I was the only one at the talk, and was able to talk to the RA one on one about company ethics and morals. We talked about the bakery that refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple, Patagonia only selling to companies they deem environmentally ethical, American Apparel having better factory working conditions, and Adidas selling shoes made out of recycled plastic. We concluded that companies like Patagonia and Adidas only cared about looking environmentally conscious for branding purposes. If they really cared about the environment, they could make more efforts to the environment directly than focusing on selling their products and making them more exclusive by raising the price just because they’re environmentally friendly.
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Integrity of the Rice
Today, Chef Jeremy taught us how to properly roll sushi. Before starting the demonstration, he prefaced it by telling us about his background. He is Canadian, but he moved Hawaii and fell in love with sushi. He went to culinary school to master the art of sushi making and worked at sushi bars in California before coming to Ithaca. He started off by giving a brief history of sushi. It started off with the Chinese, who used vinegar rice to preserve raw fish. The Japanese used this idea to create what is now known as sushi, which directly translates to “vinegar rice.” Throughout the demonstration, he pointed out crucial differences between westernized sushi and traditional sushi like having the rice on the outside. Chef Jeremy was very respectful and culturally sensitive to the Japanese cuisine. He constantly emphasized that perfecting the rice was the most important part of the art and by preparing it incorrectly, you could ruin the integrity of the rice. He brought up that the integrity of the rice is jeopardized when having to mass produce sushi for Cornell dining halls.
I really appreciated Chef Jeremy for being so aware and respectful of the fact that he was making foods of another culture. Recently, a Jewish American opened up a trendy new “healthy” Chinese restaurant called Lucky Lee’s that claimed to be cleaner and healthier than traditional foods. The owner claims that she spent years perfecting this non-GMO, gluten-free, healthy option to eliminate the problems caused by consuming the oils and MSG in traditional Chinese food. She offended many Chinese Americans because she not only made various social media posts claiming that Chinese food is oily and healthy, but also made what she thought were playful puns for decals of her restaurant like “Wok In, Take Out” and “Hi-Lo Mien” (referring to her Lo Mien as having higher quality). The name of the restaurant was taken as offensive because she used possibly the two most possibly stereotypical Chinese associated words to name her restaurant.
Coming to this, I was very afraid of having to sit through a cringey 1.5 hours of cultural insensitivity and appropriation. Thankfully, Chef Jeremy was none of these things. He constantly addressed differences, spoke about how the food was an art form, and how mass producing it for the student population/ having to account for allergens takes away from actual sushi. He was very sweet and even ended the event by saying “I appreciate you all.”
Events like these make me very glad to be a part of Rose Scholar. Last year, I was in the Townhouses and my interactions were limited to really freshman engineers and my TA’s. Since being a Rose Scholar, I’ve met so many people from RA’s, Shiv and Magdala, to professors like Professor Fontaine, to Chefs like Jeremy. I’ve enjoyed my interactions with these people, and I’m very happy I met them. Together, they create this environment on campus and make it functional. If I weren’t in this program, I probably would’ve never taken the time out to acknowledge, meet, or known how to interact with the people who make this campus work.
Express Yourself
We were given a prompt to express ourselves with the given materials. The only requirement was that we had to implement the maps. We were then shown examples of collages made of maps. The one that stood out to me most was a silhouette of two heads merging into one on a black background, which inspired me to do something similar.
When thinking of maps, I instantly thought of my heritage. Although I was born and raised in NYC, Hong Kong is a second home to me. My parents grew up in Hong Kong, so we would speak Cantonese at home and watched a lot of Hong Kong TV Shows. I go to Hong Kong at least once a year, so I feel really close to my Chinese roots. I cut the character for “home” out using the map of China. The character for “home” has two branch like strokes coming out of the right side, which I made out of a map of NYC. I then painted two birds, one with the Hong Kong flag colors and the further one from is with the American flag colors.
Although this can be interpreted as me leaving China to America, I think the collage symbolizes my family more than myself. My parents left their home country, but I grew up feeling very attached to both.
I didn’t have time to finish, which is why the American bird looks fat.
Toxic Masculinity
Professor Fontaine came to speak about the origins of binge drinking and its relation to the beginnings of toxic masculinity. Although binge drinking is heavily associated with Americans nowadays (this can be seen via a Google image search), its origins are actually from Germany. After the Crusades and with the inventions of guns, the German knights found themselves idly trying to pass time. To fill their lonely void, they indulged in drinking and drinking competitions. A huge cause of binge drinking was bro culture. This was not very surprising to me because most binge drinking happens at frat parties where bro culture is very prevalent. I just had no idea dated back so long ago.
