First-Year Seminar 2017 – DFA

Author: Edward Fernandez

LinkedIn?

I recently attended a Starr Career Development Workshop this Thursday with a few friends. The workshop focused on what makes a good profile on LinkedIn. For those unaware LinkedIn is the Facebook of the professional world. It’s a social networking website that helps you maintain your current connections, make new connections, and find a job. Lots of employers use the platform to find potential candidates to fill positions in their companies. Having a credible LinkedIn account where many people can back what you claim and can vouch for you goes a long way. Before the workshop I knew of LinkedIn and its purpose but I never really went on website or took time to learn its mechanics so that made this workshop very helpful for me.

At the workshop we learned major tips and common practices that will lead you towards a successful LinkedIn profile that you help you in your prospective career. Your profile is basically your online resume but you can be a bit more personal unlike a paper resume. To be successful you need to highlight what you do best and present yourself in a professional light. Don’t ramble on and one with paragraphs, keep it to the point. One cool feature that I learned about is groups. There are groups for everything and it could be a quick way to connect with people you have similar things with. For example, there is a group that allows us Baruch students to connect with Baruch alumni who have went through what we have went through and have experienced the same things as you. I also learned that there is no specific way a profile should be. I mean this in the sense that depending on your career path you might want to structure your profile differently to highlight different things. Two people can have profiles that are structured completely different, that can still be good because it caters to what their career is.

Take advantage of these workshops that teach you vital information that will help with your career in the long run.

Edward Fernandez 2017

Community Service

Community service is something that I value and hold close to me. Growing up my family wasn’t the wealthiest and thus so we were eligible to apply for many programs that support low income immigrant families. These programs have helped me get to where I am today. I’ve learned to appreciate and value these programs that help young kids get a start at education because I was the product of these programs. I feel it is important to give back to your community, especially if your community set you up for success. Pay it forward, don’t end the cycle of love and support. Do whatever you can to support your community and the people who inhabit it, even if it is not much. What you think might not make a huge difference could mean the world to someone else!

Recently I had the opportunity to visit and volunteer at The Father’s Heart Ministries, a non profit church at 545 E 11th Street that provides support to the homeless and the youth. I helped prevent hunger with the soup kitchen and food pantry that they host almost every Saturday morning of the month. They usually feed about 700 people every Saturday.

When I arrived there with my friends we, and the more than 100 other volunteers, met the director of the program who spoke to us at the podium using a microphone in the dining room, we talked about our objectives for the day and then we separated into roles and groups. I wanted to help pack food downstairs so I chose my job and group accordingly. My job was to help fill grocery bags for the homeless people to take with them when they head out. I was part of a long assembly line of about 13 people that created the bags and then passed them from person to person going from the basement, where the bags started, to the entrance of the lobby where it was handed to the homeless who finished eating at the kitchen. I was at the towards the center of the line. The people at front created the bags and then put it huge containers when they had everything it needed. My job was to pick up the blue grocery bags and start passing it to the next person so they can pass it on and on up to the lobby. For 3 hours I passed grocery bags down the line, talked with my friends, met other volunteers who were apart of our well oiled machine. That day we served almost 830 people breakfast and provided them food for the future.

On a final note I want to say go with friends, it’s much more fun to volunteer and make a difference with your own friends there with you. Volunteering is also a really cool way to network and meet nice people. If you do a really good job you might get offered a job to help run the events and become a group leader (and I can confirm this is true).  

Edward Fernandez 2017

The Power of a CUNY ID Card

Being a CUNY college student comes with many benefits and perks. One of the more underrated and underappreciated perks is the ability to visit major city museums for free or a discounted price. Yes, that little 3.4in by 2.1in card that you use to enter your school everyday (that is probably in your back pocket right now) can be used almost like a city passport!

Using my Baruch Student ID card I was granted free admission to the Modern Museum of Art, or MoMA for short, on 11 West 53rd Street. The MoMA, unlike other museums, focuses on modern art and how social events have shaped art and our interpretation of it. This is best seen on the exhibition that I visited and spent the most time at: Collection Galleries 1880’s – 1950’s. This exhibition is the one that everyone gets to see since it is up all year round and is the museums staple.

The first piece that caught my eye was Jackson Pollock’s “One: Number 31, 1950” (1950). I mean, how could it not catch your eye?! The piece is huge and always attracts a huge crowd of people standing around it gazing with awe. Naturally I went to the crowd, mostly to see how people reacted to it but then I was caught too. The piece never fails to disappoint, It gets me every time. It’s simplistic and beautiful. The black and white compliment each other well on top of the cream background. It’s a piece you could spend a lot of time just looking at the details. Franz Kline’s “Painting Number 2” (1954) also had a similar effect on me but in a different way. The piece feels grim and uneasy.

Next is Giorgio de Chirico’s “The Song of Love” (1914) which completely caught me off guard. His art seemed similar, too similar, like I’ve seen something like it before. This piece is riddled with random unrelated objects while having a Greek bust as the attention grabber. I came to the conclusion that the piece could pass off with the surreal vaporwave aesthetic. After a moment it hit me. I was looking at a piece made by the founding father of the strange art style, the style that the vaporwave sub-genre took much inspiration from. Metaphysical and surreal art. This artist was creating this type of art almost 100 years before the internet meme pop culture embraced the vaporwave art style. This museum actually taught me about the origins of vaporwave art.Shirana Shahbazi’s “[Composition-40-2011]” (2011) deserves a shout-out too because it easily catches the eye with its saturated colors popping out of the black darkness. Unlike the other pieces mentioned this piece is actually a photograph which I didn’t expect. At first glance I thought it was a painting but I was wrong. Her piece is not part of the exhibition but it still deserves recognition nonetheless.

All in all, This experience has taught me that it’s important to take advantage of these free resources and opportunities, especially being in a business oriented school such as Baruch. More often than not we usually focus on developing left brain tasks such as logic, math, and science while typically ignoring the right side which works with creativity and art. Museums can help inspire us and fuel creativity. This creativity sparks major breakthroughs and innovation. Don’t sleep on art.

Edward Fernandez 2017