Marhaba! My name is Hadi Fathallah and I am first year student at CIPA concentrating in International Development. I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon and this is my first time in the US and so far Cornell and Ithaca have been a great start for my American experience. I graduated in June 2009 with a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Electrical and Computer Engineering with minors in Engineering Management and Public Administration. Back in my last year high school, my teacher taught me that as a leader, one has to know a thing about everything, and everything about one thing. So for the past 4 years I have been trying to achieve this motto, and I found no better place than CIPA to continue my path.
Back in AUB, I took graduate courses in Sustainable Development Management and Industrial and Technology Development, which were an eye opener to the interdisplinary field of sustainable development. In my senior year, I represented AUB in the INNOVATE 2009 conference, which took me through Egypt, United Kingdom and finally Vietnam and Taiwan where the conference was held. It was more or less a tour around the world that introduced me in first hand experiences to the difference between developed and developing countries. My internships in the summer of 2008 in Qatar and Saudi Arabia also fed into the sense of the shear need for sustainable development in my country and region.
I was involved in various activities on campus and in the community. I participated in the various elections on campus, which were always political in style and content due to the political split in Lebanon after 2005, working with the two factions and the independents for improving student life at AUB. I was also heavily involved with the Office of Student Activities, of which I coordinated the biggest activity on campus, the Outdoors Festival, for the years of 2008 and 2009. This involved leading a group of 150 students over the course of the academic year and running a budget well beyond what some departments on campus had. I also worked and volunteered with the Center of Civic Engagement and Community Service at AUB, coordinating volunteering and outreach projects on and off-campus with organizations such as Red Cross Youth Department, UNHABITAT, and IBSAR.
This mix of love for more knowledge, eagerness to develop my country and region, and happiness in running big projects that involve an array of different potentials of people and that gives back to the community, is what drove me to come here to CIPA and continue my education in Public Administration. The personality-building/community serving activities available, from GPSA to The Current and CIPA-NOLA, the unlimited number of unquantifiable interesting and challenging courses on campus (Workshop in International Planning and Development for one), and the most generous and kind professors and staff at CIPA and Cornell, make life here more than a dream come true.
I look forward to starting this blog, and hope to share the best experiences and best practices around CIPA and Cornell with you.
Salam,
Hadi
Hello friends,
And again time flies by since the last week. All has been good since then, but all the courses have picked up at the same time, and it’s now a run for the last mile. A month to go and the semester is over, and dues are just piling up: review article for the Current, CIPAs Professional Journal, that never seems to end, an IR “research hypothesis,” (still in the process of learning what this actually means…since this is not just my first PhD course - without any prior methodology course preparations - but also my first IR course ever, so go figure how much above my head I am: from zero IR knowledge/background to a PhD theoretical level course; can’t say but loads of fun), an IR A-exam final, a microeconomics research paper, a personal project (from A to Z) for International Planning and Development, a Game Theory Paper and a comprehensive exam next week, a CIIFAD seminar analysis paper on Perspectives of International Development, and ???
But this is not intimidating at all. Actually I am looking forward for the coming weeks. The nice thing about grad school here at Cornell is that it just continues on preparing you for the better. A month ago, what I am balancing now would have been crazy to consider; today, it’s just business as usual. But what I hope to get out of this is a sense of time management, something I completely lack. But I cannot but say that up till now, I have learned a lot on this issue, though no critical change. But I believe that change comes in increments (or not).
On the side, life here at CIPA has not just been about balancing this schedule. I can surely say that besides academic rigor, I am also advancing professionally. On professional development, I am eager to present next semester: ROME. I will be working with the United Nations World Food Program as a research fellow in food security on top of two courses at the Cornell Rome Program with the City and Regional Planning Department. Cornell maintains a program in Rome for undergrads and grads in the College of Arts, Architecture and Planning, and CIPA, as cross-disciplinary program, secures places for its students on that program. Hence for the past 2 months, I have been working closely with Thomas O’Toole, CIPAs Executive Director of Professional Development, to secure this fellowship at the WFP. I cannot be thankful enough for Tom’s guidance and advice. Besides being a great help in securing internships and professional opportunities, Tom is also great source that I turn to for personal and academic advice too, and I know I have a lot to learn from him, especially on management skills.
