Culture

My Journey in Information Science, Systems and Technology: A Filipino-American Woman’s Perspective

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I am holding a paper sign that says, “Because over 90% of LGBTQ tech employees surveyed reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination at work,” inside the intersection of Duffield Hall, where Women in Computing at Cornell (WICC) took a picture for their Fall 2019 Diversity Photo Campaign, #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Discovering my passion in Computer Science & Information Science
In Fall 2017, I took CS 1110 with Professor Walker White and became more interested in CS. Before Professor White started his lectures, I looked around to find my kababayans, or my fellow Filipinos, without much luck. I was also too shy to initiate a conversation with a classmate near me, so I did not know many of my classmates, which made me feel lonely. Though I tried to pay attention to his lectures, I wondered where the Filipinos were sitting so that I could start a conversation with them after class.

Lifestyle

HEALTHNUT | Guide To Cornell’s Fitness Classes

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What many people don’t know is that having access to Cornell’s fitness centers also means having access to an array of group fitness classes – not just taught by elderly and overweight ex-PE teachers, but also your overly enthusiastic but super strong peers. Luckily, these classes span gyms across campus and boast tons of time slots – perfect for your 7 am Yoga or 7 pm HIIT. So if the freshman fifteen is hitting you hard, here are some of my favorite of Cornell’s Group Fitness Classes to get you started:

HIIT 

Functional fitness using plyo box jumps, core bags, slam balls and more makes POWER H.I.I.T. the new Barry’s Bootcamp. Offered both weekdays and weekends, this workout is the perfect sweat sesh. 

Score: 9/10

Times: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at Appel Commons
CU Row (shockwave):
It combines circuit training and water rowers to make you feel like you’re actually on the water. The circuit contains 8 stations: 6 strength exercises on the floor, and 2 cardio bursts on the water rower.

Campus

The Best “Due Friday” Memes: A Curated Anthology

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In case you live under a rock, or, like some mysteriously sane person, don’t check social media, you might have missed the “Due Friday” memes that went around last week. What a wonderful way for students across the entire university to come together and do what we do best: 1) roast the f*ck out of each other and 2) poke fun at how busy, stressed, and depressed we all are.  See below for my top picks from the notorious “Any Person, Any Meme” Facebook group…

17. 16. 15. 14.

Life

RUMINATIONS | Thanks CU, Next?

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For a period of time in my childhood, I thought Cornell was the only college. I didn’t understand the concept of a University, but I had also been conditioned well. I was shaking an upside-down newspaper at a hockey game when I was in elementary school. Most of my role models, family, family friends, and others I met along the way, had gone to Cornell. I had heard fascinating stories, met inspiring alumni, and knew I wanted to be a part of the tradition.

Campus

CULTURALLY SHOOK | On graduating and confronting a future

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Writing about endings tends towards the cliché. I want to preface this by saying that it’s impossible for me to write about graduation without feeling uncomfortably self-aware of the redundancy of my feelings. Of course I’m sad that a “chapter” of my life is over. Of course I’m “excited” about “what the future holds” for me. But all that has been said before and felt before, by almost 4,000 of my fellow classmates and hundreds of thousands more across the United States and the world over.

Life

SKATCH | Happy Now?

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About a week ago, I watched this video:

And my goodness, did it make me think of Cornell. Anna Akana is a Youtuber, life guru, and mental health advocate who creates videos about relatable and relevant topics, as well as longer narrative films. In this particular video, she discusses how impossible it feels to be happy when it seems as if your whole world is on fire — a sentiment that many Cornellians share on a weekly basis. Here at Cornell, sometimes it feels as though there is only one viewpoint: negative. “Look at our government; what kind of world do we live in? Look at everyone getting internships and having their lives together; do I even belong?

Campus

ARRAY | The 5 Cornell Reasons to Study Abroad

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I spent last semester studying in the far-off land of New Zealand. Now I’m back and it’s time for that self-hatred inducing study abroad post where I tell you how I made meaning out of fleeing the country for a little bit. When I left, I told myself that I wasn’t going to be one of those obnoxious people who went on and on about how study abroad changed them, but then my publishing deadline came a knocking and I realized that I had nothing to write about, and suddenly putting out my experiences seemed like too easy a topic to pass up. I’m hoping that I can say a couple things about my time that go beyond the usual self-discovery stuff though, and instead tell you about how studying abroad shifted my perspective on Cornell life. 1) Pretty much every other place outside of the arctic circles is nicer than Ithaca.

Life

Ruminations | Putting the Corn Back in Cornell

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Ezra Cornell was a farmer. He was a scientist, a philanthropist, a politician, and a lover of nature, but on top of all that, he was a farmer. Our founder, the Ezra Cornell, was a farmer. And today, 153 years after its founding, Cornell University is still partially inhabited by farmers. My father has always said to me “No matter what you do, you don’t ever forget where you came from.” It’s a given that each person on this campus is uniquely diverse: each person has their very own humble beginning, their very own backstory.

Guest Blogs

GUEST BLOG | A Letter to My Freshman Self

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Dear Freshman Brittany,

Welcome to Cornell! You’re going to change so much over the next three years, and I’m legitimately so excited for you.  A lot of your personal growth will pivot around your mental well-being. It will not be an easy or linear trajectory, but it will bring necessary and worthwhile progress. Part of me wishes I could tell you exactly what to do, what not to do, and what I wish I had done.

Existential Crisis Week

ON MY MIND | The Empty Promise of Academia

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“Just because you fight for something doesn’t mean you have to have a philosophical justification for it.”

By what was then the twelfth week of this semester, I had grown accustomed to 98% of the inane phrases which were tossed casually — as casually as one might toss a molotov cocktail — into the collective consciousness of my English/Comp Lit seminar. The ratio of neural/motor energy devoted to jotting down whatever convoluted statements followed the words, “This is important,” from one of professors’ mouths (it’s one of those rare two-professor courses) versus scrolling through Facebook and answering emails had gradually shifted in disproportionate favor of the latter. But this sentence, uttered by an undergrad whose name I had not yet committed to memory (and probably never will), forced me to whip my head up in bewilderment and scan the room for any signs of incredulity which might mirror my own. Here, let me play it back for you:

“Just because you fight for something doesn’t mean you have to have a philosophical justification for it.”

My eyes flickered from the seated students to the professor standing at the front of the room. My professor paused, smiled, nodded, laughed, and agreed: “Yes, I guess you could say that.”

I wrote it down, appending seven question marks to the quotation.