Hi! My name is Joseph and I'm currently a rising Junior in Cornell University's school of Industrial and Labor Relations. Inside my major, I'm particularly interested in labor history, labor law, and labor relations in education and sports. Outside my major, I'm very big into baseball, record collecting, and skiing. I live in a cooperative house on campus, where I live with 24 other students. This includes cooking, cleaning, and running the house communally, amongst other things. I have a job working as a video camera operator and television production assistant for Cornell Athletics. I also write and make graphics for CUNooz, Cornell's satire publication. I love being at Cornell and can't recommend it enough!

Hometown

New York City, New York

Major(s)

Industrial and Labor Relations

Minor(s)

History

Clubs, organizations & involvement

CUNooz

Describe your college experience

Transitioning from New York City to Cornell University was quite a culture shock to me. I had always been used to living in the big city and moving to a small town was a bit of a challenge for me to adjust to. I love Ithaca though, and most New Yorkers who say that Ithaca is "boring" and has nothing to do are really selling it short. There's tons to do, especially outdoorsy and nature-related stuff. Hiking the gorges are an especially prominent one. Academically, Cornell is, as one would expect, fairly difficult. While I have it easier compared to someone in engineering or mathematics, some of my classes have been quite hard. There are tons of resources available to help you succeed though, and given the right amount of focus and dedication, getting all A's is perfectly do-able.

Tip for future students

Get used to walking, especially up hills, a lot. Cornell is a very hilly and also very big campus, so walking up and down hills all day is pretty much unavoidable.

Favorite class

HIST1660: The Vikings and Their World with Professor Oren Falk. This is the second class on Norse history that I've taken at Cornell so far (both with Professor Falk), with this one being a more broad coverage of the subject material. Norse history is something I didn't know a lot about before coming to Cornell, but it nonetheless seemed interesting so I decided to take the first class on Vikings in America; I ended up loving it (and the professor) so much that I decided to take another one. Professor Falk is my favorite academic instructor I've ever had. He's excellent on leading discussions and giving lectures, and his assignments are very open-ended so you're quite free to write about whatever you want related to the course material.

Career goals

I'm still very much thinking about it. First and foremost is being a public school teacher. My mother is a schoolteacher back home in New York, and the way she talked about her job with such positivity definitely inspired me to be interested in education. In addition to my wanting to be a schoolteacher, I'd very much like to get involved in the labor movement for education, potentially becoming a union representative for a school or even working for a teacher's union. I'm also considering going into conflict resolution or being a college professor.

Ideal way to spend a free night

Playing a board game or watching a movie with my housemates is something that I always love doing. Sometimes I'll watch TV or play video games on my own. If there's a party happening nearby and my friends want to go, I'll do that. Parties here are fairly hit or miss I've heard but I've only ever had positive experiences.

High school or secondary school

Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, New York City, New York