In the table talk with Ryan Lombardi, it was clear how passionate he was about his job and Cornell. During the entire conversation, he seemed emotional and cared a ton about Cornell and its students. Many students treat the Cornell administration as people who don’t care much or at all about their students, but it’s clear that if that is not the case for Ryan. Additionally, he mentioned that it was extremely stressful to open up Cornell, with the majority of the universities dropping out of doing in-person and being remote instead. When Cornell decided to be in person, they were risking the university’s reputation if the reopening went horribly wrong. I’m glad that they reopened Cornell though. I was struggling to study at home, and if it wasn’t the effort of Ryan and others in the Cornell administration, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to learn and perform as well this year. Additionally, it was good to hear from Ryan that things will for the most part be mostly normal next fall. It’s been extremely tough doing most of my classes over zoom and actually attending a class will greatly help my studies.
Author Archives: tzh2
It’s hurting us slow, but consistently nonetheless…
By watching the human element, it really made me realize how impactful climate change has been on the world. For example, in the Chesapeake Bay, on a sunny day, parts of the mainland could flood and majorly disrupt people’s lives. A person who lives there could wake up one morning and walk outside and the entire area could be flooded any day, which is crazy. Where I live in California, we have felt climate change as well. For example, temperatures would be consistently higher and record highs would be commonly be broken during the summer. Although it used to rain a moderate amount in the past where I lived, now it rains significantly less. It used to snow where I live every few years or so, but due to climate change, it hasn’t snowed in over 50 years now. Climate change is impactful, and I wish other people to watch this video in order to see how bad climate change is, and how damaging it is not just to people’s lives, but economically. Although it might be cheaper to not save the environment now, it will cost mankind several times the amount in the near future.
Making the Extra Step
In this Rose Buzz, it was interesting to hear how Laura’s extracurriculars were able to impact her life in such a positive way. When I came to Cornell, at first, I didn’t join any extracurricular. I was sick of doing several extracurriculars in high school to help me get into college. When I actually got into Cornell, I thought that extracurriculars were a waste of time and that I would never join any. However, recently, I’ve been realizing that there are clubs and activities that might be interesting to join for fun. Laura’s statement about how extracurriculars positively impacted her life confirmed my belief that I should seek out some interesting extracurriculars as soon as possible. Additionally, Laura and Christa spoke about how virtual appointments have made it easier for students to get help easier. Although I found this to be good, in my opinion, I wouldn’t feel comfortable making an appointment on zoom. I hope that once things return to normal, hopefully, they’ll resume with a lot of in-person appointments for other students who are feeling the same and need help.
All it takes is one person
In this Rose Buzz, it was incredibly enlightening to listen to Ryan Lombardi and Ken Roberts. Ryan Lombardi was especially interesting to listen to and learn about him than simply know him as the person who sends emails to my inbox every week. Furthermore, it was amazing how Ryan Lombardi said that if any student wanted to, they could come to go talk to him and even grab a coffee/lunch with him. All that student needs to do is to send an email to him to start that relationship. This made me realize how much Ryan Lombardi cares for his students by making time for tens of thousands of students at Cornell. Growing up, I knew some teachers who would avoid their students outside of the classroom, and these teachers had only a few students compared to the vast amount of students who know/look up to Ryan Lombardi. This made me respect Ryan to a whole another level, and I hope other people in Cornell’s administration are similar to him. All it takes is that one figure that can change your life for the better. For example, my European History teacher would always make one-on-one time for his students and encouraged students to see him. Since he did that, it helped me greatly in learning the material, writing better, and creating long-term goals outside of the classroom. Without him, I may not be where I am today.
Surprises and Doing My Part
In this LWYL cafe, one speaker spoke about how tens of millions of sharks are killed every year for their fins, and the rest of their body is wasted in the sea. She used art in order to protest against these actions and raised awareness. She then followed this up by saying that humans are the ultimate apex predator and that we have the ability to change the world in any shape or form we want. However, we are changing it for the worse for our own selfish desires. Firstly, I was shocked to see how many sharks were actually killed for their fins. I knew that this was an issue, but I didn’t realize it was this bad. It makes me incredibly sad and made me realize why my mother from Asia was so incredibly passionate about the shark fin debate (against taking and eating fins of course). Additionally, she goes on to talk about how other animals are being endangered due to humans’ selfish desires (and also made beautiful art to raise awareness for those animals as well). Some things are mostly out of our control such as rhino poaching, but we can all do our small part such as not littering and recycling goods that are recyclable. Back in my home town, many of my friends would litter instead of going to the trash can or waiting to throw out the trash once the car reaches its destination. Although I’m fairly responsible at doing my part in this matter, this seminar made me realize that I need to make a bigger effort by telling my friends that littering and other non-green actions are no okay and that we all need to pitch in in order to keep the world healthy.
