I would like to be completely honest with this assignment and say that my outlook on my resources, future in college, and community service, hasn’t changed at all. Baruch offers a wide variety of resources for all of its students, and I am grateful for that, but I haven’t utilized them for any projects. I’ve visited the library for personal reading, contacted departments for course registration, and researched the multiplicity of centers for my own reasons. However, I don’t believe that I haven’t gained anything from that. Despite the fact that they weren’t helpful in certain ways, they were helpful in the ways that I needed them.
I would also like to say that my outlook on community service hasn’t been altered. This is due to the fact that I’ve always respected the value and experience that ties into it. Personally, I find it difficult to imagine that people may not understand the true value and benefit of doing community service. I don’t quite understand how they’ve never considered that it may effect them personally. This is most likely due to my experiences with volunteer work, but I feel like it’s also common sense. I don’t mean to offend anyone when I say this, but it is fairly obvious good moral behavior. It is necessary that everyone should reach out to help somebody other than themselves, because it is the right thing to do. Helping others is generous, beneficial and productive. And since most of the people who need help are those in vastly different situations, it is no wonder that we’d gain learning experiences and grow as individuals. Hence, it is hard for me to believe that a lot of people don’t understand that volunteer work is such an incredibly important and beneficial idea. And on the other hand, I feel as if the whole concept of encouraging community service is an attempt to glorify the idea. We shouldn’t be applauded for understanding service, we shouldn’t be pressed into doing it, and we shouldn’t be bragging about our positions as Baruch scholars. A true understanding of community service is the understanding that you won’t be rewarded for your deeds. It is understanding that true mitzvah’s are done through every day interactions, not eight hour mandated periods of time. It is understanding your role in your community, internalizing it, and taking action. By presenting all of our intended volunteer work and our ‘revelations’ of scholarly status, we’ve simply stated the obvious. I understand the effort in trying to get Honors students to understand their value and leadership capabilities, but I feel as if we’ve been given way too little credit. Personally, I know what kind of role I hold and what importance volunteer work holds. I’ve always viewed it that way, and I always will. Therefore, I don’t believe that I’ve changed my outlook. I simply reinforced my beliefs.
On another note, I’ve explored a few of the clubs. Initially, I planned on joining over three clubs within the semester. However, I realized that it would be far too difficult. I then spaced out my clubs based on their goals, interests, and my priorities. This allows me to dabble in all of the fields that I find interesting without taking time away from my academics. Personally, I decided that I would join, and stick with, the Radio for the majority of my college experience. This ‘club’ is closely related to my major and is definitely something I’m interested in. Additionally, I chose to participate in the Volunteer Tax Assistance Program , which I will join in my sophomore year, and possibly the Ticker or some creative writing group. Honestly, I also feel as if the clubs are slightly difficult to handle. Some of these require you to attend mandatory meetings which are held at the same time as other club meetings. This makes it difficult to prioritize interests and actually attend these sessions. In my experience, I joined the Radio as a part of the Operations group. However, I was told that there was nothing for me to do there at the time. I would like to participate, and not seem like the type of personal that bails, but there really isn’t anything I could do and I can’t go to events that are held around 8pm. Therefore, I don’t think it is fair that I should be held accountable for not participating as much as the others. This is one of the difficulties I experienced with club-joining. On the other hand, though, I don’t think it will continuously be a struggle. I envision the next three years to be quite interesting, educational, and hopefully rewarding on many levels. With the freedom to do things on my own, and time to do these things, I believe I’ll get more out of the experience. I plan on following through with my major, finally settling on a minor, possibly studying abroad, and then graduating happily. I would like to contribute as much as I can to the college during my time here, but my primary focus is to make the most out of my education and keep my grades up for the Honors program in the meantime.
