Video Clip of Wendy

Check out our classroom setup with guest speaker
Allison Beach, MSW, LICSW

Wendy's Reflection

And we start again...

It's the second week here at Cornell! And it definately feels like we've all adjusted to the routine. Except for the fact that I overslept this morning, but STILL had breakfast and got to class on time. It seemed like the day would never end. But it did. I actually felt accomplished today. I was able to take some time after class, almost 2 hours, to go to the chapel, sit under a tree and do some work. It felt really good and I loved the environment. The day was absolutely perfect. On Wednesday, all the Freedom & Justice kids are taking the mid-term. I, for one, have been studying and trying to keep up with the reading at the same time. Our T.A., Michelle, is really helpful and is holding a study session tomorrow night so we can all study for the mid-term. After class, I'm just going to study the night away so I can feel good about the mid-term. It's a load of work, but hey, this is a preview of the college life! And I am enjoying it. :)

Signing off,
Lucina Parada

The Second Monday

Two more weeks to go, but classes are very intense. Had to re-adjust to the going back to class, but it wasn't too hard. I ended up going to class a bit too early. But hey, extra time to do more homework...In class, we talked about Determinants of Contsruals, and types of Social Influence. In my discussion, we talked about our quiz (if you ask how I did, I will reply with an "eh..." so no point in asking). I learned from the quiz the kind of style the TA is looking for. I also learned how I can better prepare for the next one (more studying, and more asking questions).
We then started to go over our op-ed essay due next week. I think I might have some ideas for it. It will definitely be interesting. In Seminar, we talked about Depression and Suicide. In my personal opinion, the information was some great stuff, but the presentation....well, I learned how to muster up all my energy to pay attention. That's another good skill to have. The rest of my time was devoted to dinner, and homework. Oh, and of course shower. Yippee...

~Yoline

Video: What a Day! by Alvin

After I presented my powerpoint presentation, I felt relieved of all stress. My presentation was not the best but I gained a great deal of communication skills by presenting. I was nervous during the first few minutes of my presentation, but I slowly claim down and felt as if no one was watching me. It was my first time doing a presentation in front of a large crowd (90 people), so I know that this experience is valuable and could be carry on with me to college. Since my group, was the 2nd to present, I got a chance to listen to the other 18 groups do their presentations. The 18 other groups presented as if they were professionals. They were clam and had great posture throughout the presentation. At that point I realized that college wasn't a joke and everyone in the class had experience in public speaking. Their presentations add to my knowledge of pubic speaking.


I have a quiz tomorrow about today presentations so it is time for me to get sleep.
Alvin Yee

Feelin' good!

Hey people! How are you? Hope you are good, because I’m feeling great! I just saw my score on my first quiz on psychology and did well. I thought it was going to be much harder just for the sole reason that I was told so. But it was not the case. I mean there were some parts to it where I had to put thought into it, but it was good. Amazing I would say. I would have never thought I would have done this good. I feel confident now, but I’m not going to let it get to my head. I am so happy to have gotten 41 out of 50.
Today, Monday we were back to classes after a nice weekend of doing laundry and going to the mall, and getting some necessities for surviving the heat out here, like water and other fluids. The lecture went by fast; I guess I’m getting used to it. Also Wendy Espinoza, Yoline Banerjee and me went over one of the libraries to read and study. We lasted there about three hours. It was a whole different experience; it was so quiet I could actually concentrate without getting distracted. I felt good about myself. Being a loud person I am, it was a new path for me to study in a quiet place, and I think I can get used to it, also because it will be very helpful for my college days.
I really like the competitiveness out here and it’s teaching me a lot of new things. For instance, now I can use different study skills and methods, like today at the library. I know I will be able to use that experience in the future.
Well for today that will be it. I have to get back to reading and to sleeping. People out here emphasize a lot on going to sleep early and having a rest. So, hope you guys keep in touch. Bye!

Sincerely,

Ana Garibo
Kennedy High '09
The Individual in the Social World
Summer of '08

My Weekend

The weekend is over and so is fun time. I had a great weekend plenty of time to relax and think back on all I had learned during the week. I studied a great range of diseases and the deep histories surrounding them and many of the ways that modern medicine is combating them now. I also learned about different cultures and how culture is a great factor when determining how medicine is understood. My weekend was great I went the movies and also enjoyed myself at the Syracuse mall. After this relaxation weekemd now its time to get back to work.

