I had a really cool experience cycling with some of my closest friends. It was nice to get off campus and forget about our stresses. It was hard to keep up with the instructors pace sometimes…but I fought through it and made it work. The uphill threads were physically tasking but with the support of my friends and fellow rose scholars, I was able to do it all without stopping.

It is always nice and refreshing to start your day off with a workout, so I really enjoyed this. It really set the mood for the rest of my day. I was extremely relaxed and felt super productive. Now that I know about FLX Cycle, I will make sure to visit there again and go cycling every so often!

On Thursday, February 7, I attended the seminar, “How Does an Engineering Degree Prepare You to Open a Gym?” Guest speaker Chantelle talked about how her Cornell education and tech industry experiences helped her to launch her group fitness studio, FLX Fitclub. Such an odd title for a seminar immediately piqued my interest, and I had no idea what sort of discussion I would be walking into. I had never heard about FLX Fitclub prior to this seminar, but I can understand why so many people are attracted to the concept. For Chantelle, exercise is not just a means to reach the end goal of becoming physically healthier. The exercise itself forms part of the entertaining experience. The people around you motivate you to keep going and hold accountability. I agree with Chantelle and believe that everyone should fit exercise into their schedules for healthier minds and bodies. In the future, I hope to attend one of Chantelle’s classes for myself.

Because I am interested in start-ups and entrepreneurship, I enjoyed listening to Chantelle’s story about how the FLX Fitclub originated. She described the struggles of operating a start-up and delved into all the logistical aspects that an entrepreneur needs to consider. I appreciated Chantelle’s advice about learning on the job. She said that it is okay to not know things and ask questions constantly. Although no one likes to be wrong, I will try to become more comfortable with making mistakes and learning from them accordingly. Entrepreneurs like Chantelle must be willing to take risks and accept that they will fail. But they must also be able to bounce back.

Unfortunately, I missed this seminar, but did get the chance to attend the spin class, my very first and an enjoyable one. I hadn’t been to a gym in a while, so I really appreciated the opportunity to be in a gym-setting again. Especially since I haven’t been very physically active lately. Over the summer, I did have my cousin as a workout buddy and for a while that went well. I was working on some physical therapy, she was training to join her school’s track team, and we both got into healthier eating for a bit. Unfortunately, as the summer got busier our workout sessions became less and less frequent. Although I enjoyed the sort of impromptu exercising we did do, I do need a more structured workout regime. So, what I appreciate about this spin class is that it provided a bit of that for the hour-and-some-change we were there. The class offers the benefits of 10-something workout partners, and because it’s a class, workout partners are always guaranteed… Everyone around me was tuned into the same activity, which was also nice. Usually in gyms, there’s a lot of people doing a lot of different things, coming in and out, etc.—which can be anxiety-inducing—so I liked the spin class because it removed some of the business of a typical gym. Overall, the experience has me looking forward to getting a gym membership and considering enrollment in some of our own fitness classes. Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to do something like this again in the near future. Thanks again to Chantelle for sharing her gym with us!

We had a guest speaker who recently opened up a cycling studio in Ithaca. The interesting thing is that she is a Cornell grad with an engineering degree. She talked to us about what it was like opening her own business. She said that one thing from her Cornell experience that translated to her business was how in her Information Science classes she learned about user experience. Hence, she was able to take the strategies she had learned from that and translate it into making a positive and inclusive experience for her clients.

Her cycling studio is similar to the style of what Soul Cycle is, which people flock to to have a community to work out with. Hence, I can see how implanting user experience strategies can be helpful since you have to consider every single touch point the user interacts with.

Another thing I learned was to appreciate the electives I take that don’t have to do with my major. This is important since it can give me new ways of looking at the world and give myself a break from my major. One thing I struggle with is that I get frustrated when I’m doing work for a class that isn’t my major because I feel like that I’m not spending time on what I should be focusing on. Yet, I think her talk helped give me more appreciation for having the ability to take classes outside of my major, since I know my peers in Information Science in the College of Engineering don’t get as much of a chance to explore Cornell’s classes compared to me studying Information Science in Arts and Sciences.

