To be frank, my primary reason for applying to the Rose Scholars program was to get guaranteed housing for the following year. As a transfer student, I didn’t want to have to go through the worries of looking for apartments so early into my first semester at Cornell, and being a Rose Scholar seemed like the most logical option for me to take. I did, however, really enjoy my time being a Rose Scholar and attending many Rose Cafe events. Honestly, if it wasn’t for this program, I most likely would not have attended these Cafe events, but I’m very glad that I did because I was able to learn so much from them.
For future years and moving forward with this program, one of the suggestions I do have is providing more events with shorter time commitments. I often felt that the Rose Cafe events were my only option because the majority of the events took up a couple hours on a Saturday or a late night on a weekday. Although I wanted to explore more, my academic endeavors as well as other commitments often overlapped and I couldn’t go to a lot of the other events that the House hosted. I think the Rose Cafe events are great, but it would also be nice to have other options with similar time commitments.
I also think it would be great to incorporate other House programs with the Rose Scholars program. This could be a way of unity of West Campus as well as another way for students to interact and get to know each other. A lot of West Campus is made up of transfer students, and I think it would be great to provide them with the opportunity to mingle with other students and help them step out of their comfort zones as well.
Overall, I enjoyed the Rose Scholars program and I definitely think it changed me as a person. I was able to learn a lot and I look forward to living in Rose again for another year.
Great point of suggesting shorter events, I definitely agree with you. I also solely attend Rose Cafes because of their relatively brief time commitment, but I would love to see other events that are shorter in length so I can switch it up from week to week.
I completely agree with your suggestion of events with shorter time commitments. There were so many interesting events I would have wanted to attend this semester, but I just couldn’t afford to give a couple hours of my time, especially those hosted during the school week. If this could be tweaked for the upcoming year, I think scholars would be able to get the most out of this program.
Like the previous comments, shorter commitments are key. I feel that was another reason why there became a sign-up for Rose cafe because an hour is like the most time people want to do these events. More events with at least one hour of duration would have more of a turnout in my opinion.