Meet Adam

A self-described “city person,” Adam has come to appreciate the natural beauty the city of Ithaca offers, whether hiking, doing “polar plunges” in the lake, or watching the sun set. Outside of Ithaca, his studies and extracurricular involvements have brought him to New York City (including the French embassy!) and beyond. Wherever Adam finds himself, he always feels encouraged to pursue his dreams by the passionate, caring Hotelie community that surrounds him.

What clubs/activities are you involved with on campus?

I am involved with Cornell Cuvée (the blind wine tasting competition team) and Men's Club Water Polo, on the culinary team for Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC), an Establishment TA, and a Nolan Hotel School Ambassador.

What is your academic passion?

I think what Hotelies really care about, at the end of the day, is people – we just choose different mediums through which to care about them. For me, I fell in love with the food & beverage (F&B) industry at a young age and have been caught in it ever since. The Hotel School has been so instrumental in developing my love for F&B because of all the ways I've been shown you can pursue it as a career path. I came in wanting to be a chef and saw that as one of the only career paths available to you if you were interested in food; since being here, I've learned about wine and beverages and its many avenues, I've designed restaurants and learned about paths as a hospitality consultant, and so much more. I am so grateful to the Hotel School for showing me my favorite thing about F&B, which is its endless and ever-changing nature.

What is one piece of advice or something you wish you knew when you were applying?

The piece of advice my older brother gave me just before I began college is written on a sticky note above my desk: a reminder that reads, "sleep more than you study, study more than you party, party as much as possible." There are several pieces of good advice all wrapped into one here, but I think the main takeaway is to do as much as you can to have a good time as often as possible. Yes, you should make sure to get good sleep and good grades throughout, but there is more leeway — more hours in the day, even — than you might think. Be the person that spontaneously gets the group to swim in Cayuga Lake, or plans a road trip to Montreal, or starts a game of volleyball on the North sand courts, or any number of other possibilities available to you at Cornell. That advice for me is a reminder to not take everything too seriously, that I can do the thing for which I primarily pay tuition and still have an amazing time taking advantage of other opportunities.

How did you find your friends and community at Cornell?

I think the key to finding your community here is to really throw a whole lot at the wall and see what sticks; that is to say, try a million different things in the first couple semesters, and then see what you really find calling to you. There are only so many engagements to which you can truly commit, and I believe it's better to give your all to a few things than to give a half-effort to many. I got involved early on with foodie things in the Hotel School, found a group of friends with whom to play volleyball, and joined HEC (a big Hotel club in charge of the annual HEC conference) within my first year or so, but didn't try to do too much more beyond that. Through these groups, I've made some best friends with whom I will remain close hopefully forever.

Tell us about an off-campus program you’ve participated in.

I've taken three different "field trips" out of Ithaca, besides sport travel tournaments. The first, for a Cornell Hotel Society-sponsored weekend in NYC as a member of the HEC board, where we toured hotels and attended an industry expo; I was even able to sit at the James Beard Award Gala Dinner for a multi-course plated dinner and auction honoring big-name chefs in the industry. The second time was to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for the catering operations class, where we were treated to a special lunch and given a tour around the property before heading off to Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Westchester for another tour. The final time, and my personal favorite, was to the French Embassy in NYC for the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup as a member of Cornell Cuvée, the school's blind wine tasting competition team. There, my team and I competed in three blind flights of wine and ten theory questions, all exclusively focused on the left bank of Bordeaux, France. All of these were such unique, incredible experiences that I couldn't have gotten anywhere else and will never forget.