Sophia Johnson

MyCALSMoment

Ag Day! I love seeing all the animals, games, food and info that is displayed on the Ag Quad while I'm just walking to class. 

What has been an academic highlight for you within your major? 

Taking Oceanography my first semester. That class was so engaging and helped me meet like-minded people who were really passionate about the environment like me. Oceanography reminded me why I chose my major, and helped me stay motivated to keep pushing for environmental change, while also teaching me new things every class session. I loved it so much I'm now a TA for the class! 

What has been an academic highlight for you outside of your major?   

My First-Year Writing Seminar, ENGL 1120 - Writing and Community Engagement: Imagining, Making, Living-Black Feminist Freedom. In this class I got to explore topics in Black feminism and engage within the Ithaca community. We had four field trips to the 4H Urban Outreach program where we helped elementary school students participate in a literacy program. I loved it so much I continued volunteering through 4H Urban Outreach after the class was over. 

How have you found your closest friends at Cornell? 

I found some of my closest friends at Cornell through POST. POST is a week-long pre-orientation service trip that I did before my freshman year. We slept in a middle school cafeteria the week before Cornell move-in and did community service throughout Ithaca. It was both rewarding and connected me with some amazing people who I live with now.