From,
Malcolm

'Tis 8 o' clock on a Sunday evening. As we've told each other many times, all of kids are lacking sleep and stressing a little about our workload. However, we are surviving and rejuvenating ourselves with quick trips to the mall in Ithaca and making new friends.

I'll admit, I have been missing my friends and family a little bit. Yet, I am grateful to have been chosen for this opportunity and am making plenty of new friends to enhance my experience here at Cornell U. I tell stories about my friends back home to kids I've met here so far, and I'll surely have stories of my new friends to take back home.

Nonetheless, not all free time can be used for fun. Just the other day, in the Freedom and Justice class we had over 100 pages to read in two nights. Some workload, huh?

Speaking of workload, I have to type the first draft of an essay about Plato and his view on democracy before tomorrow morning. So this is where I'll leave you all.

Peace!

Chelsey Whitworth

QUIZZES? NO!!!

Hello again…My apologies for you all! I have been a little busy with other events and well now I’m here. What new to say? A lot is new. I just had a quiz for my class the Individual in the Social World. It was pretty interesting to be quizzed on a subject that would take a semester to learn. I was told it would be very challenging, but I thought it was otherwise. Sure there were new terms I didn’t understand at first, but because I studied so hard for it, I felt comfortable taking it. We were quizzed on how birth and intelligence interfere with each other. For instance, if a child is a first born, their intelligence will be greater than that of their sibling. The quiz also had questions on the effect of mere exposure. When a person is exposed to an item or a person, they will start liking them more and more each time they are exposed to it.
A couple of days before the quiz, I had watched a movie with my classmates on the Prison Experiment at Stanford University. There was also a question on the movie. We were asked what the dependent and independent variables of the experiment were. We were also asked the effect the experiment had on the randomly selected participants. The fact that they were starting to take their roles was one of the effects and how that influenced their treatment towards each other, from the “prisoner” to the “guard”.
With that, I would like to say that I would have never thought I would be in an Ivy League school taking quizzes like the one I took, and actually feel good about it. I owe it all to the sponsors who supported us and made this opportunity possible. You are the ones that make dreams come true! I would also like to extend my gratitude to Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenberg. Thanks for all the support. Hope you enjoy reading our everyday life at Cornell.
Moreover, some of us went to the Syracuse Mall to have fun. The mall was huge and I had my legs hurting all night from all the walking I did, even though I actually do lots of walking over at Cornell. Going to class, to our discussion session, to our seminar, to eat at Appel Commons, to our dorms, makes a day of walking all over campus. It’s worth it though. I like walking. About our dorm life, well it feels like you are an independent person with a life of your own without your parents, but you also have to be aware of how you organize yourself. It’s great to have this experience and see everything from your point of view and have a taste of what life is without your parents or guardians watching your every more. I am now aware that all the things our parents tell us are true. When I go off on my own, this experience will be great help and influence me in the decisions I make.
Thanks for tuning in. Hope you like hearing from us and keep supporting us. I miss all my loved ones and I want them to know I love them and I’ll be keeping in touch with them on every exciting moment I have. Well until next time. Have a nice day. Hope everything else is well.

Sincerely,

Ana Garibo
Kennedy High '09
The Individual in the Social World
Summer of '08

True meaning of the college life

As the days go by faster at Cornell Summer College, I felt myself growing independently. I have had to wake up early on the weekend (something I don't do often) to finish my research and start on a power point assignment. No one push me to wake up, but I choose to do so myself. I knew that I had to start my assignment early on the weekend, before I turned into a student at the computer lab procrastinating

its 3:42 in Ithaca NY, which means there's a good chance of it being both hot and foggy. I wouldn't know--the shades are down, and my fan is on. who needs the outside world when you have plenty of reading to do? That's not to say I didn't leave my room today, which apparently is a problem in Japan, many young(ish) people give up and never leave their rooms again except for a midnight food-run to the convenience store. This, I learned in class, is a culture-bound illness, or an affliction that only affects people of one culture, (like teenage girls in America cutting. or running amok in Malaysia)
Today I went to the Ithaca Commons, which is a promenade with many little shops, boutiques, and restaurants. Wendy's mentor Jenny, who seems really cool and is going to take us to laser tag next weekend, went with us. Now, i'm going to whole myself up in my room until i finish my reading.
till later,
Joseph Young

