Author Archives: JC

Snappy Casual.

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As a business major, we start the first day of school with learning what business professional, business casual, smart casual, and casual are. Every region of the country and even the world perceive it to be very different clothing. Although going into this workshop I didn’t think I would be learning new information, more so a refresher, this Rose event was probably my favorite.

Ty, the GRF leading this along with two SAs Liz and Ben, taught us how to neck tie AND a bow tie. The most ironic of this workshop was that most of the audience in attendance were women with only one man. Even though I would most likely never need to wear one in a professional setting, it was so much fun to learn. We learned how to tie a full windsor knot on the neck tie. It’s the classic full triangle knot and probably my favorite. Towards the end of the workshop, I was able to tie it pretty well!

The bow tie was definitely much more tricky. Not only is it shorter, there are a bunch of loops to be formed and all tightly against your neck. It can’t be scooted up like the neck tie. The trickiest part for me was the last step of pulling the second loop for form the bow tie. In the end, I finally got it and bragged about knowing how to tie a bow tie for the rest of the week.

I think the bow tie matches perfectly with my outfit. What do you think?

Pre-(Country of Choice)

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To be quite honest, I’ve never been interested in art history. But on Thursday evening, I found learning about art is far more interesting and deep than I imagined. Art is not just history of the piece. It’s also history of the culture. For example, we learned about a lot of ancient culture. (I call it Pre- culture since everything was labeled like that for identification.) In Pre-Columbian culture, vessels were very popular and even in different time periods and cultures you can tell the strong similarities and added traditions.

One interesting cultural fact I learned is about the Pre-Columbian culture. They had to special animals: birds and cats. These animals were thought to be able to transcend. Birds can fly up into the sky and cats can climb trees all the way up. As an avid lover of cats, it caught my attention immediately.

When we started working with the clay, I immediately decided to create a teapot. It was definitely a far bigger challenge than I imagined. But also so much fun. Unfortunately it is not food safe so will not be a functional teapot but a cute one nonetheless! Thanks so much for the workshop. Definitely one of the best events I’ve attended.

Running Running Running

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This past Wednesday, I learned more than I ever thought I could at the Rose Cafe. Paul Wilcox was the esteemed speaker. What drew me to his talk was his credentials. He graduated from Eton College and Corpus Cristi, Cambridge. It amazed me so much I had to hear whatever he had to say, regardless of the topic. Little did I know it’d be about track and field.

He discussed the history of track and field in Cambridge/Oxford and the Ivy Leagues. I did not know how much history and monumental moments in track and field were created by graduates of even my own school. In my mind, I think of Cornell as a great school in academics but never really athletics. But when he talked about how one track and field star and Cornellian broke world record! Thats incredible! Especially with his British accent, Paul Wilcox was able to capture the very full audience and entertain us the entire time (which is very rare for an hour long talk).

Although I can continue to talk about his great talk in track and field, I was actually very interested in the first 5 minutes of introduction more. Paul Wilcox is a shipbroker! I was so amazed at his profession, for it is rare to be in attendance of a talk from a non-academic. His career path as a ship valuer is just so interesting. Not only is he a busy man in career, but he spends his time dedicated to preserving the history and value of the track and field community. He truly is an amazing person and has had an amazing life path.

Thank you so much for talking to us! I definitely recommend to hear him speak if anyone is able to.

Goals for the Future

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Rose Cafe hosted by Sam Beck, a social and cultural anthropologist and Director of the New York City Urban Semester Program. This cafe focused very little on his experiences and expertise and more so on us, the audience– a very refreshing and slightly startling realization halfway through the talk.

We went around the room and each gave our major and aspirations for our futures. It was interesting how he grilled us. He pressed on and on with the question “what does that mean?”, which for a lot of us, meant I don’t know. It was so different to be continuously asked what is your specific goal for your future? What do you want to do? For me, I don’t know yet and I think that is okay. In lectures, we learn how things are suppose to be. And in my major, I think we also learn a little bit of what path we ‘should be’ heading down. I remember my first day of college the term “IB” was used constantly and that was what I thought my career aspiration was suppose to be. Now, I have developed more of an individualized goal.

Even so, I think Sam Beck makes us think of the bigger picture which is always a good thing. Sometimes we get stuck in just doing the monotony of schoolwork. He allowed me to think about different options which I am thankful for. One big point he made was to come talk to him. Send him an email. He genuinely was interested in each of us which made his advice all the more worthwhile.

Expressions of a Dog

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Today, I had the wonderful experience of creating art at a workshop hosted by Nicholas Carbonara. My original thought of what this workshop would be was Nicholas drawing something live while we, as the students, would copy and interpret onto our own canvas. However, this experience was so different.

Nicholas allowed us to draw or write whatever we liked in a period of time with a few models in the center of the room and music playing in the background. It was very interesting how the different models changed poses and the movements they created to inspire. They danced along to the music, played with the dogs (two of the most adorable models), or just relaxed. Personally, I spent the time drawing using markers. My art was based on lines and circles. After I felt it was complete, I played with his dogs and even held one.

