Inside Summer College 2009

Ben	Geetsikha
Ian	Jason
Jeremy	Mary
Trey

Inside Summer College 2008

Ashley	Ben
Drue	Elizabeth
Josh	Kaitlin
Kristin	Laura
Maia	Paige
Ruben

Inside Summer College 2007

Andrea	Brian
Brooke	Casey
Charleen	Dave
Erica	Farah
Hayley	Koyuki
Katie	Rachelle
Tyrone

Inside Summer College 2006

Lia	Erik
Hannah	Zaid
EJ	Jordana

see also

• Slide show
• Summer College campus photo tour
• Summer College videos
• The Summer Times Student Newspaper

Farah

My name is Farah and I come from the great city of Los Angeles in sunny California. I recently turned 16 and became a rising senior at the Archer School for Girls in Brentwood. I describe myself as loud and overzealous. I love to have fun and escape the stressful years of high school. During the school year I am involved in my school's student council and a lot of philanthropic work. This past year I started my own organization called Peace. Love. Benefits. The organization plans benefit fashion shows for important non-profits. In April we held our first fashion show, which was extremely successful. I have a great passion for community service and want to continue some aspect of it in my career. This summer I'm taking a three-week program called Leadership through Managerial Communications at Cornell. I am so excited to learn about how communications interact with business and leadership. I am really excited to see how I am going to interact in small-town environment away from all the big city noise I'm used to. I am most especially excited to meet people from all over the world and build lifelong friendships.

Journal entries

6/28/2007
I cannot believe it's almost been a week since I got to Cornell. I have to say that it has been a pretty rocky start, but I am absolutely loving it now. Last Friday night my mother and I flew in from LA after many delayed and canceled flights. The next morning we moved into my new home. I was a bit disappointed in the beginning because I was assigned to a single dorm. Luckily there is also another single dorm next to me, so me and my neighbor pretend we're roommates. Also, I have to say that Cornell did an amazing job of picking the best people. I have met students ranging from right here in Ithaca to Greece, South Africa and Turkey. Every single person is so nice and friendly. On our first night here we had an ice cream social and I felt like I met at least 200 people. Keeping track of those names is a bit hard though. I made a pretty amazing group of friends and I feel like I've known them forever. In addition, my class is wonderful. Well, the work is hard and it takes a really long time to do, but it is extremely interesting. My professors are so nice and funny and they make me feel like I'm not in a classroom. I don't want my experience to end at all. It's a bit funny because I always hate things that my sister (an alum of Cornell) encourages me to do. However, this time, she definitely led me to the right place. The campus is absolutely gorgeous and blocks my mind completely from thinking about the busy city life back in my hometown. In the next two weeks I want to have the BEST time of my life. I want to explore collegetown and downtown Ithaca and especially the rest of Cornell campus. I have not walked one step farther than from my dorm to my classroom and back. I am so ecstatic for the next two weeks on my Cornell journey!

7/5/07
It's really hard for me to comprehend that it's been two weeks since I've been here. I am just having such an amazing time that the days just fly by. I definitely explored Ithaca this week and I have to say it is a bit more interesting than I thought it would be. I went to the mall a few times. I did a bit of shopping and saw "License to Wed." I definetely reccomend this movie if you want a cute comedy to distract you from you from your studious life. I also ventured into collegetown many times and fell in love with Collegetown Bagels. This place is not only famous for its bagels but has the most amazing smoothies I have ever had. My mother has been calling me asking me why I spend so much money eating bagels every day. I also took an extremely long walk down to the commons from my dorm (I had no idea it was so far). The commons is what I like to call Ithaca's promenade. It is filled with crazy shops and great places to eat. I must go back there before I leave. Also, last Saturday my friends and I got extremely dressed up and went to a restaurant called ZaZa's. We all looked like we were going to prom. Also, last night (4th of July) a few of us decided to go to Miyake, a Japanese restaurant in collegetown. It was absolutely fabulous. After dinner we screamed American songs as we waited for our taxi.

Class wise, they definitely got a lot harder. We just started our group project, which is due on the last day of classes. It does not seem stressful at all right now but I can just feel the rising tension for next week. Each group is assigned a problem that the hotel industry encounters frequently and we have to come up with ideas on how to effectively solve them. My teachers are absolutely amazing and have had so much experience in their lives. Sometimes I feel like just hearing stories from them is a lot more beneficial than actual class. Lastly, I am SO excited for this weekend. I've had a hard week of endless work (even though we had Wednesday off for Independence day) and I definitely deserve a break from it. I am planning on going to the farmers' market and picking up some fresh organic foods. There is also an '80s dance at night that me and my friends are going all out for. I am so sad that this program is winding down to its last week. I am going to try to get the fullest experience out of this next week. I can't wait!

7/17/07
It's 2 a.m. on Saturday night. Graduation is in 8 hours and my flight is in 13 hours and the only thing on my mind is how much I do not want to leave this place. The last time I updated this journal was last Thursday night. Since then I have had some amazing sushi from a restaurant in collegetown, went to the farmers' market and to an amazing '80s dance. The '80s dance was the absolute highlight of my three weeks here. All of my friends and I got dressed up in crazy outfits and had a great time on the dance floor.

Starting Sunday, Cornell got a bit more intense. The tension that I knew was going to rise from our project had reached its pinnacle. From Sunday to Thursday night I was glued to a computer in Binenkorb Computer lab. Now, when you think of work and when you think of computer labs you automatically think of awful, hard, and miserable work. However, that was not the case with Cornell. The times spent there were all bonding moments. We ate in big groups and walked to class in packs. I absolutely loved it. Our final presentations were given yesterday. Everyone did such an amazing job -- not one group did worse than the other.

Tonight all of my friends and I went to the commons and ate at Madeline's, a wonderful French restaurant. The desserts are amazing. After we got peace sign necklaces made for 15 of my closest girl friends here. We promised never to take it off and to remember each other forever. Then we went back to campus and hung out in front of RPCC.

Now, I'm sitting in my friends room eating a box of pizza and wishing I was staying here for three more weeks. Cornell has definitely had a great impact on me. My eyes were opened to an industry that I never thought was interesting. I also met the most amazing people here. I wish could take them all back with me to Los Angeles. I am going to miss this place so dearly. Thanks to everyone who's been reading about my experience. Have a great summer!