First-gen student Vianny Lara ’25 manifests her Cornell dream

In December 2017, Richard Onyejuruwa from the university admissions office hosted an information session about Cornell for prospective students in New York City. Although she was still in middle school, Vianny was all ears. She liked his description of the Dyson School—which he said has a small school vibe within the larger university.

Richard, Cornell’s senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions and diversity outreach, shared that he—like Vianny—grew up in the Bronx. She notes that her neighborhood was one where not many students aspired to attend college, and fewer still were admitted to an Ivy League institution.

Three years later, during college application season, she tuned in to another Cornell admissions session, once again hosted by Richard. After that session, she picked up her journal again.

“I made up my mind. I'm going to Cornell. I'm going to Dyson. I started writing it in my journal over and over,” Vianny says. “I was manifesting. It was COVID time, and one of the hobbies I picked up and got good at was manifesting.”

Fast forward seven years and Vianny has indeed manifested her Cornell dream. She’s now in her final semester at Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at the SC Johnson College of Business, on the threshold of starting her professional career.