Back to School

Cornell Alumni Magazine asked if I would follow some of their students down on spring break. While some college students run off and party, others spend their spring breaks volunteering. These students volunteered to come to an elementary school and help teach.

Part of the program is sponsored by Harris Rosen and his hotels Rosen Hotels and Resorts. Rosen is an alumni of Cornell.

While I was there he showed up to see how the college students were doing. Some might think this was a publicity stunt, but you could tell he was no stranger to the elementary school kids. Many of the children called Rosen by his name or at least waved to him like he was a regular there.

He showed a passion in helping these children that I would love to see more of with people in positions similar to his. It's great that he's trying to pass this down to the college students who volunteered their spring break to help these kids. This gave me a great respect anything that he manages including his hotel chain.

On another note, Cornell Alumni Magazine did a great job with their choice of images and then use of the images. The entire spread looks fantastic!

Rosen and Cornell students give back to the community

Cornell Alumni Magazine asked me to photograph Rosen, an alum and the owner of a hotel chain including Rosen Shingle Creak, and a group of Cornell students who came to Florida on their Spring Break to give back to the community. Rosen puts a lot of time into helping out underprivledged children in parts of Orlando and he offered this group accommodations at his hotels and an elementary school to help out.

Rosen seems like a very sincere person, and I could tell when we walked through the classrooms and all of the children knew who he was. Another example, while we walked through the halls he talked about having his chefs prepare a healthy pizza to be served in the cafeteria. A lot of times when you get to the top, you can forget about the people on the bottom and it's awesome to see him give back not with just money, but his own valuable time.

The magazine asked me to spend the day with them, and it was fun! It's always interesting to see how kids are being taught different from when I was in school. I'm sure it will change even more when my kids are in school.