Constantine Kostikas

My group was looking for an organization but, coming from different backgrounds, we weren’t sure which cause to give our attention too.  I visited a volunteer fair in the Multi-Purpose Room and found many groups doing good throughout the community in various ways.  My group decided to volunteer at the Page Turners Program of Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries, which is unaffiliated with Baruch.  However, through resources like the club fair and the volunteer fair, I learned about Phi Eta Sigma, an honors society at Baruch that coordinates with many different organizations to provide members with great volunteer opportunities.  I am definitely looking forward to working the Phi Eta Sigma in the future, so I am grateful for the chance I had to talk to some members at these fairs.  Back to the Community Service Project, the main problem my group faced became finding a good environment to organize our own thoughts and share them with each other.  We wanted to find a place at Baruch, and we realized just how convenient resources like the library and the Honors Lounge are.  We reserved a study room in the library and used the white board to communicate ideas.  Then, my learning community attended two workshops with members of the library staff.  Through these workshops, I learned how to effectively use different databases that I am given access to by the school.  These databases vary greatly and have proven beneficial to finding a large range of sources for my work outside of the Community Service Project.  I’ve learned how to use Google efficiently and how to determine the appropriate database for a given situation.  These resources helped me especially in doing research for my informative speech in my Public Communications class as well as for my analytical research paper in my Writing I class.

I think that with the benefits that come along with being a Baruch Scholar comes a sense of responsibility.  I am required to complete a community service project by the end of the year, but I think this requirement is just a small look at what is to come during the next four years at Baruch.  I plan on getting involved in projects that I feel strongly about, and I’m sure I will get the opportunity to do so in a community this large.  Hopefully I will even learn about new causes that I can start to contribute to.  As a Baruch Scholar, it is my responsibility to leave the community, four years from now, better off than it was when I came into it.  However, I also expect to leave with a better sense of self-awareness.  I hope to discover new values in myself, and I think that being a Baruch Scholar gives me the opportunity to do so.  In order to be a successful member of the Baruch community, I have to be open-minded and willing to try new things.  I should be able to take advantage of all that this school offers by attending a variety of different workshops and club meetings.  When I receive e-mails or see flyers in the halls about different events being held by Baruch, I’ll think twice about shrugging them off.  Ultimately, I think being a Baruch Scholar goes way beyond academic achievement.  The program should teach me about taking initiative and fostering the skills I learn in school to improving not only Baruch, but any community I may find myself a part of in the future.

I have played organized basketball since I was eight years old.  All throughout high school I played in two leagues, both of which played huge parts in my life.  When I wasn’t at practice or playing in games, I was helping coach younger players in weekend basketball camps and games throughout the city.  It felt good giving back to the community that has given me so much.  The only regret I have is not showing enough initiative in school in terms of extracurricular activities.  I hope this first semester in college I can really get more involved.  I want to avoid making the same mistake I made in high school by looking into clubs and other ways of making my mark here at Baruch.  I’d like to still keep that connection I have with the communities of my past, but build a new one in college.  I’m looking forward to maybe playing some intramural sports like basketball and volleyball.  I want to be able to look back on my college experience and say that I really took advantage of the opportunities Baruch can offer me, and I think in order for that to happen I have to start trying this semester.  I’ve been attending a few general interest meetings held by business fraternities, and they seem like they would help a lot with teaching me about my desired career path.  I hope that, whether through a fraternity or just business workshops, I can really learn about the vital skills needed to succeed in the future such as networking and resume building.  I realize that this may require me to step out of my comfort level and work a little hard, but I’m up for the challenge.

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