Waking up on a Saturday night

Woo-hoo, the weekend is finally here. Its 12:47 right now, and some people might be thinking that I should be sleeping, but hey, I'm a teenager. Turns out we all come alive in the night. Yesterday was a pretty big day for me, and I believe as well as my fellow peers in the Psychology course. It was our first test, and I won't deny it, I was pretty nervous. Way more nervous that finals back at home. I guess its because of who the other students are in my class. Looking around at these students from around the nation (and a couple from around the world), things get kind of...intimidating. These are students whose parents have money, and if they don't go to a private school/boarding school, they go to a public school that is very rich with resources. And I mean rich. Also, these kids are smart. It seems that because their schools have money, they are able to pay for "a better education". Except, you cannot really compare that with WCCUSD, because that's just the way our economy is back home. Richmond/Pinole/El Cerrito/what-ever-else is in the district isn't rich. Luckily, we still manage. People are able to come out of our district with enough intelligence to get them far. Still, it still is a bit scary to be thinking that "these are people that are used to way more vigorous work than me, and I have to be taking the same test as them". In our psychology class, we learned that the mere presence can indeed have an effect on a person. In can have a negative effect, or a positive one. It might have been a negative one for me, but I made the best of it. I did that test, and what is done is done. A paper with questions does not summarize who I am. Who decided that tests were the best way to evaluate how much a person knows on a subject anyway?
Continuing on, after my test, and in the other class, an essay, we all decided to go take a break. We went to the mall, and watched Wanted. It is a very good movie, and i recommend it to all. Yes, that means you Mr. Ramsey, go watch the movie IN THE THEATER. One must see the movie in theater to get the theater effect. Today, I was able to sleep in a little bit later, and some of us was even able to go to an even bigger mall, and hour and a half drive away. It was fun, but I wish it was closer. A lot closer. I have now learned that I reeealllly want to go to a college that is close to a city. And when I mean close, I mean at most 30 minutes away. At least I was able to have that comparison with Cornell and Brown. Brown = city, Cornell = no city.
I think I'm good for now. ttyl ppls.

~Yoline

Taking Care of Business

Today I went shopping at the Carousel Center with four other Ivy League Connection students and our chaperon Ms. Neal. We had a good time. We returned to our dorms at 6.Now I just finished taking out the trash, doing my laundry and vacuuming. Not a new thing for me as I usually do these things at home. (really) I had trouble figuring out where to take the trash and how to use the HI -tech swipe only machines. After talking to my RA and some students I figured it out and got what I needed done. I plan to rest,exercise and read this weekend.

- Wendy Espinoza

Laundry, Plato and the rain

Finally, as many others have said, our first week is done. It feels good to have made it through the first week. I know for a fact I had been anticipating walking into the lecture hall and listening to a college professor for a really long time. Now that I've done that, I feel like I've adjusted to living the college life. It's given me a lot of insight to what to expect when I leave for college. The environment is great: the feeling of independence is the best since you can go to bed whenever you want, do your homework whenever you please and so on. Sitting in the lecture hall is one of the coolest things about this experience. I respect the professor a lot because you can tell that he's passionate about philosophy. The students in my discussion group are so excited to learn. It's obvious that they study and they want to understand what Plato really believes in. It's only been the first week and I've learned a lot. Now, I have to learn how to do laundry!

Signing off,
Lucina Parada

Finally, It's the WEEKEND!

So our first week of Summer College is officially over, at least as far as class goes. We still have a ton of work, including reading forty pages of Locke (which I'm actually looking forward to), and an essay on Plato's view of democracy - now that should be interesting... We've made a lot of friends since we've been here and, for me at least, it's been one of the best parts of the whole experience. Esther and Lawrence are from Canada, Gabbi is from Iowa, and Katie is from New Jersey - and that's only about half of the people we've met. Yesterday was a real treat, as we don't have class Friday afternoons, so we all got to celebrate by taking a trip to the mall and going to see a movie. (The Love Guru was HILARIOUS!) Today is definitely going to be an adventure, since it'll be my first time doing laundry. - Wish me luck...
Anyways, that's all for now, time to go to brunch!
-Theresa

First Week's Impressions

Hi, it's Jeannie!

