Monthly Archives: November 2010

As a Baruch Honors student, I know there’s a lot of pressure to keep up academically, which would certainly entail many hours of study and work. Nevertheless, I know that I have other roles to fulfill other than being a full-time student.

In terms of community service, I’m glad I have a chance to serve together in a group with a few kids from my LC. I’m sure that such an experience will help cultivate deeper friendships and help the community as a whole.

On the side, I’m also involved with other community service endeavors. For instance, this January, I will be going with a group of 10 other college students and 8 adult chaperones to Nicaragua. There in the small village La Chureca, “the Dump,” we will be helping the poor and needy there (that would be everyone living there).

As a part of the efforts of Forward Edge International, we’re there to help build up the community there as well as helping a designated group of girls. Because the girls are all in high risk of having to sell their bodies in order to help feed their families, FEI decided to intervene by building a small place just outside La Chureca. Nicknamed “Villa Esperanza” or “Village of Hope,” FEI takes a small group of girls from the dump and raises them up to be educated women with some real hope in their lives.

As part of the team going to help in January, I’m excited for this chance to step outside of my comfort zone and really help people!

My role in Baruch and the broader community as a Baruch Scholar is that of a student who gets to go to school for free because of his academic achievements and his academic potential. This role defines me and as well as other students to be as academically ambitious as possible and to give back as much as possible to the community. However, I feel my own personal role in Baruch should be to set a motivational role to peers and friends to show them that I am making full use of everything the Honors Program is offering to me. The culture of service the Honors Program promotes can actually greatly affect a student’s life. We have all received a free Mac Book as a gift from the program, not to mention the full academic scholarship. They top it off with 100 dollars for printing services as well. However, these perks are not all that the Honors Program offers. They offer us ways to reach out, to go beyond our comfort zones and into other peoples. They offer us ways for us to advance ourselves, for example, if we need a job or internship, the STARR career development center is there to help. If we need help on a paper due the next day, the writing center is available. If we want to travel and study in a different country, there are grants and scholarships available through the Honors Program. And most importantly, they are also giving us chances to give back to the community, chances for us to help others since the program has helped and given so much to so many of us. The culture of service the Honors Program promotes is something one can only describe as self-less, caring, and giving; the definition of community. The Baruch Honors community is truly one that works around and for the students, and in turn, we should adopt their giving ways and give back to others as much as we can.

As a Baruch Scholar, I believe that there are three ways to be successful. Of course, academics are important. But, being able to take advantage of the many opportunities given to us and giving back to the community are also significant. Even though it may seem like it at times, grades are not the most important thing in the world. At the end of day, it is the experiences that have allowed us to grow into a better person (cliché, but true).

Academics and other opportunities are for personal gain. One does well in these areas to be better prepared for what lies in the future. But, giving back to the community is not only a personal gain, but also is a way to help those who are less fortunate than oneself. An important aspect of being a Baruch Scholar is that we are debt free when we graduate. I have been given an opportunity that many others do not have. Therefore, it only seems fitting that I should give back to not only my community, but the broader community as well.

Baruch’s Honors Program also believes that as students who are given numerous opportunities to succeed, we should also give back. We are required to do a number of community service hours before we graduate and Freshman Seminar is way to help us get started. Through Freshman Seminar, we are to volunteer with an organization that tries to benefit the larger community. I believe that this is a helpful way for us to begin our services to give back to others.

To me, serving my community means giving back so that everyone can have access to what I had. I could go to dance at the local YMCA, I could attend summer camp, buy books for a fraction of the price at a local libary. Serving my community means experiencing anything you want – taking any subject, reading any book, playing any sport, even visitng countries – and helping other do the same. It means giving people an oppurtunity and a reason to try something that they didnt want to or couldnt try before. Serving the community could mean donating money and advertising for a venue or a yoga studio so that it can keep its door open. It can mean donating books or encouraging people to take a certain class so that they will learn something new and interesting. Basically, it means helping yourself and the people around you to become better. My role in the Baruch and the broader community is that of a student who should use the classes and oppurtunities that the Baruch Honors Program providesto become succesful and helpful. The community service project that is a requirement for Baruch Scholars is just one example of how the Honors Program encourags people to become better and more multi-faceted. Before I have neveer considered doing community service but now that I have explored all the oppurtunites – from helping children learn how to bike, to teaching and playing with them, to helping out at pet shelters – I am very much looking forward to volunteering.

