Author Archives: Helena

Marketing and the Internet

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Last week I attended a Rose Cafe where Jeff Prince, a professor from Indiana University, talked about cutting the cord. Cutting the cord is the phenomenon in which people cancel their cable plan in favor of internet streaming.

He talked a lot about internet speed, one of the biggest concerns in terms of product development and marketing for internet service providers. There are two major components to internet speed, bandwidth and latency. Professor Prince explained that bandwidth is the amount of data that can travel at a time, and latency is the lag between when you click something and when you get a response. Some consumers will care more about latency and some about bandwidth. For example latency is extremely important to online sellers because if a page to purchase something takes too long, the customer might change their mind.

All while Professor Prince was talking about this I couldn’t help but think about net neutrality especially as it is about to be reviewed again by the FCC. And of course it came up later in conversation. Although it was interesting to hear an anti net neutrality viewpoint, I still support net neutrality. There would be some benefits to consumer to ending net neutrality, but I don’t think it’s fair for Walmart’s pages to load faster than Etsy’s because they paid ISPs more.

I realized during his talk that I never gave much thought to internet service providers and marketing internet service products even though I use internet everyday.

Vote With Your Dollar

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The Rose Cafe talk this week was given by Mr. Lemnios, the head of the Sun Coffee Roasters. (Sun coffee is served in the dining halls at Cornell.) He talked about how he got into coffee, and after traveling to coffee farms he decided that it was important to pay his coffee growers enough to actually live on, as well as investing in education for their children. Since then he has visited the coffee farms that he’s partnered with and ensured that the growing process is sustainable, that the growers are being paid reasonably, and even built schools for the farms.

Mr Lemnios talked about how companies can make themselves stand out from their competition by having a clear mission, a “why” the are doing what they are doing. Leading with this “why” in marketing can be extremely effective in outselling competitors.

I think that it’s great that Cornell is supporting a company that strives for fair trade and sustainability. I also think that having a mission is not only beneficial to a company but also to consumers. Many people, especially from younger generations are thinking more about where the products they are buying come from and what kind of impact they have. I think it’s important to remember that we have great power over the market with our purchases. If we decide to put our money towards things that we believe in those things will become more prevalent. And if collectively we can stop supporting practices that we don’t believe in, companies will either die out or change. We really can vote with our dollar.

A Perfect Sunday Morning

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Last Sunday I joined the Rose Scholars on a trip to the Ithaca Farmers Market. I’ve been several times before and could not pass up the opportunity to go again. Along with having an excellent selection of produce stands, there are also craft stands and several food and beverage stands. The breakfast burrito and Cambodian food stalls always have long lines. The maple syrup stand however is one you can’t miss. I’ve often picked up a bag of maple cotton candy there and finished it in the same day.

This particular Sunday, after browsing all the stalls I picked up some corn fritters with spicy mayo from Macro Mama’s and some hot apple cider from the apple donut stall. I sat out on the landing enjoying my finds and watching the lake. It was a little chillier than I would have liked, but it made the hot cider that much sweeter. If you haven’t been to the farmer’s market yet, it’s definitely an Ithaca must. It’s amazing the local treasures that Ithaca provides, and the way the Ithaca community comes together on things like the farmers market to add to its small town flair.

Building Community

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Last week I went to the “Tell Us What You Really Think” Rose Cafe. Professor Hill talked a lot about building a living-learning communities on west similar to the colleges at Yale. This is very difficult to foster this kind of atmosphere because most of the people who live on west are doing it out of convenience, and picking houses simply based on where there are open beds.

I made a suggestion to hold fun events at the beginning of the semester to draw people in that are not part of the Rose Scholars program. Unfortunately, budgeting is an issue.

Another idea, though I’m sure it would be near impossible to implement, is to team soon-to-be rose residents with Rose Scholars or current Rose residents. The new residents can be paired with the resident that lives in the room they are going to be assigned to. They could see their new rooms, maybe join their upper-class mentors for dinner in the Rose dining room, or go on a tour of West. Certainly not a perfect solution, but it’s an idea to foster communication between rose house generations and build community. In my experience, students come visit the rooms they are going to live in either way.

Another idea is to promote the creation of a building group me, and get the building together for little events like movie nights. We did this last year in my building, and I made friends that otherwise probably would not have talked to.

In general the Rose Scholars program has been a great experience, but there are some ways it could improve, particularly when it comes to creating a community.

Let’s Cook!

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On Saturday I attended the Rose cooking workshop, and I made cannellini beans with tomatoes and sage. I actually went to the same event last year and made the same dish, but I forgot to blog about it. I went both times because I really enjoy cooking, but with classes and an unlimited meal plan I rarely have the time or the motivation to do so. The cannellini beans turned out pretty well, but unfortunately I was not able to try everyone else’s dishes because the cannellini dish was the only vegan dish. However, the consensus seemed to be that everything turned out really well and everyone had good time. The staff at the event were also really nice and they made me a vegan pasta dish with tomato sauce and walnuts which was delicious. The only suggestion I would have is that maybe next time they could include more plant based dishes. Plant-based cooking can be extremely easy and healthy, and in fact, many of the recipes that we made could have been plant based with just a few small tweaks.

