Chizoba Ekemam is a second year student at Cornell Law School and a Graduate Resident Fellow in the Language House this year. This year begins Chizoba’s first year as a GRF, though she is no stranger to Alice Cook House. She lived in ACH as a Cornell undergraduate for her sophomore through senior years, residing for 1 ½ years in the Spanish Language House. Chizoba’s interests include government, law school, the Cornell-in-Washington program, and major league baseball. Chizoba looks forward to meeting this year’s residents and having a great year.

Hi everybody!!! I spent my teenage years in White Haven, PA (Go Penguins). After my illustrious high school career I traveled cross country into The University of California system obtaining a BS in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. I now have been through two Ithaca winters and am definitely not looking forward to the next three.

I currently work in the ECE department conducting research in concentrated photovoltaics for commercial applications, under the direction of Lester Eastman. In my spare time I play a lot of card games, and am trying to pick up chess. I enjoy watching and playing most sports except for baseball.

I’ll watch any movie as long as it’s good. I love ethnic food especially the spicy kind. I usually stay up to at least one so don’t be a stranger come by and say hi.

Margot graduated from Cornell with a major in Chemistry and a concentration in Education. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Education, and hopes to teach Chemistry and Earth Science to high school and middle school students.

Margot grew up in Philadelphia, and is excited that her high school sweet-heart (now husband, and also a Cornellian) is here with her this year. Margot greatly looks forward to continued explorations of her new home in Ithaca.

An alum of the Alice Cook House, Margot is glad to be returning to the Gothics! In her free time, she enjoys running, cooking, and watching movies. Margot also loves eating candy, and can often be found playing Mario Kart - always as Bowser.

Dan was born and raised in Billings, MT, where he enjoyed everything from fly-fishing, hunting, camping and skiing, which he still enjoys immensely when time allows. After high school, he moved to Greeley, CO, where he graduated in 2007 from the University of Northern Colorado with a BS in chemistry. After that, he moved out east to Ithaca for graduate school in chemistry, where he is a 2nd year in Jón Njarðarson group, working on new synthetic methodology and its potential applications to biologically interesting natural products. When not in lab, Dan is trying to learn how to cook, enjoys listening to new music, going to the gym, and exploring the surrounding area.

Ashley graduated from Virginia Tech in 2002 (Go Hokies!) in Spanish and International Studies, with minors in French and European Studies. After working briefly as a wine consultant and subsequently spending a year in Germany with her husband, she began her Ph.D. at Cornell in Hispanic Literatures, in the department of Romance Studies. Her specific academic interests focus on Cuba and Catalonia.

Ashley is Cuban-American and was born and raised in Virginia, in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Aside from teaching Spanish and Catalan to Cornell students, she enjoys teaching Spanish to children. In her free time, she loves to cook, hike, play violin and piano, learn languages, and travel.

Born in Bucharest, Ioana moved to Los Angeles at the age of five. She came to Cornell as an undergraduate, studying Biology (Neurobiology and Behavior) and French. She remained in the Romance Studies department to begin her Ph.D. in French Literature. Now in her third year of the program, her research is focused on 19th century French and comparative postcolonial literatures, mainly from Haïti and Québec.

Ioana is a former Alice Cook House resident (she lived in the Language House for three semesters), and is very glad to be back! When she’s not teaching or working on her research, she enjoys learning new languages, watching films, taking photographs and playing chess.

As an undergraduate, Ioana competed on the Cornell Figure Skating Team, however shortly after finishing second at the Intercollegiate Nationals in 2003, she had to quit due to a back injury and now only skates recreationally.