Anita Baranyi's Scholarship Report

Hello! Stephanie McGovern and I, Anita Baranyi were the 2003 winners of the scholarship offered by the Cornell Club of London, made possible by the generosity of the donors, Cornell alumni, and the hard work of the Club, especially Liz Simpson and all the wonderful people at the Cornell Abroad Office in Ithaca. Our warm thank you goes out to all the people who gave us six unforgettable weeks on the hill!

When Steph and I met up before flying out, little did we know what we were getting ourselves involved in!

The journey took a long time, and with a broken wheel on my luggage coupled with the labyrinth the New York City subway is to an unsuspecting traveller, it was not a positive experience. All is well that ends well; we arrived in good time to Cornell to settle down on the Sunday afternoon, and looked forward to our classes the next day.

"Introduction to International Relations" and "Argumentation and Debate" were the two courses I had chosen. Having completed my third year of four studying for Masters in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics at Warwick University, I longed to delve into the social sciences instead, political science in particular. The Cornell Summer School posed the best opportunity to realise this aim. The main catalyst was my involvement in the student-run festival at Warwick; One World Week, which explores current international affairs through talks by guest speakers and student roundtable discussions. Also, the gap-year in my native Hungary further widened my interest and curiosity in various cultures. Of course, the American way of life influences so many people around the world, I was looking forward to finally experiencing a part of it for myself. In these modern times when global happenings are so interlinked, it is a necessity that we are familiar with different mentalities, environments, and I now have a much better understanding of life in the States.

The I.R. course did not disappoint me, it was exactly what I had hoped for; sound knowledge of the fundamental paradigms in security studies and international political economy. Tim Byrnes was excellent at encouraging student participation, and it was a refreshing change to contribute so much to a lecture. I am now much more confident in judging the underlying notions of why and how relations between states develop the way they do. I can understand better the deeper issues behind the daily news articles, and try to take a more sceptic approach. This latter skill was also greatly enhanced by my other class where, with the confident leadership of Jethro Hayman, we looked at how to build a policy debate case, for example by exploring the skills of reasoning, its tests and fallacies. Conventional reading is not enough, he stressed, and extensive internet research using vast databases of journals, daily papers, books, law reviews was conducted for each small group debate. One of these was on affirmative action, an unknown phenomenon to Europeans and the historical Supreme Court ruling the week before made it even more exciting. This lead to individual debates on the last week, the focus being a potential policy change on the part of the Bush administration, to ameliorate transatlantic relations. In this respect I explored issues linked with the setting up of the International Criminal Court, and the Kyoto Protocol's bearing on international security.

Having studied in a Hungarian, British, and now US education system, the differences are striking. In most Eastern European countries the style is based on the Prussian system; the emphasis is on an impressively broad lexical knowledge, regurgitation, whereas in the UK the development of individual thought process is advocated. Keeping in mind that the summer sessions are more relaxed than the two semesters, I would still say that in Cornell, perhaps because Americans in general are more confident and verbose, the lectures unravel with more student involvement. This helped me a great deal to stay focused for two and a half hours each day during classes. Also, the continuous assessment method of examining knowledge gained suited me better in terms of how far I pushed myself.

Of course my Cornell summer went beyond the academic sphere!

Realising that we would both gain more from the experience by trying to succeed on our own, Steph and I agreed on arrival that we would be independent from each other - but I promise we did get on really well! It was great comfort, especially at the beginning, to have her there, and it also meant we had double the social life, dragging each other to "frat parties" we were invited to! The Greek system along with other strange wonders of Cornell like the Dairy Bar ice creams, the Dragon Day procession anecdotes, and the Bear Necessities with no fruit, nor vegetables fascinated me! and Ithaca IS Gorges! We spent the forth of July walking the Cascadilla Gorge, then continued on foot to Buttermilk State Park, a mere two hours in the scorching sun (this was before the "monsoon season" set in for a month), cooled down in the pool by the waterfalls, and ended the day by Beebe lake as the sun went down. Serene bliss!

When in an active mood, I often went to the fitness classes in the sports hall nearby, although the novelty of going spinning at 6am in the morning quickly wore off! I could often be seen playing beach volleyball also on North Campus, this became my favourite evening activity and sometimes not even the setting of the sun could wash us off the courts! The students I met along the way were great, very friendly and helpful, and without any pots and pans of my own, I still managed to cook a Hungarian dish for eight one night in Jameson Hall. The lecturers were great too, and the other professors who I met along the way, Mark Eisner, Graeme Bailey. Having been the Orientation student co-ordinator at Warwick University last year, it was interesting to compare at a meeting with Wendy Lombardo Cornell's equivalent induction programme for new international students; Pre-pare. I brought some new ideas back to Warwick with me!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to study an area that I have long been interested in, it has also given me the confidence to take a political science course at Warwick University next year, along with my statistics and econometrics courses. My amazing summer on the hill has rewarded me with many great memories; kayaking on peaceful lakes, bread bowls at Collegetown Bagels, sunbathing on the library slopes, watching chime masters in the tower, a delightful production of My Fair Lady in the Hangar Theatre, ice-hockey training, a thunderous Niagara Falls, and I could go on and on!

I believe the key to a more peaceful and equally prosperous world lies in the education of the younger generation, which advocates a culture of openness, understanding and tolerance. Thank you to all who have made it possible for me to be a part of this education!

Anita Baranyi, August 2003

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