Summer of 2009 at Cornell University

Soon to return for more Big Red adventure

2011-05-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that seven days ago, I was still completely unsure of what road I would take come this fall. I remember sitting down with my family at our dinner table as they patiently listened to all the bottled emotions I unleashed during an intense internal battle of what college to attend. To Cornell or to Berkeley, that was the question.

Since emigrating from China at the age of nine, I’ve lived happily with my family in the bustling and thriving Bay Area, home of arguably one of the best public university in the world – University of California, Berkeley. Although I didn’t initially understand why Berkeley was special, it has grown on me over the years, so much that I set my ultimate college goal to getting into UC Berkeley. I’m not sure if it was the frequent campus visits, my college friends’ enthralling tales, or the inspiring stories of Berkeley alumni that made me sure Berkeley was the place for me.

It’s wholly impossible for me to describe the overwhelming joy I felt the day I received my Berkeley acceptance notification. It was 4pm on March 24^th when the Berkeley decisions were released online, and I had an iPhone in hand, ready to check my admission status by 4:01. With shaky fingers, I held my breath and logged into my account. As soon as I read the word “Congratulations”, I exhaled loudly and took one slow breath before the tears streamed down from my eyes. The moment was simply priceless.

I was admitted into the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research within the College of Engineering at Berkeley, which is ranked as the third best overall undergraduate engineering school in the country by US Weekly. I thought I was sure about enrolling at Berkeley the day I learned of my admission into its Class of 2015, but little did I know that eight days later, I would receive great news from an Ivy League school – Cornell University.

Two summers ago, I had the extraordinary opportunity of living Ithaca, New York for three weeks to take a Hotel Administration course at Cornell University’s Summer College program for high school students as part of the Ivy League Connection. To say that those were the best three weeks of my summer would be an understatement. I can’t honestly remember having so much fun while still learning so much about the hotel industry and business in general. On top of that, I met many students from all over the country and around the world, and I can honestly say that they are some of the most interesting people I know! Truthfully, my three weeks at Cornell was one of the most (if not the most) eye-opening experience I’ve ever had.

Although I enjoyed my time at Cornell, I didn’t expect to get into Cornell Engineering – the best undergraduate engineering program out of all the Ivy League schools in the East Coast. After recovering from the pleasant surprise of being admitted, I decided to seriously consider Cornell as an option since I had such a wonderful time in Ithaca two summers ago. By the first week of April after all of college decisions were released, I narrowed my list of schools down to UC Berkeley, Cornell, Rice University in Houston, Texas, and Harvey Mudd College (part of the Claremont University Consortium) in Claremont, California.

Once my family and I paid a visit to Southern California to visit Harvey Mudd and UCLA, I did some critical thinking and further narrowed down the list to Berkeley and Cornell. Both Harvey Mudd and UCLA are wonderful schools, but I got a sense that they were not really a good fit for me. (A word of advice to all rising seniors: Personal fit is a very important yet often neglected factor that should be considered!) After conversing with students and professors at Berkeley and alumni of Cornell as well as my school teachers, friends, and family, I came to the conclusion that regardless of which school I picked in the end, it would not be a bad decision in terms of academics, student life, personal fit, etc. The deciding factor was whether I wanted to stay close to home and live in a familiar environment or venture out to the East Coast and try something new.

This was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make. To say so otherwise would not only be an extreme understatement but also a lie. With that said, I want to stress that this was also one of the most exciting decisions I’ve ever made. (Oh, the paradox?) For those who do not know me, I love new adventures, whether it comes in the form of a refreshing trip with friends or a challenging physics project. And what could be a better way to truly indulge myself into adventures, one after another, than to move across the country for the next four years?

Although there are other more rational reasons why I chose Cornell, ie smaller student-faculty ratio, more undergraduate research opportunities, and better funding/less budget cuts, the most important one was being able to spread my wings and leave home for four years to see how I can handle living independently. While comfort is something we should all seek as we grow older, we should all endeavor to embark on some adventures while we are young. And I truly believe that the adventures that push us beyond the boundaries of our comfort will help us discover something new about ourselves.

This was one of the best rewards I reaped from being a participant in the Ivy League Connection. My summer at Cornell was the first time I went to a new, unfamiliar place without my family. While there were stressful times when the work load was too demanding and my group mates were in disagreement, we all learned to handle the difficult situations that were thrown at us. Because of the friendly environment at Cornell, I ultimately walked away feeling confident that I am capable of working through challenging circumstances. With fond memories of the three amazing weeks I spent in Cornell two summers ago, I am more confident that I will soon have four thrilling years at Cornell University. Big Red, here I come!

Walking away as a Hotelie...

2009-07-12T15:03:00.001-07:00

...unofficial, of course, but you get the idea. I graduated from Cornell Summer College, and that's what matters.

On graduation day, Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy greeted all the beaming students and parents with a closing ceremony. Student speaker, Emily Stinson, laid out the framework of what the Hotel Operations Management consisted of, while another group showcased their presentation on Choice Hotels. Two other students spoke on behalf of the class about the CHESS simulation as well as the computing skills that each student had excelled in by the end of the journey. Finally, to close the presentation, Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy pulled a fast one on us. They surprised us with a hard copy (binded!) of our final CHESS report for every Hotelie. To tie the ceremony up, they presented each student with a completion of Summer College certificate.

But, wait, there was more! The teacher assistants compiled a powerpoint slideshow of photos of students, whether they were inside or outside of the classroom with their usual team or friends. At that point, I was thisclose to getting teary-eyed. It was such a special moment, and it finally hit me that the whole experience was coming to an end. Graduation day was one of the best highlights of my trip.

To finish off with a lasting impression, the ILC scholars had to make our final mark. So what did the we do?

Show our appreciation by hugging Mrs. McCarthy and giving a firm handshake to the one and only Mr. McCarthy. I remembered clearly Mr. McCarthy's words: "You all represented your school district well."

This post may be one of my last blogs for a while, so to walk away, I want to reaffirm that I am especially gracious for having such a large and close-knitted ILC team who has supported and provided me resources every step of the way. From the founders to the sponsors to the faculty staff, I want to thank everyone all for such an amazing opportunity that I will forever cherish for the rest of my academic career.

Thank you,

Stacy Chan

Charmed 1%

2009-07-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

Professor Kramnick's final words prompted me to post some links to the information he provided which he attributed to Julian Bond's 2003 commencement address to Washington University.

The information - quoted below - originally comes from The Donella Meadows Archive - (interestingly Donnella Meadows is an adjunct professor at Dartmouth). This was produced by the Sustainability Institute (http://www.sustainer.org/) and is called the Voice of the Global Citizen:

The Donella Meadows Archive
Voice of a Global Citizen

State of the Village Report

If the world were a village of 1000 people:

584 would be Asians
123 would be Africans
95 would be East and West Europeans
84 Latin Americans
55 Soviets (still including for the moment Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, etc.)
52 North Americans
6 Australians and New Zealanders

The people of the village would have considerable difficulty communicating:
165 people would speak Mandarin
86 would speak English
83 Hindi/Urdu
64 Spanish
58 Russian
37 Arabic

That list accounts for the mother-tongues of only half the villagers. The other half speak (in descending order of frequency) Bengali, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French, and 200 other languages.

In the village there would be:

300 Christians (183 Catholics, 84 Protestants, 33 Orthodox)
175 Moslems
128 Hindus
55 Buddhists
47 Animists
210 all other religons (including atheists)

One-third (330) of the people in the village would be children. Half the children would be immunized against the preventable infectious diseases such as measles and polio.

Sixty of the thousand villagers would be over the age of 65.

Just under half of the married women would have access to and be using modern contraceptives.

Each year 28 babies would be born.

Each year 10 people would die, three of them for lack of food, one from cancer.

Two of the deaths would be to babies born within the year.

One person in the village would be infected with the HIV virus; that person would most likely not yet have developed a full-blown case of AIDS.

With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village in the next year would be 1018.

In this thousand-person community, 200 people would receive three-fourths of the income; another 200 would receive only 2% of the income.

Only 70 people would own an automobile (some of them more than one automobile).

About one-third would not have access to clean, safe drinking water.

Of the 670 adults in the village half would be illiterate.

The village would have 6 acres of land per person, 6000 acres in all of which:
700 acres is cropland
1400 acres pasture
1900 acres woodland
2000 acres desert, tundra, pavement, and other wasteland.

The woodland would be declining rapidly; the wasteland increasing; the other land categories would be roughly stable. The village would allocate 83 percent of its fertilizer to 40 percent of its cropland -- that owned by the richest and best-fed 270 people. Excess fertilizer running off this land would cause pollution in lakes and wells. The remaining 60 percent of the land, with its 17 percent of the fertilizer, would produce 28 percent of the foodgrain and feed 73 percent of the people. The average grain yield on that land would be one-third the yields gotten by the richer villagers.

If the world were a village of 1000 persons, there would be five soldiers, seven teachers, one doctor. Of the village's total annual expenditures of just over $3 million per year, $181,000 would go for weapons and warfare, $159,000 for education, $132,000 for health care.

The village would have buried beneath it enough explosive power in nuclear weapons to blow itself to smithereens many times over. These weapons would be under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 people would be watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether the 100 can learn to get along together, and if they do, whether they might set off the weapons anyway through inattention or technical bungling, and if they ever decide to dismantle the weapons, where in the village they will dispose of the dangerous radioactive materials of which the weapons are made.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.)
Copyright Sustainability Institute. This article from The Donella Meadows Archive is available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For other uses, please contact Diana Wright, Sustainability Institute, 3 Linden Road, Hartland, VT 05048, (802) 436-1277.

Two other links:

http://users.gazinter.net/melan/Warn/Warnenu.htm

http://www.life-cycles-destiny.com/for/100people.htm

This is a wonderful way to gain ultimate perspective.

July 11: And You Thought Our Adventure Ended in Ithaca...

2009-07-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard already, our 6 Cornellians have not quite made it home yet. I guess we can't help but continue our adventures during this trip!

So here is what happened...
Our flight itinerary was supposed to be as follows:
Ithaca to Philadelphia
Philadelphia to Charlotte
Charlotte to San Francisco

Our flight from Ithaca to Philly caused no problem. We left a little late, but we made it to our Philadelphia flight to Charlotte in time. Actually, we had plenty of time. The boarding process on the flight from Philadelphia added nearly an hour to our flight time. This caused us to arrive in Charlotte 20 minutes after our San Franciscan already departed. I'll admit. I was upset. I expected to see my family and friends in a few short hours, and I was emotionally drained at that point. To be cut off from going home two flights into the day was hard to absorb. After talking to supervisors at the Charlotte Airport, we were told that we could not leave for SFO until tomorrow morning at 7:30am. This meant a night to be spent in Charlotte. I was extremely upset, but I feel fine now. It's only a half-day away from being home, and I've already spent 22 days away from my homely surroundings. I think I'll survive.

Upon receiving our accommodations and food vouchers, we took a shuttle van to the Quality Inn, the hotel we will stay at for this brief visit to Charlotte. Having not eaten since roughly 10:00am, we were all dying to chow down. Lucky for us, our hotel is located right next to "Cracker Barrel" (Someone please tell me that doesn't scream Southern dining). I have never had Southern cooking, and I was quite impressed. Everything I tried was great, even though it was little hard finding vegetarian friendly food. The food made me feel loads better, and we all made the best of it.

Tomorrow we're waking up bright and early for a flight. I think I'll actually prefer arriving at SFO in the morning. I'll have the whole day ahead of me! While our trip was meant to end today, I'm happy at this point that it didn't. I got a taste of a state that I had never been to and learned the art of preparing for canceled flights. Also, being a huge NASCAR fan, I'm in the state with one of the most famous tracks: Lowe's Motor Speedway. Maybe, the next time I visit N.C. will be a previously planned arrangement!

Since I'm already blogging, I think I should tell you about my ENTIRE day, aside from the airport mishap. This morning began with chaos throughout Mary Donlon. Parents were showing up, and rooms were being dismantled. I am very happy to have packed last night, for I enjoyed that extra bit of sleep this morning. Checking out of the dorm was pretty simple. I put all of my luggage in Mr. Crossley's van, had an RCA review my room, and I was outta there! Before our informal graduation for Freedom & Justice, Julia, Ramiah and I enjoyed our last meal at Appel Commons. We then headed out to our graduation in Kennedy Hall. I really enjoyed the graduation. It was a great sign-off to a wonderful, compacted semester. By the way, we finally got a picture with Des! Here's the man we've been raving about for the past 3 weeks! I particularly enjoyed Professor Kramnick's speech. I urge you to watch the video below. It's a tad long, but make sure you find the part where he talks about the population of 100 humans. After the graduation, we ran to the airport where we had time to spare. That is where I crazy adventures began. Adventures always seem to follow us Cornellians!

Final Report: Le Petit Papillion by Yueming Wang

2009-07-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

We've been reading for three weeks that our students in the Hotel Management Program have been working on a project to develop a means for their hotel to maximize their profits.

The following is a copy of the report filed today by Yueming Wang and her team.

For ease of viewing, place your cursor over each page and click to enlarge.

Promised Pictures & Video

2009-07-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

It seems that I hadn't keep some of my previous promises regarding photos! I'm so sorry for the delay, but I have finally uploaded pictures!

While I usually plug in pictures in the middle of my blogs, I have to change it up a bit because I have so many pictures I'd like you to see. I've attached URL's along with slideshows in this blog so that you may see all of the photos. This way the blog won't be cluttered, and it will be easier to navigate through all of the photos. If it is at all confusing, just let me know and I'd be glad to do it the "normal way." It's very timely, so I'm finding the "Photobucket method" much easier.

This first set of photos comes from our visit on July 6th to Uris Library, more specifically the Andrew D. White Library. It is better known as the "Harry Potter Room." During our visit to Cornell, Julia, Ramiah and I took two visits to this library. It's visually stunning, and the pictures truly don't do the room justice. So if you're ever in Ithaca, make sure you check out Uris Library! (I actually realized that I DID upload some pictures from Uris Library. If you check out my blog from July 6th, there are two pictures. I know that my audience loves pictures, so I think you'll enjoy these pictures more.)

Link to Uris Library Photos

In this URL, you will find pictures from our tour of Cornell on July 10th. Although much of the information we heard from our guide Dan was a tad repetitive, it was nice to get a nice, thorough look of the campus for one last time. Cornell is stunning, and I'm happy we took the tour. That means more pictures to treasure!

Link to Tour of Cornell Photos

And here is the video of the musical steps! It's short, but you get the idea.

Has it Come to an End...Or a New Beginning?

2009-07-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! This has certainly been a journey full of new and wonderful experiences. As I, as well as everyone back home, expected, I had an amazing three weeks here at Cornell University and partcipating in the Summer College program. I know I have complained about some aspects of being here, but all in all I love everything I have encountered and everything I have seen and heared.

Today, students of every other course had a final, or at least I think so. I am not quite sure if architecture students had a final or a project. Anyways, while many of the other courses had finals, the hotel program had a final group report due. My group and I were pretty confident and relaxed at first, but then as time was crunching down, we began to stress ourselves out. I truly enjoyed working with my group and producing such a great product. However, one member of my group said upfront that she disliked everything about our final report ten minutes before the deadline. I was incredibly angry. I did not see how that was rational or professional of her to do so. The entire group accomodated to what she wanted, but she could not accept the changes we would suggest. She basically wanted it her way. It is people like these that make group work so difficult and difficult to enjoy.

I have to say that this trip has provided me with many firsts in life. It is the first time I have needed to walk to and from school everyday. It is the first time I have stayed in a dorm and had a roommate. It is the first time I have really needed to take care of myself and my well being. At home, normally my mom would always be there to tell me to eat my vegetables or do my laundry for me. This, however, was definitely a major change. Besides having the five friends that came along with me on this trip and the new companions I met through the course and program, I have basically needed to depend on my own. When I needed certain amenities, I would have to go out to purchase them. If I wante ice cream, I would have to walk across the street to the Robert Purcell Community Center to get some; not like taking it out of my freezer in the kitchen. I find that this experience as allowed me to understand what it feels like to be independent, to live life on one's own accord. I did call my mother every so often and contacted my dad, so I did always have a little piece of home with me. Who doesn't though? This lesson I know I will forever cherish and take along with me where ever I decide to go in the future.

Since Freedom and Justice and Hotel Operations Management had significantly different schedules, it was difficult for the two groups of students to meet on a regular basis. When the program itself began, the only time we really saw each other was the weekend of the first week. That was the week we saw the awesome Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The subsequent weekend we met up for the uneventful Fourth of July. Basically, we tried to see each other every chance we could. Although we knew we would see each other back home in California, we missed each other and thought no matter what we should always keep in touch regardless of how busy we were under the loads of work given.

I have said once to Ms. Kim, the college consultant, that I do not find myself fitting in large classrooms with large amounts of students. I was correct. I found staying awake in lectures a challenge. Not only were they long, but I felt uncomfortable in the seats in the actual classroom. Let me tell you. They are attached to the leg of the desks that hold it up and the swing. When you pull it out enough for you to sit in, it swings you all the way so that your belly hits the edge of the desk. You literally have to use your feet to stop yourself from swinging back to the desk; what a nuisance. However, most lectures were fun. My professors and many of my classmates always kept me laughing with their jokes. When things like this bring smiles to my face, you know I am having a blast. What I also liked about my class was, it wasn't like the typical college class. We did not have typical lectures and discussions with our TA's. All the work we turn in is graded directly by our professors rather than by the TA's. Classes with this set up allows more opportunities for communication and conversations with the professors in which was the case for me. At the beginning of the program, I did not think the class would be so interactive or that I would be so connected with my professors. I have had various times where I just walk up to Mark or Reneta McCarthy and asked a question and it would just sprout into different topics to converse over. This is the type of relationship I would like to have with my teachers. Hopefully, I will still be able to keep in contact with my professors somehow.

Living with a roommate has definitely taught me the art of compromise. I know my five other comrades have developed close relationships with their roommate. Unfortunately, I was not able to engage in such an intimate connection with mine. I wish I did, however. Since my roommate, Leann, and I rarely ever saw each other, and therefore, rarely ever spoke to each other, we were only able to develop a sense of respect for one another. That is the very first step to living with a roommate. Without respect, nothing will ever go in the right direction and there will never be room to grow. Sometimes, I feel that time was not the only factor in our lack of relationship In college, most times people roomed together in a single dormitory became quickly and exceptionally familiar with each other. However, sometimes it just depends. I really do feel I should have made more of an effort to connect with my roommate. Living in a dorm building is an entirely different story. The floor I lived on was always so lively and always in action. No one could stay bored. When one has nothing to do, always look at the activities that may be going on in the building's lounges. Life can always be found in the dormitory building.

As a post-secondary institution, Cornell is extremely elite and highly selective. Everything about it suggests quality. It has been said the Cornell is named as one of the most beautiful campuses in America, or maybe even in the world. I must agree. It is different from other campuses in that it is surrounded by the beauty of nature itself. Each and every day, I found myself realizing a new feature of Cornell's surroundings that contribute to the beauty it presents. Today, some of us hotelies took a different route to class. We took a side bridge that went over one of the waterfalls in the gorges. It was absolutely breathtaking. Only Cornell would be able to offer such a splendid adventure. Even after taking the campus tour today and learning so many new facts, I must say Cornell can never cease to amaze me. The only flaw on campus that I can find is the construction of a new science building that disrupts the peaceful aura of the campus.

Sadly, after being here for three weeks, I do not really see myself attending Cornell or live in such a rural environment everyday. I am not saying will not consider applying to Cornell, since I know Cornell will be able to offer me a wonderful education. I do not see myself working well in this type of environment though. Having experienced what it is like to be at Cornell and this type of college environment, I feel that I fit better in a more urban setting. I found it incredibly inconvenient to have to walk 20 minutes to class everyday. Although, walking did seem to grow on me. I needed the exercise anyways. I hope no one gets me wrong. I am definitely not degrading the school in anyway nor am I speaking for anyone else. My opinion about Cornell is solely my own. For others, Cornell could ultimately be the perfect choice.

If anyone would like to attend Cornell or participate in the Summer College program, some suggestions I would make are 1) BRING AN UMBRELLA AT ALL TIMES!, 2) download Microsoft Office 2007, 3) pack light, 4) make sure to bring a calculator is definitely needed for Hotel Operations Management, 5)hotelies should learn business jargon, 6) be confident in and optimistic of all the opportunities you encounter, 7) work hard, and 8) HAVE AN AWESOME TIME!

THE END

2009-07-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello my darling, darling readers. Today was my last time in McGraw Hall. Today was my last time in Trillium Dining Hall. Today is my last full day in Ithaca, NY. I am feeling extremely sentimental, so brace yourself for my following blog. I feel as though I have so much to share! Please bare with me in regards to its length. I have a feeling it's going to be a long one. Here goes everything...

Typing my blog title alone musters feelings of deep, deep sadness. I sit here in Olin Library, having officially completed Government 1615 - Freedom & Justice: An Introduction to Political Thought. It is over. I cannot believe it is over.

For the past three weeks, Ithaca has been my home-away-from-home, and in less than one day, I will be gone. Every day since June 19 has required me to live independently and on my own. In that sense, Cornell has given me more than three credits from an Ivy League institution. This entire trip has provided me with crucial insight into the life I will soon lead in just one year. As a rising senior, I have one last year in the comfort of my hometown of Hercules, in the security of my parents' home, with the life I have led for the past seventeen years. After that, I enter the real world. AND EVERYTHING CHANGES.

Ending junior year, I was filled with so many doubts, so much anxiety. I was terrified of graduating, of leaving my parents, my friends... of leaving the environment I had grown so accustomed to for something entirely new and foreign. Back then, I knew of nothing else other than my life in Hercules. And, honestly? I didn't want anything to change. But that was all pre-Cornell. These past three weeks have altered my mindset in the most drastic manner possible. I no longer fear leaving behind what I know for what I do not, for I have realized I am more than capable of adapting to a new environment and finding happiness in something different. I do not look with terror to the future, but instead I am ready and willing to welcome it with open arms. High school will mark the termination of my old life, and my entrance into college will signal the commencement of a brand new one - full of all these chances, new experiences, and opportunities.

I have my experience at Cornell to thank for my change of opinion. I feel a huge weight lifted from my shoulders knowing I can survive on my own. This will make my final year of high school much more enjoyable, since I will not have to worry about crying every single day about leaving... because leaving opens a new set of doors I now know I can easily open.

I have loved my Cornellian experience in its absolute entirety, with no reservations or exceptions. Even the bathing and sleeping arrangements, I was okay with. Every bit of this journey has been worthwhile, challenging, inspiring, and, most importantly, beautiful. Speaking of challenging...

Today, Justine, Ramiah, and I took the infamous FINAL EXAM. Thankfully, our TA Des went over the material and the outline of the test very thoroughly, and so there were no surprise components when we received the questionaire. Justine, Ramiah, and I joined for the final time in our study group to go over the philosophers and discuss their concepts. As always, I found our meeting very beneficial. The power of communication is very powerful, indeed. On a side note: discussion is a tactic which has, for me, personally, proven to be extremely helpful. It is one thing to sit quietly in a room and memorize the material, but it demonstrates an entirely new level of knowledge and comfort to be able to discuss the philosophical ideals with outside individuals. It is, furthermore, a tactic which I have utilized during this trip, and one I recommend to all incoming Ivy Leaguers. An important lesson I learned while at Cornell: The competition from high school does not exist in a collegian atmosphere. You are, instead, to join forces with your colleagues, bounce ideas off one another, and share your knowledge.

The knowledge Justine, Ramiah, and I have shared throughout these past weeks, in addition to the hard, hard work we have put into this course, have payed off. The final was not bad at all. I will not know my final grade until I receive it in the mail upon returning home, but I do feel rather confident about what I turned in. All three of us also did very well on our Plato essays, so we are all crossing our fingers for a positive turn out with our final grades.

I do hope to receive a high mark on the exam and in the course overall, but regardless of what I get, I am walking away with so much more than I could have ever imagined or anticipated. I feel such pride in the fact that I was able to survive a college-level course, while at the same time being expected to fend for myself. It is rather intimidating in the beginning trying to keep up with the course work, while trying not to get too homesick and also attempting not to get lost in the entirely new environment. But I did it. WE ALL DID IT. And I believe in every single person who will enter this program in the future. The Ivy League Connection does an amazing job in scouting out the creme de la creme of each high school, and I know the program will continue to flourish just because of what it does for so many talented, deserving students. Once again, I would like to take the time to thank all those who have contributed to the enrichment of my education. I would like to thank the people who have made my stay here possible, because I am returning home a completely different person, altered in only the best way possible.

When I first arrived in Ithaca, I was unsure as to how I would take to this extremely rural location. I knew I'd enjoy my experience and I knew I'd be able to take so much out of it, but I wasn't sure I could see myself attending this university. But, oh how much can change in just three weeks! As I have mentioned in previous posts, every passing day at Cornell, I find myself more and more in love with this school. The girls and I actually took a campus tour this afternoon. (Finally, right? Haha.) Justine, Ramiah, and I have done much exploring, however, and we have heard many stories from currently enrolled students, so we did not see or hear much of anything that was too new for us. It was still an enjoyable experience. It was very long and the sun was beating down on us, but I think it was worth it. It provided me with an even more in-depth view of Cornell, and I loved everything I was told about the school during the tour.