Well, this week has been pretty hectic, and I'm convinced that the following 2 weeks will be just as hectic if not more. Luckily, our freedom and justice class didn't have any sort of quizzes/tests this week, however, we were assigned an essay on the first day and we were given another essay on Friday. Our first essay's topic was, "What does freedom mean to you?" We had to turn in a first draft, the Teacher Assistant edited it, and then we had to turn in a final draft. Luckily, it wasn't graded. Our next topic was, "What's Plato's view on democracy?" Our first draft is due on Monday.

Besides the essays, we've had to read a lot about St. Aquinas, St. Augustine, Plato, the New/Old Testament, and I should be reading Locke this weekend.

Yesterday, to relax after a whole week of school, my friends and I decided to go to the mall together. We eventually broke off into groups. I watched Wall-E(recommended!) and then we went shopping, took the bus back, hung out for an hour or two, dinner, movie on laptop, and then sleep. I was so tired when I went to the movies, I actually fell asleep watching it! Luckily, I only fell asleep for about 5 min. or so, so it wasn't too bad. Doesn't everyone enjoy a quick nap sometimes?

I'm getting more familiar with the North Campus now. On the first day of summer college, I was intimidated by the number of summer college students and the size of the university.

It's about time to go to brunch, so I'll sign out now.

hey this is Jared checking in.
Today I had my first test in Psychology, and in my opinion it was relatively easy, even though some of my classmates thought that it was very hard. After the test I went to trillium where I met a PSP student, and got to know a little about the experiences that they have. I later went to dinner with a few friends that I have met here. We went to Miyuki Sushi Bar in college town, after which we went bowling at Helen Newman bowling arena across from Rawlings Green.
Thats all for now. More to come.
Jared

College life

My 2nd year at Cornell Summer College was completely different from my expectations. I didn't expect to have an 8 hour school day at Cornell, which limited my free time. I knew that there would be heavy work load, but did not expect to have mandatory office just to finish homework. The social life differed from last year. Everyone is always in there room (maybe because there is more work this year). Living in a dorm without my WCCUSD made me feel like a normal student (not scholarship funded) this year because I had spend time with other student around the world.

This year a typical weekday for me on the Cornell campus is something, I have never experience before. I wake up, start school, and sleep. I have lecture from 8-11 in the morning about the hotel industry. In the afternoon we learn about business writing and presentation in the computer lab from 1PM to 4PM, leaving me with 2 hours of free time per day.

Over the past week I have experienced an abundant amount of rigorous assignments. I have had to read an average of 25 pages per night on the lodging industry and the history about hotel. Every afternoon, I am exposed to new software, specify Microsoft Office 2007. Today I turned in my first business memo about my strategy toward running my own 250 rooms upper-upscale hotel simulation, which was done using Microsoft word 2007. This weekend I will have my hand full with my assigned group working on a PowerPoint Presentation about the Marriot International Hotel, which will be present on Monday during Lecture time.

One week down, Two more to go

I just finished my first week of summer college. Wow. I had a quiz today in my psychology class and I feel that I did well. It was 5 questions that had to be answered in paragraph form. Each question had about three other questions within them. The quiz covered topics lectured in class, our TA section and our reading. Ana , Yoline and I studied and prepared for the quiz by going to to our text books website.http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/socialpsych/. Here we found chapter reviews, chapter outlines, flashcards and best of all mini multiple choice quizzes. We took the quizzes for all of the chapters that we covered this week. Each online quiz was 25 questions each. I feel that this helped clear up any confusion about certain topics that seem very similar. It help my performance on today's quiz. I'm not sure of when I will receive my grade on the quiz but will report when I do.

Today I also had a meeting with my mentor Jenny Martinez. Jenny is from Chicago, but lives here in Ithaca. She has a total of four mentor students including me. Today we met at a local lounge , spoke about our first week at Cornell and then wound down by playing a board/card game called Apples to Apples. I feel comfortable with her.

Overall this week has been great. I have to admit , there were sometimes this week when I felt down because of the stress of the amount of reading, being away from home, and dealing with this strange weather. I would consider these things as inconveniences. But when I weigh the knowledge I'm getting from here with the inconveniences, I get an equation that looks like this
Advantages/inconveniences= advantages weigh out much more!
-Wendy Espinoza

OMG A QUIZ!!!!

