This was definitely an interesting seminar. We first started by associating qualities we value and don’t value into categories. Then we narrowed it down to the 5 most important qualities to us. I noticed a lot of mine were centered around friends and family. Since coming to Cornell, I think my appreciation and respect for my friends and family back home and here has increased, because I often rely on them for support during difficult times in the semester. We then talked about important qualities of a leader and what we think makes a leader a good leader. I’ve always thought of good leaders as people that are respected by and inspiring to others. Some people that I think are good leaders are Tom Brady, Elon Musk and Michelle Obama. After our discussion, I realized that you don’t necessarily need to respect and love them on a character basis for them to be a good leader. Often, their ability to make good decisions and have enough forethought is enough.

We ended our discussion with 5 traits of an ideal Cornell student. It was interesting that the student we came up with did not seem like a fun student. Some of the main traits were passion, knowledge and responsibility. We ended up ruling out a lot of traits like humor, empathy and being adventurous. It was hard to narrow it down to 5, since people are a mix of so many more, but I think these are present in everyone.