As you all know, I am very much a city girl and I need my urban setting... or at least I used to. As my stay in Ithaca progressed, more and more I could see myself attending this school, but its rurality has always been a concern of mine. With the trip at its end, however, I have realized my love of this university far outweighs any issue I may have with its lacking hustle and bustle. If anything, New York City is a reasonable four hours away if I'm in a desperate need of a city-fix. With that said, I will most definitely apply to Cornell University. I have not found one thing about the institution I found disagreeable. The hills and the stairs are a bit much, but the gorgeous setting totally makes up for that extra effort in walking to class. Stanford has been my number one choice since I was a little girl, and it still remains at the top of my list. Cornell follows a close second. Not even second! More like a close 1 1/2, if that makes sense. A few days after my return home, I have a scheduled campus tour of Stanford. I took a two week summer program there last summer, so I am familiar with the campus, but I want an in-depth review from a trained tour guide. After that campus tour, I will be able to better weight Stanford and Cornell side by side and determine which is a better fit for me. More research is also in order about the strength of the programs I am interested in. As two of the top universities, however, I am sure that will not be an issue.

Tomorrow, Freedom and Justice will reconvene for the last time during our graduation ceremony. I am hoping I do not cry! This experience has been so wonderful, I hate to see it ending. I am also very sad about my roommate. She has quickly become one of my best friends, and going from seeing her every day and staying up late each night updating her to simply communicating via phone and computer will be a difficult transition. She does, actually, give Cornell another point in my Stanford v. Cornell mental list. Her first choice is Columbia University, and if I attended Cornell, we'd be in the same state! We've actually toyed around with the idea of what it'd be like if she went to Columbia and I went to Cornell. We agreed that if we got into our respective schools and decided to go, we'd take turns visiting each other. Natasha and I plan to communicate at least once a day, be it through texting or what have you. I feel like I am taking a part of her with me when I get back home. I have spent so much time with her, I feel like we have rubbed off on each other a little bit. Do you remember that culture shock Louisa talked about? We Californians say "hella," while east coast people say "mad." I have been saying "mad" so often, and just yesterday Natasha said "hella." I am going to miss her so much! But the possibility of our Columbia/ Cornell arrangement is so great. It sounds so perfect, doesn't it?

THIS ENTIRE TRIP HAS BEEN PERFECT. I loved my class, my professor, my TA, my classmates, my roommate, my RCAs, my dorm room, my new amazing friends... everything. Coming home will be such a crazy experience, because I feel so different from the person I was when I first left Hercules. The routine I developed while here has pretty much become my life, and resuming my Herculean lifestyle will take some getting used to. Especially the time difference! My sleeping and eating patterns will be so off. It will be interesting getting back in the California time zone. Though I am so very sad I will soon be leaving Cornell University, it will be nice to return home and actually see the family and friends I miss very much. Many updates are called for!

I hate to see my three week stay at its end, but who knows? Maybe I will return to Ithaca, NY in the fall of 2010 - except for a four year stay, as opposed to this way too brief three weeks. It's a great thought, isn't it? Gives me butterflies just thinking about it!

I hope you, my lovely readers, have enjoyed reading along about my daily experiences and the constant happenings while I've been here at Cornell University. It was such a beautiful journey, and I am so glad to have shared it with you all. I hope you have enjoyed the glimpses I have provided you with about my stay here. I know it is nowhere near as great as actually experiencing it all first-hand, but I hope it will suffice. With that said, I will end my blog. Thank you all for sticking it through with me these past three weeks. It's been one hell of a journey. And I will never, never forget it.

- xoxo, Julia.

P.S. Just a fun fact to end my blog. WORD COUNT: 2,069. This is officially the longest blog I have EVER written.

The Grand Finale

2009-07-10T11:24:00.005-07:00

I am so happy, I feel very good about the final. Unlike the preliminary exam, on which Julia, Justine and I all chose different essay topics, this time we all wrote the same essay. It was not easy, but at the same time it was nothing I was not prepared for. I am very glad that I invested so much time studying. Since we got to read all of the material before coming to Ithaca, I was able to read more critically when rereading the text here. I was able to pay more attention to details because the concepts were not knew to me.

I also just spoke with my ta and learned that I got an A- on the final draft of my Plato essay. I do not think I have ever worked so hard on a single paper. I went through numerous drafts and lots of trips to office hours. I read and reread The Republic so many times I practically have it memorized, and I am so glad that it all paid off. All of our hard work paid off, because Julia and Justine also did extremely well.

This class really changed the way I approach reading. Never before have I had to look so critically at every single word and analyze its meaning. In AP language we did have to look closely at what we read and talk about what it meant, but here we had to put more thought and more personal analysis into it.I have also definitely learned to be a more aggressive student. I cannot wait to see how this translates into my work senior year.

After the final we had our last lunch at Trillium. On our way to the dining hall we all called our parents to share with them the joy we felt. Julia, Justine, and I have grown so close over the past three weeks, and I am very glad that we have done so. I have never spent so much time with a particular study group and I love the way we are able to focus when we need to focus; but can also have fun together. We have learned each other's strengths and weaknesses academically, and help each other based on that.

Then it was on to the campus tour. Mr. Crossley was at Day Hall waiting for us to arrive. After a short wait our tour began. Some of it seemed rather redundant because not only have we been on campus for the past three weeks, but also Professor Kramnick and other Cornellians have been telling us about life at Cornell. Nonetheless, I am glad that we took the tour. I did learn some new things. We got to explore parts of campus we have not had time to see, and it was really nice. One thing that really stood out in my mind was when the tour guide, Steve, was telling us about "Dragon Day." I have already heard the story from the presenters who come to California with the "Exploring Educational Excellence" seminars we have attended. The difference, however, was that we got to see the road they parade down with the giant dragon all of the freshmen architects build. It was very nice, although we have gathered lots of information over the past three weeks, the tour provided us with a very organized recap. It was also a great time to take pictures I had not yet taken. (It is rather unfortunate that I cannot upload them while here.)

I know that I have truly grown over the past three weeks, but I was rather surprised at how I grew. I thought that I would not miss home at all, but I have come to miss it quite a bit. I always saw myself getting as far away from home as possible for college. Do not worry I am not abused at home or anything like that; and I do not have bad parents. It's actually quite the opposite, and I am ashamed to say that it took three weeks away from home to realize how much I love it there. (Right about now I can imagine Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Gosney, and Mrs. Kronenberg's faces dropping; do not worry I am not set on staying in California either.)As of now, Cornell is definitely on my list of schools to apply to. Over the next couple months my parents, Ms. Kim, and I will be discussing and analyzing which schools will be the best fit for me; and after this experience I have so much more to add to that analysis. So far I have been the only one in the conversation who had never experienced college, but now that is slightly different.

*Ramiah

Reflection

2009-07-10T11:24:00.004-07:00

As I look back in my journey, I am astounded that I have been able to complete a summer college course at an Ivy League institution: Cornell University. Most importantly, I am privileged to be able to study under the direction of Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy, who have been some of the best instructors I have ever had. I think highly of them simply because of their contribution to the class and their extended depth of knowledge about the hospitality industry.

Taking this course has allowed me to confirm with conviction that studying business is a future prospect I plan on pursuing in the fall of 2010. The Hotel Operations Management course has given me a window filled with insights about the management realm, and ultimately, has provided me a head for business.

To prepare students, including myself, for the world of work, Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy specifically have designed the course to emphasize teamwork and group projects. From the get-go, the Hotel School has always fostered group-learning style, which has prompted me to become a better leader. I, along with other students, have been tested all along during this three-week period to see if we can overcome challenges. After taking this course, I can say with assurance that I have learned how to share leadership, to play to another's strengths, and most importantly, to take on responsibility without necessarily taking ownership. These items, by far, are the tools that I have walked away with, and I plan on using them in my lifetime. For me, I believe it is necessary to apply and to utilize these tools. For example, I plan on executing my leadership and computer skills when I take over a school club this fall. This is just one instance, but I am positive that this will not be my last.

Furthermore, being at a college setting for 24/7 has prompted me to make my own decisions for myself. If anything, I must admit that this odyssey is a self-learning process. I have engaged myself with other school officials or representatives, as well as having the chance to meet other students from the East Coast and from countries abroad. Among some of the nations include China, Thailand, and Greece.

The chance of living a dorm life has proved to me that understanding people is key. Being in a household, filled with resourceful residential advisers and other talented students, has shown me what college is all about. The lengths that RAs travel (to put on special events and activities) have demonstrated to me that a wide range of people out there are willing to lend a hand and to take on positions of mentors.

During this three weeks, I have been able to better know my roommate named Remi Ojurongbe, who resides in Landover Hills, Maryland. She is studious, and as her roommate, I especially admire her patience and her flexibility. Having her by my side has allowed me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After this whole experience, I have more drive for myself as an individual.

Being a Cornellian and a Hotelie has been a wonderful thrill for these past few weeks. This institution has a large wealth of academic opportunities available. In addition to that, the Hotel School is populated with professors at large and passionate students who are willing to seek work experience and to demonstrate professionalism and maturity. I respect Cornell University for its well-recognized staff as well as its endless opportunities of preparing students to become innovators in whatever realm they decide to pursue. To describe the campus, I have to say it is modern meets passé, enriched with many, many long-lasting traditions.

Will I apply to Cornell University? At this point, I am still deciding on whether this may be one of the schools that I might add to my list of possible institutions. I will have to say it is rather unfair if I just completely rule out this university, but I do see the light in this school. How much do I see in this school and will it be enough for me to apply are indeed two tricky questions I cannot straightaway answer.

As a member of the Ivy League Connection program, I have worked diligently for my gateway to success. It will eventually allow me to have my foot in the door, be in now or later down the line in the workforce. I have always taken my academic career seriously, but this program has allowed me to set higher standards for myself and to take on other novel challenges. Having the chance to study at one of the most-respected schools in the United States has been incredibly rewarding, which has only whetted my appetite for more. All in all, I have walked away from this program as a sharper student with a keen eye for academic success. If this program cannot do the trick, then what will?

July 10: FINALLY!

2009-07-10T11:24:00.003-07:00

After 3 weeks of mild confusion, academic growth and college experience, it is all over. The final began at 9:38am and by 12:08pm, I could finally say that I "graduated" from Professor Kramnick's Freedom & Justice course. I am so proud of our trio, and I also commend the Hotelies for all of their hardwork in the past 3 weeks. I'd like to place a little interjection in here before I say my final words. Minutes before beginning this blog, Julia, Ramiah and I ran into our TA Desmond. He happily let us know that we all received A-'s on our Plato papers. I am EXTREMELY proud of the three of us. He even told us that if we manage a B or higher on the final, we may receive A's for our final grades. How cool is that!? Now back to our day. As of right now, the 6 of us are in Olin Library making sure we complete our blogs before 5:00pm. After doing our daily duties, we will do a little more campus exploring, making sure we visit every last spot before tomorrow's afternoon departure.

This morning started with nervous butterflies, for it was our last day of class and the day we have been dreading: Final Day. While we spent many hours studying over the course of a week, high-achieving students like ourselves couldn't settle our nerves and believe that the final would be a cinch. After doing a last minute review over our last breakfast at Appel Commons, we made our last trek to McGraw Hall. Upon our arrival, we took our seats, grabbed our pencils, and hoped it wouldn't be too bad. To our surprise, it wasn't. We knew our concepts, and there was nothing on the exam we could not answer. I wrote so much that I required a 2nd exam booklet. Time wasn't too much of a constraint as well. All 3 of us had extra time to review our work and assure that it was the best we could produce. Again, I'm so proud of us 3 ladies.

After running out of McGraw in pure excitement, we made our way to Trillium where we met up with our Hotelies. We then made our way to Day Hall for a campus tour. It may have been a little out of order considering we've been here for 3 weeks, but I did learn a few new things about Cornell. For instance, on a outdoor stairway next to Olin, there are "musical steps." There are thousands of small rocks around benches that are meant to be thrown across a patio, which produces sound! Because I am in Olin Library right now, I cannot post any pictures or video. I promise I will once I return to my dorm after exploring. Overall, I was proud to say I knew a majority of the information presented during the tour. I've really come to know Cornell. I can even tell you a few myths if you'd like to hear!

This being my last Cornellian blog, I have been asked to reflect on my experience. In regards to my personal experience, I learned that I can handle being away from home, but I just don't prefer it. I love seeing Julia and Ramiah every day, but I miss those familiar faces at home as well. When I go off to college, I know that I will be just fine, for a few calls home always eases any hints of homesickness. All in all, I think my emotional state of being is just great, and I'm sure my mentality will carry on to my upcoming college entrance.

College is about working in groups. Luckily, I came to Cornell IN a group! High school is an individual competition, and I've broken that habit upon arriving here. I enjoy discussing concepts and ideas with Ramiah and Julia. It is a great way to reassure what you've learned and know what you're saying isn't made up (Sounds a lot like J.S. Mill, doesn't it?). I've also learned the power of TA's and office hours. There are so many resources for students on college campuses, and I found my experience here much less stressful thanks to those accommodations. I wish that this concept existed in high school, but I fear that students wouldn't take advantage of it like college students do.

Who would've thought that a girl who grew up in the public education system could excel in an Ivy League college course? I can assure you that I would have never thought of myself in that way a year ago. The class experience was a nice change. I found out that I enjoy college lectures much more than high school "lectures." I also enjoy discussion sections in that you have a TA who really gets to know you as a student. Desmond has been a great instructor, and I am certain that I will keep in contact with him this upcoming fall. He has great knowledge, and I will make sure to learn as much as I can from him, even when I return back to California.

The roommate experience isn't as pivotal as it is made out to be. Due to hectic scheduling, I hardly found myself in my dorm room, let alone in there at the same time as my roommate. When we were accommodating our room at the same time, we found that we had many interests in common. We're both looking into applying at the same colleges, and we both love certain subjects in school, i.e. math. I'm definitely going to miss accommodating a "mini-household" with someone of my own age, but it won't be too bad going home and seeing my family. I'm certain that Julie and I will keep in contact after our Cornell experiences.

Now comes the big question: Will I apply to Cornell? That's a difficult question to answer at this point. I love certain things about Cornell, but other ideas also exist that would prevent me from traveling across the country for college. I truly enjoy the "natural" feel of Cornell. I don't want to go to a college where it's building, building, building. I enjoy the trees, grass and wildlife. It's very comforting. I also like the resources here at Cornell. I'm never too far away from a library, a dining hall, or some sort of activity. I enjoy the small environment, but I also love bigger campuses. For me, bigger campuses = more to do. That's where I have a problem with Cornell. I feel slightly constrained. Ithaca isn't too much of an up and coming town. I enjoy nature, but I also enjoy balance. I find this balance prevalent in California, more specifically at Stanford, if you didn't already know. I also have trouble seeing myself at Cornell due to their academics. Cornell is very well-known for their business and agricultural departments. I want to attend a school that is known for their science departments, for I am certain that I will be majoring in some sort of science. Then of course, there is the weather. I don't think I could handle endless months of winter nor countless days of rain. I am one of those people who likes to stay indoors when it rains. Weather can truly bring me down. This is only a small factor in my college decisions, but it is a factor, nonetheless.

Overall, this experience has taught me what I am and am not looking for in a college experience. I've met amazing people, who I know I will keep in contact with for a long time. I've also strengthened my established friendship with Julia, and budded a brand new friendship with Ramiah. Upon returning to Hercules, all 6 of us will have been changed people. Hopefully, we will have the opportunities to enlighten our peers of the experiences outside of Hercules. Who knows, maybe students in WCCUSD will start to feel like, "Hey, if those 6 girls can succeed at an Ivy League, maybe I can too." If I can help in just that sense, I feel as if my job as an Ivy Leaguer has been fulfilled. Of course, I wouldn't be an Ivy Leaguer without the help of the ILC. For that, I can only say thank you. I hope that my experience and opinions will help this program thrive, for our district can only benefit from this program. Again, I cannot say thank you enough for this opportunity. I'm ready to take on higher education. Nothing's stopping me now, thanks to the Ivy League Connection.

Every ending is a new beginning

2009-07-10T11:24:00.001-07:00

Ithaca is gorges! Hotelies are definitely gorges!

After a lightning-paced three weeks in up-state New York, I can proudly call myself a Summer Cornelian at last. I survived!

Truthfully, it was more than just surviving the summer program, I would like to call it "thriving". While we engaged in interesting hospitality lectures with Professor Reneta McCarthy and invigorating computer-related lessons with Professor Mark McCarthy, we also developed numerous life skills that will benefit us in the future. Therefore, merely calling this an exciting three weeks at Cornell would be a huge understatement. Although this may sound cliche or even vague, it does truly represent my take on this adventure: it is a once in a lifetime experience!

When I first heard about the Hotel Operations Management: Tactics in Profitability program, I didn't know exactly what to think of it. This was mainly due to the fact that I had no knowledge about the way the industry operated besides the fact of staying at a hotel once in a while. Now that I know how interesting the hotel industry is, I am glad I had gone with my guts and applied.

Throughout the course, we had various lectures and discussions regarding different types of hotels, various customer segments, demands of specific customer segments, way of catering to those demands, and achieving customer satisfaction/loyalty while still minimizing expenses and maximizing profits. Sounds like a mouthful, right?

Simply covering ground of an actual fifteen-week college course in three short weeks is an achievement, but I must credit our professors. Without Reneta and Mark and their engaging methods of teaching, I would not have learned nearly as much about any subject in fifteen days (weekends excluded). Their way of breaking down excessive amounts of information into easily understandable chunks permitted me to attain a lot of information about hotels, hospitality, and business in general. And to prove what I have learned in the past three weeks, each group wrote a financial report to analyze data from our CHESS game -- a virtual hotel simulation that enables you to operate a 250-room hotel. Here I have included a link to my group's financial report for the Le Petit Papillion hotel.

This summer college experience isn't all about acquiring knowledge pertaining to hotels (though it is a major portion of it), I also learned a lot about myself as an individual. Sure there were times when I couldn't get along with other students, times when I wanted to go home, times when I wanted to cry, but most importantly, I found a way to overcome those moments and be like myself. This shows me that I have enough strength to conquer what I set my eyes on conquering.

I must also credit a big part of my positive experience to my warm, kind, helpful new acquaintances, especially my roommate and my group mates. Although we had different opinions about certain things, the fact that we all walked away from our differences and tried to engage in similarities only made us bond together even more. Additionally, having the opportunity to resolve conflicts and to work through the ups and downs built our characters. We may all be different, but when gathered with a group of people who strive to achieve the same goals, usually the results are good. In our case, the results couldn't have been better.

Despite my initial impressions of Cornell University -- distant and isolated -- I have grown to fall in love with the college. I can now confidently say that I DO want to apply to this university for my post-high school education. At this point, I am not sure I will apply to the School of Hotel Administration but I do know that I would apply within the business or arts and science field.

Without the Ivy League Connections, I would have never had the opportunity to stay at an Ivy League college for three weeks. This is what I consider the best way to get to know a college. Take myself as an example, had I not had this three-week exposure to Cornell, I would most likely not apply to an expensive Ivy due to my first impressions. As the days passed, my first impressions proved to be more and more unreasonable as I found myself more and more attached to the school. Granted if I have a chance in the future, I would like to visit some more colleges before I decide which colleges I should apply to. I will need to decide which college is better fitted for me based on a campus tour which is clearly not the best way to learn about a college.

I can go on and on about my wonderful time at Cornell but if I were to sum it all up in one sentence, I would say that it definitely ranks amongst my best experiences!

I would like to thank every sponsor for caring enough to help make an incredible experience possible for students like me! Also, I would like to thank Mr. Ramsey, Ms. Knonenburg, Mr. Gosney, and Mr. Crossley for putting in so much of their time, effort, energy, and everything else they have given up just so we can do what we did! I am very grateful for having this opportunity and I cannot stress that point enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I agree with the proverb "Every ending is a new beginning" and I find that it is also another great way to sum up my take on this program. Being more aware of the level of student competition, getting a taste of college life, learning a load of useful information, and discovering more about myself are amongst the things I will take back home. Even though I am sad about the end of a great summer experience, I hope to apply my knowledge in helpful ways for both myself and the people around me. I feel so blessed that I will have another opportunity to do this next summer and I am already looking forward to that! Therefore, this ending isn't really an ending, it is in fact a growing experience that I have already come to appreciate.

Now I will go and soak up the last bit of fun before our departure!

So long,

-Yueming W.

Full Circle

2009-07-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Our last regular day of class... I can hardly believe it. Today was the last time we had to go to Appel Commons early to print papers, and we only have one more meeting for breakfast before class.

Our lecture today was on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Dr. King draws heavily from the New Testament and St. Thomas Aquinas in arguing that we do not have to obey unjust laws. The Letter from Birmingham Jail was essentially Dr. King justifying his actions after being condemned by fellow clergy men. X, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite of Dr. King. He clearly advocated violence. These two thinkers are much like two from the first week of class: Augustine and Aquinas. They are not similar because of what they advocate, but because they are two individuals who took very different stances on the same topic. (For Augustine and Aquinas it was Christianity; for King and X it was racism.) At the end of the lecture Professor Kramnick pointed out that despite the time and topic difference, they were still asking the same questions.

It seems like we have been in and out of review sessions all day. I am nervous about the final, but that is just my nature. No matter how much I study, no matter how prepared I am, I always get nervous before tests.

*Ramiah

A Long Day Indeed

2009-07-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

I do not think I have stared at a computer screen as long as I have today. Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy devoted just abou the entire day to our group final reports. All day, we have been comprising our analysis, creating charts, and calculating values to include in our final report. By the end of the night, we actually have 24 pages worth of report. Talk about so much paper and so much ink! We tried to print a copy of our report out, but once again, the printer acted up. We planned to take it back to the dorm and proofread it for tomorrow. However, now we are unable to. I really feel like we are hanging on a wire. I am confident in my group, though. Our group efforts, dynamics, and teamwork will definitely carry us to the top.

~Louisa

Rush hour traffic

2009-07-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

Even though we had around 7 hours of office hours, working to finish our final group CHESS report felt like driving home in rush hour traffic. After a few hours, we came to realize just how much more we had to complete before we could call it a night. It wasn't that we were unproductive -- matter of fact, I felt more productive today than last time. There was just simply a lot of work to do.

Aside from the work, it was the last official day of class. Having only one light lecture today, the day zapped right past us. I do have comments regarding our lecture about behavioral styles but I will reserve them until a time when I can do them their justice. Right now, it is work work work.

Before Professor Mark and Reneta left the Bin Lab this afternoon, we all agreed to take a few quick photos to remember our last official day of class. Enjoy! [Props to my group mate Martha Glodz for taking the photos. She is also on a scholarship program from Detroit and her trip was also entirely paid for!]

* Picture with Professors Reneta and Mark McCarthy, Hotel
Operations Management: Tactics for Profitability, Jul-9-09

What style am I?

2009-07-09T14:02:00.001-07:00

Try to recount the first blog that I wrote about my first day of class. Okay...it has been three weeks ago, so I'll spare you.

Weeks back, all the students had to take a character/personality quiz, and based on the results, it said that my behavior style was an Analyzer-Stabilizer with Analyzer-Persuader being my secondary behavior style.

Earlier today, the professors explained to the Hotelies the reasoning behind the allocation of each member to a group. For any group to thrive, there must be at least one Analyzer, Stabilizer, Controller, and Persuader. Thus, Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy used that idea to come up with the most effective groups.

Through this exercise, I was able to learn a great deal about my character and what kind of a person I had been all along. After watching the video, I was able to pick up some tips about myself (as an Analyzer, of course).

I tend to be a protocal-oriented person who is more on the private side.
I have more tools than there are available in a toolkit.
I like to provide facts, data, and history.
My primary thrust is quality, accuracy, and perfection.
My strengths include being thorough, comprehensive, and complete.
Unlike all the other types of people who "want" integrity, I like to be in integrity.
I have high standards for myself (but I avoid showing it on the outside).
I bring focus to quality control.

As I said in the previous post, taking this course has allowed me to kill two birds with one stone. If anything, this course is all about getting to know oneself and how well we can contribute as a teammate.

Until tomorrow,
Stacy

July 9: Our Last "Good Morning Professor Kramnick"

2009-07-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, loyal readers. As you know, we are nearing the end of this amazing trip of a lifetime, and I think I can speak for all 6 of us when I say that this opportunity is most definitely appreciated and will be missed. Before I lower my head in sadness over my nearing departure, I must focus on the mission at hand: the Freedom & Justice final.

