Amanda Quain

Hey, collegiettes! Welcome back to your spring semester at Cornell. I'm Amanda, your Campus Correspondent. Spring semester is a great time at Cornell- and because I was abroad last spring, I haven't experienced one in a while! On top of that, this is my senior spring. It's weird to imagine graduating. But it also means I have to seize Cornell by the horns and go out in style. (High School Musical style, perhaps?)

I have a few resolutions for this semester, things that I've either loved doing at Cornell and want to make sure I do again or things I haven't done yet. I hereby resolve to:

As the semester goes on, I'll keep you updated on how these resolutions turn out. Wish me luck!

What about you, collegiettes? Anything you need to accomplish before you leave Cornell?

Halloween is right around the corner- how are you going to celebrate the biggest day of the year? (Okay, it’s totally not, but it is the best excuse to wear a ridiculous costume.) Everyone has heard of the typical costumes. Sexy nurse, a mouse (Mean Girls shout out!), Mitt Romney. But for those of you who want to stay topical AND school-spirited, here are a few Cornell-themed costumes to make your Halloween a little more… unusual.

1. The Clocktower
Easy enough! The most important aspect of this costume is the clock face. Use face paint to recreate the clocktower across your visage, wear a cute dress and a pointed hat, and go around singing Disney songs all the time. (My favourite is hearing ‘Go the Distance’ right before a prelim to get myself pumped up.) To make it even more seasonal, stick a pumpkin on your head reminiscent of the famous 1998 incident.

2. Denice Cassaro
Okay, so nobody REALLY knows what our infamous email goddess looks like. But if you wear some basic office casuals, carry around a computer, and constantly tell people about fun board game nights going on in RPCC, you’ll be the hit of the party. Especially if you bring some of those board games with you! Nothing says fun more than a game of Twister. (Is that just me? Well, my fellow game lovers, hit me up.)

3. Dragons and Phoenixes
This is an opportunity to wear a costume that would be exciting anyway but can still be Cornell themed. Grab a friend and battle it out as the Architecture Dragon and the Engineering Phoenix. Bonus points if you actually parade around campus battling.

Watching Adrienne Jackson pace back and forth across the stage of the Schwartz Center, wringing her hands and worrying about the crowds outside, you wouldn’t expect to be watching a girl who loves Harry Potter, Stanley Kubrick, and who cries at the same predictable times every time she watches the Lord of the Rings. A favorite of the Schwartz Center (she stars as the lead in Emergence, a collaboration between the Physics department and the Theatre department that plays this weekend), Adrienne is an average Cornellian- just one that spends most of her time being someone else.

A junior from Memphis, Tennessee, Adrienne caught the theatre bug early, and then realized she wanted to be an actress her senior year of high school.

“I was in an opera in Memphis when I was in the 6th grade and remember just being in love with the rehearsal process. However, I became a nerd in the 7th grade and focused on academic work rather than pursuing theatre. Then, as I was teching my high school’s performance of White Christmas, it hit me that I wanted to be an actress. So, when I went to college, I auditioned for some little things and soon that developed into classes which became my major.”

And she hasn’t stopped working since! In addition to her roles at the Schwartz, Adrienne spent this past summer taking classes at the Stella Adler Studio in NYC, a renowned-acting studio. “I learned so much there and really had some amazing moments just in scene study,” says Adrienne of the experience, where she was able to study Chekov and Shakespeare in one of the world’s capitals of theatre. None of it would be possible, she explains, without the support of Cornell and the theatre department here (she describes getting accepted to Cornell as one of her proudest moments, second only to becoming a theatre major).

As hard working collegiettes, we understand the true meaning of Labor Day! Well, sort of. Most of us have never worked a full-time job, and if we did it was probably only during the summer. Labor, for many of us, is staying up all night finishing a paper that’s due the next day. But who am I to disregard the labor we do? As part of Her Campus Cornell’s new “Flash Question” of the week, here’s a glimpse of what some of your fellow Cornellians did over the long weekend.

FLASH QUESTION:

What was the best thing you did over the long weekend?

“I got to go to the beach with my girlfriend, which was a lot of fun and a great break from the pressures of Cornell.” –Dustin, ‘13

“Kayaking with my family in the 1000 Islands. We have a house there and it’s great to get away.” – Carly, ‘13

“Honestly? I got to wear these awesome pink pants I brought back from my summer in Thailand. They look like something the genie from Aladdin would wear. I wore them to the movies and it made me really happy.” – Natalie, ‘14

“I went on a leadership ropes course with one of my clubs. Not sure how much I learned about leadership, but I learned a lot about my upper body strength (or lack thereof!)” –Sheila, ‘13