As a freshman in Baruch College, I believe that the most important role for me is the role of the student. I’m relatively new to the college experience (though some would argue that it is not the true experience due to the lack of nearby dorms) and feel that for the first semester, my primary goal would be to soak up as much information as possible in order to adapt to the college itself. After all, we attend college to obtain a degree in order to obtain a successful job and build a career. In order to get that degree, we must first learn all that our professors teach us.

Though I believe that learning is extremely important in all four years of college, community service is also extremely important. Since I am in the honors college, I am going to college for free. A lot of my friends do not have this luxury. I am very fortunate to have been accepted to this program from which I graduate debt free, contrary to many of my friends who will have student loans to pay off. Due to all of this, I feel as though I should give something back.

In order to graduate high school, I had a minimum requirement of 50 hours of community service to be completed throughout my four years of high school. Instead of just doing the 50 hours, I completed around 12o hours during the summers of my freshman and sophomore years. In addition to that, I volunteered at a tutoring company and tutored children of all ages in mathematics ever since my freshman year of high school. I am not a stranger to community service and the effects that it has on our community. in fact, I am strong proponent of it and will be glad to continue to volunteer throughout my college career.

On March 13^th, 2010, I remember getting a phone call from Baruch College. My dad answered the phone and a few, long seconds later, smiled broadly, thanked the person on the other end of the line, and replaced the phone in its charger. He told me that I had gotten into Baruch Honors, meaning I had the opportunity of going to college for free! It was the best birthday gift ever.

However, gifts like this one come with one golden rule: pay it forward. Whether it’s being involved in a community or being a Baruch Scholar, the one rule is to pay it forward. So, I got involved with a charity organization called Two Cents of Hope that is helping raise funds for education. The organization identifies students (elementary school-level as well as medical students) and raises funds and gives the money to the students’ education.

Being part of Baruch Scholars or even an organization like Two Cents of Hope is about doing something to help someone else. The Honors program gave me an opportunity and now it’s my turn to give an opportunity to someone else.

My community does so much for me. The channel that India Talks airs on is a public access channel, meaning the studio, the crew, and the equipment is free. I pay the opportunity to host my own television show forward by featuring community organizations on my show and getting the word out about their respective causes.

The Honors Program encourages us to accept opportunities but not take them for granted. Helping the community and giving opportunities to others does just that. While the Honors Program provides us with educational opportunities, it also provides us with the opportunity to become better people.

Throughout most of high school, I’ve involved myself in many service groups.  Some long term and others on days where I just happened to be free.  My two most notable clubs were Key Club and CPC.  Both were long term and had an impact on who I am today.  Before joining any of those service clubs, I had perceived community service as something people do just to make their transcripts looks good or to make others perceive them as caring about a community when they really just want to be accredited. When I first joined a club, I found this to be true for 80% of its members. Since Key Club was such a big club, it was easy for people to simply sign in and leave and just come back for the sign out.  Although this was a common occurrence, there was still the 20% who were dedicated and those were the people I decided to emulate when doing community service.  Over time, I realized that community service is more than just going to an event and helping out that particular person or organization for that particular day.  It was about developing relationships with people and learning new things about society and issues that society faces from them.  Each person or organization may be facing different issues that we, being young, had not noticed nor thought about.  In simpler terms, they showed us problems and we helped they solve them and in doing so, developed a relationship that lasted more than just one day.  Time after time, they call us when they need help and we call them so see if they need assistance.  This created a relationship in which they enrich our lives by giving us the opportunity to try and gain experience from things that we would later have to do in life and develop our leadership skills in that area.

