Author: s.talukder

For My Community Service Group Project, I mainly used the librarians as a guide to help with research. When we started the project, I had no idea how to find an organization that we would all enjoy. So thankfully, the librarians showed us different ways to look for them, such as Idealists. Also our peer mentor, Maria, helped us by not only showing us how to give an effective presentation, but also by giving us feedback by watching our mock presentations. That feedback helped my group create a more concise presentation. When it came to the questions, I remembered the information that was on the original slides and thus I was able to answer questions better than I thought I would. Regarding support centers, I think that I used the library the most throughout this project.

When I came to Baruch, I was interested in the different clubs they offered. However, I also work as a Work Study Aide in the Office of the Registrar, so I did not have the chance to join clubs. I originally wanted to do Team Baruch, but because of my job, I could not attend meetings. This term felt like a ‘trial and error’ period, not just with clubs, but also with the way I utilize my time. So for next term, I will probably change my work schedule so I can be more active with extra-curricular activities and hopefully during sophomore year, I will attempted to join Team Baruch.

I think working in a group will always have its advantages because you not only get to interact with other people, but you also improve your team working skills. Many courses require you to work in groups, so developing those skills now would better prepare you in the futures. Also, like I mentioned before, I was able to utilize Baruch resources in order to do my research for this project. This is a skill that is important in other courses. When I came to this school, I did not know so many resources were available to me and these resources will definitely help in other classes.

Regarding my understanding of community service, I would not say it has changed much because I have and still am volunteering. In this case, it is more hands on.

In three years, I hope to still be a Baruch Scholar and finishing my major. I hope I participated in the study abroad program and was active in school life. I want to be more confident in the things I feel I am weak in right now. I do not know what kind of person I will be, but I don’t think much will change if the past in any indication.

To serve your community means you have helped or contributed to it in some way. You are trying to help others anyway you can and you ultimately help progress society to a better future. Community service is something that you can do locally at a small volunteer center in your neighborhood, but it can also be done globally with huge organizations. One is more hands on than the other one.

As a Baruch Scholar, I am required to do community service every year. This was the first time I ever heard that community service was mandatory, except maybe for National Honor Society in high school. The 15 hours of service seems difficult, but by living and going to school in New York City, we have so many opportunities to serve the community in some way. I was lucky enough to have a free education at Baruch so I want to help give back to the school that helped me and I want to help those who are less fortunate than I am. I think our role at Baruch and in the community is to help others, but I think we should be making impacts. It does feel nice to help, but we should also think about it in the long run. I volunteer for a charity group called The Optimists where we collect donation to help finance a child’s education. I don’t really do any hands on work, I mainly work with donations. But every year at our annual Sponsor dinner, we sometimes video chat with the children and hear their stories. At times like this, I know that trying to persuade people and help getting everyone’s donation has helped a child in some way.

I think by mandating community service, the Honors Program might actually try to get us into involved into a specific organization. I know we can do how many we want to fulfill the requirement, but the questionnaire makes me think that. We should be able to find that one organization that we can commit to and actually like working with. The more you enjoy what you do, the more likely you are to make an impact with it.

Hi! My name is Shamira Talukder and I currently live in Kew Gardens. When I was young we moved all around Queens, but we mainly stayed Astoria. At the time, Astoria was mainly a Greek neighborhood and so other than my own culture, it was the only other culture I was familiar with at the time. However, after moving to Kew Gardens, I was able to learn more about different cultures like Hispanic, German, etc. Learning about new cultures made me more interested in the world and I was glad I got an opportunity to explore some of it.

Getting to travel to new places is an amazing experience in it’s own right, but what I actually experienced is hard to put into words. For example, in Thailand, we went to a Buddhist temple  After entering, we were greeted with intricate statues and in the distance we can see the main temple. These experiences made me appreciate not only other cultures more, but other religions.

What I would expect of myself as a college student is to become a better student than I was and to prepare to enter the real world soon. There is just so much to learn in college and I do not want to rush and overwhelm myself, but rather take one step at a time. My goals for the first semester aren’t very original like keeping my GPA up, making a network of friends, and making the full transition from high school to college. I think, so far, I have done a pretty good job.