Student Profile

Emma Osore lived and interned in New York City during the summer of 2007 as a part of the Cornell Urban Scholars Program. Professor Richard Kiely taught the social-justice-based introductory course in the spring, which included a placement plan that helped guide students to not-for-profit agencies all over the city. Emma spent her summer at Added Value, an urban farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn where she was responsible for event planning for farmers’ markets and developing service learning outings and reflections with teen participants. These efforts attracted community members to healthy, local foods available at markets and helped teens think about the impacts of their positive influence in the community.
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"I don’t know what I’d do without urban and regional studies. My interest and passion for the importance and interdependence of community building, service, and creativity led me to it."

B.S. Urban and Regional Studies 2009

I don't know what I'd do without urban and regional studies. My interest and passion for the importance and interdependence of community building, service, and creativity led me to it. While being in the URS program I have reached many of the goals I had set out for myself as a freshman, which include gaining hands-on learning experience, and as a result, I have toured new places, only begun to understand new people and issues, and helped rebuild communities.

My time in URS has been marked by extraordinary opportunities of field-based research in Nairobi, New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, DC -- and I will be heading off to Rome next semester! This is one of the only majors at Cornell that really allows you to explore and learn, literally, how the world around us works and has a faculty and staff that encourage it! I have also learned more about myself in the process and have been able to narrow down where I see myself after graduation.

The URS liberal arts degree has also helped me figure out which academic fields of study I love and which I do not; even the ones I don't like can be tied to city planning issues. In every situation I find hidden within a little of something I've learned in URS . . . and that's why I love it!

education

Cornell University, Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Studies, May 2009

Travel and Study Abroad

Urban Africa, Nairobi Design Studio (CRP 395 and 557), Nairobi, Kenya: Helped facilitate youth-led action research through the “Growing Up in Cities” program, in the Kibera self-built settlement, winter/spring 2007
Alternative Spring Breaks, Urban Environments (NTRES 496), NYC, NY: Semester class and one-week exploration of community gardens, street trees, and other urban green space, spring break 2006
Promises and Pitfalls of Contemporary Planning (CRP 200), New Orleans, LA: Class and a one-week field visit to survey and document existing conditions of the Lower 9th Ward as part of a comprehensive “New Orleans Planning Initiative” development plan, fall 2006
Cornell Urban Scholars Program, New York City, NY: Worked at Added Value, an urban farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn as part of this social justice summer internship, spring/summer 2007
Cornell in Washington, Washington, DC: Public policy classes and internship, fall 2007
Cornell in Rome, Rome, Italy: URS classes on the economic, political, cultural, and social life of contemporary European cities, spring 2008
I have also been to Providence, RI and Syracuse, NY as part of the Organization of Urban and Regional Studies (OURS) free spring and fall trips. I traveled to San Francisco, CA for the National Organization of Minority Architect Students (NOMAS) design competition.

Activities

Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars (MFCNS)

National Organization of Minority Architect Students (NOMAS)

Black Student Leadership Conference,Delegate

served as an officer on the African Latino Asian Native American Programming Board (ALANA),

Organization of Urban and Regional Studies (OURS)

Minority Organization of Architecture, Art, and Planning (MOAAP)

Department of City and Regional Planning

Diversity Committee

Office of Minority Educational Affairs

Community Service Coordinator (CSC)

Emma Osore and seven classmates traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, during winter break of 2007 as part of professor David Driskell’s course on youth action research in international cities, a Growing Up in Cities project. They worked with young adults at One Stop Youth Centre, to interview young people in the self-built settlements of Kibera and Mukuru, working collaboratively to determine and implement action projects for community change. Pictured here is a young girl drawing a picture of her community during an interview in Soweto East, Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya as part of the “Growing Up in Cities-Nairobi” project. January 2007.