Through the constant need to attend to multiple matters at once in college and several group projects, I have learned to reach out to my peers, clubs, and authority figures as a valuable resource whenever I find myself slipping. Admittedly, that has commonly been the case this semester. I have found a great group of friends at Baruch, who have been very encouraging and supportive of me in my academic endeavors. My community research project, through its demands of obtaining avid and detailed knowledge on the subject,  has given me the opportunity to reach out to resources like the Writing Center. Through them, I am able to improve myself as a writer and communicate myself in writing with more efficiency. Although unrelated to the project, I have also used the SACC, which has proven to be very valuable for my precalculus course.

I have joined WBMB, the radio club, as a show host. It has given me a chance to relax after a long week of studying, which has proven beneficial to my overall mental health. I also joined the soccer club, and had a very good time in there as well.

My understanding of community service has evolved to much more than just volunteering at my local soup kitchen. I now see that it is a chance to build on yourself as a person and reflect on the privilege one has as a person, and how we must use it to benefit those who don’t have it. I see it as an absolute necessity for anyone and everyone to do, because it is an extremely humbling experience as well.

As for the next three years, I have to say that I do not know what they will look like. I no longer confidently see myself in a Wall Street internship. I’m leaning towards getting a Bachelor’s in Public Administration now, but I’ll wait and see. Maybe I’ll get better with numbers in the future. Maybe I just need a few more trips to the SACC.

As a Bearcat, I’ve had one central objective; to try and make the lives of as many people as possible better (and to make the lives of my close friends a living hell). In all seriousness, though, as a Baruch student and Scholar, my goal is to promote the belief that together, we all succeed. Baruch is well-known for being a very competitive and no-nonsense school, and some students may try to mold themselves to this sort of stereotype. If folks like us go against this sort of toxic mentality that divides us as a community, we can create real change with the privilege of being in the honors program. It starts with us, as well. Some people may put themselves in a “holier than thou” mindset because of their honors status compared to regular Baruch students, which only adds to the separation. It’s my obligation to acknowledge my status as someone who gets priority over others and will support my friends outside of the Scholars or Macaulay programs in every way possible, whether it’s encouraging them to take honors classes in the future or studying with them. The Honors Program promotes a culture of service focused on being selfless and caring for the people around you. By understanding that working with, and not against each other, is what produces the most progress, we are doing a great service to the people around us.

That’s a very good question. How did I get here?

A lot of things have shaped who I am. I can’t pinpoint one experience that made me who I am, but I suppose my trip to Ecuador in the summer of 2017 was one to remember. I had a lot of fun exploring the lands of my ancestors while also understanding the privilege I had by simply living in the United States. It gets a little surreal knowing that you could have been born anywhere in this world, and you won the freakin lottery by being born here. My relatives don’t live the same life of luxury that I do, even though they work just as hard, if not harder than us. They don’t live in the land of opportunity, so they won’t get to enjoy all of the fruits of their labor.

So, where am I going from here?

As a college student, I hope to continue my academic successes from high school and develop solid study habits as well. I hope to obtain a 3.6 GPA for my first semester and simultaneously not kill my social life. So far, I’m having a sort of imbalance in terms of how much time I’m dedicating towards work and play. I’m not having a hard time being social, but it takes away from the time I need for studying. It’s a habit I picked up in the second half of my junior year, and it’s been hard to shake. I’m hoping that in the same way that I developed these bad habits, I can also learn to create good ones through practice and patience.

Hopefully during my next check-in I’ve got more positive things to talk about.

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