Break'n it Down Break'n it Down

This episode is with Conner Swenberg, who is a Senior in the College of Engineering at Cornell. On campus he is the ex-president of Cornell AppDev, a Kessler Fellow, and an aspiring founder. In this conversation we cover a wide range of topics starting from Conner’s experiences navigating college to breaking into tech entrepreneurship.

Content and Timestamps:


2:00 | Backpacking and Seeking Discomfort
8:40 | Breaking Out of Artificial Boundaries
17:30 | Investing Your Time
29:45 | Guiding Principles
32:00 | Cornell AppDev and How to Make the Team
38:00 | Approaching Professional Development
45:00 | Creating and Fostering Relationships with Mentors
51:30 | Becoming a Founder

This episode is with Cheick Camara, who is a Junior studying Applied Economics & Management in Dyson. On campus he is the Co-Founder and Co-President of BlackGen Capital,  the first minority-owned investment fund at Cornell and is the Co-Founder of Fello, a social and professional platform that empowers talented college students to bring their ideas to life.

Cheick is also an Incoming Fundamental Research Summer Analyst at The D. E. Shaw Group.

In this conversation we cover a wide range of topics starting from Cheick’s experience hustling as a kid to leading successful organizations and pursuing your goals.

Content and Timestamps:


6:40 | School kid by day-Hustler by night
10:10 | Coming into Cornell/ From Pre-Med to Finance
19:35 | BlackGen formation
25:20 | Leading a team and organization
30:00 | Having time and Making time
33:30 | Budgeting and Investing
38:00 | Fello and lessons learned in starting a company
51:50 | Visions and Accountability

This episode is with Ananya Jambhale, who is a Junior studying Biology and Statistics at Cornell. On campus she is the Co-president of Cornell Undergraduate Research Board and a Student Advisor at the Office of Undergraduate Biology. In this conversation we cover a wide range of topics starting from Anaya’s experience singing to Barack Obama to landing an internship at the NHI.

Content and Timestamps:


03:50 | Singing for President Obama
09:15 | College Masterplan
16:30 | Clarity & Discipline
30:00 | Research & Its Applications
34:30 | Cornell Undergraduate Research Board
40:05 | Landing NIH Internship
49:00 | Pursing an MD-PhD
1:03:26 | Beyond Cornell

This episode is with Liel Sterling, who is a Senior in the College of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell. On campus she is the President of Kappa Alpha Pi Pre-Law Fraternity, Founder and Inaugural Student Advocate of the Student Assembly Office of the Student Advocate, Co-founder of the Ithaca Tenants Union, and Founder of the Cornell American Civil Liberties Union. In this conversation we cover a wide range of topics starting from Liel’s experiences navigating ILR to landing internships on Capitol Hill.

Content:


01:50 | Passion shaping experiences

08:28 | Exploring passion through clubs and organization

16:00 | Navigating ILR

25:35 | Rejection to presidency @ KAPI

39:35 | Creating your own opportunities

1:00:35 | Applying to law school and beyond

This episode is with Jehron Petty, who is the Founder and CEO of ColorStack and a recent graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Computer Science. On campus he co-founded Black Entrepreneurs in Training and was the Co-President of Underrepresented Minorities in Computing (URMC). In this conversation we cover a wide range of topics ranging from Jehron’s experiences navigating college to founding his startup, ColorStack.

Content and Timestamps:


0:44 | Background 
7:25 | Navigating Cornell 
21:20 | Growing URMC at Cornell 
32:35 | The myth of balance 
36:10 | Dropping a full-time Google offer to found ColorSack 
43:07 | What people get wrong about mentorship
50:07 | The work behind ColorStack
1:03:37 | The purpose alignment: passions, skills, and experiences

Welcome to Break'n it Down. This is a talk show where we have conversations on practical strategies, tools, and resources for navigating the college and career environment, especially here at Cornell. We do this by hosting noteworthy  students, factually and alumni from the different groups in our community, including tech, government, business, health, and more.