Today's itinerary followed its normal pattern: breakfast, lecture, discussion session and lunch. Today's lecture centered on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two of my favorite writers from this course. I enjoy the history of the civil rights movement, and hearing different perspectives of the time intrigued me. During discussion, we spent a majority of the time discussing our final Plato essays and listening to Des' college advice. On our way to lunch, Des walked with our Hercules trio and told us about fellowships and scholarships he could refer us to if we were interested in pursuing philosophy. He also mentioned how he enjoyed having us in the class and appreciated the work we put in. Apparently, he has noticed immense growth in each of us. I'm very happy that we made Des proud. Hopefully, we've made our district proud as well.

Rather than have a guest speaker, as we usually do on Thursday afternoons, our class was offered a voluntary discussion section with Professor Kramnick following lunch (a discussion a majority of our class of 70 decided not to attend, surprisingly). Loving the opportunity to gain beneficial knowledge, Julia, Ramiah and I attended the session where we picked Professor Kramnick's brain and asked about confusing concepts. I feel like I left the session with clearer ideas of certain philosopher's beliefs. The session has left me with a drive to finish studying for tomorrow's final and hopefully, pull off a praise-worthy grade.

Unfortunately, I must cut my blog short. Tomorrow's final is nearing, and I expect my best work to be put forth. Wish me luck!

The Last Full Day

2009-07-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon.

I'm going to jump right into today's lecture, due to my extremely tight schedule. I want to inform you my blog today will be relatively short. Our final is tomorrow, and I have so very much to do in preparation. I will, however, provide a full report for you all tomorrow!

Today, was our FINAL LECTURE. I can't believe we've been here for three weeks already. Our very last lecture with Professor K was on...

RACE AND EQUALITY.

I. The Historical Background

II. "Separatism" and "Integrationism"

III. Martin Luther King: Love & Justice (1929 - 1968)

IV. Malcolm X: Nationalism and the "Strategic Dilemma" (1905 - 1965)

With today's lecture, we came full circle from our first discussion on Christ and the New Testament. There's a lot of "lasts" this week, and it's rather depressing!

On a positive note, our TA Des decided to reward his students for their hard work these past three weeks with a variety of cookies and juice. It was a nice, thoughtful surprise, and a wonderful addition to our FINAL DISCUSSION SECTION. At times, Des was so abstract beyond my understanding. It was sometimes frustrating because I felt like it was impossible to follow along with his graduate level thinking and so completely out there ideas. But I realized that he pushed me every single day. His opinions were always drastically different from what I'd think, and in that way I was constantly outside my comfort zone. But I was also exposed to such a unique way of thinking, I know I'm walking away with an entirely altered thought process and outlook. I learned to cease being so one-dimensional and narrow minded and instead always push my mind to look at all sides of a situation.

Sometimes being uncomfortable is a good thing. New experiences are scary, but at the same exact time eye-opening and beautiful. That's exactly what this experience has been for me - eye-opening and BEAUTIFUL. I have loved every minute of my journey with the ILC, and I know the termination of this program does not in any way hint to the end of my gratitude towards all those who made my stay at Cornell possible. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. These past three weeks have, undoubtedly, been the most influential, life-changing days of my entire life. I feel like I have grown so much. And I have the ILC to thank for that. (:

Well, my dear readers. I must depart and attend to my final preparations before tomorrow. Wish me luck! I hope to make you all proud.

Take care!

- xoxo, Julia.

Las Vegas: the American Sin City

2009-07-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas is like the adult equivalent of Disneyland.

That is so far my favorite description of Vegas.

Las Vegas is the American "Sin City" located in the middle of the Nevada desert. Did you know that despite its odd location, it is the most visited city on Earth? Did you know that the gaming industry in Vegas was mostly initiated by mobs? Did you know that many developments are still in progress even in today's economy? Everything about Las Vegas is intriguing!

For our class's purpose, we are relating the success of large companies in Vegas to the hotels and its casinos. Unlike hotels in other areas, the hotel casinos have more factors to consider such as how much money is the customer willing to gamble before deciding whether a guest should be accepted or declined. Whereas most hotels make majority of their profits from rooms, these hotels rely on the success of their casino counterparts to contribute a good portion of money to their bottom line.

Rather than having a lecture on casinos and hotel operations, Professor Reneta decided to approach it differently by allowing us to watch parts of a movie about the developments in Las Vegas since the very beginning. In addition, she also showed us some of the extra features from her Ocean's Thirteen movie which proved to be very educational.

When thinking about Vegas, the first thought that crosses my head is gaming and gambling, which both have negative connotations in our society. After learning more about it, I view the "Sin City" more as a location that sets innovative trends for the world and supports the most creative yet successful business strategies.

~Yueming W.

P.S. Since tomorrow is the second to last day of school, I believe I will be very busy. My group would need to finish all of our work for our final report tomorrow so I am uncertain when I will be able to blog. But I promise that I will blog!!

5, 4, 3...

2009-07-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Everything seems so routine now. When we got here things were so fresh and so new, but now our daily rituals are all established. During our to lecture this morning we were talking about how accustomed we are to Cornell's beautiful campus, and how plain everything is going to seem when we go home.

Lecture picked up where it left off with Marx's concept of alienation. There are four different aspects of it. 1) alienation from product 2) alienation from production 3) alienation of species 4)alienation from man to man (Do not worry, I will not try to confuse anyone by trying to further my explanation from yesterday. We did, however, have some very abstract examples in discussion today as we related workers to farm land.)

The final draft of our Plato essay is due tomorrow. I do hope that I do well, I have done my best to adequately map out Plato's critique of democracy, and to follow the comments of the TA.

After class we had our meeting with Mrs. Abbey Eller. She is the director of Cornell Summer College. She asked us about our stay here and our likes and dislikes. Honestly, my overall review was very good. I love my class, my professor, my ta, and my roommate; so I really had no complaints. There were actually two other young ladies who met with us, both of whom are in Freedom and Justice. The five of us unanimously agreed that we truly appreciate the study guides our ta has been giving us.

*Ramiah

After the basics

2009-07-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Since the professors have gone through the basics of hotel management, they have started to veer into a more fun direction. We had a continuation of the housekeeping lecture we had the other day today with Reneta as well as took a quiz on the weekend readings. Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy were not pleased with the scores on the last quiz so they decided to cancel that one out. I was glad. I have to be truthful, I was one of those students who did no do so well. I did some major studying for today's quiz and I am confident I will receive a pretty decent grade. In the afternoon, we began a small lecture on casinos. Mrs. McCarthy told us at the beginning of this course that when we get into casinos, things will be a lot more fun and interesting. I have to agree with her.

Hotel casinos have their own style, charm, and do not follow the same type of management as normal hotels. First of all, they are not ranked the same. They do no fall into scales of services such as upper upscale or midscale. I asked Mrs. McCarthy which category would hotel casinos fall under, and she explained to me that they do not officially fall into a category. However, if you were grouping them that way, they would be mostly upscale to luxury. They have to at least be midscale though since they proved food an beverage.

If I were to decide to work in the hospitality industry, I would choose to work in a hotel casino. Everything is so opulent and vibrant. There is always excitement in the air and everyone is there for the same reason, to have fun. Although, I must brush up on my poker hands and every other card game. Actually, I should really learn all the card games and work on my poker face.

In the evening, I went to office hours and worked diligently on the group final report. I am in charge of the rooms contribution statements. Once again, the microsoft software has challenged me again. To do the room contribution statements, or the calculation of revenues each room is contributing, there is already a sheet on Excel in which Mr. McCarthy set up. All we have to do is fill in our numbers on the expense sheet, which is also on Excel. The rooms contribution sheet refers to the expense sheet, so it basically does a lot of the work for me. However, I notice some errors. As I was comparing the data being calculated to the actual data on the CHESS game file, they did not match. For the entire two hours of office hours, I sat there playing with the Excel sheet trying to figure out what was wrong. I asked a TA for assistance and she was able to explain to me that they may not always match up. From there, I proceeded to just complete the sheet. I realized that most of it I will have to do calculations manually.

Tomorrow will be an all day work day for us. We will be working for 9:00AM to 9:30PM, with food breaks of course. It will certainly be a long day.

~Louisa

The Middle of the End

2009-07-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

Good evening, my darling readers!

Today marks the midpoint of our final week in Ithaca, NY. How are you all feeling? I know I couldn't be more depressed! I've fallen in love with this campus and this experience overall. With every passing day, I am more and more reluctant to leave. But home IS where the heart is, and it will be nice to be back in my own bed! I guess it's bittersweet.

Today was the infamous "Penultimate Lecture." It was a continuation of yesterday's lecture on Karl Marx...

MARX & ECONOMIC EQUALITY:

V. Alienation

VI. Economic Determinism

VII. Superstructure

VIII. Religion and Patriotism

IX. Proletarian Consciousness, Revolution, and the State

X. Communist "Utopia"?

Discussion for the next few days is going to focus on studying for our 2 1/2 hour long final this coming Friday.

After class, Justine, Ramiah, and I had a meeting with Abby Eller. She just asked us a bunch of questions on our experience here at Cornell University's Summer College. It was nice getting to talk to her on that personal level. We basically just told her what we've been discussing in our blogs - how we're taking to the environment, the abstractness of our class, how much we love our TA, Professor K's amazing lectures, and the overall experience we've had living in Mary Donlon and being on our own. It was a fun discussion. (:

I have two days and in that small period of time, I must complete MANY things. Our third and final draft of our Plato essay is due tomorrow, and so I must get started. SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME. I will talk to you all tomorrow!

Take care and enjoy the remainder of your days.

- xoxo, Julia.

Casino Day

2009-07-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Shifiting away from the usual discussion of hotels, Mrs. McCarthy showcased many videos, featuring many casinos in Las Vegas, a.k.a. "America's playground." It was interesting to see how casinos came about, especially with its unconventional history. In 2007, U.S. commercial casinos earned $3.4 billion in gross gaming revenue.

Being under the direction of Mrs. McCarthy was just a breath of fresh air because it was nice to see her teach another field that she was knowledgeable in. Her flexibility was always a characteristic I admired.

It was super busy in the Hotel Operations Management classroom. All the students, including myself, had been prepping for the final project: the CHESS report. These days, especially during lab hours, students would start typing away. This final presentation would be our chance to make a lasting impression on our professors.

Busy, busy, busy.

Until then,
Stacy Chan

July 8: Wrapping Up

2009-07-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

We've reached the middle of our last week at Cornell, and it is still hard to believe that we are coming to the end. I truly believe I will not hit me until I land at SFO on Saturday evening. While I am still absorbing my surroundings, I am excited to see some familiar faces at home. Till then, I must document every last Cornellian detail to my favorite audience.

Today's schedule called for its usual events: breakfast, lecture, discussion section, lunch and one last discussion section. Today's topic was Marx again, so unfortunately, there isn't too much to comment on! My favorite part of today was our 2nd discussion section. During the session, we split into pairs and were assigned a philosopher to fill out a worksheet on. I was placed with Conor, a rising junior from Indiana. We mutually decided to select Locke because we found him both interesting and easy to break down. We will be typing up our philosopher summaries and emailing them to Des, who will make packets of the philosophers for each student. It will be a great study guide for Friday's final.

After classes, we met up with Mr. Crossley to check-in and discuss Saturday's itinerary. Apparently, there was a small issue with our flight plan, but it was resolved and we WILL be in California on Saturday night. Following our small gathering with Mr. Crossley, Julia, Ramiah and I met with Abby Eller, Summer College's director, for a meeting. During the meeting, we were asked very comfortable questions, such as how we are enjoying things, what can be improved, and how we feel we have grown. Mrs. Eller is an extremely warm-hearted person, and I hope to keep in contact with her following my experience at Cornell.

Tonight's plans include the finishing of my Plato essay revision, dinner at Appel, office hours with Des, and the readings of MLK and Malcolm X. These will be our last set of readings, and I am very excited to finally read these historic civil rights leaders.

Mr. Ramsey posed a few questions in my last blog's comments, so I'd like to take the chance to answer them. On the topic of the East Coast, I'm finding the experience very different from California. This can be determined by just the lack of sun and abundance of rain. While the people are kind and motivated at Cornell, I appreciate West Coast life. Simply, I feel more comfortable in California, and this trip has reinforced that. I enjoy my faculty and fellow students, but I cannot see myself spending 4+ years on the East Coast. While these may seem like shallow reasons to prefer the West Coast, I have more substantive reasons for expecting to remain on the West Coast. I am very interested in attending a school that has specific, prestigious programs in biological sciences, or more specifically, environmental science. This is why I appreciate Stanford so much. They have a great integrated Bachelor's and Master's Degree program in Environmental Science. Aside from the great location and prestigious title, Stanford is what I'm looking for in terms of academia. Unfortunately, Cornell has no such program, so I cannot envision myself going here, even though I have learned so much during this opportunity.

In regards to homesickness, I think we've all felt it at one point or another. I miss my family and friends everyday, but I know that Summer College, during this three week period, is my priority. There is no doubt that I will be running to my mom and dad at SFO on Saturday, but I am absorbing every last Cornell second I have hear. I love home, but I love this East Coastern opportunity, as well. For that, I can only say thank you to all of my gracious sponsors and kind audience.

A day Full of Laughs

2009-07-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

I began the morning feeling extra tired. I do not know why. I felt I had a sufficient amount of sleep. Maybe it is that whole 90-minute cycles. As it neared lunch time, I began feeling my body growing achy. When that happens, it normally means I am about to sprout a fever or a cold. Therefore, at lunch, I wanted to go for some soup, but none of the selections were appealing to me. Instead, I grabbed some green tea and a cheeseburger, food far from making my body feel any better. I feel that I should now pay more attention to what I eat and make sure I eat enough fruits and vegetables each day.

After lunch, we watched an incredibly disturbing video about "hotel horrors," the many dirty secrets of the housekeeping world, which include the lack of laundry done on the bedsheets and blankets and the glass cups in the hotel rooms. It seems that even some of the most luxurious of hotels including the Ritz Carlton commit such deeds. I was absolutely disgusted to hear that the bedsheets were not laundered after each guest stay and that the cups provided in the bathrooms were just rinsed. It happened to be that not cleaning those cups correctly is a violation of health codes. If I were managing the housekeeping department or the hotel, and I found out such acts were in my hotel, I would be furious. What kind of service is that? The Golden Rule in the hospitality industry is to treat others the way you would want to be treated. Would you want to reuse a cup that was only rinsed or sleep on sheets that hide all sorts of wastes, germs, and diseases?

The video was not to completely gross us out though, it was to present an issue and see how we would react to such a problem and solve it. Basically, it was testing our leadership skills. There were several shorts skits in which Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy chose students at random to handle the situation over the housekeeping incident as well as on how to deal with one's dysfunctional management team. They were absolutely hilarious. I have discovered that my classmates are some pretty creative individuals. They kept us laughing all the way. Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy were smiling from ear to ear. It was also interesting to see different views on leadership. They helped us determine which methods seem most effective in different types of situations. All in all, it was an amusing day.

~Louisa

Inevitable Count Down

2009-07-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

Counting down is becoming increasingly inevitable. Today was our last Tuesday; only four days left.We assumed our regular routine of breakfast and then the walk to McGraw Hall for lecture. We have started working with Karl Marx. Professor Kramnick started the lecture by telling us about how Marx did not invent socialism. (The professor uses the term socialism rather than communism because of the nonviolent and violent connotations respectively attached to them.)He then went into the life and times of Marx and then onto industrialism and factories. Professor Kramnick continued with Marx's relation to Locke, labor, and surplus value. We only got this far today, but will be picking up the ball with Marx's concept of alienation tomorrow. We did, however, begin to discuss this idea in our discussion group. It is a tricky concept to understand, but I do believe that I have grasped it rather well. The foundation of the argument is that when people sell their labor for a certain wage they lose the personal connection with their product. The example the professor gave was of an individual working in a shoe factory. Let us say that the shoes this person is making are worth one hundred dollars, but this individual is only paid three dollars per hour. It does not matter if the price of the shoes goes up to two hundred dollars, the individual will still only earn the three dollars an hour; meaning they do not directly benefit from the product they make. (Once again, I hope I am making sense.)

Another reminder that we are in our final countdown came with the last guest lecture. Today we were fortunate enough to hear from an Ithaca attorney who once fought for marriage of same sex couples here in New York state. He was very specific about using the phrase "marriage for same sex couples" rather than "same sex marriage" because going into the case they did not want to imply that it was somehow different than regular marriage. He did not win the case, but he does believe that in due time this the battle over the marriage of same sex couples will be looked back on much like the one of interracial marriage.

A special treat we got today was an extra discussion session with Professor Kramnick. It was basically an open question session for us to clarify anything we were yet uncertain about. It was optional, but of course Julia, Justine, and I stayed. It is helpful for me to hear the information again, even if I do not have any questions. Also, it is nice to hear other people's questions because by looking at something from a different perspective can lead to questions and concerns I had not even thought of.

We were supposed to eat dinner with Mr. Crossley today, however there was a mix-up with the time. We always meet for dinner at 5:30, but he thought we said 6:30. We waited for him for a while, and ended up being able to check in with him at the Appel dining hall; however we did not eat with him.

We had to rush to office hours after checking in with Mr. Crossley. Mr. Desmond offered to hold a review session based on the feminists we covered last week: de Gouge, Wollstonecraft, and Mill.It was definitely very beneficial to attend this informal discussion session. Mr. Desmond really broke them down in simple terms to make sure that we have a good grasp on their concepts.

I also got to talk with my roommate more in-depth. Her name is Jessica Schnee and she is from Nassau county, Long Island. She is a rising senior and goes to public school. Jessica is taking the psychology class and likes it a lot. It leaves her with plenty of free time and she really likes that. The reason she decided to take psychology is because her older sister, who is a rising senior at University of Buffalo, is a psychology major. She therefore wanted to see what it is about and did not have room for A.P. Psychology in her schedule for next year. Jessica also wanted to get a head start on her college credits. She will definitely be applying to Cornell and it is amongst the top schools on her list. I must say, I am very glad because Jessica and I have truly bonded while here. I will sincerely miss her when it comes time for us to part, but we will be keeping in touch.

*Ramiah

Housekeeping 101

2009-07-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today, a large emphasis has been placed on the issue in regards to housekeeping, which is one of the utmost factors that significantly influences guest services. More than just dealing with people, housekeeping is a department that always requires a manager who can accommodate multi-group culture dynamics, execute fine judgment, as well as one who can leverage analytical skills.

What I admire most about attending this college course is that Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy frequently incorporates technology or other media within the curriculum. For example, Mrs. McCarthy have shown us snippets of pre-recorded news segments on hotel horrors, from the irregularity of laundering bed linens to the poor cleansing of glassware.

Especially in this class, which mirrors a business setting, teamwork has been constantly stressed by the two professors. Rather than laying fault on one particular individual, it takes a team to cooperate and to put their heads together to find a beneficial solution. Though it may never be easy, it takes a little of time, patience, and what else? Compromising!

Taking this course means much more than having a glimpse of the business sector. The hospitality skills I have gained thus far have taught me to become a better person, be it for personal or professional reasons.

All I can say about this course is that...I have killed two birds with one stone. Score!

Teamwork

2009-07-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

Definition from the online Merriam-Webster dictionary: work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.

Definition from Dictionary.com: cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause.

What does the term "teamwork" really mean and how does it affect the hospitality industry?

Rather than having a guest speaker discuss "Excel in the Real World," we had a follow up session on characteristics of employees in the management/executive branch of a hotel company. After our discussion yesterday on the desirable worker traits, we approached real life scenarios in which we had to apply these traits. Despite the general agreement of what characteristics are favorable, when they were applied, many people had different opinions on which approach was best. For the purpose of learning to work together, the professors narrowed the characteristics down to four categories: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating.

Directors are people who provide specific instructions and closely supervise others to see that the task is accomplished; are highly directive/committed but not very supportive/confident.
Coaches are people who continue direct but also explains decisions, solicits suggestions, and supports progress; are highly directive/supportive, but not very committed/confident.
Supporters are leaders who support everyone's efforts towards success and shares responsibility for decision-making with them; are highly supportive/confident but not very directive/supportive.
Delegates are leaders who turn over responsibility for making decisions and solving problems to other subordinates; are highly committed/confident but not very supportive/directive.

In order to see how effective these traits are, we watched 2 video clips selected from a hotel reality show. Both these clips revolved around one central conflict -- the VIP information does not match the actual guests. As a result, the hotel has humiliated itself and lost some of its premium customers.

Case has it that it was not the first time something like this occurred, therefore the executive manager landed herself into a lot of trouble. Angered and impatient, she called 2 meetings with her assistant management team to scold them for not doing their jobs properly. Rather than proposing a solution to the problem, her rudeness and emotion did not help the situation at all, only strengthening the tension and building disagreeable feelings among her management team.

We analyzed the two scenes from the hotel reality show by having some students act as characters involved in the issue. From this, we learned as a class what kinds of group behaviors are acceptable and how to use teamwork to achieve our goals.

Most of the lessons we learn from our professors can be applied to different fields outside of hotels and hospitality. This lesson, above all others, is a true life lesson that we can all benefit from. A person may travel across the ocean, work in a completely new industry, or meet people who are completely different from oneself, but teamwork is universal.

Now some updates on the CHESS report, our group has started our actual report writing and has completed all of the graph/chart making. Although Professor Mark has not taught us how to make the payoff matrix, I started out and completed half of it by finding the percentage of no-shows for each specific number. I'm not exactly sure what the payoff matrix is for besides being used in forecasting to predict how many rooms the hotel should overbook by, but I am sure that the professor will teach us tomorrow.

* Snapshot of my computer screen after we finished running our final
CHESS game. Our goal was to reach a $70,000 profit
average and we made it by $123!

The Final Four

2009-07-07T13:20:00.001-07:00

With the approaching termination of our third and final Tuesday in Ithaca, NY, the countdown to our departure rests at 4 days. What a shame.

Today, we had part one of a two-day lecture on Karl Marx. The reading was rather thick, so we need two days to completely cover all the arguments he addresses in his argument. The outline is as follows...

MARX AND ECONOMIC EQUALITY.

I. "Socialism" Before Marx

II. Marx's Life and Times (1818 - 1883)

III. Industrialism and Factories

IV. Locke, Labor, and Surplus Value

V. Alienation

VI. Economic Determinism

VII. (Etc. Tomorrow)

We were only able to get to "IV. Lock, Labor, and Surplus Value," and so we will get to "V. Alienation" and beyond tomorrow. Marx was an interesting read, because his argument differed from the other philosophers we've been reading in one major way. The past people we have worked with have all founded their argument on politics, but Marx's rested on an economic foundation. As for my opinion on equality? It's a very broad question which could extend into a huge debate and discussion. With all these different definitions of equality we have being thrown at us, it is hard to narrow it down to one simple definition. I have not been able to think of my own view of equality in enough depth to provide an adequate answer to that question, but it is something I will definitely think about post-Cornell.

We had our fifth and final guest lecture today from an attorney fighting for the marriage of same sex couples. We also learned that our final would require us to make connections between our guest lectures and the main themes of the course. This will prove challenging, but I plan to get in as much studying as possible between now and Friday. In the mean time, I have my third and final draft of my Plato essay to work on. All these finals! It really is depressing. I'm going to miss Cornell more than I ever expected to. With that, I must conclude my blog and being today's work load. I will talk to you all tomorrow.

Enjoy your afternoons.

- xoxo, Julia.

P.S. The rain is back. It looks like Ithaca refuses to shine for us for more than a day! It's been pouring on and off all day. Hopefully the weather will clear up a bit before we leave. Pretty weather makes it so much easier to wake up in the morning, walk the fifteen minute walk to lecture hall, and climb that sixty three stairs up to discussion section. (Yes, I counted. That does not even include all the stairs in our dorms, the stairs walking back from class to our rooms, and all the random other staircases in between. Cornell seems to have an obsession with stairs!) Anyways. Let's stay hopeful for the sunshine. Until next time!

July 7: "Language has a lot of power."

2009-07-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today began as every other day has with a fast-paced breakfast at Appel Commons with my fellow Freedom & Justice comrades. After deciding that we finally had enough to eat, we made our way to McGraw Hall for our 9:00am lecture with Professor Kramnick. Today's topic was Pt. 1 of Karl Marx. Professor Kramnick is usually timely when it comes to following the day's outline, but for the first time in nearly three weeks, we did not finish. Luckily, tomorrow will be spent finishing up Marxist communism (or socialism as Kramnick will only call it).

After lecture, we made our way to Goldwin Smith Hall for our discussion sections. During today's discussion, we received the 2nd drafts of our Plato papers with corrections and suggestions. The 3rd and final draft is due on Thursday. I plan to finish my revision by tomorrow night so that I may discuss it with Des before officially turning it in. Hopefully, this strategy works to my benefit. In the last half of discussion, we went over a few Marxist beliefs by applying them to modern day examples. Because I found the conversation difficult to follow, I will be re-reading Marx's selections to make sure my fundamentals are down and ready to be tested.

Following lunch, we had our last guest speaker, Richard Stumbar, an Ithacan attorney who specializes in human rights. He spoke to our group, in particular, about the marriage of same-sex couples. I found the lecture interesting because I found the issue of California's Proposition 8 engaging during last year's election. It was nice to hear a speaker who had the same views as I do. Apparently, there aren't as many liberal-minded people as I believed there to be, but Richard shared an opinion I could definitely relate too. Mr. Stumbar was a great lecturer, and I appreciate all 5 of the lecturers I have had the opportunity to learn from in the past 3 weeks.

