Student News

PR officer for the Medical Student Executive Council (MSEC), Anas Abou-Ismail gives a round-up of student activities in early March:

WCMC-Q students on film

At the start of the month, Dr. James B. Maas, who teaches the famous Psychology 101 course at Cornell in Ithaca, visited us as part of a project to make a film about the distance learning experience. In their second year of pre–medical studies, WCMC–Q students share the Psych 101 course with their colleagues in Ithaca by distance learning. The theme of Dr. Maas’s film was how this works, and what the students think about it. Members of the Class of 2009 gave him a warm welcome and participated enthusiastically in the film.

While in Doha, Dr. Maas and his film crew (Ali and Lauren, seniors at Cornell in Ithaca) joined us for a day out at Haya Al–Ghanim’s family farm.

Early in the morning, students and faculty headed to the farm. On the way there, the students were playing music, singing songs, and socializing. The farm was really pleasant, the weather — and the barbecue — were amazing; there were also a variety of animals to see.

Coffee House II

March 11th was the evening of the second Coffee House. After weeks of preparation, the big day arrived. It was interesting to watch the performers prepare: some of them had started working on their routine weeks earlier.

The audience was larger than expected and it included Cornell students, faculty, and TAs. There were also students from Carnegie Mellon, the Academic Bridge Program, Texas A&M, and other visitors.

The opening event was a comic version of the balcony scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, performed by Anas and Amila, followed by Indian songs from Midhun and Divya. Eddy, Hekmat, Suzie and Anaya performed a comedy skit, followed by Eddy and Hekmat singing their version of a Backstreet Boys‘ song, which they called "Fat Babe" — and the audience loved it.

For a total change of scene, Mohammad Ali Babi showed some of his photographs and explained the techniques he had used. Zulekha and Sharon rounded off the first half with a beautiful song.

In the second half of the evening, the Coffee House picked up momentum and the audience really joined in. With a brilliant display of skill, Nigel brought us the sounds of the electric guitar, while Lobna stayed with the classical instrument. There was also poetry from Anas, and from Hala, who read us her poem about the desert.

The mood changed completely as six freshmen presented a purely original rap song called "Attack of the Freshmen," — no surprise that this got the thumbs–up from the freshman audience!

Finally TA Rob Cronin nearly brought the (Coffee) House down with his grand finale, including a wonderful and irreverent portrait of — the physics faculty!

Special thanks to TA Erin King, the performers and the audience.

[ Coffee House III - Where Cultures Blend]

Sports events

Thursday sports events continue to attract more people. It’s good to see more are showing up for soccer and basketball, organized by TA Andrew Ma.

In the event, match results have disappointed. Unfortunately, we lost the soccer game against TAMUQ, by 4 goals to 1. Very few Weill Cornell students showed up to cheer the team — which only added to the disappointment.

However, in the basketball game, the picture was quite different. About 50 people showed up to cheer for our team! They included students from all three Classes, TAs, and some applicants to the Medical College. The support was outstanding and it completely dominated our rivals. We were united in an amazing way. Even though we lost the basketball game by nine points, we definitely won in terms of cheering and our spirit of unity.

Coming up: a report on March 14, 2005 event in the Community Service Club’s anti–smoking campaign.