DHIFI and Cornell University Diversity Alumni Programs (DAP) are pleased to collaborate on an “Alumni Flaunt” program. “Alumni Flaunt” essays create a positive forum for members of key communities (e.g., Disability, Black, Latino, Women’s, Asian, LGBT, Native American and Veterans) to share stories about our own unique experiences. Alumni Flaunts are aimed to remind the alumni and current student communities that each of our differences can ultimately become the very thing that unites us all.
Surrounded by concrete there was a small garden filled with sunflowers, pansies and tulips. A garden that provided not just pretty flowers but served as a place of healing. I can picture such a garden as if I had just walked through it this morning. In it, I met a little boy named Justin. He seems to […]
Mise en place; everything in its place. It was a phrase that I grew up hearing on cooking shows that I would watch after school as a child. It was a phrase that my first boss would say when they wanted me to get organized in 8th grade. It was a phrase that was […]
At the age of 15, I sat with my sister, Jocelyn, in a dim concert hall on a chilly November night, about to see one of my favorite classic rock bands, Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Her beaming smile and excited jabbering about the concert faded into the rest of the conversations around me. My mind […]
Currently I am a stay at home mom to three children Nate (age 12), Jonah (age 10) and Eva (age 6) in suburban New Jersey. When my oldest was nine months old I made the decision to leave my career in the nonprofit fundraising world. Nate was an ideal baby. He was generally calm, only […]
Within the same year, I was both diagnosed with a neurological disability and placed into the honors program at my elementary school. As the only student with a disability in my class, I wanted nothing more than to fit in and to fly under the radar. This became more difficult as I started to receive […]
When someone meets me for the first time, they probably presume my life is picture perfect. But they are mistaken. Something invisible is wrong with me. Almonds. Apples. Avocados. Bananas. Berries. Carrots. Cashews. Coconut. Grapes. Hazelnuts. Kiwi. Lemon. Lime. Mango. Mustard. Nutmeg. Olives. Peaches. Pears. Peanuts. Prunes. Black Pepper. Green Peppers. Red Peppers. Pineapple. Plums. […]
I frequently look up at the stars at night because it is a reminder to me that our everyday worries are pretty insignificant. When I think about my life in the big picture in the context of the rest of the universe, I remember that my time on earth must count and I shouldn’t waste […]
A neighborhood mom reminded me, “Don’t forget, you are the chocolate chip in the chocolate chip cookie, you don’t need to stand out more than you already do!” Who knew there was so much adversity baked into a chocolate chip cookie. I wrestled with comments like this throughout my adolescent and adult life. Some other […]
My unlikely adventure with a special “flaunter” began about nine years after I graduated from Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences. I knocked around for a few years before deciding to head back to school to become a doctor. Well… as an English major there were a few pre-requisites I seemed to be missing so […]
Last summer, I got a letter from our soon-to-be ten-year-old daughter from sleep-away camp. It was six sentences long and about fifty words. A few were misspelled and some punctuation was missing, but it was perfect. At least to me. Three years ago, I realized that our younger daughter was not reading and writing at […]