Ana, Wendy, and Yoline here. All of us are checking in. Why? Because we need to study for our test, and every moment is precious to us. Luckily we were able to fit this blog in.

We reviewed, and we are reviewing even more. Hopefully we will do well.

Video Clips: Freedom and Justice Seminar with Alan Mittman

Ms Neal Introducing WCCUSD Students...

The Sound of a College Course


Jeannie

Lucina

When reading a book or writing a paper it is always done in Risley

I'm writing this blog in between writing an essay for my Mind, Body and Health course. For our first writing assignment we have to write and analysis a first hand medical experience. I chose to write about the time in middle school when I tore my ligament in my right knee. I'm analysing the effected it had on my life. I'm also analysing the relationship I had with the orthopedic physician and his technique of practicing biomedical model of medicine. When practicing the biomedical model of medicine, the physician is only treating the disease through medical process. The doctor is not treating the mind to see how this experience is effecting the patient as a person in their everyday life. By not treating the mind and body, the patient, ( in this case myself) is not becoming completely cured or healed. In my case, the specialist believed I should receive surgery as soon as possibly, not really putting into perspective how it would effect my life. I would have missed school and other things important in my life, like dance. My knee was healing on its own and unlike the specialist I wanted to continue to see if my body would heal itself. Which it did, without the surgery.
My essay is coming along, and with the help of my TA Colleen doing a final edit tomorrow during office hours; I know it will be an excellent paper.
Besides doing class work, I have been getting to know my roommate Tara, who is also taking Mind, Body and Health. We get along well, and she gets along with the other IVY League students too; which is a plus! Our room has definitely become study central. With both of us, Joseph, Malcolm, and Yoline in our room, from 7pm-10pm, you can find all of us with either a book in our hand, or typing away on a laptop for an assignment. With music in the back ground, everyone is busy at work. But the study sessions have become great ways for all of us to bond, and help one another out when it is needed.
Since many of us have different classes, dinner time has become the time for us to catch up on every one's day. The table is field with much laughter and a break from the annual homework we all have every night. Now thinking back on it, we have definitely become a family. During the daytime we all go our separate ways into the world of the hustle and bustle. But by the end of the day, we meet up and relax around the people who in a short time have become near and dear to us during this rigorous experience.
I should get back to my essay to have it ready to be edited, so until next time....
Jamaya Monroe

Psych-tastic

Today marks the sixth day on the East Coast. Alot has happened, some little bad situations, but alot of learning experiances. Today in lecture, we talked about the relationships between first-born and last-born siblings and being independant and interdependant. We learned about what exactly is the self. It turns that "self" is a body, subject of experiance, and a moral agent. We then continued the lesson in our seperate discussions. We watched a movie about the Stanford experiement, that put some college boys through a prison stimulation, where there were gaurds and prisoners. The outcome is very shocking and eye-opening. The gaurds almost became monsters, using their powers to abuse and humiliate. This experiment had to be ended early because the stimulation started to become too harsh. This taught many how far a person can go when it comes to violence, something that we might have once thought we would never do. The scary part of this situation is that it is actually happening around the world, such as the prison in Iraq, Abu Gharib. (That Leadership and Global Engagment class came in handy with that fact.)

Besides learning the coursework, I am also learning a few other things. I am noticing the difference between class here at Cornell, and class back home in the WCCUSD. Here in class, people participate more, and it seems that I am learning much more here. Which is weird, because back home is somewhat the same situation age-wise, and there are even smaller classes there. It seems that here at Cornell, people learn more because they want to, and its something they choose, something that interests them. Sadly, this is not the way it is back home.

Maybe that could be changed?

Who knows, but now I need to go check in. Goodnight.

~Yoline Banerjee

Ramblings from a Cornellian's Mind..... Body, Health

Lets just say today started off on the wrong foot, or maybe no foot to be exact, when I got up, somehow my foot got caught in my sheet and I tripped. oh well. the rest of the day was better. And it barely hurts anyway

Today was our third day of class, and its starting to get a little bit stressful! We have sixty pages of reading every night, articles to read, and we have a paper due on Friday. This is moving a little bit faster than I had expected. I’m used to the first week or two of class being time to move around your schedule, catch up with old friends, and do as little work as possible. But I guess here, everyone wants to learn, so we’ve gotten down to business. Everyone has a really good work ethic, but no one shuts themselves in a room studying all day either. The kids know how to balance work and play, and usually try to combine the two.