Tonight's agenda includes dinner at Appel, further reading of Marx, a visit to Desmond's office hours, and a revision of my Plato essay. A busy night, but I am sure I will find the time to complete every task, for each is at a high priority.

Fruits of my Labor

2009-07-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe today was our last Monday at Cornell. When we met for breakfast this morning I knew that we only had four more times to do so. I remember the first week seemed to go by so slow, but overall our stay here has gone by really quickly. I have formed some new habits while here; like eating eggs, potatoes, and french toast for breakfast every morning. I think one of the biggest changes will be the time spent with Julia and Justine. I have really grown close to these two exceptional young ladies, and I am very glad to have done so.

Lecture today started with the life and times of Edmond Burke. Professor Kramnick talked about the French Revolution and how it shaped Burke’s ideas. The main points covered in the lecture were human rights, government as authority, history, tradition, custom, hierarchy, and inequality. Reading Burke amongst the philosophers who argue for equality was very helpful; especially since we have already covered Plato and his hierarchical beliefs. Burke is one who believes equality among all people is absurd, and that we practice inequality every day. In discussion we further analyzed his arguments and went into political nakedness. This concept speaks to how without certain rights people are left vulnerable. Burke claims that racism is practiced in this aspect - one example being through citizenship which makes rights national rather than natural. (I do hope that I am not confusing anyone, I know that our discussion can get very abstract. Nonetheless I love following the arguments we all make.)

At the end of our discussion session our preliminary exams were returned to us. I was quite pleased with my grade. I received an A- on the essay portion, and three A’s and two B’s on the quotes; giving me an overall grade of a B+. I was so happy; Julia, Justine and I all did very well. Our TA was also rather pleased with the class as a whole. The grade I received definitely provided a boost to my confidence – but do not worry, there is still a healthy amount of fearful caution.

After lunch we had our writing workshop. The second draft of our Plato essays were due and we did another peer edit. I actually got to read Julia’s essay, and I must admit, I can clearly see why our TA always picks hers as his favorite. (I am not just saying that; Mr. Desmond chose only Julia’s Freedom essay to read to the class as a good example. Also,today when he was reading our introduction paragraphs out loud, he said he would have used hers.)

I did not have the heart to spend too much time interviewing my roommate today because she had an extreme amount of reading to do. I have, however, learned that Cornell is definitely on her list of schools she is applying to; but she has not decided which is her first choice.

The rain also returned today. Julia, Justine, and I actually got caught in it when we met Mr. Crossley at the Balch dorm for check-in. I guess two days without rain was all Ithaca is going to give us.

*Ramiah

New Terminology

2009-07-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Walking into class, we all received a sheet of paper containing two questions. It was asking us to explain our act of service that we had committed over the weekend. I did not end up using my small act of service that I committed to the server at the Statler. Instead, I described an incident that occurred last night before check in.

Last night, it was about ten minutes before check-in and I was taking out my ID card when I realized my roommate was asleep. I knew she did not go do early check-in, since she had been in the room since about 7 in the evening. I decided to wake her up in time for nightly check-in. At that moment, I was not thinking about my service assignment. I was doing it because it was I thought it was the right thing to do. Why wouldn't I wake up my own roommate? If she did not make it in time for check-in, she would be documented and it would be written up on her disciplinary record. I called her name, to gently wake her up. She did not respond. I decided to shake her a little, figuring it might work. She opened up her eyes, and I thought she was awake and she would get up to go to check in. However, it turned out she seemed to be unconsciously awake. She opened her eyes, then closed them again. At that moment, I had not even checked in myself, so I went to check in first. I told the RCA that I tried waking up my roommate for check-in, and she told me not to worry about it, that it was not my responsibility. I had to agree otherwise. I felt, as a roommate and as a human being that I should give her the courtesy of waking her up for check-in so she would not receive any sort of demerit on her disciplinary record.

I went back to my room and tried shaking her up again. She did that whole opening and closing her eyes gig once again. I then shook her a tad bit harder. She actually rose from her sleeping position and sat up. Then, she fell back onto her bed once again. I could help her no more. Two seconds later, the RCA came to the door, woke her up and documented her. I felt bad, but at the same time, I felt as if I did my best and could do no more.

I realized this morning in class when I saw the two questions on the sheet of paper that the incident from last night could apply as my act of service which I subconsciously committed. I described the event and then expressed how I felt after my failed attempt and "serving the guest." I consider it as a failed attempt as I was unable to successfully wake her up and get her to check in with the RCA's on time.

The class as a whole discussed what makes a good employee. We came up with a list of a good 30+ adjectives that would describe the characteristics an employee should carry. They were not sufficient though. I do not think that memorable would generally apply for a housekeeper. Our assignment tonight is to think up words that could you would consider when looking for an employee. I have thought of quick, efficient, and detail-oriented so far. I think those are pretty applicable. A housekeeper must be quick in his or her work when cleaning a hotel room. She must be efficient at her work and pay very close attention to detail. I am not done expanding this list, though. I will continue to ponder.

~Louisa

Exploring

2009-07-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

As I was reflecting on our stay at Cornell, I came to the realization that we, at least Hotelies, have not actually explored the beautiful campus. Besides the normal route we take to go to the Statler for class, we have not walked across any other part of the campus. After I expressed my interest in visiting some of the campus museums and libraries, I was very happy to see that Stacy and Louisa supported the idea. Therefore, we set out on our first exploration today -- the Olin Library and the Uris Library.

Although Olin clearly had a more modern look while the part of the Uris library that we visited resembled ones in the Harry Potter movie, both were interesting. Since we went during our afternoon break, we didn't get to spend a lot of time there (I think i can spend an entire day there without getting tired of the books!) we did take many photo snapshots for memory.

* Walking towards the entrance of the Olin Library

* Inside the library. I believe this is the staff area -- shows how modern the library is.

* Snapping a shot of the entrance of the Uris Library.

* Stacy exploring the first level of the library modeled after the library from Harry Potter.

*Louisa sitting at a desk. Many students sit in desks like these in the library to study.

In terms of class, we had a fairly light day. Today's curriculum was centered around being of service, which is what hospitality is all about. We discussed what we thought being of service meant and what kind of qualities a person would have if he likes to serve. This tied directly into what kind of traits would an employer look for in an employee. After coming up with a long list of agreeable characteristics (I believe we had around 70), the professors asked everyone to think about what characteristics they thought were most important to the industry and what is a way to test if a person possesses those characteristics.

I believe amiable qualities such as being passionate, up-lifting, friendly, loyal, etc. are needed in this line of work, but also characteristics like being efficient, organized, punctual, responsible, and observant are important. Even though I still have to figure out what exactly I will do to measure these qualities, I do know that written tests and even conversations cannot shine enough light in these areas. I will need to observe their everyday behaviors in order to find out if they have a true being-of-service mindset.

In addition to our engaging morning discussion, we had a guest speaker in the afternoon. Ms. Heather Fortenberry from the Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration Admissions dedicated 2 hours of her time to talk to us about the strong undergraduate hotel program as well as the general application process. We all learned intersting facts about the School of Hotel Administration like that 800 work hours related to hotel and hospitality is required for graduation. Additionally, we also learned about the process of applying to Cornell such as the fact that students must apply to a specific school (primary application) and also an alternative school (secondary application) out of the seven schools offered for undergraduate studies.

I can see how all of the Exploring Educational Excellence college presentations have benefited us. I remember some of the general college application facts when Ms. Fortenberry was answering questions. By actively participating in events like these, our district is really gaining a lot of knowledge and exposure that some of the students at summer college never had before. These informational sessions are important!

In terms of group work for our final project, I am very happy that my group members do no procrastinate. We plan on finishing everything by Thursday so that we can have the entire Friday morning for minor revisions. So far, we have come up with a successful business plan. Before going to bed last night, we gathered briefly for a discussion about what kind of expenses we will spend. All three of us had different ideas so we decided to spend tonight's office hours to run our own trials and see who could come up with a hotel that made an average of $70,000 profit per week.

I was extremely happy to find out that my revised plan worked and I was able to make more money than the required. Although my group mates' hotels were not able to make the cut, we all felt comfortable that one of us made it without really combining each other strategies. We will spend tomorrow analyzing the statistics and combining our successful strategies to maximize our profits. I have a feeling that it will all work out. Yay!

Another great day has gone by. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring us!

~Yueming W.

Guest Lecturer: PART 2

2009-07-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Highlight of the Day

Today Ms. Heather Fortenberry, the admissions counselor here at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, swung back to give all the Hotelies some insight. Even though she wanted to lean toward the hospitality aspect, she did answer all the other questions in relation to admissions, in general.

Among some of the key facts that were brought upon in our conversation included the fact that Cornell had over 800 school clubs, and that pupils could obtain their master's degree from the Hotel College in one year. Impressive, right?

After hearing the presentation, it dawned on me that college applications were right around the corner. It was about time to generate a list, comprising of the many prospective colleges I plan to apply to this fall. As marvelous as it had been, in terms of staying at Cornell, I felt like it didn't whet my curiosity enough for me to clearly distinguish this particular institution as "The One." I understood that I still had some time to discuss my college options with Ms. Kim over the summer. Since the Ivy League Connection consistently stressed the importance of culling a college that "fits," I had always been determined to find the best overall institution that I felt best suited my needs or wants or both.

Having college presentations held at Hercules High, or as a matter-of-factly, at areas around the school district, proved to be beneficial. From the many schools that I had been exposed to, I had already cherry-picked my favorite ones: Northwestern, University of Chicago, and Columbia. Of course, I would also love to apply to California schools, simply because some of them had always been the cream of the crop in the West Coast.

The Beginning of the End

2009-07-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today is our third and final Monday of our three week stay here in Ithaca, NY... THE BEGINNING OF OUR LAST WEEK. The course is winding down, but the work load is, of course, living up to the rigor of the class. As our final week, we will be discussing equality - its opposite, its economic perception, and its social view - in the eyes of Burke, Marx, M.L. King, and Malcolm X.

Today's lecture...

BURKEY: AN ARGUMENT FOR INEQUALITY.

I. Burke (1729 - 1797): Life and Times

- The French Revolution

II. Burke's Ideas:

a. Human Nature

b. Government AS Authority

c. History, Tradition, and Custom

d. Hierarchy and Inequality

Though the outline is much shorter than past ones, the content of the discussion and the depth of the analysis was most certainly not lacking. Burke is a philosopher who believed people were not, as is commonly stated, born equal. Instead, we are each born with different expertise - an argument with visible links to Plato. It was an interesting read and, of course, another wonderful lecture from Professor K.

Today, the alphabetical list of seven students hit the Ms, and so I had the honor of having lunch with Professor Kramnick, along with six of my other colleagues - four of which are in my discussion section. Justine and Ramiah had already had lunch with him, and they assured me it was nothing brutal, just a laid back, getting to know one another type of thing. They were right. We just went around the table introducing ourselves, stating where we're from, what kind of a high school we attended, what our parents do, how we heard about Cornell University's Summer College, and what we want to be when we grow up. Professor Kramnick would ask a few additional questions in between, but it was nothing difficult. I'm used to having lunch with Justine and Ramiah everyday, so they were much missed. But it was a new experience, and I greatly enjoyed getting to talk to Professor Kramnick on a more personal level.

I realize with every passing day the level of my enjoyment here at Cornell. The class comes with its difficulties and everyone has their downfalls, but overall, I have had a positive experience in this university. I definitely love the small class sizes of private institutions and the more one-on-one work that is able to get done due to the limited number of students. That is one of the most important things for me. I want to attend a solid school with a small faculty-to-student ratio. I want to be able to develop lasting connections with my professors, my TAs and my colleagues, not simply familiarize myself with thousands of faces but never uncover the true nature of the person behind the face.

I also find myself in awe of the beautiful architecture of every building on campus. It would be great to be at a school that possesses a comparable beauty to Cornell, whether in its environment or its buildings. For the get-go, I've known I'm an urban girl. I need city life, and Cornell just doesn't give me that. This has been my main concern/ issue with this university. The past three weeks here, however, have somewhat altered the necessity of an urban surrounding for me. I'm still not positive that I could attend school here in Ithaca for weeks on end without going mad crazy, but I've gotten a lot better in this time period. Who knows? Maybe by next year, a rural setting is what I will want. The east coast, however, is something I could definitely do. Stanford still remains my number one choice, but I am extremely open to my options and I will continue to explore until application time. But Cornell has made its way to the top of my list, to maybe somewhere around second or third. We will see how fate plays out within the next few months.

Until then, I will enjoy the last five days of my stay here and make the absolute most out of every single moment. It will certainly be difficult to leave. I feel as though I've changed a great deal because of what I've experienced while at Cornell, and I will return a completely new person. This stay has shaped me in ways I never thought possible. But I should have known. That's exactly what the Ivy League Connection does for you. It changes you for the better. And you are never, ever the same.

- xoxo, Julia.

July 6: The Final Countdown

2009-07-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

It's Monday afternoon in Ithaca, and I can't help but remind myself of the fact that it will be the last Monday afternoon I spend at Cornell. Having become so accustomed to life on campus, it's kind of difficult to picture myself back at California at this point. Nonetheless, I must do my daily duties as apart of the ILC and report on my day thus far to my gracious sponsors and interested audience.

After a long weekend, I found it a huge pain to wake up this morning. To my detriment, I chose a soft song to wake up to on my iPod, so I'm lucky to have woke up on time. After stumbling around rounding up my belongings, I made way downstairs for my daily walk to Appel Commons with Julia and Ramiah. While slurping our cereals and slicing up our French Toast, we were in true disbelief that this would be our last Monday breakfast at Cornell (Sorry folks, I'm sure the 6 of us will be mentioning our "Cornellian lasts" for the next week). After fueling up on food, we went down to the lower level of Appel to print the 2nd draft of our Plato essays and took off for class.

Today's lecture in McGraw Hall was centered around Edmund Burke and his conservative views. Being a huge fan of Lockean liberalism, I found Burke to be a huge pessimist who I wouldn't want to be under the control of. Regardless, I took the best of notes I could and listened for any helpful information that would benefit me in our upcoming final. After our lecture, we broke into our discussion groups where we spent most of the time reviewing John Stuart Mill and Edmund Burke. The most important moment of our discussion was the distribution of our mid-terms. To my delight, I received a B. Although I was very proud of my work, I found a few inconsistencies with my exam's grading and planned to discuss this with Des following our writing session, for it was time for lunch.

After enjoying a healthy salad at Trillium, I made my way back to Goldwin Smith where I was greeted by a previously unseen face: a groundhog! Yes, a groundhog on campus! I'll admit, I have been a huge fan of the countless squirrels that dart around campus, so upon seeing a groundhog, I found myself smiling and taking pictures like a child. I can't help but share the cute little bugger with my audience. While on the subject of wildlife on campus, I think I should describe the situation a little better. Everyday since I have been at Cornell, I have seem some kind of animal run across fields in front of lecture hall or my very own dorm. It's a very exciting thing for me because I truly love animals to the point where it has become a passion. I'm sure Ramiah and Julia will tell you that I get overly excited anytime I see a squirrel or a flock of geese on campus. It's a big reminder of home, for I live in an area where animals are constantly coming in and out of my backyard. Sorry to go on for so long about these little creatures, but as I said, it's sort of a passion for me.

Now back to what I have come here to do: learn! Back at Goldwin Smith, our class arrived for our bi-weekly writing workshop. During the hour long session, we passed in our Plato essays, peer edited our neighbor's essays, and heard the first paragraph of every student's essay (without names, of course) by Des. I really liked this exercise because it allowed us to hear our voices through someone else. Everyone had great paragraphs, which made Des really proud. After class, I approached Des and asked about some of my mid-term corrections. I'm very happy I did so because he told me to come to his office hours so that he may add points to my score. Hopefully that B will turn into a B+! Either way, I am very proud of the work I put into my test, for Des had very good things to say about it. After my small chat with Des, I took a trip to Uris Library to snatch up some pictures. It's a truly beautiful library, and I hope to sneak in a few more trips to the "Harry Potter Room" before my return to California. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually sit down to read a few philosophers, instead of showing up just for pictures. It's an amazing environment, where one could truly hear a pin drop from across the room. I know a few readers are dying for some illustrations for my trip, so I hope you all enjoy.

Tonight's plans include visiting Des' office hours along with reading 28 pages of Karl Marx, an iconic philosopher in this course. We will focus on Marx for two whole days before moving on to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X on Thursday. After that, it's time to wrap things up with the final exam on Friday. We are truly nearing the end!

Ms. Kronenberg has asked me to comment on the idea of high school teacher's holding office hours, so I'd like to take the chance to put in my opinion. In college, office hours are official slots where students may receive answers to their pending questions. In high school, students are required to take the initiative in order to receive extra attention. I think this is a good thing for high schoolers because it instills in students the comfort of knowing that it's okay to ask for help. It's better for students to take advantage of any type of help they can receive rather than assuming they can do everything on their own. Overall, in both high school and college, students can receive all the help they want, as long as they are willing to make the effort to obtain it. I don't think having office hours on a high school level will better scores or grade averages. If students want help, they will seek it out, regardless if sessions are previously planned or asked at a last moment's notice. I hope this helps!

P.S. I'd like to send a birthday shout-out to fellow Ivy Leaguer Stephanie Ny! She has been working ever so diligently on her Yale reading assignment, and I'd love to commend her for her commitment to the ILC. I'm sure that we all hope she has a great 17th birthday! She's definitely earned it!

A Nice Twist

2009-07-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today started with a rather nice twist. We all met downstairs at 10:15 to have brunch with Mr. Crossley. It was definitely different from our normal weekend routine, considering we generally meet at 12:00pm for brunch. It was not, however, too bad to get up early on a Sunday, considering I am rather accustomed to doing so. Breakfast at the Statler was definitely a nice change, and worth getting up for. I was surprised when Mr. Crossley informed us that he had requested the same waitress who served us at the breakfast we had two weeks ago. Another thing that really surprised me was that Mr. Crossley ordered for each of us; but what I think truly surprised me is that it is what I – and I think I can fairly say all of us, but I am not positive that I can do so – would have ordered: the brunch buffet. Although the food in the dining halls is in no way bad, the food at the Statler was a pleasant step outside of the ordinary. This was especially true for dessert which was delicious.

When we left Mr. Crossley we all knew it was time to hit the books; regardless of what else is going on, I know that what I take away from this class is the main thing that will truly last. I came back to my room and spent even more time reviewing the comments my TA gave me on the first draft of my Plato essay. Some of them were similar to the ones he put on my freedom essay. The reason I had not already tried to correct these issues by the time the first draft of our Plato essay was due was because we did not get our previous (freedom) essays back in time to do so. I have, however, been working on my writing in multiple aspects. At first his comments were concentrated more towards using simpler and clearer examples, but there was also a part of the text that I was thinking too much about. A part of The Republic is known as “The Allegory of the Cave.” It is how Plato explains that some are chosen to be exceptionally wise and subsequently to be the rulers over others. When I used this part of the text in my essay I focused too much on the details of the story, rather than its overall meaning; which is what I had to revise. I reread that section, and did my best. It would be very nice if teachers would give comments the way the TA’s do. It really helps me to see what I am saying clearly, and what I need to clarify for the reader. Also, there is no grade given when the papers are edited for comment, and I am not sure yet what exactly I think about that. It would be nice to know how far away I am from an A grade, but at the same time not knowing my grade pushes me to focus on what I am doing and how deeply I can get into the text.

I cannot wait until I am able to interview my roommate and get an in-depth look at how she feels. We actually talk quite a lot, and have really bonded over the past two weeks. I have also gotten to know the RCAs, and especially Leslie. She and I have had a couple of interesting conversations about Cornell and college life in general. Next time I see her I will be sure to mention the carnival.

Not do I feel like I have bonded with my roommate and the RCAs over the past two weeks, but also - as I have mentioned before – I truly feel closer to the rest of our Hercules group. I am also making outside friends, I am actually getting pretty close to the the students in my discussion group. It is interesting because some of them stay in the Balch dorm, so we do not see each other too much outside of class. We do however text each other, as almost all teenagers do.

I did in fact look up the Cornell alumni information, but unfortunately – because this is not my areas of expertise – I have been unable to find definite information. I have been able to find contact information for Cornell Alumni, but unable to find a specific location on campus. I will keep looking, and will make sure I get to speak with someone before I leave.

*Ramiah

Beautiful day

2009-07-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

*Blue skies, white clouds, and green trees! Everything looks so serene!

*Snapshot of the grassy area by Kay Hall.

When you see pictures like these, you know one great day is coming your way! And that's exactly what happened today.

Not only were there clear blue skies and warm sunshine, I felt better from the start of the day. It was very kind of Mr. Crossley to take all six of the Hercules students out to our final brunch at Banfi's in the Statler Hotel. Besides eating the great culinary creations, we all had time to sit around one round table and catch up.

After our meal, we headed back to the dorms to do homework. The F&J students needed to finish reading and writing their second draft for their final Plato essay while the Hotelies needed to plow through the rest of our text packet of required readings. Although we all had a lot of fun this weekend, we knew that our priorities are still our classes. Afterall, it is as Professor Marc McCarthy stressed, "This is summer college, not summer camp."

In the peace and quiet setting of my room, I finally realized just how much I love this whole college experience. I know for certain that I will miss seeing all of my new friends. It will be strange waking up in a week and not seeing my roommate Rachel. It will be strange not listening to Elyssia and Jessica's jokes. It will be strange not laughing along with Sheena. It will be strange not going on this website and blogging about my day. Most importantly, it will be strange not hanging out with Louisa and Stacy everyday and Justine, Julia, and Ramiah on the weekends.

Knowing me, I will probably shed a tear the day we depart from Ithaca, New York, but I have made myself a promise. I will not think about all of the people and activities I will miss. Instead, I will strive to make this last week even more exciting and eventful than the first two. Knowledge, memories, and a few souvenirs are all that I can take back with me so I plan on having as much fun learning and socializing as possible.

Even if the weather does decide to change back to the rainy, humid state, I know the next six days can still be as beautiful as today. Just in a different way.

~Yueming W.

Last Sunday at Cornell

2009-07-05T15:11:00.001-07:00

We began the day with brunch with Mr. Crossley. I was surprised to see that we were able to see the same server , Lauren, we met two weeks ago when we ate at the Statler's Taverna Banfi. As a group, we were able to discuss over how each of us felt about our respective courses. It was nice to hear some of the stories from Freedom and Justice and hear them in person how they felt. I mean, I have read their blogs, but talking about it in person gives a totally different feeling.

It was incredibly busy this morning at the restaurant, so our server kept getting caught up with the various guests. It was difficult for her to reach us, since we were seated at the table in the back of the room. However, that should be no excuse. I felt uncomfortable to know that I would be the last one served. For instance, when I needed some water, our server was no where to be found. She was always checking up on our table the first time we ate at the Statler. Should it be because of the many more parties she had to wait on?

Sundays are normally homework days for me and that is exactly what I ended up doing. All day, I have been reviewing the readings we have been doing for homework, as the professors said we will have a quiz on them this week, unsure of which day, but better get to studying today. The professors also assigned for us to committ some type of service for homework. We must service someone as if they were a guest. I forgot about that until my friend reminded me. Then I thought about what I did today and what I did yesterday. It seems I have already completed the assignment. When we went to brunch this morning, I ended up clearing up all of my plates and utensils and gathered them in a pile so it is a little easier for Lauren to take away. I even gathered Julia's little dish she used for her dessert and piled it on top of my stack of used dishes. I would like to say that was service, but I am not quite sure. I am thinking of things I could do tonight that could apply as service, just as a back up.

Tomorrow is the start of our last week. I am beginning to feel a bittersweet sort of feeling. I am going to make this final week the best. Finish it off with a bang.

Guess the foot! A little something we did after brunch.

~Louisa

Last Complete Weekend

2009-07-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Starting off my last Sunday here at Ithaca was brunch with Mr. Crossley and the other girls at Taverna Banfi, a restaurant comfortably nestled at the Statler Hotel. In a sense, it felt like a full circle. Keep in mind that this was the same eatery Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Crossley, and all the girls ate at two weeks back. The girls all discussed the courses over sampling items from the Sunday brunch menu.

Afterwards, Mr. Crossley dropped all the ILC scholars back at the Mary Donlon residential hall, so we could squeeze in time for studying, reading, and writing (the latter is only applicable to the Freedom and Justice students).

Right now, I want to highlight the difference between a high school course and a college one, specifically a condensed version in three weeks. In high school, readings are spread out in moderation and are easier to digest. However, in a business course, students have to crunch many, many pages within two nights. Aside from analyzing the charts and tables, business students have to understand the core concepts and the strategic ways hotel companies are utilizing to help strengthen profitability substantially.

