When searching for an organization to work with in the Community Service Project, my group was encouraged to draw upon the expertise of faculty working at the Newman Library. They introduced us to the Idealist website, which is where my group found the Carter Burden Center for the Aging. Maria and Mr. Medina were a great help in this project because they told us what makes a good or bad presentation and walked us through each step of the process. The skills that I learned in FRO were useful in many of my classes including my communications and business classes where we presented powerpoints or speeches. Having guests talk to us about their organizations and volunteering helped us realize the importance of volunteering. When they spoke about their organizations, I sensed a feeling of passion, which greatly influenced my view of this community service project. It made me understand the purpose of this assignment and how our group should approach it – with sincerity and excitement.

Upon entering Baruch, I have already participated in many community service events including serving Thanksgiving dinner to senior citizens, singing for charity, and cleaning up parks and planting trees on Earth Day. Due to my prior experience, I already had a great understanding of what it meant to give back to the community. I am excited to work with the Carter Burden Center for the Aging because it is a new way that I can provide help to my community with my new-made friends.

During this semester, I have utilized both the SACC and Writing Center for my communications and English courses. They were very useful not only in improving my school work, but also in improving my confidence in my school work. I will continue to make appointments with these centers especially next semester. This semester I haven’t had any math courses but I will be taking both math and micro-economics next semester. I believe that I will need help from SACC in order to get back on track after not having to do any calculations for an entire semester.

I am a cofounding member of the Polish Club. We were unable to organize any events this semester because we received our budget at the end of November, however, we have a few events planned for the next semester. Although I only joined one club this semester, in the future, I plan on joining Honors Council or a club related to my major, actuarial science.

At the beginning of the semester, I had multiple possible majors in mind including accounting, finances, and international business. However, at this time, I believe that I am set on actuarial science. I am extremely grateful that Qamar, a Baruch alumnus, came to our FRO class to talk about his life after Baruch College and his career as an actuary. Before he visited our class, I was still a bit undecided about my major and uncertain about what an actuary actually does, but now I am ALMOST certain that actuarial science is what I want to pursue (however, I do acknowledge the possibility that my major may still change). As I was informed by Qamar, I have to pass eight exams in order to become an actuary and pass at least one in order to qualify for an internship. With this in mind, I plan on beginning to study for the exams at the beginning of my sophomore year, if not the end of my freshman year. This will allow me to apply for an internship during the summer after my sophomore year. It is a bit frightening that I already have to make decisions specific to my major. Hopefully I will not change my mind about my major after I begin the process towards being an actuary.

I believe that serving the community does not only include helping those who are less fortunate than us. Our community does not only consist of those who are in need. By helping EVERYONE who is a part of the community, we are able to show that WE ARE a part of this community. Many people focus on helping the homeless, the hungry or the disabled, but what about the rest of the community? I agree that these people are most definitely one of the priorities, but that does not mean that the rest of the community should be left out. What about the children who want to learn a new language simply because they want to but are not given the opportunity? Or the group of boys who want to play soccer but are unable to find a coach? These children are not in the same need as the homeless but by volunteering, we can help them achieve their goals and follow their dreams. Volunteering unifies the community and shows everyone that nobody is left out.

During my years in high school, I volunteered in many places including the Sunnyside Community Center where I served Thanksgiving dinner to the elderly, Socrates Sculpture Park and Flushing Meadows Park where I planted trees and rid the parks of any pollution, and the Diverbo linguistic immersion program in Jerez, Spain where I helped Spanish teenagers learn English and feel more comfortable about holding conversations in a foreign language to them. All volunteering experiences allowed me to help different people. My volunteering for these organizations was not necessary but through it, I was able to make a change in the various communities. Of course this change was not extreme, but it was a start. If everyone took time out of their daily lives to help out, then change would appear more drastic.

The ways in which people can volunteer are infinite. Depending on a person’s education, abilities, and interests, a person can do many things to give back to the community ranging from offering after school tutoring or donating money to buy food for the homeless. By doing something that both interests you and is able to improve the community, you will realize that volunteering is not a difficult and unpleasant task. Since I enjoy traveling and learning about various cultures, volunteering in Spain was not an unwanted chore. Teaching teenagers coming from many different towns and cities in Spain, I was able to not only influence their lives, but also influence my own. The two-week long volunteer opportunity allowed me to acquire new friendships and made me realize that despite the cultural diversity, we grew very close to each other and were able to communicate well. Never have I thought that my volunteering would create such strong ties that would last a long time. On the last day of camp, the Spaniards were in tears. It was then that I understood that being able to spend two weeks with them and speaking to them in a foreign language was an important part of their life. Although I was volunteering abroad, I was still helping my community, my global community.

As a Baruch Scholar, I would like to continue being able to provide support to people in not only my local community, but also my global community. During my years in college, I plan on helping multiple organizations that focus on helping various groups in the community. Through getting involved, I will be able to become more aware of the problems people have to live with that do not directly influence my life and that I do not understand. Volunteering will fully introduce me to my community because it seems that we have only just met.

An experience that has shaped who I am as a person is my parents’ divorce. Like all divorces, it was an unpleasant occurrence that has had a major impact on the way I grew up and developed into a mature person. Personally, I feel that it caused me to be more serious and responsible at a young age than most of my colleagues. For the most part, my mother had to play the role of two parents and I had to help her. Trying to be the “man” of the household, I had a screw driver on my desk for whenever I had to put together a new piece of furniture and a map in hand whenever I went on road trips with my mom. The divorce also made me stronger emotionally. No longer do I allow certain problems to break me apart and affect me.

My expectation as a college student is to become more independent of my mother and to be able to manage more things on my own. In order to succeed in this, I will have to learn how to manage my time well, so that I can balance school, work, friends, and family. I also hope to end the semester with a high GPA so that I will have greater chances of receiving an internship or a better job position. As the semester progresses, I would like to come closer to choosing a major or at least a direction in which I would want to go in. When I first decided to come to Baruch, I was set on international business or finance, but I am no longer as confident in that decision as I once was. I understand that most undergraduates are confused about their career goals, but I find it very unsettling and would prefer to know who I would like to be in a few years.

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