Chinelo Onyilofor ’15 has found that her studies in chemistry and art history have taught her the art of looking for small details, whether she’s finding the hidden meaning in a painting or an answer to solve a chemical synthesis.After she graduates this weekend, Onyilofor, a double major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Annapolis, Maryland, plans to travel for a year before going to graduate school to pursue a doctorate in organic chemistry.
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES TEACHING AND ADVISING AWARDSThe Deanne Gebell Gitner ’66 Family Annual Prize for Teaching Assistants went to graduate students Sarah Maxey, government, Allison Tracy, ecology and evolutionary biology, Danielle Morgan, English, and Laura Manella, neurobiology and behavior.
When Irene Li ’15 isn’t hunkered down surveying the latest research on the local food movement and social change, she’s in a Boston kitchen, meeting growers or dreaming up new items for her food truck and restaurant.Li, one of three sibling owners of Mei Mei Kitchen in Boston, is a College Scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences, who will return to her family business after graduating.This year’s class of College Scholars presented their final projects April 17.
While looking for life on planets beyond our own solar system, a group of international scientists has created a colorful catalog containing reflection signatures of Earth life forms that might be found on planet surfaces throughout the cosmic hinterlands. The new database and research, published in the March 16 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), gives humans a better chance to learn if we are not alone.
The course of Carol Rattray's '78 career has veered from finance to philanthropy to entrepreneurship, so she's a popular person when she volunteers her time for the Arts and Sciences Career Services office.
Jandy Nelson '87 decided at a very young age that she wanted to be a poet. "I was probably about 13," she says. "I don't know where it came from -- I still don't. My parents always thought I would grow out of it, and I didn't."
“We’re down one Democrat. It’s going to be a slaughter,” someone called out.The students in Suzanne Mettler’s Introduction to American Government and Politics class huddled in small groups in eight different classrooms, bargaining, brokering deals and negotiating, trying to overcome gridlock and partisan loyalties to pass a budget.
If you hear Tim Novikoff, Ph.D. '13, speak and you're of a certain age, you might recognize him as the voice of Jeffy from MTV's "Daria" animated series from the mid-1990s.But if you look at his LinkedIn profile, you'll see that his career has followed a path that marries his love of the technical world with the joy he finds in being creative.
Hundreds of students have just completed new courses in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Active Learning Initiative (ALI), part of a strategic effort by the college to embrace engaged learning models and emerging technologies. The ALI five-year pilot project is funded by Alex and Laura Hanson, both Class of 1987.
Among the billions and billions of stars in the sky, where should astronomers look for infant Earths where life might develop? New research from Cornell University’s Institute for Pale Blue Dots shows where – and when – infant Earths are most likely to be found. The paper by Blue Dots research associate Ramses M. Ramirez and director Lisa Kaltenegger, “The Habitable Zones of Pre-Main Sequence Stars,” is forthcoming in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
For the 15 students in a new interdisciplinary class this semester, the murals common throughout East Harlem have deeper meanings than passersby might realize.
Math, to a mathematician, is an aesthetic, creative endeavor. But for too many high school students, math has become a reviled, boring subject.It doesn’t have to be that way, as Steven Strogatz aims to show the students in his new College of Arts and Sciences course, Mathematical Explorations. The course fulfills the math distribution requirement and has attracted seniors who put off taking a math class as long as they could, as well as freshmen intrigued by the course’s title.
Although Katrine Bosley '90 doesn't get a lot of time to talk to patients as CEO of Editas Medicine, she relishes the opportunity."You only have to talk to one patient with one disease that you're working on to know why you go to work every day," says Bosley, whose company is working to translate genome editing technology into new drugs and treatments for poorly treated diseases and patients.
During an inspiring, humorous and highly candid talk to more than 420 people Sept. 18, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shared how Cornell shaped her journey to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Brian Lukoff '04 loves math.This is not true for many Americans (30 percent according to a recent survey), who say they're just "not good at math."Lukoff thinks there's a way to change that statistic, believing that part of the problem is the way students are learning in math and other disciplines as well. He has developed a tool that helps teachers and professors gauge what their students know and address gaps right away.
The fearless honey badger steals lions' prey and gobbles cobras for dinner. Tenacious and determined, it devours honeycombs despite countless bee stings. This is the totem animal of Sally Wen Mao, MFA '13, and an inspiration for her first book of poems, "Mad Honey Symposium," published in May by Alice James Books.
“Welcome to Cornell Ruins National Park,” Adam T. Smith tells his students. “We’re lucky today. We have a cache of objects to examine discovered in the ruins of McGraw Hall.”This “Rise and Fall of ‘Civilization’” class examines traditional archaeological topics, like kingship and the origins of cities, partly by looking at our current civilization through the lens of a single site – the Cornell campus as it would look 1,000 years from now.
The scene is straight out of a disaster movie: melting glaciers wreaking havoc on the ecosystem, and a tundra-like wasteland where once forest reigned. Thirteen thousand years ago or so the spruces, firs and birches of central New York state vanished; dendrochronology researcher Carol Griggs '77, Ph.D. '06, is using ancient wood to figure out what happened when they finally reappeared.
A poor childhood in Guyana spent watching his mother get pushed around gave Frank Douglas, Ph.D. '73, M.D. '77, an early awareness of injustice. At age 12 he was challenging his school principal on fairness, despite the risk to his academic future.
Dana Bottazzo '03 has done her share of traveling. Raised in London and Kuwait, she attended school in Ithaca, worked for a law firm in Paris and Milan, and then fell in love with South America.