The Cat’s Meow

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Earlier today I attended the Cat Video Festival through Rose House. At the beginning of the event, the staff announced that the money from the ticket sales would be given to the Tompkins County SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Then there was a trivia contest, and a hilarious cat impression contest. And then they rolled the comical and adorable hour long cat video compilation. The event was a ton of fun, and I would highly recommend it, especially if you are a cat fan.

It was great to see so many people come out to support the SPCA. Over half of the animals in shelters end up being euthanized. Donations help the SPCA to continue to shelter these animals. It is also important to remember that if you are looking for a pet to opt for a rescue animal over an animal from a pet store. There is currently an overpopulation crisis in the pet world. Animals in pet stores are often the product of breeders, and every animal bought from a breeder is a rescue animal that could have had a loving home but will have to be euthanized. Breeders often don’t neuter their animals, further contributing to the overpopulation. They can sometimes treat their animals poorly, and inbreeding to generate purebreds or specific breeds of dog can cause genetic defects which can be painful or even deadly. So if you or someone you know are looking for a furry friend, #adoptdontshop.

So What Exactly is a Personal Statement?

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Last Thursday I attend the Personal Statement Workshop. I’m pretty clueless when it comes to applications, resumes, cover letters, etc. I also wasn’t exactly sure what a personal statement was. I had heard the phrase, and figured they were similar to a cover letter.

As it turns out, a personal statement, especially in the context of graduate school applications in Europe, is more like a business proposal. It seemed to me that the most common presence of personal statements is in applications to graduate school.

Professor Hill described how a personal statement should differ when applying to graduate school in the United States versus Europe. In the United States, graduate school admissions expects a personal statement to describe a students interests and how they became interested in those subjects. They prefer a more moldable student that will graduate as a loyal alumna. However, in Europe they expect applicants to have found a faculty member to work with, and that their statement reflects a research plan, almost like a request for funding.

One interesting tip that Professor Hill had that could be applicable to several different written pieces is the “nugget” method. In this method, you start of a thought towards the beginning of your piece, and leave it unfinished. Then towards the end of the piece bring the thought together. This method is very satisfying to the reader and can work in your favor when writing a personal statement, cover letter, or any other piece of writing.

Employers Are People Too

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Last Thursday I attended the Rose House Cover Letter Seminar. I was really glad that Rose was having an event to discuss job and internship applications as I feel particularly clueless in that area. Cynthia and Shiv started by reviewing the kinds of things one would want to put on a resume. They also recommended that we keep a “master resume” containing all the things we have accomplished so as to make it easier to pare down the list to fit a particular job, while also not forgetting anything that may be relevant.

They pointed out that in job listings employer typically make it very clear what the want in a potential candidate. And in the case that a listing is less than transparent, it may be a good idea to call and inquire, without leaving your name, or to email from an alternative address. Once you know what the employer wants, you should tailor your resume to be as close to their listing as possible. Ideally, you want you and the job to be as close of a match as possible. In the event that you don’t have the exact qualification they are looking for, you can spin one of your skills or experiences to fit the qualification. For example, if you need to know a computer language but you know several foreign languages, you could spin it and say that you have the skills to learn said computer language quickly. The cover letter is the perfect place to tie things in on your resume to the qualification they are searching for.

One of the most striking thing that  Cynthia and Shiv mentioned is that employers, while reviewing large numbers of resumes just want to be done as soon as possible. The closer you can be to what they are looking for and the more concise you can be, the better.

A Cult Classic

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Last Friday I attended the first Flora Rose Film Friday, where we watched the movie Fight Club. I had never seen the film before, but I’ve heard a lot about it. Before starting the movie Professor Hill mentioned that it was released in 1999. The turn of the century was a turbulent time, as many were afraid that society might fall apart due to the formatting of dates in computers.

Today could also be considered a turbulent time. The main character’s resort to violence and isolation can be paralleled with the approach of the current US administration. However, I think that the film uses the extreme isolation and violence as sarcasm, using the extremes to show how ridiculous the main character’s lifestyle becomes.

To me it seems that the main character may have been suffering from insomnia, and bipolar and/or multiple personality disorder. I didn’t like that the film maker took his behavior to an extreme. It seems like he could have been taking advantage or making light of metal disorders just to make a point. Seeing this film could influence people to think that people with mental illness are totally crazy and unbalanced and discourage people who are struggling from reaching out.

I was taken by surprise that the Tyler Durden character was actually the narrator. However, I was wondering pretty early on in the film (and am still wondering) whether the Marla character was real, or a figment of the narrator’s imagination. Although Professor Hill mentioned that the film is often written about as being misogynistic, I think this is a rather one-dimensional view. I think that Marla could be another projection of the narrator, or even that rather than fighting, as he claims, Marla is the narrator’s true reason for living. The later interpretation is actually rather romantic.

I think for future film viewings it would be interesting to have a short conversation afterwards to ask questions and share interpretations.