Giving Back/ Giving Forward
Amy came to speak to us about helping out in the local community. She mentioned that Ithaca was a very interesting city because it has the highest community service per capita, which was something I didn’t know before.
For most of the discussion, we talked about the difference between giving back and giving forward. Although both come with the same intentions, there was a general consensus that the two have different connotations. Most people agreed that giving back means doing something in return for something that was done for you in the past. Meanwhile, giving forward was doing something without previously being prompted to do so by similar options. In the end, I think we all agreed that the actual definitions don’t really matter but the importance of wanting to help others is more significant.
Amy also stressed the importance of reflections because it puts meaning behind what we do. It can be in the form of art, music, or even just conversations to figure out what we did, why we did it, and its significance.
Black Panther
Black Panther is by far one of my favorite Marvel movies. The soundtrack, the costumes, and the plot are all amazing. Unlike the typical superhero movies, the villain, Killmonger, was very much humanized, so the audience could to some degree agree and sympathize with his actions. I first watched this movie opening day, and the discussion around it was very much solely about the plot, soundtrack, and costumes. This time, I was able to hear other people’s analysis of the movies and it brought to my attention very valid and interesting points I would have never considered on my own. For example, someone brought up the fact that the two female characters, Nakia and Okoye, were very empowering because they didn’t fit the usual mold of being the side kick or the damsel in distress of their significant others. Nakia chose to leave Wakanda and go on missions to help those in need instead of staying by T’Challa’s side. Okoye, too, didn’t let love get in her way of her loyalty to her beliefs and her country. During the brief civil war, her husband asked if she would kill him because they were leading opposing sides, and she abruptly replied “For Wakanda, yes.” This harsh reality made him see how damaging the civil war was to the country and led him to surrender. Up until another Rose Scholar brought this up, I had no idea how empowering this moment was. It was so atypical and for once, didn’t show women to be emotional and vulnerable.
I loved watching this movie again and am glad I was able to hear about its positive influence on the black community.
In It Together
Today we went to Chantelle’s spin class at Flx Fit Club after hearing her seminar on Thursday. This semester I’m enrolled in the Spin PE class that meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:45am. Even though I’ve gone to classes regularly, the class was still difficult. After going to more classes, you’re more aware of your limits like what resistance/ speed you can go at. This class was different than the ones they offer at Noyes because it’s in a dark room with nothing but four dim colored spotlights and strips of Christmas lights along the walls. At Noyes, you’re surrounded by mirrors and encouraged to stare at yourself to focus and motivate yourself to keep going. The mirrors make you feel like you’re surrounded by a lot more people. I like the isolation and the concentration this class allows because you can just look at your bike and be alone. I enrolled in my PE class alone, but I went to this class with my friend Jessica. Even though it’s a group fitness class, I still think that spin is a very isolated exercise. At the end you are able to connect and talk to people who just shared the same rigorous workout. Professor Fontaine also brought up the fact that we probably never worked out with a professor because, and I think this just emphasizes the fact that working out together evens the plain fields and erases social distinctions we’re usually separated by.
No More Church on Sunday’s
Unlike the seminars we usually have where a guest speaker would just talk to us about the topic they were presenting, this seminar was much more discussion based. Cornell aluma Chantelle Farmer spoke about her path of being an ORIE major at Cornell Engineering, working at start ups, going back to Cornell to getting a Masters in CS, and to finally opening a gym. She spoke about how much the OR major changed since she’s been in school. Back then, the major had an emphasis in Industrial Engineering, so students learned a lot about factories. The major doesn’t focus on factories anymore. She also explained the importance of going back to school to learn about CS because the field was up and coming. I thought it was very impressive and bold of her to take a job at Ithaca College to be the Webmaster even though she had no idea what the job entailed because the World Wide Web was still a very new concept. Ms. Farmer explained that her engineering didn’t prepare for her to solve differential equations in the real world, but instead it taught her how to think, ask questions, and problem solve. She stressed the importance of her education here but also how working at start ups allowed her to learn the ropes of starting a business.
After having a friend point out the lack of group fitness in Ithaca, she decided to start her own business with her interest in spinning, education in data analysis/ CS, and work experience with start ups. One of my biggest fears of being an engineer is narrowing my career to be strictly STEM related. Ms. Farmer brought up a very refreshing perspective about how engineering teaches you how to problem solve, while our liberal arts expands our horizons.