As a recent college graduate, Marisa Boston, Ph.D. '12, was enjoying her new job teaching English to Mexican immigrants in 2001, but she really wanted to go deeper -- to know the science behind language.Why was it easier for some people to learn? What was going on in the brain when people were learning a new language? How could she make it easier for them?
*//*-->*/James R. Michaels '68, a member of Cornell's 100th graduating class, always knew he wanted to be a rabbi. He dutifully chose a philosophy major when he entered Cornell but found that the department's emphasis then on linguistic evaluation wasn't a good fit.
Captain Lauren Morgens '02 stands on the quarterdeck surveying her ship, red sash around her waist and a tall feather in her pirate hat. It is a cloudy August afternoon in Lewes, Del.; her crew has finished scrubbing the Kalmar Nyckel's deck, and the last sailor has come off the rigging. Once the tall ship clears the shallows, Morgens' command to "set the mizzen" rings across the ship in a sing-song cadence that seems as old as the sea itself.
Cathy Choi '93 entered Cornell with numbers on her mind. But an English class cross-listed with theater turned Choi away from her planned math major. "I had never read a play before in my life, but I got bitten by the bug and really fell in love," says Choi. "I ended up as a theater major."
Nine-year-old Valencyah walks down the hallways of Hazlehurst Pre-K-8 School in Mississippi toting a Ziploc bag filled to the seam with six books. She has three more in her backpack, all checked out from her classroom library. Valencyah is a straight-A student of Kathryn Ling '11 and hopes one day to become a doctor.
*//*-->*/Had it not been for the beauty of Cornell and a memorable weekend back in 1980, this story about Kathy Savitt '85, chief marketing officer for Yahoo, might very well be appearing in a publication for Harvard alumni.
Fourteen new faculty members join the College of Arts & Sciences this year, bringing a wide range of expertise across diverse disciplines to strengthen our research profile and continue our tradition of collaboration, innovation and discovery.
David O. Brown '83 has filmed orca whales feeding on sharks and underwater lava flows. He traveled to Alaska just a few days after the wreck of the Exxon Valdez to document its impact on wildlife and worked for the Cousteau Society, visiting the most remote and animal-rich places on the planet.
Linyihui Xu '15Major: Economics & China & Asia-Pacific StudiesHometown: Shanghai, ChinaWhy did you choose Cornell?Cornell's motto, "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study," impressed me the most among all the universities I applied.What is your main Cornell extracurricular activity -- why is it important to you?
In the last post of November, senior Sydney looks back at the many ways Cornell has surprised and changed her for the better. By Sydney Mann '18, American Studies major, English minor
Happy March! You may have noticed that we at the Ambassadors blog took a quick break in February - we've been working hard to recruit new ambassadors, as well as find replacements for those executive board members who will be graduating in May (including me!). But rest assured, we're back and as excited as ever! For the next two months, we'll be talking about "The 'Who' and the 'What' of Arts & Sciences." Who studies the "Arts" and what do they study?
This week, junior Sam Cohen '18 discusses how her sociology major at Cornell (on East Hill) inspired her to apply for a summer internship in Washington, D.C., (on Capitol Hill), and how that experience helped her discover a new appreciation for politics and government. By Samantha Cohen '18, Social Chair
By: Sarah Marie Bruno '16 Cornell is a big school. When I arrived on campus as a freshman, I had no idea how I would possibly decide where to eat dinner, let alone what to study. Over time, though, I've found my niche here, and this big school has started to feel like a much smaller community.
This week, Ambassador Tait Stevenson tells us how he spent his summer in Alaska, supporting watershed conservation with creativity. By Tait Stevenson '20, Biological Sciences (Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Concentration)
Dagmawi WoubshetAssociate Professor, Department of EnglishEthiopia, 1989: the Communist regime was beginning to crumble; schools were shut down. That proved the last straw for the parents of Dagmawi Woubshet, who deeply valued education.
This week, sophomore Dean discusses how Arts and Sciences' language requirement and Asian Studies department helped him explore his heritage and culture as a Korean American. By Dean Kim '20, Chemistry major, East Asian Studies minor
Here in Ithaca, we've just finished classes for the semester and are hard at work studying for final exams. For high school seniors interested in Cornell, however, December means something a bit different. While some are waiting to hear back about their early decision applications, many other seniors are polishing their own applications to submit for the January 2nd regular decision deadline. Here at the Ambassadors blog, we're focusing on why we love being at Cornell so much.
We've made it to May! As seniors approach graduation and underclassmen look forward to summer break, we at the Ambassadors blog have decided to focus on "Looking Forward." Senior Samantha Briggs starts off the month with a post about her experience deciding on her next step: Columbia Law School. By: Samantha Briggs '16
By: Isabel Caro '18 As a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, I am expected to take some math/science courses to fulfill certain requirements. I decided to choose these courses wisely and have some fun – so I enrolled in Astronomy 1195: Observational Astronomy. ASTRO 1195 is an introductory course that gives students (like me!) the opportunity to learn about the intricacies of outer space.
I'll be honest with you: I think of myself as a true Cornellian. "Big Red Blood flows through my veins" (well, technically my arteries). Basically, I love almost everything about this place.Finals are an exception.
This week, sophomore Dean talks about exciting new opportunities that await him this summer and how Arts and Sciences has helped him step out of his comfort zone and challenge himself. By Dean Kim '20, Chemistry major, East Asian Studies minor
This week, junior Emma Bryan talks about how the flexibility of the Arts and Sciences curriculum helped her discover her passion for French and reconfirm her interest in Economics, setting her up for an exciting junior year. By: Emma Bryan '19, French and Economics double major
