Ruminations | Putting the Corn Back in Cornell

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.