In addition, in high school, teachers appear as if they are feeding you, spoonful by spoonful. What I mean by that is that they tend to give students dates of when they should finish a reading section. For college, students are on their own, and they must pace themselves in a way where they can maximize their reading experience, yet not be under stress.

To be frank, I have gotten the hang of balancing time and FINDING time to complete assignments or other top-priority tasks. This may be the fact that I have always taken seven classes in my high school career. Using a facile method, I can now better juggle activities.

Tomorrow is the start of my third and last week at Cornell University. I cannot wait to see my professors again.

Until then,
Stacy Chan

July 5: Winding Down

2009-07-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that this trip is coming to a foreseeable end. Last week literally flew by me in a blink of an eye, and I'm finding myself finishing my last essay and pondering the possible format of my upcoming final. It's truly mind-blowing how accustomed I have become to Cornell.

Today began with a need for an alarm clock, unfortunately. Mr. Crossley invited the 6 of us to accompany him at the Statler Hotel for Sunday brunch, and we simply could not deny the fine dining, nice company, and possibly last meal between the 7 of us. At 10:15am, we were all on our way to the Statler where we were greeted by a familiar face. On Saturday June 20th, our group had breakfast at the Statler prior to our trip to Syracuse University. During the breakfast, we met a student who also served as our waiter: Leslie, a rising junior in the School of Hotel Operations. To our delight, she waited our table this morning with the same courtesy and smile she had more than two weeks ago. It's a small detail, but seeing her made the breakfast special. It's another sign that my familiarity with Cornell is growing. After stuffing our bellies with every fine delicacy you could imagine, Mr. Crossley dropped us off at Mary Donlon, so that we may finish our weekend's homework. I'm glad to say that the only item left on my To-Do list is the further refinement of my Plato essay. Hopefully, it will be cinch.

Because I can never leave a blog posting too short, I would like to comment on a "situation" proposed by Mr. Ramsey: High School v. College. How do you compare and contrast these two pivotal institutions? Having been at Cornell for over two weeks now, I think I have a pretty well-rounded opinion. Overall, the two are immensely different, but there are a few similarities that exist. For instance, every student is expected to do the work. When walking into my discussion section, there should be no doubt in Desmond's mind that I have read the previous night's assigned philosopher. There is no time for special instruction if a few students do not read the material. I find this trait common in my high school classes, as well. If I do not read the night's assigned chapter, it is my duty to make it up and suffer a day's worth of learning due to the fact that I cannot comprehend the material. School is my responsibility, whether I am in high school or college.

While this is a huge similarity, differences are apparent. After classes, I do not have my mom to ask me how much homework I have or how much time I plan to devote to it. I have freedom in the sense that I control my own time. I decide whether I need a break or if it is time to hit the books. I enjoy this freedom because it has made me realize that I truly do put my schoolwork first. If there is time for relaxation, I take advantage of it, but I know when it is time to focus my academic self. I think an important difference between high school and college is the amount of involvement a teacher (or professor) and assistants express. Office hours at a high school level do not exist. You are expected to work around a teacher's schedule in order to receive extra assistance. In college, professors and TA's understand the fact that everyone isn't on the same level, so time is allotted for those who desire extra attention. Also, professors and TA's expect you to know the dynamics of a class. You will never hear Professor Kramnick say, "Pull our your planners and write down the due date for your next essay," as is commonly heard at HMHS. Overall, college requires a focused, balanced student. High school is great preparation, but college is the ultimate test.

Our Last Sunday

2009-07-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, my dear readers.

I just realized this is our third and last Sunday of our stay in Ithaca. Is it just me or is that extremely depressing? I'm not ready to go home yet! We have one more week and I plan to make the absolute most of it - which means studying hard, spending as much time as I can with the people I've grown close to on this trip, and going to as many sites as possible and taking hundreds of pictures! I will never get used to the HUMUNGOUS bugs in this rural location, but Ithaca has grown on me, and I will miss this place deeply.

Today, the girls and I had brunch with our chaperone at the Statler Hotel. It was nice spending time together, especially since it was the first time we've seen Mr. Crossley in about a week. We ate great food and indulged in great conversation, laughing and recapping on the events of the past week or so.

It would've been nice to go to the Dairy Bar, but it is closed on Sundays. We found that out the hard way last weekend, when we walked around campus for over half an hour in search of it, only to find it and realize it is not open on Sundays. It was a nice adventure with the girls, though. Haha.

Well, anyways! I plan to do some more exploring and I hope to contact an alum to talk to. I've actually gotten rather close with one of the RCAs on my floor. I know talking to an alum would be great, but I actually sat right next to one at the Cornell dinner. I was able to see Cornell through the eyes of a graduate, and it proved very helpful for me. Talking to a current student, however, provides a different dimension. With her, I am given completely new insight, which is also extremely valuable. She's currently going through college, so it's nice to know her thoughts on her academics and lifestyle here in Cornell and in Ithaca.

I've met such wonderful people here at Cornell University's Summer College, and it will be hard to leave. It will be especially difficult to say goodbye to my wonderful roommate, who has become one of my closest friends during these past two weeks. Thankfully, we've exchanged contact information so we can to keep in touch. (:

Tonight, I will be doing the final additions and edits of my Plato paper. I need to compose a list of questions/ concerns by 7 o'clock, because I am going to visit Des's office hours. This paper is worth 25% of our overall grade! I want to do as well as possible, so I plan to utilize all my resources, which means meeting with Des and discussing my paper. With that said, I must end my blog here. I have much, much to do today! I will write to you all tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

- xoxo, Julia.

The weekend

2009-07-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

Finally it’s time to kick back and relax.

Knowing that I have no fear of oversleeping my alarm at 6:30 am has, I slept soundly until 11. While enjoying great food for brunch, we, Louisa, Justine, Julia, Ramiah, and I, enjoyed a great conversation while catching up on what has happened to us the past week. Next we decided to head over to the Fourth of July Carnival which was put together by the RCAs at Mary Donlon. Although it was not as grand, it was nonetheless fun. I found the sumo wrestling to be the most interesting and funny activity.

After our spin at the carnival, we all retuned back to the dorms. As hard as I tried to stay awake, I knew that taking a nap would benefit me in the long run. By the time I woke up again, it was time for dinner. Wow, what a day. Although I had done essentially nothing except for sleeping, I did wake up refreshed and ready to enjoy the evening! Finally, I caught up on sleep and ready to enjoy the rest of my weekend!

Right now, we are still thinking about our evening plans. Whether we decide to go to the movies to watch “The Proposal” or staying back in the dorms for an all-girls night, we are all going to have a great night.

College is such an exciting time and I’m so happy that I can get a sneak peek at what it will be like in another 2 years. It is the perfect environment to stimulate learning yet we all have enough freedom to party and have fun! I cannot believe that this is the last weekend at Cornell! Now I’m off to have some fun!

Until next time,

~Yueming W.

An Uneventful July 4

2009-07-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to make up for the much needed sleep I was deprived of. We planned to go to brunch at Appel at around 11:30, so I set my alarm at 9:55 to leave me a lot of time to shower and get ready. I am a slow person in the morning so I need as much time as I can get. Unfortunately, I woke up late, about 45 minutes late, and I ran and rushed to get everything done. When I went downstairs, no one was down there, so I texted Ramiah and Justine, and they informed me that the time to meet was moved to 12:00PM. I had rushed for nothing.

After brunch, we headed for the carnival arranged by the residence hall RCA's. It was somewhat of a disappointment. When I hear carnival, I imagined in my head fun on a grand and large scale. The carnival turned out to be about five different small activities which included a jumper, a slide, sumo suits, and other activities I do not remember the name of. I was at least able to receive free cotton candy and popcorn. Treats like that never fail to put a smile on my face. Maybe carnivals here are actually like the way it was. Maybe my expectations were just too high. I can't help but think I just have a California mindset where every event amazes me.

I normally spend the Fourth of July with my family. We always have a barbeque in my backyard. Afterwards, we would go out to the Hercules waterfront and watch the fireworks. Being so close to the fireworks is inexplicable. It really gives on a show. This is my first time I was not able to celebrate this national holiday with them, but my homesickness is not consuming me. When I spoke with my mother earlier this week, she told me that they would be no barbeque this July 4 because my aunties, uncles, and counsins are busy. Therefore, I did not feel as if I was missing out on much. I was having the same amount of "fun" they were having.

To answer the question about my family, I call them on a regular basis just to let them know how I am doing, and they seem to be managing fine. Being at Cornell does not only prepare me for college, but also prepares them for me going off to college. I have no guarantee of whether I will be home for college or go away, so letting me go for three weeks will help them learn about any difficulties that come with my departure for college. Everything at home though is fine. Sure, my sister has some extra babysitting to do and there are a lot of more chores that my mother and my sisters have to do on my behalf, but that is about it. You have to think about it though, at least I am not at home using the electricity and using all the water for my showers. This saves some money, and I think my mother would like that. =)

~Louisa

P.S. NetPrint is very easy, no hassle at all. When I set up my account, an automatic $20.00 is already loaded onto it. For hotel management, there aren't that many assignment that we have to print, so I have not used up the $20.00 yet. It is only about $0.08 per page, so I do not think it is that bad. When you want to print something, a small screen pops up and asks for your Netid and password, so it can charge your account. After that, the page prints. Easy as pie.

Leisure Break

2009-07-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Happy July 4th readers!

Since today is a holiday, our teachers have given us a day off, thus, no office hours today.

Anyways, earlier today, the Residential Community Advisors had put together a carnival, which was located right behind our dining area on the grass. Even though I did not play any games, I feasted on cotton candy and popcorn.

Future ILC Scholars: Be sure to take time to thank your RCAs because they are the team that runs these events. I must further recognize the advisors on my floor because they work so hard to plan activities to stress diversity. Aside from listening to students' concerns, they always put the students first. They take time to acknowledge the feedback from students, as well as their suggestions.

I appreciate the Summer College experience so much because I now have a better understanding of what dorm like is like. It seems as if I have been tested, whether I can be independent and make good decisions on my own. So far, I must say I have passed the test.

I strongly encourage this program because it is more than just about academics but it is a self-learning process as well, testing one's capacity ever minute of the way.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have slept in for the past two days; my goodness I actually feel like its summer. Nonetheless I know that it is only the weekend. I plan on working on the revision of my essay today. Another assignment I am looking forward to is the one from Mr. Ramsey. When I finish my blog I will be getting on the Cornell website and look up the admissions office. Unfortunately, I am assuming they will be closed for the holiday weekend, but I do hope that I can make an appointment to talk with someone.
There was a carnival on campus today and we checked it out. Unfortunately, it was not quite what we expected so after grabbing some cotton candy and popcorn we headed back to the dorms.
I have made some friends outside of our Hercules group. Most of them live in Mary Donlon, but some do live in Balch. I have yet to actually see the inside of a Balch dorm, but I have been inside the building – and do have a pretty good idea of what they look like – because my the TAs have office hours there.

*Ramiah

The First Holiday Here

2009-07-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon. (:

It's Saturday! The forecast predicted an end to the seemingly ceaseless rain, and so far, it has been correct. BUT IT IS FREEZING! This is officially the coldest it's ever been. The wind is roaring outside, but at least the rain has stopped. Hopefully the sun will come out soon. Let's stay hopeful.

Today, there was a Fourth of July Carnival. There were only a few machines, like a sumo wrestling inflatable and a moon bounce. There was also cotton candy and popcorn. Not too many people were there when we arrived. We stayed for a few minutes, and now we are back in our dorms.

The rest of the day has yet to be planned. I will try to find out information about meeting with an alum. Until then, I will be working on my Plato essay. I won't be able to finish it, because our TA Des does not have office hours until tomorrow. He did, however, stress that he could be contacted via e-mail for any questions. He has been really great with being available for students to talk to him and come to him with any questions or concerns they may have. He challenges us each day with stimulating conversation and scenarios which force us to think outside the box and away from our comfort zones. He even pushes us with our writing. He will spend hours on end writing individual, five paragraph long comments for each student's paper. It's amazing. I do not know how he does it. He is hard on us, but he is not intimidating. He always asks us for feedback. He never acts like he's better than us and he is never unapproachable. I am really happy with our TA, and I feel like being with him will give me all that much more to walk away with when I leave this beautiful campus.

Hope all is well, readers.

- xoxo, Julia.

P.S. HAPPY JULY 4TH! Have a wonderful Californian celebration.

July 4: 100th Blog!

2009-07-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! Also, Happy 100th Blog! I know that I am blogging much earlier than I usually do, but today's lack of activities called for early blogging. Plus, I'd like to spend most of blog answering questions presented by Mr. Ramsey.

Today began at a reasonably late hour with the majority of us meeting at Appel Commons at 12:30pm for brunch. After filling our bellies and chatting about the previous night's dance, we gathered our belongings and made our way to the Appel Field for the 4th of July Carnival. I love carnivals, so I hoped that today's activities would bring out the kid in me. Sadly, I was disappointed! I do have to give recognition to the RCA's who try so hard to provide entertainment for the hourds of teenagers here. At the carnival, there were several moonbounces, inflatable sumo wrestling, one carnival game, and concessions. I have to be honest, we stayed long enough to take a few pictures and grab some snacks. We decided that relaxing in our rooms is much more enjoyable than staying out at the windy carnival.

I have been asked to explain why students should apply to the Ivy League Connections. In the simplest terms: It opens your eyes to the countless opportunities that high school students have been previously blind to. Prior to my hearing of the ILC in the last weeks of my sophomore year, I had no idea where I wanted to attend college (although, I did know that I want to major in Environmental Science). I didn't consider making early college plans due to the fact that I felt like I didn't particularly stick out in my class of 250 bright students. If you do not know, I was asked to participate in the ILC in a very "spur of the moment" way in spring of 2008. Ms. Lilhanand informed me in the last few weeks of my sophomore year that I would have the opportunity, along with three other students, to apply to the University of Pennsylvania's Bio Medicine course. Because the invitation was asked at such a late notice, I had to decline due to previous family engagements. It was extremely saddened because I truly wanted to attend, but there was absolutely no way I could go. Although I did not participate in the trip to Pennsylvania, the ILC instilled a sense of academic confidence in me that convinced me to apply for this year's program. There was no way I was going to let another opportunity pass by me. Luckily, I had ample time to plan ahead for Cornell, and now I may finally call myself an Ivy Leaguer. Even though I had a chance to be a two-year Ivy Leaguer, I'm proud to call myself an Ivy Leaguer at all. There was a chance it couldn't have happened at all!

In terms of advice for prospective Ivy Leaguers, I have plenty to share. The Ivy League isn't for every student who thinks that they are reasonably smart. This program requires a strive for success, and the ILC serves as the "open door" for success. In other words, students must earn their place in the Ivy League Connection in order to reap its full benefits. So if you are considering applying, you must be willing to work in order to take full advantage of the program. If you truly want to be apart of the program, then you should look forward to working towards the best college experience you can obtain with help from the ILC. Overall, the ILC serves as the best stepping stone towards reaching your ultimate academic potential. I hope this helps! Have a great holiday!

Happy Friday

2009-07-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Good evening, dear readers!

Today was one of the best days I've had since I have at Cornell. As you know, we did not have class. This three day weekend will be a nice break from all the hard work we are doing, and today was not disappointing.

The girls and I decided to meet at 12:30 for brunch. I woke up a tad bit earlier than I anticipated, so I got a head start on my weekend reading and I was able to finish. All I have left to worry about is the Plato essay, which I will continue to work on throughout the remainder of the weekend. After brunch, we went to the Ithaca Mall. It was nice getting the opportunity to spend time with the Hotelees, since we hardly see them.

For the past two weeks, we've seen the academic portion of university life. Today, we were exposed to a different side - to the part of college that doesn't involve papers and finals, the part of school that takes you outside your comfort zone and enables you to establish the lifelong relations so frequently formed in college. And I loved every minute of it. It hits me harder and harder every single day that my stay at Cornell is coming to a close. I don't want to leave! I've grown so accustomed to this environment, to my daily routine here. I'm sad I have to leave soon, but I know the bonds I've created with the girls is something I can take with me forever. This experience is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity I will never forget.

With that, I will close my blog. More tomorrow, darlings! Happy weekend.

- xoxo, Julia.

Shopping!

2009-07-03T21:35:00.001-07:00

Today was the first week day we did not have class. It was very nice to sleep in considerably. We met for brunch and then spent the day at the mall. We did have a lot of fun and nothing is the same as shopping with friends.
My roommate is signed out for the weekend and I will have to wait for her to return before I can truly talk about her.
Honestly today was very relaxing. It was nice to spend time with the girls I have grown so close to over these past two weeks.

*Ramiah

p.s. I have been having technical difficulties with blogging, and unfortunately, tonight I was unable to color my blog.

End of Week 2

2009-07-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

Lights. Camera. Action.

That's the normal cycle. For the past two days, it's been action, action, action.

Before any of the Hotelies realized, Week 2 of Summer College came to an end. Along with that came the due date to our CHESS Individual Report -- a formal business report regarding profitability of our virtual hotel after the first 6 weeks of new management strategies. In order for us to learn the proper ways of putting together the report, we also needed to learn how to use pivot tables in excel to create data tables, charts, and graphs that can effectively represent our hotels' success.

Unfortunately, we were not able to cover how to sort data into the required visuals until Thursday's class. With the final report due by noon on Friday, almost all 80 students in Hotel Operations Management ended up staying after class in order to start their reports. As for Stacy, Louisa, and I, we worked from 3:30 pm all the way until 9:00 pm with one quick excursion out to the famous Collegetown Bagels for dinner.

Most of us expected that the report would be mostly finished after almost 5 hours of quality work time in the lab in order to analyze all of the statistic data and improve the business strategy. However, that was not the case. Thursday night's office hour ended in frantic madness with students scrambling to jot down notes about what they can do after returning back to their dorms. This definitely proved how serious everyone in our class intends to do well in this program and is willing to put in time and effort to achieve that goal.

Despite the lack of time we had to make our report, it is still worth approximately 25% of our overall grade. Louisa and I were decided that it would be in the best of both our interests to stay up late and finish as much of it as we can possibly finish so that Friday's in-class time would be dedicated to fixing formatting and minor writing errors. Therefore, I moved my laptop over to Louisa's room and we camped out for the night.

We came up with a system of taking naps periodically. While I would nap for 30 minutes on the bed, Louisa would be working on her report while keeping tract of the time. After the 30 minutes were up, she would wake me up so I do not oversleep. Then I would return the same service to her. More importantly, we motivated each other to keep on working on our reports.

Before we realized, it was already morning. Literally running on a total of 2 hours of discontinuous napping, we went early to eat breakfast at the Commons and headed directly to the computer lab to squeeze in a half hour of work before our morning lecture. By this time, I had already finished most of my report and I was going back to fix formatting and minor writing errors.

The last half hour before the noon deadline was extremely intense. All of the hotelies scrambled to finish their reports in order to submit it online and print out a hard copy. After realizing the chaotic situation, Professor Mark and Reneta were kind enough to postpone deadline by 1 hour. With an extra 1 hour, I focused mostly on fixing the captions to the 6 graphics I incorporated and I also added an optional title page.

After submitting the report, I felt free but tired. I was definitely ready for the weekend. Immediately after eating lunch at the Commons, I returned back to my dorm for a nice 2 hour nap. I would like to sincerely apologize about not posting a blog entry yesterday night. I will not allow that to happen in the future.

----------------------------------------------

After office hours on Thursday night, Louisa and I decided to take a quick mental break from the report by going to watch a few minutes of the Ithaca fireworks. Unlike celebrating July 4th on the actual day, Ithaca has a tradition of celebrating 2 nights in advance. I have included some photos that I would like to share:

* The crowd that gathered to watch the fireworks.

*A snapshot of the fireworks.

Also, I would like to include my CHESS individual report. I uploaded my report via google documents. However, I had to save the document in a compatible format rather than the 2007 format. Therefore the formatting of the overall report is changed into different proportions. Despite the changes, I would love to share with everyone the reports that we all worked extremely hard on.

From this experience, I learned the importance of finishing my work on time. It does not matter how long it took me or how late I stayed up, the bottom line is getting it done.

The Day is Finally Over

2009-07-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

Such a long day. Going through an almost full schedule while running on only about three hours of sleep, I am just barely awake and ready to crash. I chose to opt out today from the many July 4 celebrations in the residence hall since I am so tired.

I sincerely apologize for failing to blog yesterday. It was a completely hectic day as all the hotelies had to write up their CHESS individual short report. I knew I one of the things on my To-Do list yesterday was to blog. Although, I did not realize that the report would be as time consuming as it was. I used my own judgement to whether to take a break from my report and write a small note on the blog and recount my day and express my thoughts or just go all the way with my report. In the end, I had to choose my report. I thought that it was my main priority to accomplish the report and get as much done in the night as I could. One of my goals at Summer College, aside from attaining a great college experience, is to succeed in the Hotel Operations Management class and to do so, I must do well on my individual report that is worth 25% of my grade.

When the professors say short report, they do not mean it. It is just a better term for saying not as comprehensive. My report turned out to be about six pages long. If this is short, I am anxious to know how long a real business report is. Yueming and I worked all day from the afternoon when class ended to 4:30 early this morning. We only received about two hours of sleep and were still not finished with our reports by the time class began at 9:00AM. Yes, we had class today while all the other students in the other courses, like the Freedom and Justice students, had the entire day off in commemoration of July 4. It was such a bummer to have to go to class today. However, I needed the office hours because I needed to finish my report.

I found that not having the actual Microsoft Office 2007 program on my computer is a real disadvantage when trying to succeed in this class. I believe my fellow classmates would agree with this statement as well. Without it, we are unable to work effectively in our dorms. I had to manage without it by typing up my report just on my Word 2003 and copy and pasting the text onto my saved report in office hours.

During office hours, it was an absolute chaos. Everyone was either cramming or just rushing to put the finishing details for their report. The TA's and the professors were running around from one computer lab to another assisting students and trying to keep them on track. The deadline was 12:00PM and the tock was ticking. As the minutes passed, I began to panic more and more. Fortunately, seeing all of the students' worried faces, Mrs. McCarthy extended the deadline to 1:00PM. I felt an entire layer of stress lift right off of my body. Once it was reached 1:00, I frantically was gathering everthing together, uploaded my assignment onto the class website and printed a hardcopy to turn in. Since every student submitted their report around the same time, the class website slowed down and all of the printers were shooting out papers like guns releasing bullets.

Having finally completed the stressful assignment, I decided to take a short nap and then go out with the F&J students and have some fun. It is Friday after all. We returned to the Cornell Mall and had a blast just walking around, shopping, and eating. As I am sitting here, 11 at night, I am absolutely pooped from such a long day.

On another note, I should make up yesterday's post by giving a little description about my roommate. I have a room of my own at home so having a roommate is something different. My roommate's name is LeAnn and she is from Syracuse, New York, not very far from here at all. In fact, last weekend, she went up to Toronto to attend a piano recital and then returned home to do some laundry and convenience shopping. LeAnn is also a part of the Freedom and Justice course. I do not get to normally interact with my roommate since my schedule is so much longer than hers. Even when I am back at the residence hall, I am not able to spend time with her because of the studying I do at night in the lounge with the other hotelies.

It is a little difficult living with my roommate sometimes as our living styles vary greatly. I am a person who considers personal space as a substantial virtue. I do not like it when I feel my personal area or bubble is invaded. LeAnn does not seem to feel the same. When we first moved in, we signed a contract and one of the items on the contract stated that we will keep our respective sides of the room tidy. I try to clean my room whenever I have the time, just to keep everything in line and organized. I was hoping she would follow me as an example, but that did not happen. Many of her belongings would end up on my end of the dorm. It was truly disturbing and irritating to find her items on my side of the room. I have requested she keep her things on her part of the room, and she agrees and then apologizes. This has become a trend. Recently, I asked her to clean up the room and she did just that. Now our room is much cleaner and more attractive. I think that since I do not spend much time in my room and I do not see her often, there is a lack of communication and understanding between us. I think that I should try and improve our relationship before the course ends, just so that everything from here on out runs much smoother.

~Louisa

P.S. There has been one "culture shock" around here that has interested me here a great deal. In the Bay Area, the terms "hecka" and "hella" are common words among the vocabulary of the people that live in the locale. I know I am one of those people who use the two words on a daily basis. Here at Cornell, the students are surprised I say it all the time. Some students who are from SoCal, who do not use hecka or hella, do not like it when I use it. They think other stereotype Californians for using the word. Those who have never heard of the word try to use it all the time, even if it is out of context. It is really amusing to hear their attempts.

