SLI- Sustainability Week

The second SLI session that I attended was seeing Marion Nestle speak as the keynote speaker for the beginning of Sustainability week at Ithaca College. She provided a lot of information that I previously had not known. The main topic of her talk was about the Food Politics of Sustainability and how agriculture is linked with nutrition. One thing that I thought was interesting was the fact that at least 24 percent of the greenhouse emissions are produced by agriculture and land use.

SLI Session- Asian Americans and the Media

The first SLI session that I attended was about Asian Americans and the Media. It was a tie-in to the the Ithaca Pan Asian American Film Festival. It was interesting and talked about how most non-white cultures are not properly referenced or portrayed in major films. The presentation that I saw touched on the fact that it is important for people to tell their own stories because then they will be accurately recorded.  

Community Service - Row for Humanity

This was a new community service opportunity that I was introduced to through the Crew team. It has two parts to it. For the first part, we wrote letters to friends and relatives to ask them for donations that would benefit Habitat for Humanity, another charity, and also the team itself. That was done in the weeks leading up to Winter Break. On February 3rd, the actual rowing was done. We set up several ergometers in the area outside of Emerson Suites. Each member of the team would sign up to erg for a one hour segment. The event occurred from 8 am to 5 pm.  We used this time to promote Habitat for Humanity and the team.
   

Community Service - Delivering food

Over Winter Break, I had the opportunity to deliver boxes of  to various people around the Rochester area. I had done it the previous year, and was glad that I could do it again. The service consisted of picking up boxes of food from a central location and then deliver them to the addresses indicated on the boxes. During the course of the day, I visited different parts of the city and met a lot of different people.  While helping the less fortunate, I gained a better perspective of myself and the life and privileges
that I have.

Involvement on Campus - Ithaca Men's Rowing

I have been involved in the sport for at least 6 years now. In fact, it was one of the reasons that I ended up applying to Ithaca.  I joined the team this fall and throughout the season, I worked with both the experienced varsity rowers as well as novices who had never rowed before.

Initially, I was unsure about whether I wanted to continue withe sport in the spring, but I am glad that I did. In the past, I have always enjoyed the spring season more than the fall due to the races being side-by-side, thus creating a higher sense of intensity and adrenaline. This was certainly the case with IC. Although the commitment required is much greater than what was required from me in the Fall and that prevented me from participating in other organizations due to practice times and more scrimmages and regattas on the weekend, I do not regret it. I am glad that I am able to focus on something that I am passionate about, more so than I have in high school or even last semester. 

Leadership Goal- Revisted

Back in September, I wrote that I wanted to become more involved in the Ithaca College community by finding an organization I am passionate about. During the first semester, I tried to achieve this by joining multiple organizations that I felt I was interested in. These included Colleges against Cancer and the Adoption club. Currently, I no longer attend these not because I did not see value in them, but because I opted to put my time into the Ithaca Men's rowing team. The Spring season is the main season for the team, as such the commitment necessary increased in the second semester. Rather than stretch my time across multiple things that I had a bit of interest in, I thought it would be best to put all my focus in something I knew I was passionate about. I would say that I have progressed in developing my initial leadership goal as a result of this. 

Community Service

This semester, I participated in fundraiser to benefit Ithaca Crew. Essentially, groups of 2-4 rowers went to various houses near campus and helped residents with yard work. I had a good time raking leaves and clearing vines off the side of a house with teammates. It was nice to know that I was able to help someone else.