The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/spotlight/)
Raised in a crowded, barely middle-class Somalian home, Cornell physician-scientist Prof. Said Ibrahim never thought being a doctor was in the cards for him. “Medical school was reserved for wealthy elites,” he previously said, noting that his family was sustained only by his father’s income of about $50 a month.
With graduation looming, the frequency of nosy questions about post-graduation life from parents, friends, friends of parents and parents of friends far and wide reaches its peak. “What are you doing after graduation?” Is a question every senior dreads answering, but for Jessica Kwong ’18, the question brought on an entirely new crisis: Accept the return offer for one of the biggest snack companies in the world or start from scratch building her very own company? She eventually decided on the latter, and Kwong declined the job offer in favor of creating what would eventually become Jack & Friends in March 2019, a plant-based jerky line with jackfruit as a main ingredient.
“I look back on my father, his inspiration, and commitment towards me, my sister and his own life. I look back on that and know that I am never going to have an easy day in my life. And I might as well just take the hard days as they come, and succeed through them and push past all of the emotional, mental, and physical, and pain or challenges I might be in at the time.” Filmed and edited by Tony Li
Music by Alexander Nakarada @ SerpentSound Studios
www.soundcloud.com/serpentsoundstudios
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
“I think the first moment that I really started to care about soccer was when Australia qualified for its first world cup in 32 years in 2006. Specifically when Tim Cahill scored the game winning goal and then the whole family just went crazy. It was big moment because I didn’t realize how much of an impact soccer could have on people”
As individuals with our very, own, unique backgrounds, each and every one of us, sees the world through a distinct lens. Our stories are read in different languages, but written through honest nuances. We think not in words but ways, shapes, and forms, leading us to inquire, question, and hypothesize with uncommon frameworks exclusive to our own conscience.
If you were to ask last November which movie was poised to win the 2015 Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards, a strong majority would subscribe to Carol as first-in-line for Oscar gold, as Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara crafted a dynamically real and voyeuristic affair. The queer-centric film was heavily lauded by critics not only for those performances, but also for its message that is breaking ground for gay rights and equality. As a result, I was left scrambling for clarification when the nominees were announced and Carol was surprisingly omitted. Thus, the question remains: who will win the ultimate award of Best Picture? If the past is indicative of anything, it is that unpredictability is inevitable.
When referring to movies, the words “Based on true events” often don’t carry much weight. All too regularly, films labeled as true stories are littered with clichés or dramatic moments that could not possibly have happened in reality. With this in mind, Spotlight is a breath of fresh air — an engrossing story that doesn’t resort to overused narrative tricks and, therefore, feels one hundred percent real. The film’s title refers to The Boston Globe division that investigated the widespread molestation of children by Catholic priests in Boston and the subsequent cover-up by the archdiocese. As The Globe’s reporters methodically uncover details of the scandal, we don’t see violent threats from parties opposing the newspaper or a writer emphatically throwing a chair in an outburst of frustration.