July 3: Time to Relax

2009-07-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

After a hectic week filled with mid-terms, papers, and countless pages of readings, July 3rd (a university holiday) called for relaxation. I have to admit that waking up at 11:00am is much more refreshing than waking up at 7:40am. I truly feel as if I have finally "caught up" to East Coast Time. After waking up and gradually motivating myself to get ready for the day, I met up with Ramiah, Julia, and Jessica (Ramiah's roommate) for brunch. Upon arriving at Appel Commons, we had no idea what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. We were all in agreement that we wanted a little time away from Big Red, so we decided that a relaxing day at the mall would be best fitting. Before leaving, we caught up with two of our Hotelies, Louisa and Yueming, who were also interested in "girl time." They needed to catch up on their sleep before the mall, so I ordered them to take a nap before meeting up with us. I'm sure they appreciated it. :)

Just as you would expect, we ate, shopped, walked, and laughed. It was the most relaxing day we've had upon arriving at Cornell, and it was definitely needed. After spending nearly 5 hours at the mall, we have now returned to Mary Donlan, where there is an "Indepen-DANCE" in the Formal Lounge. I am not too much of a dancer or party-person, so I have decided to spend the night relaxing in my dorm room. I am sure my peers will have a great time, though. Before nightly check in, I hope to read a portion of this weekend's reading, Edmund Burke, and possibly begin the revision of my Plato essay. Even though it was a lazy day, I hope to get some serious work done.

Guest Speaker

2009-07-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon!

Even though today is an official school holiday, us, Hotelies, are hard at work, putting the last touches to the CHESS individual report. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate our familiarity (and ABILITY!) to work with Excel and Word, but most importantly, to be able to write a business report or proposal, outlining all the points as well as items of analysis.

Since Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy have allocated such a short time for the report to be due, many students have been scrambling all day. Because they acknowledge the fact that we are all focused and studious, they have provided us an extension of one hour before the report has to be finalized. Assigned from submitting a hard copy, all students must send the piece to Mr. McCarthy electronically in order for him to judge the formatting and the cohesiveness of it. Take note, future Hotelies! Be familiar with Microsoft Office products.

Potential ILC scholars, do not be surprised with having guest speakers come in weekly to talk about the hospitality industry because it is too dynamic for one or two instructors to cover all facets of this realm. Having a guest speaker is common on Statler Hotel grounds. Speaking to us today is Bryan, who has a Cornell degree under his belt and has worked with Royal Carribean cruises. Because he holds a higher position within his field, he manages and oversees a big chunk of the company. These presentations are rewarding to listen to, simply because the information the guest speakers provide have merely expanded my knowledge.

Back home, I wish I have been more exposed to guest speakers because there is such a shortage of them in schools. Learning should always go beyond the classroom, and I strongly believe that the Summer College has allowed me to do so. So far, I have been familiar with who the dean and the director are, as well as other respected faculty members on school ground. I must credit the education I have received back home because it has provided me a strong foundation to work with, preparing me more than ever to take on a college curriculum.

Only in Ithaca

2009-07-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

Happy weekend, all!

You may or may not know, but Friday is an official school holiday, meaning no classes for Freedom & Justice! This three day weekend will be a nice break from the hectic schedule we have, and it will give us extra time to work on our homework (essay/ reading). I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow. (:

On another note. Today was Ithaca's celebration of July 4. There was a firework ceremony that began at around 10:00, which explains the lateness in my post. Justine, Ramiah, and I stood on McGraw Hill watching the fireworks. To be completely honest, it was not as epic as I expected, but it is nonetheless an experience I will never forget. I had the opportunity to celebrate the epitome of American holidays in New York at an Ivy League University. Not everyone is so lucky. Though the fireworks were not as great as the ones in Hercules, I realized something tonight. Brace yourselves...

For the past two weeks, I have been living the university life in almost all its glory. I am enrolled in a fresh/ soph course. I receive college-level assignments and get graded harshly on the work I do. I have midterms, finals, and discussion sections with TAs and peers who expect me to contribute to the discussion daily. I have to be responsible for waking up, for keeping my room tidy, for getting to my classes, and for taking care of my food. I am independent, on my own, and getting a sneak peak into college life. Only one thing had been missing. That is, until today. Today was the first time I actually experienced any Cornellian traditions. Standing on McGraw Hill gave me that sense of belonging I had been longing for. From the very first moment I stepped on campus, I knew Cornell was a special school. I just wasn't sure that it was for me. It seems, however, that with every passing day, I feel more and more at home in Ithaca. Just today, the cutest little bird flew in through a window into our lecture hall. How often do you see that in Hercules? It is those precious, priceless things you miss out on when you're in a city kind of environment (i.e. Berkeley, LA). Cornell surely is growing on me. I make no guarantees or promises, but who knows? Maybe Cornell will become a dream school for me like Stanford is by the end of this trip. If I have learned anything from the ILC, it is to never settle, to constantly be aware of the possibilities, and to always explore my options. Which is precisely what I am doing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I know UC Berkeley and UCLA are fine institutions, even comparable to the Ivies. Of course, I plan to apply to both. I think there is a great distinction between a UC environment and an Ivy League one. Class size is a huge factor for me, due to that fact that I can only give my best when I am not in a huge lecture hall with 400 other students. I like getting to know my classmates, speaking directly to the professor, and having one-on-one time with the TAs. That is just not a guarantee in UCs, simply because the student body is so large. For this reason, I have set my sights on private universities. I have a successful future waiting on me. I have no time to waste away in a class where I won't get anything out of it. Do not get me wrong. I have such a deep respect for the UC system, and for some people, UCs are a perfect fit. For me, however, they will always just be a backup.

I've taken UC campus tours, and I have scheduled one for UCLA as soon as I get back home. I am keeping my options open and making sure I explore all the possibilities. But these three weeks in Cornell have given me insight into the life I'd lead if I attended a private university, even an Ivy League school. And I absolutely love it. The quality of the teaching, the level of the administration, the conversation present in discussion, the kind of people I get to network with, and the beautiful campus. This is what I want. I am still unsure about the area. That will always be a question for me. But I do know I want to go in the direction of a private university for college. Nonetheless, Cornell is amazing. I'll just have to weigh my options and see how I feel towards the termination of this trip. But I am enjoying my time here, and this is most definitely an experience I will never forget.

On another note, I know you are all curious about my roommate. Unfortunately, she is uncomfortable being videotaped, but she was very happy to answer some questions for me.

THE INTERVIEW WITH MY ROOMMATE, NATASHA:

How are you enjoying your Psychology class so far?

"I really like my class, expect there is a lot of reading. It's a lot more work than I expected, but I feel like I'm getting a lot out of it. And it's really a crash course. It's really letting me know what actual university life is going to be like and it's kind of warning me that I'm going to have to stay on top of my work when I go to college. This is just one course, and I'll probably have around four when I go to a university."

What are your impressions of Cornell so far?

"I am really enjoying my time. I try to spend most of my time reading, but there's so many people here who can help me. I also really like the people in my class. It was hard to get to know everyone at first, since it was in a lecture setting. Actually, in the beginning all my friends were people outside of Psych and in other courses. But once we got into smaller sections, I got to know people better and I found out their reasons for coming and all that stuff. I feel like I'll leave with a lot more interesting people in my life."

How are you liking Mary Donlon?

"I actually really like our hall, because I love how there's a lounge on every floor. It gives me lots of options for places to study. I feel like the only problem is that there's so many girls on our floor, I feel like I don't get to know the majority of them. But I guess that's how it is in college. Other than that, I really like it here."

Her first choice is Columbia, but she is truly enjoying her time here, as am I. I hope you enjoyed picking my roommate's brain a bit. I am off to bed now. I am exhausted! I hope you all have a wonderful night.

- xoxo, Julia.

Tattler and Fireworks

2009-07-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

John Stuart Mill has been some of the most difficult reading, which made Professor Kramnic’s lecture extra anticipated today. Although we all made it through the reading with a general understanding, the professor’s clarification was much appreciated.

The first part of discussion was dedicated to the return of our Plato essays. We are supposed to read the TA’s comments and write the second draft for Monday. I plan to get started on that tomorrow.

Our guest lecturer was very interesting today. His passion was clearly obvious. His main story was about censorship of the Tattler which is the Ithaca High School newspaper. He also told about a couple of other cases he represented. I really enjoyed his lecture. He actually ended up going over his time, but when he offered to stop the whole class responded with a resounding no.

Considering today was the start of a wonderful weekend for us, we hit the closest thing to a mall after school. In all honesty, it was nothing close to a mall, but Julia, Justine, and I rode the bus to Urban Outfitters – a clothing store that just opened out here. We came home to eat, and almost as soon as we finished we attended a “diversify your space” event. We painted jewelry boxes, pencil holders, and keepsake boxes. It was a great way to pass the time between dinner and the fireworks; which we went watched from the slope behind McGraw Hall. Unfortunately, (and no offence Cornell) but the fireworks seemed pretty far away, and were not very captivating. Nonetheless we had fun. After that it was back to the dorms for check-in and for the night.

*Ramiah

Ithaca's "July 4th"

2009-07-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

During class today, I have learned more about the lodging industry, as well as more of Excel. After class, I have met up with Ms. Abby Eller, the Director of Summer College. She casually have asked me questions about my stay, dorm life, class, and more. Ms. Eller is such a friendly person to communicate to, which have made my job that much easier.

Speaking of dorm life, I have not yet formally introduce my roommate, Remi Ojurongbe, whose parents are originally from Nigeria. Residing in Landover Hills, Maryland, she has been attending Elizabeth Seton private high school since a freshman. A book, music, and dance devotee, she is always caught sneaking a book before lights are dimmed at nighttime. Right now, she is currently under the direction of Mr. Gilovich, who instructs the Psychology course here. During this second week, she has been studying social psychology and going in-depth with evolution and how society influences people's behaviors and personalities.

So how did she learn about the Summer College program? While she was investigating a series of colleges, she came across the Cornell University brochure, featuring the psychology enrichment studies. As a budding lawyer, she believes that having a strong framework of the human mind will help her succeed when she goes on her career path.

Remi has always been immediately drawn to Cornell for the campus itself and the "home sweet home" feel to it. She is blown away with the high level of top-notch academic professors who teach at this university, including the one teaching her, who co-wrote the psychology book she is using in the classroom. With plans to apply to this school, she is excited to give Cornell a new moniker because this school might just be her alma mater one day.

I want to take time to thank the founders of the ILC, the sponsors, the district and the school staff, and others who are marking this milestone with me. Being selected, I now have a better understanding of what diversity means. Summer College has allowed me to become more open-minded, whether it is exploring new classes, meeting new friends, or being on my own as an independent individual, away from my comfort zone.

I strongly encourage WCCUSD and others to make note of this program because the lifelong people and academic skills one gain is truly worthwhile. I have always credit the program for contributing one positive aspect--opening up more opportunities in life, in academics, that is.

Tomorrow marks the last school day of the second week. Summer College is wrapping up. It's bittersweet because I have made myself very comfortable in this setting. However, I am more excited to share my experience with other potential scholars or students who plan to apply to the ILC.

Also, today is Ithaca's "July 4th." Even though the fireworks have been far away, I am glad that I have the chance to celebrate a special holiday in a new and unfamiliar town.

July 2: Birds Love Lecture, Too!

2009-07-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

Good Evening faithful readers! It's Thursday night in Ithaca, NY, and it has been one heck of a long day! As usual, life at Cornell began with breakfast at Appel Commons, followed by 9:00am lecture with Professor Kramnick in McGraw Hall. Today's topic was John Stuart Mill and his view on liberalism and women's rights. At this point, I must explain the title of my blog. During our lecture, a tiny bird decided that they wanted to hear a sample of Professor Kramnick's amazing lecturing skills! For roughly 5 minutes, we watched the curious little bird whilst listening to Professor Kramnick's interpretation of J.S. Mill. After our unexpected visitor left, we were back on track and quickly resorted back to note-taking.

Soon thereafter, it was time for discussion in Goldwin-Smith Hall. Today's discussion focused primarily on the returning of our Plato essays. Although I received positive feedback and encouraging suggestions, our class was warned that our writing, in general, needs improvement. While I am sure his chides did not apply to every single person in our discussion section, I plan to take his "tough love" and apply it to the further improvement of my writing to meet his standards. We have the weekend to make a 2nd draft, which Des expects tremendous improvements on. For the last 40 minutes of class, we briefly discussed Mill and how truly liberal he is. I found it fascinating how connected J.S. Mill and John Locke are. You can't deny Locke's influence on every generation after him.

After another great lunch at Trillium, we ran through the pouring rain to McGraw Hall for our guest lecturer, Ray Schlotter, an Ithacan attorney who came to discuss our constitutional rights and 3 cases in connection with human rights. In order to illustrate the ideas of the 4th and 5th Amendments (which we were able to read verbatim thanks to his distribution of pocket Constitutions!), he "ordered" the class to stand up, reach into our pockets, balance on one foot, and...to open our trunks, which we all replied in a harmonious "NO." The exercise was eye-opening and a great ice-breaker. During his hour-long presentation, Mr.Schlotter reflected on 3 different cases regarding human rights, censorship, and discrimination. The cases were engaging and gave a great taste to the future lawyers of our class what their future may entail.

Because this week consisted of just 4 days, Julia, Ramiah and I treated today as a Friday! Following our guest lecturer, the 3 of us jumped on a bus and headed to the new Urban Outfitters near downtown Ithaca. Although I'm not much of a shopping girl, it was nice to get off of campus for a little bit and relax. Following our outing, we retreated to Appel Commons for some much needed dinner in preparation for the night's fireworks at 9:00pm. Before we were to leave for the fireworks, the 3 of us decided to take advantage of the activities being provided in our dorm. Tonight's event called for our artsy sides to emerge, which, honestly, I lack. For an hour and a half, we painted jewlery boxes, keepsake boxes, and pencil holders. While mine came out pretty crummy in comparison to Julia's and Ramiah's, I had fun and enjoyed my time. With practically no time in-between activities, we made our way downstairs for our walk to McGraw Hall, where the view of the fireworks are said to be great. Upon arriving on the grassy knolls behind McGraw Hall, the fireworks began, and unfortunately, I was disappointed (Although I was impressed by the firework in the embedded picture. It's amazing!) I expected the fireworks to be much closer, but they were set off miles away, so they were very tiny from Cornell! Oh well, I enjoyed the festive spirit of the Ithacans and Cornellians who came out to the event. We even got to here a litany of patriotic songs from the bells atop the McGraw Tower. See if you can name that tune in the video below! It was a great night to be an American.

I hope that my insight of activities going on in Mary Donlon is letting my readers know that I am balancing work and play. I'd also like to add a little about my roommate, who I have been leaving out my blogs! My roommate, Julie, hails from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and is also a rising senior. Unlike myself, she has what we call "college connections" to Cornell, with her older sister being a graduated Hotelie in last year's class of 2008. Because I am in Freedom & Justice and she is enrolled in Psychology, I hardly get to see her! Before her classes, she loves to run and bike. After classes, we both hit the books and get a few conversations in before tucking ourselves into bed. I really enjoy sharing a room with Julie, for we are both laid back, can be a little messy at times, and have similar goals (she's looking into Stanford as well!). I couldn't be happier!

P.S. Mr. Crossley and Ms. Kronenberg asked Julia, Ramiah and I to look into arranging a campus tour of Cornell before our departure. Upon receiving this assignment, I searched the Cornell website and found that campus tours are provided on Saturday mornings at 11:00am. Unfortunately, there is one problem. Due to the holiday weekend, no tours will be provided this Saturday, July 4th. I am unsure of how we may work around this issue, but I have been told that Mr. Crossley is working on it. Hopefully, the 6 Herculean girls will be able to provide comparisons and contrasts between what Cornell hosts tell tourists and what an actual student experiences while on campus. I'm proud to say that I can finally give the insight of a college student!

I can Excel!

2009-07-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

I have found another interesting component to Hotel Operations Managment, Microsoft Excel! This program is absolutely amazing. Everyone complained about how difficult it was and was not enjoying it. I thought it was pretty neat. I did not fall behind like many people did. I figured out how to format charts and enter in formulas that would do all the work for me. What a time saver Excel can be! Tomorrow we have a quiz on some of the steps and functions we learned today, I think I am ready. I mean, I understood it all.

Once again, Mr. McCarthy never fails to make his lesson interesting with his wit. I was laughing almost the entire lesson. Class with him does not even seem like class, it is entertainment. He actually reminds me of some of my favorite teachers in high school. If an instructor can keep his students busy but also have fun with any situation, that is a teacher who surely knows how to teach.

I was also able to engage in some conversation with Mrs. McCarthy today. I went up to ask her a question about our CHESS individual reports due on Friday and she went into detail about curve charts that illustrate the reservation vs. days before arrival for each guest segment. I did not really understand how the graph worked. When she was explaining to me and the more I looked at the graphs, the more it reminded me of physics and Calculus last year. These two subjects almost always went hand in hand. They paralleled each other so sometimes it was easier to understand a particular topic in the class that did not intend to teach it. For instance, some of the Calculus was easier to understand in physics while some of the physics was easier to understand in Calculus. I told Mrs. McCarthy how it reminded me of physics and Calculus. I asked her if she was really good in those two subjects. She replied with a no. She explained that the examples given in math and science classes that relate to the real world are much more difficult the actual situations. I had to agree. If I looked at those graphs she presented today last year, I would have been completely lost. I think if you are actually studying the situation from a professional standpoint, the concept is much easier to grasp.

~Louisa

The Infamous Prelim

2009-07-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

I must admit I was rather nervous while walking into class this morning. I did not know exactly what to expect on our preliminary exam. I did, however, know that I had done all I could to prepare. I was so relieved when I received the test. Of the ten quote from which we had to chose five, there was only one of which I was not sure of the source. I was definitely pleased when I handed in my exam.
After the test we had a quick break. I was glad to see Mrs. Kronenberg again, I did not know that we would be doing so. We had a nice chat, and I will defiantly be applying to Cornell this fall. Not because of our conversation, but rather because I know that I have found a good fit. I do not mind being in a rural setting without a shopping mall; nor do I mind the walking. I love my professor, my TA, and my class. I am so grateful to have this opportunity!
Following our short break, we had a double lecture on feminism. It was very interesting. I cannot wait to dive head first into this topic; not that I did not dive head first into the last. The history behind all of the stuff we are learning is so intriguing.
When lecture ended we were free for the afternoon. We decided to check out the Harry Potter rooms in Uris Library. I know that I visited the library yesterday (with my roommate) but it was still very captivating. I even took a picture on my phone and set it as my new wallpaper.
In the midst of our John Stuart Mill reading, Julia, Justine, and I took a break to make T-Shirts. This was an event held on the third floor of the dorm. It was really fun decorating shirts with Sharpies and clothing paint.
Now I have to finish up the reading for the night, and hit the hay. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

*Ramiah

Manage and Plan

2009-07-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, Ms. Kronenberg and Mr. Grossley had the privilege to sit in the Hotel Operations Management course. Staring off today's lecture was the discussion on what makes the lodging industry unique. Everyone eagerly raised their hands, and I would not want to exempt myself from participating. Therefore, I pointed out that forecasting, which by definition means to manage and to plan ahead, was momentous in the hospitality industry. In a nutshell, accurate forecasting is the most effective method to up yield management. To maximize profit in this case, making intelligent decisions and being able to efficiently manage one's plans should always be a priority.

In the hotel industry, the skills that one learns tend to mirror life skills. It is safe to say that being selected into the Ivy League Connection has taught me to expertly manage my schedule and choose my priorities. Ever since I have been an ILC student, I have been inundated with numerous meetings and other school-related events. Having a plateful of tasks to do at this age will only prepare me for college and of course, my future, when I am in the business world.

Though everyone I know celebrates Independence Day on the fourth, it is utterly different here in Ithaca. For Ithaca residents, tomorrow is the time where they plan to rejoice and to mark the occassion with fireworks.

Until tomorow,
Stacy

What the future entails

2009-07-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

Up to this point, we have been mainly focusing on what happened to the hotel industry in the past and what is currently happening right now. Today, we were exposed to more of a future-oriented topic -- forecasting.

I found this topic to be extremely interesting. Not only can we predict the success of the hotel in the future, we also learned to analyze various data recorded and use those data to evaluate performance. So far, we learned a lot about the different business strategies that would enable a hotel to be more profitable. Now we can finally dissect the pros and cons of each business strategy in order to find the optimal mix.

To follow up on the statistic analysis, we also had a lecture on the basics of Microsoft Excel 2007. We learned how to use basic functions from creating new sheets to applying pre-designed formulas to using pivot tables.

It is so exciting to learn that after transferring data to Excel, a few buttons pressed here and there can provide the user excellent analysis of statistic information. And with that information, we can learn more about the future and to make the best of what will inevitably come.

~ Yueming W.

The Halfway Mark

2009-07-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday, all! (:

I hope you are all having a beautiful day. I am in a very cheerful mood for several reasons. First of all, our preliminary is done and over with. Not only am I happy that I no longer need to stress over it, but it was actually much easier than I anticipated. I studied the right material and I am so happy. All the preparation certainly is paying off. For all the students who are able to attend the Freedom & Justice program in the future, I highly recommend forming a study group and going over the material prior to even going to Cornell, like Justine, Ramiah, and I did. It is one of the most worthwhile things you can do in preparation for the rigor of the course. The exam went very well. We will get our results next week. Hopefully I did as well as I think I did! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was the very first college-level exam I have ever taken. I was pleasantly surprised at the little difficulty I had in completing the test. I'm sure that had a lot to do with the preparation and all the studying I've been doing. It is my education at Hercules High School that has provided me with these study tactics. When thinking about whether or not HHS has adequately prepared me with the rigor that is vital to success at a college level, I have mixed feelings.

I think there are a handful of quality teachers at Hercules. With all the AP courses I have taken, I have grown accustomed to insane amounts of work assigned all at once and due immediately. The workload at Cornell is no issue for me. In that sense, I feel Hercules has prepared me. The academics, however, is only one aspect of the preparation. The environment is an entirely different matter. Don't get me wrong. At Hercules, there are so many wonderful students who are some of the smartest people I have ever met. There are also, however, students who aren't as intelligent. I've gotten used to classmates who slack off, who choose to not study for exams, who do under and below (instead of above and beyond) with assignments, and who either sit quietly in class and refuse to participate or refuse to pay attention and simply disrupt the class.

You can see the trouble with that, since I am a the exact opposite of that. I study too much, go above and beyond with assignments and projects, and I'm always the first to raise my hand during class discussions. Sometimes it makes it hard to believe that there are students out there who are as eager to learn as I am. Cornell gave me a huge wake-up call. I am so used to people who just sit there, staring at the ceiling, when teachers ask questions. When we're in discussion at Cornell, it is SUCH a different atmosphere. Everyone is so opinionated and so ready to voice their thoughts. There is no shame, no fear, and, most importantly, no silence. Every thought is so well articulated, so insightful. Cornell has given me inspiration and provided me with something to aspire to. This is the kind of scholastic environment I need in order to thrive.

This experience has shown me the kind of people I should surround myself with - the kind of people I will find if I attend an Ivy League university. The rural area of Cornell is a concern of mine, but I am interested in this institution. I do not know that Cornell is a perfect fit, but it is something to definitely look into and consider. If nothing more, this experience has shown me where I should be. At Hercules, I always feel extremely smart, just because I'm one of the few people on my class to ever say anything. I started to develop a comfort in that, and my academic confidence started to come solely from being at the top of my class. At Cornell, everyone is at my level. At first, I was extremely intimidated. I started to really miss Hercules and that silence. But then I realized that environment is doing nothing for me. I shouldn't settle for an average school where I can stand out. I should be at a university where everyone is exceptional and I have to constantly push myself to stand out and excel. I thank the ILC for this breakthrough and epiphany.

I remember the first time I told my roommate about the ILC. She was so mind-blown to know I, along with my five colleagues, were here at Cornell on a scholarship. Pretty much everyone we tell is extremely intrigued with the program, and rather jealous their district does not have it. Just today, our TA asked us if the this program is also in his hometown of Chicago. Everyone wants to be a part of this, and it makes me even more proud to know I have the opportunity to be in the ILC. It is amazing, worthwhile, and most definitely so very rewarding.

I would now like to briefly discuss my day in class. After the prelim exam, we had a double lecture on...

WOMEN AND WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT.

I. Universalism and Class and Gender

II. The Subordination of Women in Western Culture

a. Women as Evil and Bodies

b. Women as Dutiful Servants to Men

c. Women as Mothers

III. Socialization

IV. Why Feminism in 1790s

a. Spirit of the Age

b. Industrial Revolution

c. "Invention" of Childhood

V. Wollstonecraft, de Gouge, Mill

a. Socialization Revisited

b. Women as Rational

c. Women and Justice

d. Women and Equality

e. Women and Power

f. Women and Rights

VI. Feminism Today

Wollstonecraft, de Gouge, and Mill are considered the founders of feminism. It was great looking into the roles of women in antiquated times, and seeing the way in which they've altered through time. Definitely one of my favorite topics of the course thus far.

I realized today that we only have six more days of class, and then we return back to Hercules. To be entirely honest, the thought of leaving saddens me deeply. Cornell has really grown on me, and I really will miss this place. Commenting on the "halfway" theme of my blog, it's a kind of cool coincidence, actually. Today marked the halfway mark of our stay in Ithaca, and I also reached the halfway point on my 100 page notebook. I've already written over 50 pages since I've been here! I can't wait to take this information back home with me. Senior year, watch out. I'm coming prepared. (:

This is officially the longest blog I have ever written. I hope I didn't take too much of your time, dear readers! Hopefully you were able to get something out of my many words. Enjoy the rest of your days.