On another level, a couple of weeks ago, as I mentioned before, I attended CIPAs Professional Development Symposium in Washington DC. It was a great opportunity not only to see DC and meet CIPA alumni, but also to work on my personal professional development. Tom helped set up an informational interview at World Bank, and I am applying for an internship there for the coming summer. I’ll keep an update on that and Rome as things develop.
Besides the professional development, the DC symposium was great opportunity for me to see landmarks in DC as I was on the move. Together with a couple of CIPA fellows, we had our group photo taken by the University Photography at the Capitol (see below). And on my way to the World Bank interview, I passed through Pennsylvania Avenue where the White House stands, which was totally unplanned. But it was funny that it seemed I knew the place really well, even though it was my first time in DC. I think movies did a great job picturing the place.
And driving to DC and back was great opportunity to get to know my friends really well. On the way to DC, I drove with Jack Lowe, a second year Texan-all-about-oil fellow, and Leon Schneider, fellow GPSA representative. And on the way back, I met also a very interesting second year fellow from Pakistan, Shandana Saad. In short, I can say I got to know three different amazing people. Staying with Jack in DC and debating future Chinese International Politics and meeting up with fellow CIPA students (Santiago, Diego and Raymond) at a Malay restaurant was just loads of fun. But also I cannot describe how much respect I have now for Shandana and all the sacrifices and challenges she has went through after I got to know her and debate Pakistani politics, international politics and her own personal experiences.
Anyways, I’ll keep my updates flowing in and hopefully I’ll get to talk more about DC again; it is just bits and pieces now, as I always say. Time now to go back to game theory.
Peace!
Hello again…
Now that I’ve talked about my courses, here is the thing about the war of attrition. I borrow the term from my game theory class. In a game of “war of attrition,” the contestants are waging war/fighting on a matter. They can spend energy on fighting on a time period until one of them surrenders. Hence the outcome is either win or lose, much like many things in life. But the players do not only have a preference for either, but also care how much energy they are spending during that time period. To make things short, and using terms of game theory, the Nash Equilibria for this game are two: either player 1 surrenders from the beginning and player two intends to fight till the end, or the reverse.
So where do encounter that, besides in battle fields? Well, a game theory homework for starters. Figuring out these homeworks is a war of attrition by itself. You can either surrender from the beginning and thus preferring to spend your energy somewhere else, i.e. doing some microeconomics or chilling around, or work on it till the end, spending all you energy on it. And yes, it takes all the energy out of you. But nevertheless, as miserable as it sounds, there is nothing more enjoyable than a victory –from time to time. Hence if you are still wondering why IR and game theory take most of the time during my week, this is why.
On the other hand, there are also different wars of attrition you have to fight. Once is that of the chilly cold. From where I come from (Beirut), it never reaches zero Celsius. Fortunately enough this has occurred once here in Ithaca up till now. And you have only two choices again, either surrender and go home, or fight it and enjoy it at the same time. As much as I want to go home, I assure you, even the cold is enjoyable in Ithaca.
Autumn has come, it is really magnificent around here these times. Check out the following pictures. Mind the resolution…I take them on my phone on the way.
First thing you need to get out of this week’s blog: TIME FLIES IN CORNELL. All the sudden we’re past half the semester now and weeks just fly by. Lots has been going around, war of attrition, Penn, and DC, ever since I wrote back three weeks ago.
To give you a sense of how time flies, here’s a glimpse of how one of my weeks goes by:
Sunday: After a long sleep and later you’ll know why, International Relations readings all day is what goes on up till library closes or I get hungry and have to head back home (so either 7 pm or 2 am, kind of varies from week to week).
Monday: Public Systems Modeling (aka Loucks, named after Pet Loucks, Professor of Civil Engineering who teaches this course) at 8am in the morning. The struggle is not wake up early, but to catch the TCAT bus. When you’re on time, it comes late, and when you’re late, it never comes. After several attempts, I guess safest plan is to wait 7 minutes before the designated plan. If it comes late, then it’s late, but its better than walking to class, especially when it’s cold.
After class, some Loucks homework work (if study group is convening), then international relations the rest of the day.
Tuesday: Microeconomics (if I wake up after a long night of international relations i.e. 3 to 5 am), then some IR again until International Planning and Development with Prof. Lewis. Then it is IR class time till 7 or so. And I go home dead tiered and dead hungry.
Note once IR class is over, week is more or less over.
Wednesday: Loucks again, study group till 12, then it is CIIFAD colloquium on Perspectives in International Development. Then it is office hours meeting with Prof. Morrison for Game Theory. Then it is all about working on Game Theory homework all night.