I had also never thought about the importance and influence of a group fitness facility for a community. This past summer, an iLoveKickboxing gym opened by my apartment in NYC. My dad instantly signed the family up because I had been talking about wanting to learn kickboxing for years. Our family instantly made neighborhood friends we hang out with at least once a week after classes. Even though we were friendly with neighbors and local store owners, my parents didn’t really have many neighborhood friends they would hang out with regularly. Although I noticed this difference, I didn’t put much thought into this until Ms. Farmer and Professor Fontaine brought up how there was a correlation between Sunday church attendance and the growth of group fitness centers. People used to go to church for religious purposes but it also served as a gathering place. Nowadays, people have group fitness centers where they go through a rigorous workout and get food together after. Ms. Farmer and Professor Fontaine also brought up how working out together lets you see everyone in their “rawest” form and how it “evens the plane fields.” I think this makes sense because when you work out, it’s harder to differentiate between people based on societal imposed categories. People don’t have makeup or their professional attire to separate them.
Is this fair?
Although this is extremely embarrassing to admit, and something I really need to improve on, when I’m in college, I generally feel cut out from the outside world. This is because I don’t use social media apps like Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram. The only thing I really check is Facebook on the Safari app of my iPhone. When I lived at home, I would watch the news with my family, but in college, I become unaware of current events until much later or only learn about it through NowThis or the posts my friends share of Facebook. Obviously, I set myself up to learning very one-sided stories/ bias opinions of current events. I try my best to check the News app every few days, but I’ve been terrible at maintaining that goal.
I learned about the most recent government shutdown via Facebook where I was exposed to posts about national parks being closed, airport lines being insanely long, Cardi B’s opinion on the government shutdown, GoFundMe pages for government workers who didn’t have money for their daily expenses, and other outraged posts about the effects of the government shutdown on government employees and people receiving government aid. When I saw these posts, I was shocked at how most people didn’t feel the effects of the government shutdown immediately, and therefore, the people I interacted with didn’t find the need to talk about it. Because all I knew was through Facebook, I decided to read up on government shutdown and recent news articles regarding the most recent one.
Because I’m aware that I don’t keep myself well informed and updated with our country’s politics, I generally stay away from speaking about it because I also don’t like arguing with people with different political views. During the dinner, I generally stayed quiet to listen to what others say. It surprised me to hear how easy people thought it was for government workers to just quit their jobs when they are told they won’t be getting paid and are forced to work. I think because we are so privileged, it is hard for us to see what quitting and starting boycotts would really entail for those who aren’t as lucky as us. Those who have to carry their families on their back don’t have the choice to throw away government jobs that typically provide steady pay and many health/retirement benefits. If they continue to work, and don’t quit, when the government shutdown is over, they can return to their jobs. If they were to boycott and quit, they would lose their job without a guarantee that they would find a job as well paying as their previous government job. Although fairness seems trivial, it is a privilege we don’t realize we have because there is a vast majority of the population that experiences injustices everyday but have to suck it up to provide for themselves and their family.
Another thing I took away from the discussion is how important it is to try our best to empathize with people who are immediately affected when we talk about current events/ politics. It’s easy to idealize situations and neglect the impact of a situation on its immediate victims if the victims aren’t us.
To Grad School or Not to Grad School
During this seminar, Zach spoke about his journey to grad school. He spoke about the decision to go to grad school, the process of finding schools, narrowing down the list, the actual application, and finally deciding on which school to go to. When I first came to college, I hadn’t thought much about grad school because I had been told that it was a way of building networks, and I didn’t like networking. It wasn’t until I heard from upperclassmen in my engineering organizations that I learned about the MEng program. I had gone to the seminar hoping to learn more about MEng, but I ended up learning about grad school for the arts and sciences. I thought it was really interesting because I was aware that my TA’s for classes were grad students, but never really sure what it meant and why some of them had 7 years left. It was really interesting to hear more about the topic even though it wasn’t directly applicable to me. I wasn’t aware how much different PhD and Masters programs could vary between fields. Zach, who’s studying English, spends a lot of time doing research, taking classes, his thesis, teaching classes, studying for qualification exams, while Ty, who’s doing Chemical Engineering, has spent the last few years in lab and never taking classes. I hadn’t realized how similar the process was to finding undergraduate college, so it was relieving to learn that. I enjoyed hearing Zach’s perspective on grad school because he mentioned how too much education could actually be a disadvantage because you may be over qualified for jobs and end up losing time in the work force that could be valuable experiences. I left the seminar relieved with exposure to something that I found daunting in the past because I knew so little about it.