I saw “Straight Outta Compton,” I think that I now appreciate better where it comes from.