Community.

To serve you community always confused me in its meaning. What does it mean to serve your community? Does it mean physically going out and volunteering or even just hanging out in the community? I had done volunteering help others as well and hang around the community with friends. But what does it mean to contribute to the community? The Baruch community is another community that I would have to find my ground in.

To me the Baruch community is a second home that I need to find my place in. Second month into the school year, and I’m still back up with all the stress that college life bring. I feel like a beginning the college life is starting a new journey of exploration. Baruch has many opportunities, but I feel small compare to the vast options. At the same time, I feel that I am restricted. I always play within my circle and it is hard to expand outward.

At the Baruch community, I want to get a feel of the new community before I become a part of it. In the future, after I understand college and its requirement, I would like to contribute something too. At the moment, I am not to sure about that I going to contribute, but what ever it is it would have my touch in it.

Being a scholar doesn’t change my view of things. To me, I am just another student. Being a scholar only gives us a higher standard, but that does not change how we actually are.

As a student of Baruch and as a Baruch Scholar in the Honors Program, I personally believe that it is a responsibility to give back to the community. After receiving so much in terms of support and resources, it becomes imperative for us as members of the Honors Program to reciprocate the care and nurture that we received. It becomes more than just a duty or task, but also an opportunity to demonstrate what we learned. Even as the Honors Program promotes academic growth through increase in rigor and demonstrations of this acquired knowledge, community service allows us to apply the knowledge we have gained.

Another facet of being an Honors student is an understanding of the bigger picture. We should’t limit ourselves to the confines of our personal perspectives, but seek to broaden our horizons and expanding our capacity to care. By reciprocating this sense of nurture, we can promote the growth of not only ourselves, but also those around us. So although leadership qualities are desirable, the community and the world at large require just as much from those who are willing to give back. To have a caring heart. To be a leader, in growth, sustainability, and equality. By committing a fraction of our time to help improve the health of the local community, we in turn learn the valuable lessons of humility, brotherhood, and sustainable growth.

I look forward to volunteering and making my hands available to help those in need. I hope that through this I will make new friends, learn the meaning of compassion, and gain the experience of caring for someone other than myself.

As a Baruch student, and more importantly, as a Baruch Scholar, I believe that it is my duty to act in a way befitting of an Honors student by showing others my integrity, my character, and my hard work. Not only am I responsible for my own work and projects, but as a student, I must also ensure that my colleagues do the same. Likewise, I need to demonstrate to others that I am an approachable, friendly, and encouraging person so that I may help others in their future endeavors. As to my hard work, I need to show others that no matter how hard assignments are or how many there are, trying your best is better than doing nothing, and that eventually, hard work will pay off.

As to the broader community of Baruch, I am willing to spend my time trying out new things, participating in organized events, and meeting new people with whom I can share my experiences. This way, not only will I be able to build a solid reputation in the Baruch community, but I will also grow as a result to a more mature and dependable individual.

By being in the honors program at Baruch, I am given resources that I would otherwise not have. These resources should not be watsed which means that I should efficiently and productively use the resources I have been given by working hard. However, by working hard, I don’t only mean working hard academically, but also working hard to give back to the community. By giving back to the community, we accept the resources we have been given as well as sharing our own resources to promote growth in the community. We give to those who do not have the same privileges we have been given as well as the opportunity to foster their own growth.

There are many ways to give back to the community and one of them is by volunteering at nonprofit organizations. By doing community service, we realize that the resources that have been given shouldn’t be taken for granted, and that others have made the effort to give us those resources. Their efforts should not be ignored and should be taken into consideration. By doing this, we should come to realize that we should give back to the community so that others will be able to benefit from our help. Just like how we have been given resources by the community, we, in turn, should give our resources to the community in order to help others. Ultimately, being in the honors program in Baruch means that we are not only receiving, but we are contributing as well.