By Julia Choi
Around two months have passed since Club Fest, which marked the beginning of the club application season. Students found themselves buried underneath the writing submissions and interviews organized by pre-professional clubs.
However, while this competitive process was placed in the spotlight, interest-based student organizations were often overlooked. As a result, I decided to take matters into my own hands and feature them myself. Let me introduce you to The HeARTbeat at Cornell.
Jeffrey Ho ’26 recalled back to his freshman year, when he failed to find a club that intertwined both of his, seemingly contradictory, interests — STEM and Humanities. This encouraged him to start his own, working alongside Romona Ling ’26, Ivy Jiang ’26 and Amy Lin ’26 to close the gap between the two disciplines.
Essentially, it bridges the two categories by exploring into the field of medicine through various forms of art. Yet, The HeARTbeat’s role doesn’t just end there; It also acts as a platform for individuals to not only express themselves and explore their passion. As a club devoted to the students, it has implemented a non-exclusive invite, where everyone is welcomed to show up to general body meetings without submitting an application.
Having this motto in mind, the club is truly grounded in emphasizing and empowering each person’s unique interests. For example, in one of their recent meetings, one of the members had the opportunity to organize a music workshop, where they explored “how sound shapes emotion, connection and self-expression.”. This illustrates how everyone plays a role in shaping the club — regardless of whether or not they are part of the executive board — as Carrie Ng ’28 states how “it is very catered to who is in it and what they want to do.”
While maintaining this structure, they have also embarked on a new project for the Fall 2025 semester: a children’s book that highlights various themes ranging from sleep to hygiene. This idea came from wanting to give something back to the community while simultaneously providing an opportunity for its members to get more involved outside of campus. As groups created short stories around themes centered around what children are learning about at the moment, they are now putting those different vignettes together to create an anthology.
Reflecting on this experience, Ho stated, “We aren’t bringing this children’s book to them for the purpose of promoting our club. We hope that children get more invested and interested in the idea of science, writing and expressing their authentic, creative selves.”
On top of this project, they have also been working on the publication they create every semester. It is considered one of their main highlights of the club as it ties in various forms of art, such as poetry and photography, and tells different stories or perspectives. In keeping with their motto, The HeARTbeat does not limit the topics the students want to explore. Ho expressed, “We actually build the theme around what our members submit, because we want them to share their own perspectives. We don’t want to put them in a box or restrict them.” As a new member of the executive board, Ng shared a similar sentiment as she shared her excitement of being able to see all the submissions and coming up with a theme that represents the overarching narrative.
With such projects in progress, there is no doubt of the impact The HeARTbeat has on campus and will have on the community. While it is not considered a pre-professional club, it holds the same opportunities for students to gain experience. Ng indicated how because she was on a pre-med track, she initially put art on the back burner for a little bit — not knowing how to intertwine the two. However, after she joined this club, she felt as if she not only found her place but also learned how to link all her interests, regardless of the field of study it is in, together: “I’m learning alongside everybody. We foster this community where each one of us searches for what humanities and STEM should look like since there is no one definition.”
As they created their own niche in Cornell, Ho emphasized, “You can’t really have medicine without humanities. It’s also about community, which we hope to shine through The HeARTbeat.”
Julia Choi is a first-year in the Brooks School of Public Policy. She can be reached at jc3767@cornell.edu.