Every night in Risley, the Mind, Body, Health kids discuss the nights reading together, clearing up issues, throwing back ideas, and at the end, we all get emailed the notes from that night’s discussion (I can’t imagine being here before email was invented!) Also, the kids are always willing to proofread someone else’s writing and don’t shy from asking for help themselves.

I think the single best thing the school district could do, would be to hire TA’s, (even if that doesn’t make real sense, because our classes aren’t too much bigger than the size of a section here.) Kathryn, is great during our discussion sessions, because she lets the group talk amongst itself, and share opinions, yet she knows how to steer our discussions in the right direction when the time comes.
Hopefully my essay turns out okay…
-Joseph Young
(I promise I’ll upload more pictures soon!)

Cornell So Far

Cornell has truly been an enlightening experience so far. After the initial trip to get us over here and our first night at an Ithaca hotel,the entire group finally made it here to Cornell. Although we ave already ran into a couple of speedbumps in the program so to speak, the program has overall been great so far. The academic environment is pleasing to both students and teachers alike. All of the students here generally want to learn and their is an obvious drive to learn from the great professors here at Cornell. I personally am truly enjoying my experience here. The class is great and I really like both my professor and my T.A. So far in class we have learned about the medicalization of many common conditions, such as aging and balding,in order to reap the financial benefits. We have studied the true nature of lovesickness and debated its status as a disease. We have also learned of many deadly diseases known to man and thier evolution through history, such as kidney disease, tuberculosis, and influenza. I am really learning alot here at Cornell and cant wait to learn more about the historical aspects of medicine as the summer continues.

From,

Malcolm Carson

Westerners to Cornellian[ers] :)

Hello everyone!!!
So far today is my third day and it is great! I’ve been learning all sorts of facts and ideas about psychology. The first day I learned about Evolutionary Psychology and how for years it has been affecting people in their behavior and beliefs. Also another interesting idea Professor Gilovich taught us was that later born children are meant to be revolutionaries and firstborn are to be more serious and conforming as well as traditional. Also later born are most likely to adopt new/radical ideas; firstborn and later born differ greatly in openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. With that in mind, Prof. Gilovich said that birth order affects intelligence. There was a study taken in families with different number of children. The first born always is the smartest. The later born will have a smaller IQ than their older sibling. One point made to explain why this happens is the fact that the older sibling teaches the later born as if they were actual teachers. Very interesting! Furthermore in the lecture, I learned about the social self. There is the independent and the interdependent. One tends to be more about the self while the next wants to honor the group they belong to. A study shows that pencils were given out to a certain group, but the pencils were given in different colors; there was always a color that was by itself. With this the researchers found that Westerners tend to head for the pencil that outstands from the others, while Easterners wind up choosing the common color, therefore showing that Westerners are individualistic and focus more on the “me”, whereas the Easterners choose not to be different, in the belief that they ought to honor the groups they belong to (e.g., family, job, dance team, etc.) So pretty much it has been intense, but we are there! Working hard has its benefits and for me it’s learning so much.
The seminars have been great and revealing on so many illnesses I never knew about. Our seminar instructor, Casey Carr has been so supporting in answering any question we might have. Hope you guys keep in touch and find our bulletins interesting. Stay tuned for every blog post. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Ana Garibo
Kennedy High '09
The Individual in the Social World
_____________________________________________

Here at Cornell the food is yummy! Pasta, pizza, salads, burgers, sandwiches and tasty desserts such as lemon meringue pie are served. The cafeteria staff is very pleasant. In fact I met a cashier by the name of Wendy! She said “Oh, you’re name is Wendy too, there aren’t many Wendy’s around.” It made me feel welcome.
Lots of activities and workshops are offered. Trips to the museum and pie decorating are two of the activates. The workshops are titled “Everything you never knew”, “You, in 500 words or less,
“And the Fat Envelope goes to…” I will be going to a workshop later next week that instructs on healthy group study skills.