At our discussion at the end of the session, he really pressed upon the notion of using this as a relaxation technique. Spend a bit of time everyday to reflect and enjoy your memories rather than try to capture them on your camera. Take 10 minutes everyday to just relax and draw a bit on whatever you feel inspired about. That was a great message to end off the workshop. Thanks!

Irony of the Prison

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Heather Ann Thompson is an author, historian, and professor at the University of Michigan. She came to Cornell to speak about her newly published book “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy” in Golden Smith Hall. I had the pleasure of attending this talk. Although I had no idea what to expect from it, I came out with so much more than I could’ve asked for.

At first, I thought the speaker was going to discuss her journey and specifically how she became interested in the prison system and chose that as her life long research topic. However, Thompson really delved into what Attica is and a very brief oversight of the injustice that occurred. On September 13, 1971, prisoners at Attica Prison had a revolt and held hostages in order to negotiate with the government to improve conditions within the Prison. The police came and surrounded the prison, while a helicopter hovering the prison courtyard sprayed toxic gas onto everyone and began shooting at all prisoners and hostages.

The account we all learn about in the news, online and in books have been heavily twisted to the side of the government Although I hadn’t heard of the story before, I could only imagine what the media said. Thompson told us the barriers she pushed through to listen to the real life accounts from family or persons in Attica Prison at the time. She really opened my eyes not only to what injustices this world has, but also how the media sways the public’s opinion. I have definitely learned that even if every single media outlet is publishing the same story, it may still not be all the truth.

Real Expressions

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On Wednesday, I attended an art exhibit reception for Nicholas Carbonaro, a local artist and the current Rose House Fellow. I went in not knowing really what his style of art was or exactly what I’d see but was very pleasantly surprised.

In the Rose dining hall on the back wall holds pieces of Nicholas’ work. He uses sharp lines and bold contrasting colors to create many different portraits. One in particular stood out to me. It was a self-portrait he painted of how he felt he looked like after a reconstructive surgery. The nose is overly-pinched. One eye is squinted far more than the other. The entire face looks gaunt. The background was filled with bold colors. Long hair was in disarray all around. It was wild. Free. Careless. Yet showed show much talent and work.

His message with all of his art is resonating. Those moments when you don’t care are the best ones. They show the true you. Your posed picture face isn’t what you look like. That moment you are mid cough: eyes squinting, hand raised to your nose, mouth slightly open. That is the moment that is great. Don’t focus on just a posed beautiful version of yourself. Every version is beautiful and find humor in everything.

Thank you Nicholas for coming to show us your work!

Cognitive Goals. Think About It.

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On Wednesday evening, I attended the Rose Cafe hosted by House Fellow Cynthia Hill. To be completely honest, I went in not knowing what the topic was. But as she started, it slowly became clear and the conversation was very exciting. Cynthia started on the topic of reflecting on your written work and then allowed us as the audience to provide input and get to the point of the talk by ourselves.

Cognitive goals. That was my key takeaway. When I’m given a writing assignment, it’s usually a vague topic. I’ll create an outline and just write with hopes to reach the word count and get a good grade. However, I really didn’t think about the goal of an assignment. What is the cognitive goal? Why am I doing this assignment?

Cynthia really made me think about extending myself and really getting an education rather than a degree. Learn from each assignment I complete rather than finish hurriedly and do it to get the grade. Take some time to consider all of the grader’s comments and learn from them, not just to earn a better grade on the next assignment, but also to truly learn from all the mistakes and improve overall.

American Government: Evolved?

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On Wednesday evening, I attended a talk with the intention to listen to Professor Peter Enns’ opinion and various facts on American governance and specifically the changes occurring with the new president. However, rather than hearing his opinion or the public opinion, the talk was more of a conversation with a select few of the audience (us students) about Trump’s recent policies, specifically on immigration.

I can’t say I’m disappointed in this talk. Regardless, it was beneficial to think about policies; I’m not one to constantly do so. Students gave opinions on how Trump’s policies have been widely disputed and are wrong. Some discussed the judicial system’s play in allowing these policies to be enacted. Others discussed the historical significance of conservative versus liberal presidents and policies. One specific unique conversation was how to integrate pro-Trump students and people into these conversations of current policies to understand all views. This was a very enlightening topic for me personally. However, we didn’t really stick to this topic for long before moving on for closing remarks.

The biggest problem that I wanted resolved going into this Rose Cafe was to understand exactly what the policies are, what various political opinions are, what the public opinion is, and alternatives people have proposed to Trump’s policies. Clarification is huge. I think so many people, especially people in the generation of social media, have the problem of misinformation. Many things may be blown up due to one specific comment on a specific Facebook page. But what was really the back story?

One takeaway that I think was important is that it is very important to be accurately informed from all angles. Understand more. Think more. Don’t form concrete opinions too quickly.