Be Free
In this week’s Rose Buzz, I could heavily relate to Sean Nicholson’s life story. Sean described how he got a career in teaching because he let life take him places. For example, he got a corporate job at a health company that he did not know anything about which eventually led him to realize that he wanted to be a teacher. Then, he was able to teach at some of the most prestigious schools in the country. In high school, I did something very similar. At the beginning of high school, I thought I had everything figured out. My goal was to become the best cross country runner and then use that in order to gain acceptance into UPenn, the school that my entire family came from. Then, towards the end of the second semester of my freshman year, I got an injury that would never let me race competitively again, and school was exhausting to be perfect at. In sophomore year, I tried to keep to my original plan, but it only led me to be frustrated with PT not helping my injury and my grades not being the best of the best. Starting junior year, I realized that not being perfect in school is okay and that I should do activities and hobbies that I was passionate about (and I could physically do). By taking this path, I somehow still got into Cornell and was able to enjoy life more. Additionally, I love Cornell, and I am grateful that what happened in the past helped me get into there. A long story short, by letting life take you places, you are able to live better than trying to “plan” out your life.
The Powerful Wildcard
During Fontaine’s talk about how jokes can get you ahead, it enlightened me on how humor can get you ahead in life, or it can make you look annoying, or even get you killed. For example, Fortaine explained how being funny can get you out of a dire situation with the police, or it could help educate others efficiently. Although I think I knew this in the back of my mind, I never really thought about it until now. I thought about a YouTuber named Sam O’Nella, and although he makes educational content, he has gotten hundreds of millions of views by being extremely funny. Additionally, he uses hostility to make his jokes perform better, another technique Fontaine mentioned. So even though I’m guessing most people don’t remember anything from high school history other than the occasional joke, millions of others, and I most likely remember the majority of facts Sam O’Nella stated in his videos. Jokes are powerful, and they must be utilized more in the future to help humanity and to hopefully lighten the mood at the same time.
Employ What You Are Given Smartly
In this week’s podcast, there was one piece of advice that truly enlightened me. For example, Mary Opperman spoke of how she got a piece of advice when she was younger that was “you don’t need to be an expert to be the best in your field. You need to recognize that you are not an expert in order to succeed.” This advice truly hit me hard, especially studying at Cornell. In this university, you are learning amongst the best of the best students, and doing the best is virtually impossible. However, if you recognize that you won’t be the best in your field but instead use your unique attribute together, you will truly succeed in life. Recently, I’ve been indistinctively doing this but hearing it in words was impactful and gave me hope that I can succeed in life if I try my best and employ my unique characteristics.
Continuous and New Big Issues
In the seminar discussing love, health, safety, and relationships, it opened up my eyes to what other issues people face. For example, one individual discussed how his queer friend had trouble getting help when he was sexually assaulted. It saddened me that even in the present day, it can be incredibly difficult to find help if you are in a minority group. Although I haven’t experienced anything similar, I hope that over time these issues will eventually disappear. Additionally, this seminar illustrated to me that covid has made dating difficult for not just me, but for all people. Especially with everybody being sent home, it was impossible to keep relationships from deteriorating because of long-distance. It was comforting to hear that everyone was experiencing the same problems.
Path to Success
In this Ross Buzz, I was able to connect and learn significantly with Professor Schwarz and Samuels. For example, Schwarz talked about how he loved teaching and how it keeps driving him to this day to teach students at Cornell. Although I have not been around nearly as long as him, I also enjoy teaching my fellow classmates and even got a TA position this semester to expand my teaching. I like seeing my peers being able to gain knowledge from me helping them and utilizing that knowledge for their classes and the real world. Additionally, Shirley Samuels explained how learning how to “survive” in college helped her become independent early in life. I hope that I will be able to do the same and be able to pick up the skills she has in order to help me thrive in the real world. Although doing well in classes and work is crucial, “survival” is the base step towards any of those things.