Sylvan Martin
Mathematics & Computer Science
Laurel, Md.
What Cornell memory do you treasure the most?
My freshman-year Outdoor Odyssey trip is how I met some of my best friends coming into college, who I'm still best friends with to this day. Those eight days with new, interesting people made me so excited to come to Cornell, and honestly that excitement never really went away.
How have your beliefs or perspectives changed since you first arrived at Cornell?
I've definitely become more aware of different perspectives on issues I previously only saw one side of. In a lot of my A&S classes, especially outside my major, I'd be in discussion circles with people who were completely different from me, and different from people I grew up with.
Who or what influenced your Cornell education the most?
My first math professor, Ravi Ramakrishna, laid the groundwork for how I would approach my math education. He showed me how to approach problems first from an intuitive understanding and then formulate this intuition into mathematical rigor. I also gained an incredibly strong foundation for my math education because of how supportive Prof. Ramakrishna was, holding frequent office hours and giving really good advice.
If you were to offer advice to an incoming first year student, what would you say?
Don't just go looking for easy-A classes to fulfill your distribution requirements! Those requirements are fun, and a really good opportunity to get a perspective you've never seen before or learn about a subject you previously didn't know anything about. There are so many courses to choose from that it's a near guarantee you can find a class outside your major that you still find incredibly fun and interesting.
Every year, our faculty nominate graduating Arts & Sciences students to be featured as part of our Extraordinary Journeys series.Read more about the Class of 2025.