- xoxo, Julia.

P.S. I once again had the opportunity to chat with Ms. Kronenberg today during the period in between the end of the preliminary exam and Professor Kramnick's lecture. I know she leaves us summer Cornellians today, and I would just like to wish her a safe flight! I hope she enjoyed her stay here. I think I can speak on the behalf of the five other girls when I say we enjoyed seeing her. Bye, Ms. Kronenberg!

July 1: Happy July!

2009-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Ahh, Mid-Term...CHECK! I'm very happy to inform my great readers that my first college-level exam is complete and I feel pretty great about it. My hard work has finally been applied to a concrete idea, and I feel confident reflecting upon my work. My TA was sincere when he told our Hercules trio that we need not stress, and we will be alright. Thanks Desmond!

Today began just as every other day has the past nearly two weeks. I awoke at 7:40am to meet Julia and Ramiah for 8:00am breakfast at Appel Commons. Today's breakfast differed slightly in that we had a mini-review prior to heading off for McGraw Hall. While slurping our cereals and snacking on our fruits, we went over each philosopher's (Plato, Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine & Locke) view of human nature, justice, and government. It was a great way to remember the themes we studied the previous night. Plus, we reminded ourselves that we actually know this stuff!

After breakfast, we took our "intimidating" walk to McGraw, where we snagged our seats and broke out the pens and pencils. We read. We studied. We prepared. We were ready. After a few inspirational words from Professor Kramnick, we obtained our instructions and exam booklets and began. During the one hour exam, I realized that Professor Kramnick was telling the truth when he claimed that he "wouldn't try to trip us up." Everything that was on the exam was discussed in either lecture or discussion. Having gone to all of my classes, the test was as clear as day light. For my essay portion, I wrote about the similarities between Locke and the other 4 philosophers and who was most similiar in his views. Because I had a strong grasp of Locke going into the exam, I was excited when I came across the Locke essay question. After happily completing the essay portion, I moved onto Part 2 which called for us to select 5 out of 10 presented quotes and indicate the origin and significance of the quote. After selecting a few Locke quotes, two Plato, and one St. Augustine, I realized that I was done with time to spare! I strategically went over my work to make sure no glaring mistakes were present, and I officially finished. I'm really proud of the work I put into my exam, and I hope my TA Desmond appreciates it, too!

Following the exam, we had a two hour lecture by Professor Kramnick on the writings of Wollstonecraft, de Gouges, and partly John Stuart Mills regarding the topic of women. Having already read Wollstonecraft, de Gouges and portions of J.S. Mill, I wasn't confused or introduced to any unexpected ideas. Again, preparation has made this course much easier for me and my comrades. Following the two hour lecture, we were free for the rest of the day. During that time, Julia, Ramiah, and I grabbed some lunch, paid a visit to the Cornell Store, and investigated the Andrew D. White Section of Uris Library (aka "The Harry Potter Room"). I highly regret not having brought my camera along with me, but I promise that I will revisit and provide pictures! It's absolutely stunning!

Tonight's assignment requires us to review Wollstonecraft, de Gouges and J.S. Mill. I'll be getting to that assignment after dinner at Appel.

Before signing off, I've been asked to reflect a little on my district and how they've prepared me for this course. I am more than happy to put in my two cents. Firstly, without the support of my district, I wouldn't be writing this blog from my Cornell dorm, at all. I owe this entire experience to them. In terms of preparation, I have to thank those "amazing classes" I had the privilege of taking in high school. Without note-taking skills from AP U.S. History or analyzing skills from AP Language & Composition, I would not have tools I need to succeed in any college course, let alone an Ivy League course. I will admit that some of my high school courses do not compare to level of work that occurs here at Cornell. One infallible idea that will undoubtedly help our district would be the sorting out of obviously unhelpful courses and promoting the ones that help students prepare for college. By doing this, kids will be more prepared for college. Also! I cannot forget this. There needs to be more emphasis on English and writing courses. College is based on your ability to express your ideas, and without basic writing tools, one may appear to be a lackluster student. I have been lucky to have a great AP Language & Composition teacher, so I feel as if my writing is up to par. Mind you, I could have easily been placed in a different class, and my writing skills would have suffered. We need more teachers like Mr.Litvin! Also, people in my Freedom & Justice course are undeniably intelligent and belong in the class. Note that a majority of these students are schooled in private institutions, but the fact that 3 public schooled students are keeping up reveals the high standard of HMHS. I am definitely proud to be a Titan here at Cornell.

Having traveled out of the country as a part of a student ambassador program, I know what it is like to be away from home. Some nights I wonder what's happening on the West Coast, but I am focused and do not let any kind of homesickness get to me. Being at Cornell is an entirely different experience from living at home or even traveling with People to People (the student ambassador program). It is much more comforting. You are surrounded by hundreds of students in a similar situation: eager students prepared to learn and earn college credit. This mutual understanding makes the days fly by and the knowledge accrue in mass amounts. What could be better?

I have rambled quite a bit about WCCUSD, but students who are considering applying to the ILC for the summer of 2010 need to hear it. For those who will be applying and will possibly be accepted, I have one bit of advice: PREPARE. You have to consider the students you will be competing with in class. Most of these young adults are raised in wealthy, well-educated families and have participated in similar programs during past summers. Not being from one of those families motivated me to prepare before coming to Ithaca, along with studying intensively during my stay. You have to be willing to do the work, and if you are, I highly suggest that you apply. Your work will be paid off, and you will undoubtedly feel prepared for higher learning. I hope my advice guides the confused souls of prospective Ivy League Connection Participants. ILC will take you miles, but you have to be willing to put in the work. I promise; you will succeed.

For Our Hotelies

2009-07-01T11:20:00.001-07:00

I invite our Hotel Management students to read the blog posted by Ms. Lilhanand about checking into their hotel when they arrived in New York. You can check it out at: http://ilc2009columbia.blogspot.com/2009/06/from-ms-lilhanand.html

I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether you, as a customer, might frequent this chain again.

Read some of the details about how they tried to play the semantics game with a little bait and switch with regards to what was asked for as opposed to what was provided.

Also take a closer look at the time of night that they were finally allowed into their rooms. Normal check-in is somewhere around 3 PM yet they were denied access to their rooms until nearly 11 at night!

After traveling across the country I know I'm usually anxious to be able to lay down on a soft bed for a minute or maybe take a refreshing shower. but to be told that I would have to wait in the lobby for a few hours--at that time of day--might make me a little angry.

I'm sure that I would have used that spare time to pop open the laptop and start my eloquent letter to corporate headquarters letting them know that I would be taking full advantage of the Internet to alert every living soul on the planet about my wonderful experiences at their establishment.

I don't know if sending that letter would make any real difference but it'd sure make me feel better.

Let us know what your own thoughts are now that you're hotel management specialists.

Prelim and Premium Ice Cream

2009-06-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

Morning seemed to have come a little bit too early today. I am rather humiliated to admit that I was late for class today. Thankfully I was only about a minute late and did not miss any information. I was, however, too embarrassed to walk to my regular seat in the front of the class. I simply sat in the back of the room, but in the end everything was fine.
It was very nice to see Mrs. Kronenberg today. It is always nice to see her. Unfortunately our visit was cut short because we had to run along to discussion. We finished up Locke and preparation for the preliminary test we have tomorrow. Although we also have a lecture tomorrow on new readings, Professor Kramnick instructed us to spend our time studying, rather than reading. He told us that we can read over the weekend. (It is really rather obvious that he is accustomed to dealing with nervous college students.)
As always on Tuesdays we had a guest lecturer today. This gentleman, Mr. AlanMittman, is a lawyer who once represented Häagen·Dazs in a court case. The man who invented this ice cream was upset when the people who distributed his product came up with a competing brand. His only concern was how similarly the two products were packaged. The name of the second was Frusen Glädjè. The judge ruled so everyone got something. Frusen Glädjè had to change their packaging, but not their name. In the end, however, Häagen·Dazs has outlasted Frusen Glädjè significantly.
I studied for the first time in a “Harry Potter room” today. I was in Uris Library which is very close to our lecture hall. I really wish I could post pictures because the room was amazing. “Harry Potter” is definitely the best way to describe them.
Julia, Justine, and I also studied together after dinner. I really hope that we all do well on the exam tomorrow.

*Ramiah

Great Demand

2009-06-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. McCarthy started off the day on a good note. They joyfully praised all of us because both of them were quite impressed with everyone's presentations and how well we executed them. After that, we had a quiz on the fundamentals of hotel companies or franchises and the basic structures of companies.

After that, the class dispersed with some students, including, myself, heading to the lab where we had the opportunity to play CHESS for the second time. With CHESS, I could adjust my expenses accordingly based on the occupancy level, and the groups that I would be targetting.

Moving on to the other lab, I was then under the instruction of Mr. McCarthy. He showed us the ins and the outs to a report template, giving us examples of what are acceptable and what are not in the real business world. Most importantly, he emphasized the multitude of tools or applications to apply to any report document.

Lastly, to finish the day, Mrs. McCarthy highlighted the essentials of yield management. If I were to apply that concept to CHESS, it would mean that I had to allocate the right room to the right customer for the right price. This would all build up to the level of demand, either making business profitable or not, depending on how much demand increases.

As soon as the Hotelies exited the Statler Hall building, I saw Ms. Kronenberg and Mr. Grossley outside, waiting for us. It was incredibly refreshing to see Ms. Kronenberg. She was all smiles. All of us chatted for about an hour, talking about yield management and "The Hotel Inspector," a BBC show hosted by Ruth Watson who was ready to whip struggling hotel owners into shape. Most importantly, we all talked about the hotel management class, Cornell University, and New York City, in general.

In the midst of talking, a once-Ithaca resident decided to come forth to us, presenting us The Ithaca Times. A passionate individual who was concerned with the species of deer, she told us to read the article and to write to the newspaper, addressing the cons of killing deers in Cayuga Heights.

This may sound irrelevant, but it just shows that many people are passionate about various issues, whether they are related to animals or not. Some people, or anyone, as a matter-of-factly, are willing to go the extra mile to convey their messages. At the end of the day, that's what matters, right?

...doing what you do best, what you are passionate about.

Another attempt at CHESS

2009-06-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

We took our first written quiz today. It was about the companies that were presented yesterday. Everyone was stressing out over what the test will be like and what we will be tested on. Mrs. McCarthy told us it is a simple quiz and that we should not lose sleep over it. I lost sleep, but it was not over studying. I was busy reading the readings assigned. I browsed over my notes that I took during the presentations and was pretty confident about it. When I took it, it was not that bad at all. I was glad I didn't stress out over it.

Today was a very simple day. We began working on report templates. This time, I was able to take lots of notes. Normally, when we work in the computer lab with Mr. McCarthy, he goes through every step of how to set a template up really quickly. You are watching the projection of what he is doing on the computer and if you blink once, it seems like you just missed two steps. He tries to slow down if many of the students are lost, but most times he doesn't. If you need help, the TA's normally come to you and get you up to speed. I was glad I was able to take lots of notes though. I feel much more informed and prepared with the steps in my notebook.

After working with Mr. McCarthy, my group worked with Mrs. McCarthy and started our second attempt at the CHESS hotel simulation game. I read through the comments she wrote on my memo and began making the adjusts she suggested. I thought I would do much better. In the game, the speed is set to one minute per day, so it goes pretty quickly. We have to go through a seven-week duration in the game. My goal was $10,000 by the end of those 7 weeks. I started off well, but then for some reason, my revenue and the percent of occupancy declined. I was trying so hard to figure out why. I changed various expenses and played with the rate planner. In the end, I ended up with about a 74% occupancy and around $9600. I was so angry that I didn't reach $10,000. I wanted it so much!

Next week, we will get to work with CHESS again, but this time as a group project. With four brains put together and all our ideas, I am sure we will be able to reach a revenue beyond $10,000.

After class, we met up with Ms. Kronenberg and Mr. Crossley. It was quite lovely to see her again. We discussed a little about the class, Cornell, and being in Ithaca. Everyone was all smiles and laughs. Our short meeting together was very enjoyable. In the midst of our talks, a little old lady approached us with an article in The Ithaca Times about saving the deers that live in Ithaca. She expressed how she felt about the atrocity of the decreasing populations of deer. She had so much determination to make everyone aware of the issue. Determination is something I always admire.

~Louisa

Timeless

2009-06-30T14:37:00.001-07:00

"You learn something every day if you pay attention." -Ray LeBlond

Today we covered a lot about the financial management aspect of the hotel industry. The topics included operating leverage and restriction/segmentation. Operating leverage is the measurement of how revenue growth turns into earnings growth. For example, the sales from room nights contribute 2/3rds of a full-service hotel (one with food and beverage). The departmental profit of the sale, the money that goes to the bottom line after deducting expenses, is roughly 75% of the original sales revenue. This shows that the word "revenue" can be easily misinterpreted.

The gross revenue is how much money the company makes. The actual profit is calculated after deducting money from the gross revenue that is spent on expenses, taxes, staffing, etc. By understanding this, the hotelies were able to better assess our performance in our second CHESS trial. I will describe two extremas.

- X hotel company has 100% occupancy rate, meaning they have their rooms completely sold out. However, their profit only came out to be around $8,000.

- Y hotel company has 50% occupancy rate, meaning they have their rooms half sold out. However, their profit came out to be a stunning $10,000.

So what does this all mean? X hotel company definitely attracts more customers than Y hotel but Y hotel is more profitable. There are several explanations to why it is like this. 1). X hotel stresses quality more than Y hotel and therefore invests much more money on acquiring the best supplies, employees, services, etc. As a result, much of X hotel's gross revenue goes to paying off the huge expenses spent. 2). X hotel is a economy and caters to customers who are only willing to pay the lowest rates while Y hotel targets more of the upper-end customers.

Even though Y hotel is more profitable right now, it does not mean that Y hotel necessarily has the best business strategy. X hotel's occupancy rate definitely hints customer satisfaction and possibly customer loyalty to the brand. What I enjoy most about the hotel industry and business in general is that there is no right way to be successful. What I am aiming for in my CHESS game is a healthy of the X and Y companies I made up. Market segmentation data from my first trial showed that my virtual hotel catered mostly to business customers. After making some changes in terms of cutting down unnecessary expenses (such as paying 3% or 4% commissions rather than an outrageous 10% as the game preset), I realized that a significant growth in terms of revenue contributed by leisure customers. By cutting down on the quality of the hotel, I lost some of my business customers but I was able to gain a few more leisure customers. I am still trying to work on a better balance that will help my CHESS hotel operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.

I love how everything we learn from the Hotel program ties together in the end, and how the applications do not only apply to the hotel industry, but gives us basic knowledge regarding how business in general is managed and operated. I also love the fact that learning in this program comes from various sources, whether it be published papers by Cornell Hotelies or current news articles from hotelnewsnow.com.

I became even more aware of this as Louisa, Stacy, and I had our pleasant conversation with Ms. Kronenburg and Mr. Crossley. Ms. Kronenburg mentioned a BBC television program called "The Hotel Inspector" that taught viewers the same financial basics we had learned in class. It shows that learning comes from all portals.

As Ray LeBlond said, you really can learn something everyday if you allow yourself to pay attention to them. I also know that whatever I take away with me this summer, I will be able to apply what I learned in the future. And these application will continue to teach me more and more. Learning is truly timeless.

-Yueming W.

P.S. Speaking of our conversation this afternoon, I was very impressed by a lady who approached us with two copies of the Ithaca Times and insisted that we read an article about saving the deer in Cayuga Heights. Her determination to spread the word about something she felt would benefit the residents in Ithaca showed what this city is about -- a close knit community where everyone becomes involved to improve the quality of life. I am just happy to be a part of this community, even if it is only for 3 weeks!

Rainy Tuesday

2009-06-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon.

Today, I awoke to a gloomy sky and the inevitable forecast of late morning/ afternoon rain. Dark weather, however, should not and did not damper my mood and excitement for today's schedule. Tuesday means lecture, discussion section, and guest speaker number 3. Our lecture today with Professor Kramnick was a continuation from yesterday's on Locke and his perception of rights and freedom.

CONTINUED...

E. Property

F. Social Contract & Consent

G. Limited Government

H. Secular State

I. Revolution

IV. Locke's Influence

I think what I enjoy most about analyzing Lockean Liberalism is seeing the direct tie his ideas have to so many different political documents. He has been such a dominant influence on modern thought, it is hard not to be amazed when learning of him.

Ms. Kronenberg arrived today and sat in during our lecture. I am sure she can attest to Professor Kramnick's unmistakable gift in teaching, along with his amazing way in articulating his thoughts and the thoughts of the philosophers we are working with. On a separate note, it was great seeing Ms. Kronenberg. I hope she enjoys her stay in Ithaca! I wish the weather would clear up for her, so she could see how much more beautiful Ithaca becomes in the sunshine. We'll just have to wait and see.

Tomorrow will be our preliminary exam. It will consist of a forty minute essay portion and a twenty minute short answer section, for a total of one hour. It will cover the five philosophers we have worked with since the commencement of the course: St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, the New Testament, Plato, and Locke. Justine, Ramiah, and I have made plans to study separately and join together tonight to bounce off ideas and discuss the material. This will be our first test of the class. Hopefully our preparations will create positive results!

With our midterm less than a day away, I am starting to feel the pressure of college. And, honestly? I love it. I know that must sound crazy, but let me explain. The class has in no way been easy, but I haven't had much of a problem with the reading or the writing assignments. Our prelim tomorrow will be the first true test of our knowledge and understanding. With every passing day, the college experience becomes more and more alive for me here at Cornell, and the exam tomorrow will be the icing on the cake. I am excited to study tonight and I look forward to receiving the test tomorrow to see how well I prepared and what more I could have done. Cornell has been a challenging experience, but I have loved every minute of it. I have been exposed to college reading, college lectures, college discussion, college TAs, college essays, college grading. All that is left is to experience a college exam. I have to admit, it will be weird going back to high school after this experience. But I feel as though senior year will be a lot easier because of my stay at Cornell. Even more so, I cannot wait for college. I feel like the ILC has placed me in a situation where I can undergo all college has to offer, and through such I've become even better acquainted with my capabilities. At this point, I feel more ready for my future than ever before.

But looking to the more recent future. I do have a prelim tomorrow. Plato's Republic is calling me name! I must begin studying. I will let you all know how the exam goes. Wish me luck!

- xoxo, Julia.

June 30: We are ALL Liberals

2009-06-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Since I have now become assimilated into Cornell life, I think I can say with ease that today has been one of my favorite school days at Cornell. Of course, who is to say that another day won't top this one? As usual, 9:00am called for morning lecture with Professor Kramnick. Today differed slightly in that there were two more seats filled than there would be on any other day. Mr. Crossley and our guest of honor, Ms. Kronenberg sat in on our lecture and were surely excited by today's topic: Lockean Liberalism. Continued from yesterday's lecture, Professor Kramnick spoke in detail of our natural state, our need for government and the degree at which government should interfere.

The most interesting topic, to me, brought up during our hour and half long lecture was the idea that we are all, in some way, liberal. There are two categories of rights that distinguish our liberality: economic rights and human rights. Modern-day liberals are considered liberal because they believe that government and state should have no dictation over human rights. Modern-day conservatives are unknowingly liberal because they believe that government and state should stay out of the economy. If you happen to believe that there should be little to no government intervention, then you are undoubtedly a libertarian. Being from one of the most liberal states in the country, I found this idea intriguing.

After the end of my favorite lecture thus far, our groups retreated to our discussion sections, where I was excited to channel my input on today's lecture. We discussed how we start in the state of nature and make our way through the state of war to the need for government. I'm finding these flow charts and ideas absolutely fascinating. After discussing Lockean ideas, we spent the remainder of our discussion asking questions regarding tomorrow's preliminary (or mid-term). I'm happy we had our qualms cleared up and now know the best way to go about studying.

Following another wonderful meal at Trillium, we headed back to McGraw Hall for our bi-weekly guest lecturer, who today was Alan Mittman, an attorney specializing in social issues and business. His lecture surrounded around a case he took on involving two ice cream companies with similar trademarks and tré dress (that is, overall appearance in product). Although it took awhile for Mr. Mittman to bring up the case, I was excited once it came. The two companies, Häagen-Dazs and Frusen Glädjé, went to court due to the latter company infringing upon the former's trademark and signature style. Look at the pictures of these two companies' products! Virtually the same! The case resulted in a mutual ruling due to the fact that Frusen Glädjé quickly changed their product's appearance before the trial. Smart move Frusen Glädjé. In the end, Frusen Glädjé ultimately failed when they eventually went out of business. As we know, Häagen-Dazs is still thriving.

While we would usually resort back to our dorms after guest lectures, a portion of the class stayed in McGraw Hall to have a quick discussion with Professor Kramnick in regards to the preliminary. From St. Thomas Aquinas to St. Augustine to Locke, all of our questions were answered and we left the hall feeling prepared and ready to review. Julia, Ramiah and I have decided to each focus on two philosophers (mine being Christ & Locke) and bring our information to a study session after dinner. This way, we are capable of answering ALL questions on ALL of the philosophers. Now, I must leave my great readers and begin my portion of our review. Wish me luck!

Confidence - the antidote for overcoming nerves

2009-06-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

Today was the big day. All of the hotelies had group presentations on 10 various hotel companies ranging from ones specializing in ownership, management, and/or franchising. Everyone I encountered expressed feelings of anxiety and nervousness -- even the big, tough fellows. That itself sends a message.

Honestly speaking, I was not nervous about the presentation until after I listened to a few of the morning groups deliver their powerpoints. And then it hit me. All of the what-ifs came popping into my head. What if I didn't include the right information for our audience? What if I make a huge mistake during a slide? What if the professors ask tough analytical questions I am unable to answer? What if...

After our group learned that we will be presenting in the afternoon, I felt more relieved yet more anxious. Fortunately, we now have more time to rehearse our delivery to make sure we do not exceed the 10 minute time limit. Unfortunately, I was so nervous that I could not eat lunch at all. I ended up skipping lunch entirely but thanks to Louisa and her kindness, I was able to consume some snacks as well as half of a fajita after class was dismissed.

When it came time for my group to take the floor and present our information on Host Hotels and Resorts, I felt confident. Confidence is key to any presentation. After all, one may be able to memorize 10 pages of research or just understand the basics about the topic, but if one is assertive and believes in oneself, the difference in preparation will not matter much in the actual presentation.

I am proud of my entire group for pulling it together. Sure there were areas we should improve on, but taking into consideration of our limited time for group preparations, we did well! I look forward the seeing how the rest of the week turns out!

Until next time!

~Yueming W.

Overwhelmed with Nerves

2009-06-29T17:30:00.002-07:00

Today was the day of our Powerpoint presentations. Last night, I stayed up until 2 in the morning practicing over and over my part of the presentation. I was determined to get it down to a T. I made sure I elaborated on all of my points and made sure I did not stutter. I was incredibly tired by the time I decided to go to bed. In addition to this, I woke up half an hour later than I would normally wake up. Such an unfortunate event would occur on the day one of the most critical days of this course. What bad karma.

When we reached the Binenkorb Computer Lab, my group and I had to make final adjustments to our slideshow and correct all the mechanical errors we found while rehearsing last night in the dorms. Every single group was in a rush to finalize and perfect everything. It was to the point where we were all almost late to class.

Once I walked into the main classroom, I was relieved we had our Powerpoint slideshow done. Although, all my nerves rushed towards me as it was time for presentations to start. I am in group 5B, and there are a total of 19 groups that went today. Mr. Crossley was there to watch us present too. Earlier this week, Mr. McCarthy mentioned to Mr. Crossley that Yueming and I would present after lunch. I was looking forward to that. I thought I would have more time to prepare myself and practice my part. However, the plans switched gears. Groups 1A through 5B went in the morning and groups 6A through 10 went in the afternoon. I was literally shaking in my seat when Mr. McCarthy announced this to the class. I needed and wanted that lunch break. I didn't feel I was sincerely ready. I had all sorts of questions running through my head. What if i freeze up? What if I forget a word? What if I couldn't answer the questions the audience may ask? I was panicking.

I told myself to breathe. As the groups went one by one, it finally reached 5A. That group has the same hotel company as us. It was nice to see how the other group approached the same topic as us, but it sucked to have to go right after them. They were really good! Their presentation skills were beyond my expectations from any student in the course. I was definitely worried now. I just tried to breathe and convince myself it will be alright.

When my group reached to the front of the room, I could do nothing but place a confident front and just do the best I could. It turned out that I wasn't that bad. Our presentation went a lot smoother than what it had been during rehearsal the previous night at office hours. I was so proud of all of us. I thought I did much better than when I was practicing the night before. I think next time, I should relax a little more and stop second guessing myself.

At the end of all the presentations, Mr. McCarthy identified all the mistakes that the groups made as a whole. One of those were not smiling. I hadn't realized it before, but it was true. No one that went up smiled. I must keep that in mind for next time.