Last Thursday, I attended the seminar about Chantelle’s journey to becoming a fitness club business owner. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend one of her classes- spinning. This was my first spin class, and I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. First, the ambiance of the room promoted a mindset that made the workout seem more of a fun activity- it was a dark room with colorful lights and music that allowed me to spin to the beat. In some ways, it felt like I was in a dance club but I was spinning rather than dancing. Second, it was enjoyable to have a group of people spinning with me- it made me feel accountable to give it my all. Yet at the same time, I felt like at some points I was just all alone and focusing on my individual workout. It was very stress relieving. Finally, I thought Chantelle was a great instructor who motivated us to push ourselves a little harder each time, yet I never felt like I had to push myself to the point of pain. Overall, this was a very fun first experience, and I definitely think I will do it again.

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.

What I found most interesting about this event is that a lot of what was said in discussion seemed to be of opposing sentiment to what I have personally experienced or concluded on my own. In particular, I was intrigued by Chantelle Farmer’s comment about being in school to “learn how to learn.” It wasn’t a new concept or idea that I was hearing, however my experience when searching for internships or jobs has been that there is an expected degree of knowledge within engineering fields and jobs. Sometimes you don’t make it to the behavioral interview if you cannot first supersede standards set for the technical interviews. To me, this isn’t the equivalent of an expectation that you know how to learn. It is an expectation that you have the working knowledge necessary for the intended position. Therefore, hearing that comment from someone who completed their degree in the same field that I am interested in was a bit surprising. I do recognize that our differing experiences may be attributed to being employed versus opening a small business on  your own.

Another comment that really called my attention was that of the group psychology of exercise classes. Personally, I find myself more motivated to try new exercises when I am on my own. Being a room with other people who are partaking in the same directed exercises is a new, and fairly uncomfortable, concept to me. I figured that attending the spinning class and stepping out of my comfort zone might give me insight as to why this particular mode of exercising has gained so much popularity.

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.

If there’s one thing I learned from Chantelle Farmer’s talk, it’s that you never know where you’re going to end up. You think you might have it all planned out, but life really pushes you in different directions. Way before she opened her gym in Ithaca, she never really had it explicitly laid out in her mind that she would eventually open up a fitness club. She studied ORIE during her time at Cornell but did not have it planned to open a gym in Ithaca years down the line. It’s important to chase your passions, and it is even more valuable to take risks. If there’s anything I got from her talk, it’s that you should keep trying new things, and hopefully, you’ll end up in a place that you never dreamed of going.

I found it really interesting that you never really know exactly where your career path will lead to. As Chantelle Farmer described her journey from an engineering degree to a fitness club business owner, I thought it was very insightful as she describes that the most important thing you learn from college is how to learn. Often times, we don’t directly apply what we learn to our industry job, but rather the process of self-studying, problem solving, asking questions, and working with other people. Additionally, she mentioned that her favorite classes at Cornell were her electives. These electives were her chance to take upon an interest she never would have thought she would be interested in, and they helped her open her eyes about the world and how to apply her learning. Additionally, it helped her “become more of a person”, allowing the ability to talk about interests outside a degree.

My greatest takeaway from this seminar is that you don’t know where life if going to take you. Chantelle, a Cornell alumni, shared her story and unexpected trajectory into the fitness world. She was an OR major in the engineering school, but after working in Ithaca college and various start ups, she realized there was a need for more gyms in Ithaca. And then she decided to take it upon herself to open up a gym. She said that her engineering courses have prepared her in some ways for running her business; it provided her with a skillset to learn. I am currently in the ILR school and have met ILR alum who end up in fields that they never even considered in undergraduate school, such as SEO. Cornell has a structured curriculum, but it certainly doesn’t prepare you for life outside of college.