Meet Andrew
Andrew is passionate about the intersection of neuroscience and psychology, delving into the biological intricacies of the brain while seeking to understand the human mind’s behavioral and mental processes. His freshman year was a whirlwind of club exploration, leading to lasting friendships from Encouraging Young Engineers and Scientists (EYES). His most cherished Cornell memory? Collaborating with EYES to create marshmallow catapults for elementary school students—a pure and feel-good experience involving the Ithaca and Cornell communities.
What clubs/activities are you involved in on campus?
I am a BioMG 2800 TA, pursue research in the L.A.S.E.R/Sheehan lab, and am involved with Encouraging Young Engineers and Scientists.
What is your academic passion?
As someone who's concentrating in Neurobiology and Behavior and also pursuing a minor in Psychology, I'm interested in understanding the brain from a biological and psychological perspective. These two sides often come into disagreement, so I want to be someone who can really understand the biological basis of the brain but also understand the output of the human mind through behavioral and mental processes. I was able to further pursue this interest by taking a couple of psych classes for my distribution requirement and ended up even working in a psych lab before eventually shifting over into the neuroscience field.
How did you find your friends and community at Cornell?
Clubs! It can be a little exhausting, but trying out many different clubs freshman year gave me the chance to bond with many different people and build relationships that I still cherish today. For example, some of my closest friends today are from EYES (Encouraging Young Engineers and Scientists), a club I joined freshman year.
When you were applying, why did you choose Cornell?
One thing that particularly stood out about Cornell was its dedication to providing such a huge variety of courses and encouraging students to go out of their comfort zone. Specifically, most schools at Cornell have distribution courses that allow students to take classes completely outside of their major. My favorite distribution class was Greek Mythology, as someone who was a huge Percy Jackson and mythology fan in general, I was able to explore my interest in depth through this class.
Hometown
FloridaGraduation Year
2025College/School
- College of Arts & Sciences
Majors
- Biological Sciences
Pull Quote
What is your favorite class so far and why?
My favorite class at Cornell was BioNB 2210: Intro to Animal Behavior. I had to take the class for a concentration requirement, but I'm so glad I did because it ended up being so memorable to me. The class is structured to have many different lecturers who are all passionate about a certain topic in Animal Behavior, so it felt like there wasn't a single boring lecture. Eventually, I even discovered my current lab (L.A.S.E.R/Sheehan Lab) through this class during one of Professor Sheehan's lectures on eusocial animals.
Where is your go-to place to eat on campus and what is your favorite thing to order?
My go-to place on campus depends on where my next class is. If it's closer to North Campus, I always go to Goldie's (in Atrium Hall) for a quick lunch break. Their portobello sandwich is absolutely stunning and is a great vegetarian option! When I’m far from North Campus, another one of my favorites is Trillium. Trillium boasts a variety of food selections from Asian bowls, pasta, burritos, burgers, salads, and my favorite, quesadillas!
Tell us about your favorite thing to do in Ithaca.
Applefest is my favorite event in Ithaca! For those that don't know, Applefest is a yearly event in downtown Ithaca where there's lanes and lanes of different pop-up stores and food trucks. They sell everything from apple donuts, apple ice cream, chocolate covered apples, anything with apples in it. My favorite spot during Applefest is the one stand where they sell apple and pecan pies. Absolutely delicious!
Tell us about your favorite Cornell memory.
One of my most memorable experiences at Cornell was working with the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School with EYES (Encouraging Young Engineers and Scientists). We host weekly science experiments for the kids, and one week we decided to make marshmallow catapults. I just remember having so much fun with other members and the students, as the kids became so rowdy and competitive about who could launch their marshmallow further or who could make it in a bin. It was a very pure and feel-good time.
Tell us about your favorite place to study.
My favorite study spot is Olin Library, specifically the stacks. It's arguably one of the quietest spots on campus, so whenever I need to concentrate, the stacks are perfect. The place is literally made for productivity, the seats are placed so there are no external distractions. If you ever need a place to enter a flowstate of studying, stacks is the place!