June 9th, 2009

Welcome to Cornell! »

Hi! If you are coming to Cornell in Fall 2009 and have any questions about life in Ithaca, feel free to contact any member of the exco and we will try to help out as much as we can. There is also an open facebook group that anyone can join; just search for "Singaporean Cornell Class of 2013".

Posted by Ji Sam

September 7th, 2008

Freshmen BBQ and AGM! »


Posted by jianmin at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

August 18 - 21, 2008

Prepare Orientation! »

Monday, 18 August 2008

- Arrival and pickup at airport or bus station

- Check-in at residence halls and Immigration check-in

- Dinner at North Star, Appel

- Games and ice breakers, Casino Night

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

- Dean's Welcome

- Banking, residence life & other practical issues

- Picnic Lunch

- Mall shopping trip

- Sports Night

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

- Overview of Freshman Writing Seminar

- Academic Experience Session

- Health care

- International Dinner and Talent Show

Thursday, 21 August 2008

- ISSO Services

- Visa and travel information

- Safety tips

- Closing Picnic

PREPARE is the International Undergraduate Pre-Orientation program, coordinated through the International Students & Scholars Office (ISSO). It is a four-day intensive program, where participants and volunteers have the opportunity to meet one another and help each other acclimate to life at Cornell. Each day, there are workshops on topics such as academic success, practical living, health and safety presentations, and college visits. In addition, volunteers lead groups of students on campus tours, accompany them to the shopping mall, and socialize at events such as bowling, cultural performances, and more.

Who Participtes in PREPARE? Over 180 new students, plus 50 volunteers will participate in PREPARE.

Adapted from the ISSO website: http://www.isso.cornell.edu/prepare/volunteers.php



Singaporeans have traditionally been an active participant in the various ISSO activities, especially in the annual PREPARE international orientation program. This year, Singaporeans, both in their capacity as volunteers and participants, helped in making PREPARE a fruitful event.

Although the activities for PREPARE only started on 18th, our volunteers(Grace, Wan Jing and Ji Sam) went 2 days earlier to help out, meet the other volunteers and just to have fun playing ice-breakers.

The first day of prepare was just a checking-in day, where participants get to move into their new rooms on campus. However, casino night and games night is a good way to meet people and just chill and relax after the long journey from home. Held at RPCC, participants interact with one another over games of bingo, board games or poker.

Second day. After a good breakfast, the Dean welcomed the participants into the Cornell community.

This is followed by a more personal interaction with the prepare volunteers, when the participants are broken down into small groups to meet with their big brothers and sisters. This is a good way to clear up doubts about living in Ithaca, and participants can ask whatever questions they wished. After picnic lunch, participants begin shopping for necessities at the Ithaca Mall. Target would always remain an important place in every Cornell Freshmen, as it is so reachable by the buses 30, 32, and 34. The night is reserved for sports lovers, when they have the chance to meet other people who have similar interests in Helen Newman hall, by pitting their skills of basketball, badminton and bowling with other participants.

The third day is just a series of talks, but what is really significant is the lunch with your big brother and sisters. Participants get to make friends over lunch, as they move on to their first lunch in a collegetown restaurant.

The last day is concluded by a picnic in the Robert Treman State Park. Participants and volunteers get to enjoy the remaining days of precious Ithacan summer weather, playing around in the water and just purely having fun.

- oon sixiang -


Posted by jianmin at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

Saturday May 03, 2008

Graduation Night!! Farewell Seniors!!! »

The theme was supposed to be 'Search for the Lost/New World' with visions of Indiana Jones inspired equitation/outdoors solid-sy kinda fashion scheme. which obviously everyone promptly ignored and turned up in the oh-so-normal black suits, ties and party dresses. I don't blame anyone. Considering pyramid mall is like our orchard road and that even abecrombie has forsaken that place, we're kinda sunk in a fashion-less quagmire. oh well, let's not digress.

So yeah, the theme was that, and it was held @ the deceptively looking Olivia restaurant. i say deceptive because the restaurant facade brings up suspicions of entering an abandoned warehouse. but no, in it was a cozy lounging area for cocktails, and a backyard decorated inconspicuosly (sigh) with flowers as well as non-working heater-lamps. alrite, let's not mention that as well.

People started arriving around five-ish onwards and the lounge was soon packed with eager seniors taking many photos and well as a few precious freshmen who were conned into coming (lol). jac/cheewei/christina hogged the prime photo spot and ian went all-in at the bar counter whilst the rest gulped their cocktails, wines and the occasional root beer (yes, yankai, you). though i must say i found the riesling destestable. geez.

Dinner was served cold outside (again another roll eyes) but the food was deemed good by our resident michelin-starred chef junch (yay!). Amidst the merry drinking and eating we threw in a few nostalgic games of taboo (recall cny dinner) as well as the question game (recall last yr). taboo was a riotous table-vs-table battle of wits and laughs (well, especially with zee's well-intentioned hints) that was closely fought. we had the noisiest guy and the most talented actress of the batch, HY and Christina act out a short sequence which became intepreted as Posh Spice and David Beckham arguing over buying a house on the moon (!?). Nice try guys, we were actually opting for the more conservative 'British couple aruging about houses in the British countryside?' But yeah, that was creative and good job to the actor/actress duo.

The question game was pretty obvious in parts and surprising in others. cheewei won most likely to have a nose-job and nearly swept most likely to be picked up in the gay bar, which landed in the arms of our resident young-boy joel. (cheewei is still miffed that joel had a larger entourage than he did) joel's roomie, junch won 'most likely to be the first millionaire', our dear old prez, GJ won 'most likely to retire to malaysia' and the list goes on.

We moved back indoors when the cold threatened to really spoil the mood, and had dessert bites whilst watching the requisite grad nite video thanks to the hardwork of jm and jessie. the video made several points - HY is the noisiest guy, zee is the funniest guy, and Yonglin only seeks beauty, not brains. After that it was more chillin' and checking out the grad nite gift courtesy of josh/gq which consisted of informative cards of the personalities of the senior batch before the night finally wore down and we bade farewells.. and headed for afterparty!


- frank chen -


Posted by jianmin at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)