Leah Moore (2020)
“Teaching as a form of giving is something that I find important, and I think is one of the ways that I get to live out the Tradition values in my everyday life. I'm working with the next generation of people, and they're so incredible…”
Cornell Tradition alum Leah Moore graduated from the college of Human Ecology in 2020, with a major in Human Development and minors in English and Inequality Studies. Leah is a Humanities teacher at the Webb Schools in Claremont, California, and credits the Cornell Tradition for having an impact on their career trajectory. Leah teaches a course titled “Voices and Visions of Justice”, in which they explained that they are making a connection between course materials and what's going on in the world. “I think having firsthand experience of working with communities and talking about issues facing communities has been important to what I'm now able to talk with my students about. My experiences of listening to people in the community and trying to work with them to achieve a goal is a similar connection that I think the best literature hopes to do too--of working with communities and shedding light on different things happening in our world.”
For Leah, taking advantage of the Tradition’s program funding to intern with the non-profit organization 826 Chicago the summer after junior year, made it clear that they wanted to pursue a career in education. 826 Chicago gave Leah the opportunity to learn how to create programs oriented around creative writing and working with small children by encouraging them to get excited about books and reading. Leah added that the support account funding her unpaid experience ended up being an integral part of them becoming a teacher.
Finding a place at Cornell was also an important factor for Leah during their time as an undergrad. Due to the program’s expectations, Leah was an active volunteer in Ithaca and the greater community which helped them build connections with other fellows and community members. “The work that Tradition asks you to do makes you step out of your comfort zone and do things that maybe you wouldn't have done if you were just a Cornell student and didn't have to meet the specific requirements. Because of that, I felt more confident going into my career feeling as though I had a multi-layered experience being able to see so many different things and meet so many different people in a way that I think a lot of my peers who were not in a commitment program weren't able to experience in the same way. They didn't have the same interactions with the community that I think was so fundamental to my time in Ithaca and subsequently my time at Cornell.”
Leah also discussed making connections with the Cornell Commitment staff when experiencing challenges with navigating Cornell as an institution, and Ithaca as a place, as someone who is away from home for the first time. They acknowledged that it’s hard to reach out and ask for advice, but by removing the transactional conversations and giving space to engage in more genuine conversations can be so important when one is trying to figure things out as an undergrad.
Leah encourages all Cornell students to make the best of their time at Cornell by getting off campus to explore Ithaca, work in the community, or even just to go hiking in the gorges. Leah believes that a lot of their development happened outside of the classroom, resulting in having a strong affinity with Cornell and Ithaca. “Cornell is a big place in so many ways. And so is Ithaca. But I think if you develop friendships with people who also really want to explore the greater area, you develop so much richness out of your experience that you have the memories for forever. Don't get too wrapped up in just pursuing your studies, job opportunities, or internships that you think will be successful at some point down the road. Invest in yourself, your interests, and your hobbies, and try to develop those in whatever way you can because ultimately, that will leave you a much happier Cornell alum than just pursuing the next thing over and over again.”