Thursday: Microeconomics (if I can wake up after a long night of Game Theory), then game theory class for three hours, then Peace Studies Seminar, the International Planning and Development, and finally the CIPA colloquium.
Week is officially over. Now it’s only about finishing the details: Loucks homework, emails compiled, facebook, and this blog, or just simply sleep depending on how much heavy the week was.
Friday: Late wake up (compensation for the hours of no sleep), then its Friday prayers at the Annabel Taylor Hall, then again finishing what was left of the week, then off to TGIF(tell grads it Friday). And yes, its Friday already. At TGIF you catch up with friends that while doing all the above, you only pass by.
Saturday: after this week, what do you think?
To be continued…
Hello friends,
This is my first posting for this semester, and I am eager to start sharing my CIPA week-to-week experience with you. But since I missed a couple of weeks from the beginning of this semester, I will occasionally from time to time go back to share some of what has passed, so you’d get a complete picture.
I arrived here in Ithaca on August 4, and most probably I was the first new student to come in. It may be weird to come in at a time when most of the people around Cornell are out, and when most of Ithaca is shut down. But you need to see things always from multiple angels, and here are my thoughts on the idea to come in early: first you get to settle in your place, or in the case of myself, find one. I was fortunate enough for many reasons: the first is that I had great hosts, John and Kathy Ludders, who took me in for the first night and oriented me around. I am indebted for the generosity and kindness. And I was fortunate enough to have Hiba Sheitli, an AUB alumni PhD student here at Cornell, who referred me to my current landlord. This is how I got to get a place and move in on the next day, after two months of desperate searching on the net. Nevertheless I highly recommend you search the following sites. The first is Cornell’s On-Campus Housing (http://www.campuslife.cornell.edu/campuslife/housing/gradhousing.cfm), but you have to apply real early. This was what I DID NOT do, because I did not decide on my admission till the deadline. And my second mistake was also not to search and reserve early for off-campus housing. I thought housing would be abundant, but trust me, it’s crazy out there, and studios rent-out by the minute. Both Cornell’s Off-Campus site (http://www.campuslife.cornell.edu/campuslife/housing/gradhousing.cfm) and Craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites) are highly useful.
Another reason to come in early is that you’ll get to know the staff and professors at CIPA more closely. In a program of 220 or so, it’s great to have your name known, as Cheryl always told me. But trust me, it’s not just about getting your name memorized: getting to know Cheryl, Jennifer, Lisa, Judy, Linda and Tom O’Toole in person is by far more important. They are not just CIPA staff, but they are friends and family, certainly in my case. And they had to endure my daily presence for the first month, because I came here to Ithaca with a broken laptop, and I usually showed up every morning for internet. And the CIPA lounge was a great place to meet all the new incoming students.
Two logistical reasons are also key: if you come a from a small campus university, you’ll find Cornell overwhelming for two reasons: first it’s a big and spread out campus, second, and you might have read or heard by now, there are a LOT of hills around here. So coming early, and because you will not get your ID till orientation, the cheapest way is to walk around, and through that you’ll memorize the campus and get fit at the same time. You’ll also do all the small stuff, which when the semester starts, you wouldn’t have time for: Gannett Health Records, banking stuff, Bursars and tuition, Health Insurance and dining.
This is in short how the first couple of weeks (or summary of advice if you want), but again as I said in the beginning, I will go back to their details from time to time. Tomorrow, October 3, I hopefully will be going on a field trip to Pennsylvania, to one of Cornell’s Farming Extension Programs. This will be my first time outside the Ithaca area and I look forward to it. It should be a good experience out of the cold heaven of Ithaca (and they say it’s just fall cold now, it gets even better). The trip is for one of my courses, the International Planning and Development with Prof. Lewis. We are currently working on consulting project for an Agricultural Extension and Research Program in Wau, Sudan, and we are going there to have a sense a how extension research programs run.
I need to get back to schedule now. The week is now over, and today was the unproductive day of the week (study wise). But today was my first TGIF (tell grads its Friday), where all grad students gather at the Big Red Bard, the grad cafeteria. CIPA students usually gather there to chill after a long week (although time here flies really fast), but we also have a French table, where we try to speak French over chips and drinks. It was a good opportunity to reconnect with friends, especially the ones you don’t see over the week because of course commitments and spending much of your time in one of the libraries.
Have a great weekend friends.
Salam,
Hadi
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