My role at Baruch thus far has been that of a student.  However, as a member of the Honors Program and the broader community, I think that I should involve myself in organizations that give back to the community which has given me so much already.  I have not seen many clubs or maybe it is because there are so many of them, but I have yet to find one that would not conflict with my studies.  I hope in time, I will be able to find one and fully commit to it like I have for the past four years.  Committing would help promote leadership skills as well as networking with people and organizations from all over – a key agenda in the Honors program.  I am grateful to be in the Honors Program, where I have so many opportunities but hope that I take advantage of these opportunities soon to help not only myself but others as well.

Baruch students are usually not your typical teenage movie college student. We don’t have the campus, the house parties, the professors that live within walking distance from us. When I first came to Baruch, it was hard to socialize and to make friends. It really did feel like high school all over again but with a ton of more people. However, I have been a college student for a little over 2 months and the experiences I have gone through are priceless. As a Baruch Scholar, I feel that my role is to use all the benefits given to me and to use them as best as I can. I also represent the college as a whole. When you say Baruch College, people just think that it’s some second or third tier college that can’t compete with the Ivy Leagues. Oh man are they wrong. When people told me college was going to be easy, especially Baruch, they were definitely lying to me. The classes here are hard, the workload is a lot and there are enough hardworking and determined people here just like there are in the Ivy Leagues. Being a scholar, I have to prove to others that Baruch does “have game” and we get everything for free (which is always a plus)! Baruch College offers so many services heres, from the many clubs, to the different Greek organizations, the cheap movie tickets, to just about everything you can possibly think of. I am definitely taking advantage in a lot of them and it’s helped me make so many new friends that I will keep for the rest of my life.

As a Baruch Scholar, I feel that my role is to be an example of all that Baruch has to offer. I’ve been granted so many opportunities through the Honors Program and it only makes sense to take full advantage of them both productively and efficiently.

I’ve been offered an excellent education as well the opportunity to meet so many intellectual people from all different walks of life. Every class has taught me something new in terms of both education and the real world. Each person that I have connected with has only added to my experience as a student and person.

Being a Baruch Scholar translates to a myriad of opportunities. In the broader Baruch community, I should be able to take advantage of everything the Honors Program and College offer. To me, that means participating in both school and Honors events. I recently submitted an article for the Ticker and am therefore establishing a place for myself in the Baruch community.

I am challenging myself academically and attempting to socialize outside of the Honors Program. In doing so, I believe that I am doing what is expected of a Baruch Scholar: managing time for my studies and for interaction within Baruch.

The Honors Program promotes the idea of embracing every opportunity, whether academic, social, or cultural. By prioritizing my time and broadening my horizons through the people I meet and the events I attend, I believe that I am fulfilling my role as a Baruch Scholar.

I always thought about how I should make my four years at Baruch the fullest. Of all the possibilities, they have one thing in common. If you strip the plans down to the simplest idea, it is to play a role. Now the question is, what role should I play?

The school place emphasis on doing well academically. But while it stresses academia, it does not forget to push us students toward clubs and organizations. This is a good strategy to help develop and produce well-rounded students.

With that said, I think my role right now is to focus on my grades and develop relationships with others in school – and become a well rounded person. Once I adjust to the college routine, I will seek to fill in a role. What I hope to become is a person who help guide others to become what I will be. To help others with the transition and show them that college is a place of self-learning and fun.

I am priviledged to go to a good school and not having to pay for tuiton. Because of that, I should appreciate my position and make the best of it. Just as Baruch is giving me an opportunity to go to school without accumulating debt, I should give back to Baruch and the community. This is what the Baruch Scholar’s program promotes.

The experience I take in freshman year will be there when I give them to others, hopefully something they can relate to and learn from. I want to lead and become a peer mentor like Maria.