Haewon Hwang: 'Take classes outside of your major.'

Haewon Hwang

Information Science

Albany, NY

Why did you choose Cornell?

I chose Cornell because "Any person, any study" really holds true. I loved the idea that I would have the opportunity to take courses in computer science at the same time as in photography, at the same time as in fashion design.

What do you value about your liberal arts education?

I value that liberal arts at Cornell emphasizes the importance of taking courses in a wide breadth of fields such as history, culture, science, psychology, and geography. In doing so, I was given the opportunity to spend each semester on a well-rounded set of classes. For example, I spent semesters developing websites for an Info class alongside learning about chimpanzees and the origins of politics.

If you were to offer advice to an incoming first year student, what would you say?

I would tell them to take classes outside of their major. I included fine arts studios into my semesters, and the three-hour photography or drawing classes were the perfect escape from pixels and computer screens.