~Louisa

Everyday is a learning experience

2009-06-29T17:30:00.001-07:00

The whole school day was devoted to Powerpoint presentations. Among the 19 groups that existed, my group was fifth in line to present our slideshow on Interstate Hotels and Resorts. I thought my group presentation well. With anything, there should always be room for improvement. Based on my careful observation, each group, including my own team, had its own flair in terms of showcasing their reports. For me, listening to others and viewing a variety of styles of introducing a hotel company was enlightening.

I must acknowledge the fact that staying at Cornell has been an odyssey of discovery for me, personally as well as intellectually. Everyday I pick up a new tool or idea. This program has taught me to become more courageous to take a challenge. Most importantly, it is crucial to challenge oneself and to see if you have the capability and drive to be on par with other talented individuals.

To conclude, I want to clearly emphasize the fact that everyday is a growing experience for me. I may not pick up a tool right away, but with a dose of effort and passion, it'll eventually manifest. Today, particularly, I have noticed that one of the best alternatives to learning is to sit back and to observe. Observe who, you might ask? Look no further--my classmates, of course.

Monday...again

2009-06-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

I would definitely say that I am getting the hang of things here. Today, everything seemed pretty normal. We met for breakfast after printing our essays at Appel, and then walked across campus to McGraw Hall for lecture. John Locke is the philosopher we are now dealing with, and was therefore the topic of Professor Kramnick’s lecture. After that we went to Goldwin Smith Hall for discussion. I think that considering how much Locke’s ideals have shaped the politics of our country, almost all of the students are generally more comfortable with this information. These theories do not seem as new. Lunch was, as always, at trillium - which is actually a very good dining hall.

Our Plato essay was due today in our writing workshop. Little did we know we were going to be peer editing in class. Our TA said he did this so we will all realize that everyone has some struggles when it comes to writing. Mr. Desmond also gave us the study guide for the Prelim we have on Wednesday. Overall it was a very good day. Nothing too exciting, but I think everyone needs days like these every once in a while.

One exciting thing for tomorrow is that Mrs. Kronenberg will be here and will be sitting in on our classes. I am looking forward to seeing her.

*Ramiah

The Second Week

2009-06-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, my darling readers!

Today marked the commencement of our second week of summer college. The forecast was correct. Sure enough, today's clouds brought us rain. But the weather is of little importance. Today's lecture was on LOCKEAN LIBERALISM. We have left behind the ideas of classical antiquity and have moved forward to analyze concepts of the modern era. Here is the outline for today, the 29th of June...

I. From Justice to Freedom

II. Locke;s Life (1632 - 1704)

III. Lockean Liberal Principles

a. "Individualism"

b. Rational MAn

c. Natural Rights

d. Negative Freedom

e. Property

f. TOMORROW!

g. TOMORROW!

As you can see from the above outline, our lecture on Locke has been broken up into a two-day segment. Today's topic was interesting in that the Declaration of Independence is so clearly tied to Locke's ideals. It is said that the importance of Locke's ideas is derived from the simple fact that his perceptions have been so influential to just about everything theoretical, philosophical, and political. It was great to be able to learn first-hand of the source behind the ideas of the Declaration of Independence.

Since it is a Monday, we had discussion section and writing workshop after lecture. I have been dreading and anticipating this day since last week. As you know, we turned in the final drafts of our freedom essays on Friday. That same day, our TAs informed us we would get it back (corrected) on Monday - TODAY. Desmond had some positive comments about my composition, which was a huge relief. I know sometimes people have a tendency to slack off when they do well on an assignment. I'm kind of the opposite. Receiving compliments always pushes me to work even harder the next time, because I feel like doing well creates expectations. I never want to fall short of what people think I am capable of, so I always give my best. I think the freedom essays will push me to go above and beyond to succeed in this course. Hopefully my Plato essay will have a positive outcome as well!

I think I will walk away from this experience with a new outlook. It has only been a little over a week and I already feel like I am a better thinker. I have learned to read more closely, to pay more attention, to analyze everything, but to also enjoy what I do. It hit me today when I was walking back to the dorms from class that next week will mark our final week in Ithaca. That thought genuinely saddens me. I've gotten into the swing of things over here. Though it will be great to be home, I will miss Cornell, the class, my colleagues, our TA, our discussion section. All of it has somewhat become a routine for me, and when it's time to go home, I'm going to miss it all. What can I say? Ithaca is growing on me.

This has been such a positive, influential, and beneficial experience. And I am here because of the Ivy League Connection. I can only hope that the ILC continues to flourish so that it can continue to provide students like me when this WONDERFUL opportunity. Hardworking, deserving students need to be recognized and rewarded, and the ILC does just that. It provides students with an incentive and a motivation to continue onward in their academic success. For me, the ILC has given me so much more than I could have ever even imagined. My chance for a successful future has increased dramatically because of my participation in this program. I will try my best to think of some way to bring my experience back to the community. Students deserve this same opportunity I had. If I can inspire even one student to work harder in school, it will all be worth it.

I will end my blog with that note. More words of wisdom tomorrow! (:

- xoxo, Julia.

June 29: "Don't Stress"

2009-06-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

After a much needed weekend, the school week has begun and classes have reconvened. In normal fashion, my day began at Appel Commons for breakfast with my fellow Freedom & Justice students, Julia and Ramiah. After jokingly groaning about having to wake up early again, we made our way to McGraw Hall for another Kramnick lecture on philosopher John Locke. Because Locke is such an influential philosopher, Professor Kramnick's lecture will take two days to finish. Day one of "Locke's Lecture" brought up ideas of individualism, liberalism, and liberty. The lecture was, as usual, thought-provoking and comprehensive. After lecture, we gathered for our discussion sections in Goldwin-Smith and discussed Professor Kramnick's lecture. We focused primarily on the nature of man and why there is a need for government if individualism is pivotal. Following discussion, we had lunch at Trillium, where I cannot rave enough about the variety of foods.

Just as our schedules suggest, we strolled back to Goldwin-Smith for our writing workshop with our TA. During the session, we peer-edited our classmates' papers and provided critiques, insights, and suggestions. Because I have a knack for editing and the paper I had to read was decently written, I was among the first to finish. This is where the title of my blog comes in. When picking up my corrected papers, my TA, Des, takes my papers, gives me a little swat with them and says, "Don't stress. You always looked stressed." I couldn't help but laugh and shake off any signs of nervousness that he claimed to see. Overall, today was an informative day. It's really hitting me that next week is our last week here, and it's a tad bittersweet. I'll definitely absorb what's left of the time I have at Cornell University.

Cram time

2009-06-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

For the first time since our arrival at Cornell, I slept in. I cannot deny how great sleeping in felt like after a rigorous first week of school. I am grateful that I had at least caught up on some rest. I have a hunch that I'll need every minute of it for this upcoming week.

It is currently 1:36 am in Ithaca. I have just returned from finishing my group's powerpoint presentation about Host Hotels and Resorts. Everyone in my group had miscalculated the amount of time we needed to put into constructing this powerpoint. Although we had already completely formatted everything we planned on including by 7 pm, we found ourselves changing every slide after our rehearsals. Cram time? Yes indeed.

But if you look on the bright side, at least the presentation is complete. We have already practiced the presentation at least 5 times in full length. Everyone is clear about what information we are incorporating and who will be delivering each slide. My group is ready to go!

Before all the hecktic last-minute edits of my group project, the Hotelies were able to catch up with the F & J students by going to Collegetown for a nice (but hot) stroll. Afterwards, we found ourselves steering towards the direction of Dairy Bar, a student-runned dairy shop. Unfortunately, we did not know the directions to get there so we had to stop and ask the campus police by using the Blue Light. After all the hassle, we learned that the Dairy Bar is closed on Sundays, apparently even on extremely hot Sundays. Luckily, Mr. Crossley was generous enough to give us a ride back to our Mary Donlon dorm. Thus concludes our first campus exploration. Hopefully we will have better luck on the next one.

Now I will go and quickly review the 4 slides I am responsible to deliver tomorrow before I climb into bed. Second week of Hotel Operations Management (whoo-hoo!), here I come!

~Yueming W.

Almost the Beginning of the Second Week

2009-06-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

What a busy day. We went to Collegetown again. This time, I was able to go with Justine, Julia, and Ramiah. It was nice to regroup again after a week of different schedules. We didn't stop by the bagel shop today in Collegetown, since we ate brunch before going.

By the way, I have to say, I really think that the Appel Commons leaves the good food for weekend brunch. What is served during the week isn't that great at all. I also finally decided to try having my first bowl of cereal here. I normally have cereal every morning for breakfast at home, but I am afraid of drinking any kind of milk that is not from home. Last time I had milk from somewhere else, I caught the stomach flu. However, I am alive and well. I can now go back to my daily breakfast staple and that is cereal. I love cereal so much. I could literally live off of it.

When I returned to the dorms, I went straight to work on my part of the Powerpoint presentation for tomorrow. I was still incredibly confused about how I should structure my part. Once I set everything up and included all the content, I was really not satisfied. I thought that my part looked too boring. I wanted to add as many awesome effects as I could and for it to have as much pizzazz as possible, but it would've looked too cluttered and I was not sure how to put those effects into my slides anyways. At that point, I wished Mr. McCarthy had gone over the Advanced Powerpoint lesson. That lesson, however, will not be taught until next week. I do want to master Powerpoint. I want to show everyone at home my skill! Wouldn't it be great if during next school year I could produce a presentation that amazed everyone because it would contain so many features that no one exactly knew about?

Once I got to office hours, my groupmates and I put everything into place and looked at the entire thing. I was still a bit upset at my part. I tried to add to it as much as I could. I wanted it to be perfect. The thing about me is I always second guess myself. When someone thinks something is fine, I don't. I need to stop and just accept things, like a Powerpoint slideshow, the way they are. What a challenge for me!

~Louisa

Lights, Camera, Action

2009-06-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

The only plan I have for today is to work with my group on our Powerpoint presentation. My team and I are wrapping up the slideshow by paying extra attention to details and rectifying any possible errors that may arise. Many Hotelies are also joining us at the Robert Purcell computer lab, where other teams of four or five are also prepping for their presentations tomorrow.

I must say being selected into the Ivy League Connection program has allowed me to become more comfortable with speaking in front of a large crowd or in a public setting. Back in Hercules, I am only exposed to a limited amount of public speaking, but nothing compares with what ILC students have to do in front of the masses. This preparation has well-suited me over these past few months, and I strongly believe I will be more at ease as time goes by.

Tomorrow marks my first school day for the second week here at Cornell University. Ms. Kronenberg will soon join our class to observe the rigorous curriculum. I cannot wait!

The End of the Weekend

2009-06-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hello. (:

I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday afternoon. The weather in Ithaca is bright and sunny, but tomorrow's forecast predicts afternoon thunderstorms. Yikes. But, anyways! Let's jump into our update.

Today, the girls and I decided to take a trip to College Town via taxi. We split the cost of the ride, and so it came out to only $1.62 for the cab fare. I was rather excited to visit College Town for the first time, but I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. I thought there would be a greater selection of shops and such to visit, but there was only one store, barely visible among all the surrounding restaurants. Lesson of the day: College Town is fabulous for those in desire of cute restaurants and few food options, but not much more. I hope to revisit College Town to try out one of their many eateries. Although it was not what I expected, I still enjoyed my trip. On the walk back, we got to pass by the Cornell Law School. I honestly felt butterflies upon reading the banner. The building was truly beautiful. Once again, it made me look to the future in joy as I thought about possibly attending Cornell's AMAZING law school post-undergrad.

All these dreams made me think about how bright my future has become, due in part from the Ivy League Connection. From the commencement of my education, I always strived to do and be my best. I have always been one to know what I want, to look to the future, and to make plans accordingly. I had always hoped my constant hard work would be recognized, and it finally was through the ILC. I thought Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenberg's creation of the ILC was more than enough on their part, yet they continue to give and create opportunities for us all. Their willingness to schedule campus tours for us is just one of the ways they are improving our future. I would have never even considered the University of Rochester, had I not visited the school. I think a great way to sort of bring back to the high school would be to get representatives to visit HHS in the upcoming school year. We learn a lot about the Ivy Leagues and the UCs, but I think it would be great to hear from some of the smaller private universities which also provide solid academics. I know I feel a lot more comfortable knowing about ALL the options I have, and not feeling like I'm confined to Berkeley or the nearby state schools. People have a tendency to stick to the familiar, which isn't bad. But I think it would be really beneficial for students to be able to learn about what else is out there. College presentations are a great way to explore the options we have. Just thought I'd share that idea with you all. (:

Well, anyways. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have an essay due tomorrow. All these requirements and assignments have got me thinking about my level of preparedness for this trip. I think the school district does a relatively good job in providing us with solid academics. I do not feel overwhelmed by the rigor of the course or the amount of work, so I know the educators at Hercules assign enough work to prepare the students for what is to come in college. I think the AP classes especially are a great way of getting a glimpse into the wonderful world of college.

I do, however, have one complaint. The only issue I have come across here in Cornell is the intensity of the discussions in our course. I sometimes feel intimidated by my colleagues who are able to offer such insightful comments during our discussions of the texts. I feel like high school classes focus so much on just understanding something and fail to communicate the importance of also forming an opinion about it. Our TA has repeatedly told us that summarizing a text is not useful, that it is the analysis of the piece that is required. OPINIONS, NOT FACTS. I think the only courses I've had which have ever communicated the value of an opinion is my AP Lang and journalism class with Mr. Litvin and Mr. Brown, respectively. I think it would be beneficial for students to learn the importance of not just knowing what something's about, but also being able to form intelligent, compelling ideas of the piece.

I think I may be rambling a bit, so I will end my blog here. I must also attend to my Plato essay. For further questions on anything I have written, please feel free to leave comments and I will try my best to address your concerns in my next blog. I hope you all enjoy the remainder of your weekend. Until next time!

- xoxo, Julia M.

June 28: Which Way to the Dairy Bar?

2009-06-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today was a very adventurous day at Cornell University. Since we haven't had a day to sleep-in and truly catch up to East Coast time, we made sure we all got our necessary sleep. I awoke at 10:00am because my body just simply wouldn't allow me to keep my eyes closed. My "early" awakening turned out to be beneficial, for I spent the next two hours finishing my Plato essay that is due tomorrow morning. I also spent a little time devoted to cleaning up my pig sty, to my roommate's delight. At least I didn't wait until July 11th to clean up!

By noon, the majority of us met at Appel for brunch. We decided that it would be fun to take a quick trip to Collegetown before some of our group needed to return to projects, essays and reading. Upon arriving at Collegetown, our group gravitated towards a small store where everything was plastered with a Cornell logo. We really enjoyed this store because it seemed to have much more variety than the Cornell Store on campus. A few of us plan on returning to grab gifts and miscellanea for ourselves and loved ones before we leave. After walking around Collegetown for a little while, we decided to make the trek to the Cornell Dairy Bar, a notorious spot for ice cream. After spending 30 minutes walking in the sun, we found the Dairy Bar, but also found it was closed! Disappointed and tired, we got a hold of Mr.Crossley, who graciously gave us a ride back to Mary Donlon. Although the walk to the Dairy Bar was brutal, we enjoyed the scenery and have many photos to contribute to our future Cornell scrapbooks. It was a great way to see the parts of campus most of us had previously not seen.

As of right now, everyone is in their dorms or meeting with groups to finish up the weekend's homework. I am gearing up to attack my reading assignment: John Locke. I'm excited to read, for I have also been exposed to this philosopher thanks to my AP Language & Composition course. I'm looking forward to this week's classes because we are covering some of my favorite philosophers, which include Locke, de Gouges & Wollstonecraft. This week also marks our class' mid-term. I'm up for the challenge and can only be prepared.

College Town

2009-06-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today was our second Sunday away from home, and I decided to check out the service at Sage Chapel. It was kind of different for me because it was a catholic service, and do not attend a catholic church. Nonetheless I am glad that I decided to go.
After brunch at the Appel Commons dining hall, the group took a cab to college town. We did a little bit of shopping, but not too much. I was fortunate enough to find a Starbucks, and simply had to get my caramel frappuccino. I am glad that I did so because we then embarked on a rather long walk in search of the Cornell Dairy Bar. This subsequently became the first time we had to use the “blue light” system which connects you directly to the Cornell Police. Do not worry, nothing serious happened, we only needed directions. During orientation they explained to us that these can be used to get directions, escorts in the event one is feeling unsafe, and also if anything goes wrong and police assistance is needed. They look like light poles, but the lights are blue and they have a yellow box on the pole in which there is a button and a speaker. Unfortunately our efforts were in vain because upon arrival at the ice cream shop we discovered that it is closed on Sundays.
This discovery led to our check in with Mr. Crossley for today. We did not know how to get back to the dorms, so he came and escorted us back. (Thank you again Mr. Crossley.)
Now it is time to finish my essay. We will be meeting for dinner at six o’clock.

*Ramiah

A Great School, A Great Day

2009-06-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Although today I could not sleep in, I was not really disappointed or upset.

At first, I did not look forward to the University of Rochester very much. It turned out that the University of Rochester is a great school. I like the setting of it. Compared to Cornell University, it is a much smaller campus. In my opinion, that is a plus since it will be much more convenient going from class to class. Having spent a week already at Cornell, I feel having to walk 15-20 minutes to my class is somewhat difficult. At home, I always have the luxury of my mom driving where I need to be, such as school. Walking to the School of Hotel Administration each day is really a culture shock.

I have to agree, it is a wonderful school. However, the only thing I was skeptical about was it would not be strong in my studies. During the tour, I brought up to the tour guide about the studies I am interested in, journalism and Asian studies. He was not sure of how strong the two studies at University of Rochester or even whether the institution carries those studies. I checked the website earlier and the two majors were not listed in its database. I really like the environment of the school, the flexibility it offers in terms of schedules and courses to take, and its study abroad program, but if the university does not have my studies, that is quite a problem.

Casino Night was pretty fun. I didn't think that it would be as good as it is because I do not know how to play most of the games they had. I ended up playing several rounds of Blackjack. I got a lot of chips and won blackjack twice during the night. With the chips, I was able to purchase 21 tickets for the raffle. The prizes included an iPod Shuffle, an "Ithaca is Gorges" T-shirt every 15 minutes, and Urban Outfitters VIP tickets for the new store opening on Wednesday in Ithaca. I was definitely going for the VIP tickets. I put all of my raffle tickets in that particular bucket. I was disappointed I did not win. However, I am not sure how I would even be able to get there since it is during my mandatory office hours. It was just not meant to be.

~Louisa

Thank You Ms. Kim

2009-06-27T16:17:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the wonderful Ms. Sue Kim the seven of us traveled to the far away city of Rochester and were given a private tour of the university campus. To be honest, I really liked Rochester. I will definitely be looking further into it, and very possibly be applying there this fall. Our private tour took us through the main quad, the library, the fraternity quad, and to a sample dorm. The campus was not quite as beautiful as Cornell or Syracuse, but it was still very nice. We topped the Rochester University experience off with lunch at Pellegrino’s Deli. Our tour guide John Junig and his friend joined us. I think Mr. Crossley’s ride home was rather lonely because we all fell asleep in the car.

We had our first college experience of washing laundry. Although washing laundry in and of itself is nothing new to me, this was first time doing so on a trip away from home. Tonight’s schedule includes a casino night for all summer college students. It will have games, food, and prizes. However, I’m not sure how much time I will be spending there because I want to get started on my Plato essay tonight.

*Ramiah

Yellow jackets & dandelions

2009-06-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

After an extremely fun Friday night, everyone woke up early on this Saturday morning to visit University of Rochester -- home of the yellow jackets and dandelions. I must admit, it was very difficult to wake up early after a busy week, but I do not regret doing that. University of Rochester left a great impression on me.

I am most impressed by the 5 year masters program for business and medicine. Usually an 8-year program, students who are interested in getting a masters degree in medicine have the option of applying for the Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS) program. Likewise, the typical 6-year business program can be shortened to a 5-year program. Both are highly competitive to get into; for example, the REMS program accepts only 10 student applicants each year.

In addition to that, I found the collaboration between University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music intriguing. Students attending Rochester have the chance to use facilities at the Eastman School of Music to complete courses that satisfy their music major requirements.

Like other schools, Rochester also provides students with opportunities to study abroad. For me, studying abroad must be offered by the schools I am interested in attending. I believe the experience of living o another continent for a semester will provide me enough resources to learn about different cultures. In addition, the school has a need-based, need-blind admission program and provides those in need many scholarships, loans, and work-study options.

After our group's 1-hr campus tour of the University of Rochester convinced me that I should consider it as a possible college option.

University of Rochester

2009-06-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Departing before 10 am, all the Hercules students, driven by Mr. Crossley, have gone to University of Rochester to see the campus. Our tour guides have been on hand to greet us, presenting us a drawstring backpack along with a t-shirt emblazoned with their mascot, a yellow jacket. What a nice way to attract prospective students!

Among many other aspects, this institution, which is smaller compared with Cornell University, grasps my attention with its Writing Fellows program. Having a wealth of resources available have always been an important facet for me. Another neat factor to the school is its Rochester Curriculum. Since the school believes that students should only take courses in whatever subjects of interest to them, they do not have a standard set of required classes for students to take, hence the flexibility of this university.

If students cannot find a club that meets their expectations or appeals to their leisure life, they can always write up an amendment, as long as they have five other people who are willing to join the group.

The impression of this school I left with is its amazing campus life, but most importantly, its rigor in the classroom and its well-respected school faculty.

Now, my group and I are wrapping up the slides for our Powerpoint presentation. Tomorrow, we will put the final touch to it.

-Stacy Chan

Rochester, NY

2009-06-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Good evening, my dear readers!

We just returned back to Ithaca a few short hours ago from our excursion to Rochester, NY. Our day started bright and early, and we were gone for a majority of the day. To complete a one-way trip to Rochester took roughly two hours, so traveling time alone took quite a bit of time. For me, however, it was worth it. Though I did not enjoy our last college tour at Syracuse too much, I was completely taken by Rochester. I need to do more researching before I decide whether or not I will apply, but I did receive a very good first impression of the university. Our tour guides were very welcoming and informative. And nice, too! They gave us complimentary Rochester brochures, a t-shirt, a backpack, a notebook, and a pen. We got to see a good deal of the campus, and I liked everything I saw.

One particular thing about Rochester which intrigued me was this program called Writing Fellows. As you may know, I am very interested in English and writing and I plan to double major in English and Journalism in college, prior to attending law school. Writing Fellows is something I've never quite seen before in any other school. The Writing Fellows are this on-campus group which voluntarily edits the papers and assignments of their colleagues. If there is one thing I LOVE to do, it is edit. I am definitely going to look more into that program. I asked our tour guide about the school's English and journalism departments, but he was a poli sci and French major, but he gave me his contact information. I plan to e-mail him so he can direct me to someone who will have a better understanding and more information about the departments I'm interested in.

There was nothing really major I saw in Rochester that I really disliked. On the other hand, they actually had pretty much everything I'm interested in. I plan to study abroad sometime during college, and they offer that program in about seventy locations. It's a private institution, so the faculty-to-student ratio is 9:1. I will do more research about the school, but so far, it's looking good!

I feel we had a very productive day. And now I am off to continue that productivity. I have an essay and a good amount of reading to complete before the termination of the weekend. I need to get as much work as done as possible before Casino Night at 9. I'm super excited for that event. It will be another nice break from studying. Like we were told the first moment we arrived: balance between work and play is essential. Hopefully I get enough fun in between all my work for Freedom & Justice! Haha. I will talk to you all soon! Have a wonderful weekend.

- xoxo, Julia.

June 27: Unveiling Rochester

2009-06-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

Today marks our first "official" Saturday at Cornell. I call it official because, like most weekends during the school year, I have to balance both fun and homework. While I honestly don't find this weekend's assignments too difficult (an essay & reading), I am strategically dividing my weekend between work time & play time.

This weekend began with a trip to the University of Rochester with all 6 Herculean girls and Mr. Crossley. After a super quick breakfast at Appel Commons, we all piled into our van and took off for a two hour car ride to Rochester. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by our tour guide, Jon Junig, and his close friend. Before our the beginning of our tour, Jon graciously gave all 7 of us University of Rochester shirts, bags, and folders containing useful information. The gesture was extremely unexpected and appreciated. What a way to make us love Rochester from the beginning!

During our tour, we visited some of the momentous points of the beautiful campus, which included the school's library, a sample dorm, the residence halls, the fraternity row, and the very nice quad. Unfortunately, I cannot post any pictures due to my camera's decision to die on me the minute I arrived at Rochester. Although, I am sure that my fellow Cornellians will take the duty of posting their amazing pictures. After the hour long tour, all 7 of us felt hunger rumbles in our tummies and decided that it was due time for lunch. With Jon and his friend, we took a short drive to Pellegrino's Deli Cafe for sandwiches and smoothies. On the way home, most of the car riders fell asleep.

Right now, I'm waiting for my laundary to dry, so that I can head over to Appel for dinner. After dinner, there is going to be Casino Night in our dorm where we can win prizes! After Casino Night, I'm going to crack open my reader to get a head start on Locke.