Wendy Espinoza
Pinole Valley High School
Class of 2009

Video Clips of our Travels to Ithaca

A condensation of my last two days. Yesterday was the first day of class, which unlike most, had very little administrative things and more subject matter. We explored the theory of evolutionary psychology. This was both interesting and engaging. After lecture we moved into our smaller study sections of 25 or so people and did some pretty interesting studies on ourselves that turned out some interesting results. After that I decided to explore college town and as the locals call it "The Commons" all this travel though a long distance was done on foot, and by the end of it I could already begin to feel my Cornell calves forming. When I returned to campus I went to a career seminar by Casey Carr an administrative person at Cornell who also teaches about this subject. In the seminar we got to better meet the people in our group and discuss some interesting subjects. After the seminar I decided to go swimming at Helen Newman Hall, I only swam for about an hour though because of my knee beginning to give me a lot of pain. When I left the pool I began to get really stuffed up although i don't believe this to be a very significant piece of information.

Today we finished our lecture on evolutionary psychology and began our discussion on cultures, and the psychologies that occur in those places around the globe. The idea that in western culture we are very individualistic, and in the eastern Asian cultures, people are very interdependent. more to come tomorrow

My Second (Real) Day

Today was our second day of classes at Cornell. I'm enrolled in Mind, Body and Health. Professor Golden (who told us we could call her "hey prof") lectured on the biography of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) which used to be known as Dropsy, and later, Bright's Disease. She discussed how dropsy was a disease understood by its symptoms (bloating & thirst) and its treatment involved puncturing the sufferer's belly with quills. (eww) then it became known as Bright's Disease, named for its "discoverer" which was understood by clinical and pathological studies. Bright discovered that the urine of the afflicted would curdle when heated, (due to a protein released by the kidney) and by the condition of the kidney during an autopsy (known as a deranged kidney). then it became known as ESRD which is "the complete or near failure of the kidneys to function: to excrete waste, concentrate urine and regulate electrolytes" which was discovered at the time of dialysis machines. she also discussed the implications of dialysis machines, as there weren't enough (dialysis is now guaranteed to all citizens of the USA) and whether they hindered scientific development because no cure has been discovered for ESRD.
My discussion session was great today. we discussed last night's reading (the spirit catches you and you fall down chapters 1-5.) I seem to have a knack for sidetracking the discussions. (yesterday we spent the entire discussion trying to explain to me the difference between a disease and an illness (now that's a difficult question, because I still could not tell you the answer, and neither could anyone in my sections)) and today I asked whether or not Neil Ernst did the right thing by calling CPS on the Lee's, and whether or not there was a better option. I said there was a better option, most of the others disagreed--its too expensive to do anything else!, they asserted.
then I ate lunch at trillium. the food there isn't nearly as good as at north star, or maybe i just have a thing for all you can eat food. after lunch, I began working on my paper (its due Friday!!) about a medical experience that I've had. at 3:00 i went back to class to watch a movie about the 1918 influenza epidemic. we learned an old, very telling, nursery rhyme: I had a little birdie his name was enza i opened the window and in-flew-enza. I wonder if the kids singing realized that it was an airborne disease.
I have to finish a first draft tonight, so I better get back to it.
Till later,
Joseph Young

First Day of Summer College

So today was our first official day of Summer College at Cornell. Nobody got much sleep last night, thanks to nerves, but thankfully we all managed to stay awake. Our professor (Isaac Kramnick - Freedom and Justice: Law in Theory and Practice) informed us that each day, he would be taking groups of six alphabetically, and eating lunch with them in the dining hall in order to get to know everyone better. I was lucky number six in the first group.
As Professor Kramnick went around asking students to introduce themselves, he kept asking them where they were from and where their parents went to college. Most of the answers were that everyone was from somewhere along the east coast, and that their parents went to universities like Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and Georgetown, and so naturally, I was a bit nervous when I explained that I was from the San Francisco Bay Area, what our program was about, and well, that I would be the first in my family to be attending college. This caught the attention of all of the students, and it was the first time that I truly realized how fortunate I am to be here. While we may not come from the same social or financial background as them, we are all just as eager to learn and just as interesting to listen to.
I guess it was a real eye opener. For me, and for them.

-Theresa Berger