I am both proud and remiss to say that my first semester as Baruch is coming to an end. The first couple of weeks I was overwhelmed by all the things going on: classes, clubs, workshops, support centers and friends. I had the slightest clue how to organize these many diffrent things as not to be overwhelmed, let alone how to use these assets to my advantage. With time I learned that these different parts of college life were not conflicting; they are complimentary to one another.

Classes are a must, some are good others not so much. But communicating with faculty allows one to get a better sense of what is expected and how to achieve that expectation. Additionally, support centers like the writing workshop and SACC can hold your hand a little bit if your struggling with a particular subject, paper or project. Many think of these support centers as wastes of time, an hour of time that could be spent doing other work. In reality, however, that hour spent in SACC or the writing center can be equivalent to multiple hours of one meandering  around an assignment they don’t understand. I am firm believer in maximizing one’s own time by making use of available resources, the support centers are types of mentors that can give you the lift needed to get you where you need to go.

So clearly workshops and speaking with faculty is time efficient, but what about clubs and friends. Personally, I attend many of the Hillel events on campus, many of the events are extremely informative plus as an added bonus they usually have food so I don’t have to go out and scour the streets of manhattan for what I’m going to eat that day. But most important I have to say the amount of people I have meet and friends I have made as a result of the Hillel is unimaginable. Many of these friends are upperclassmen and were able to assist me while making my schedule , telling me which courses to take and which professors they enjoyed. Moreover, I am discussing potentially working for one of the friends I made through Hillel in the future. Most importantly, friends are there to help one enjoy him or herself, an important release that everyone needs.