Here are the introductions from your classmates–please have a look!
KAREN LEONARDO
Hello, my name is Karen Leonardo and I am an incoming freshman majoring in Business Management. I’ve lived in many different places throughout my life. I was born in the Dominican Republic until I was five years old when I came to the United States and moved to Long Island, New York. I lived there for about three years until my family decided to move to Brooklyn, and ever since this is where I call home. My goals for these next four years is to really focus on my school work and have a healthy work, school, life balance. I want to be able to manage my time as wisely as I can and not have any regrets once I am done with college and onto the next chapter of my life.
Now if I was to be honest, writing isn’t my strong suit, but when something is of my interest, trust me I will be as concise and as complex as humanly possible. With writing comes a lot of research and I think that is a key step to being a good author. Knowing what you are writing about is important to not only sounding professional but also delivering an authentic product. I would describe my writing as being personal and straight to the point. In my writing I tend to hit major topics and elaborate when needed to. Not only that but my vocabulary and artistry with words is a huge part of my writing.
ARIA MALOVANY
My name is Aria Malovany. I’m 18 years old from New York. My pronouns are she/her. My writing process stems from my very organized mind. My brain works best when I’m super tidy and organized. My writing process always involves a detailed outline or two, many drafts, a lot of proof-reading out loud to myself, and determination. When I sit down to write, I want to get out as much as possible in one sitting so my train of thought remains intact.
NISHMITHA RODRIGO
My name is Nishmitha Rodrigo, but I very much prefer to be called Nish since that’s what everyone in my day to day life calls me. Writing is something that I have done a lot in the past two years since I was a candidate for the international baccalaureate diploma program. So with being in that program, comes an extensive amount of writing, such as the extended essay which is 4,000 words and internal assessments for every single class which is around 6-12 pages. Based on the feedback I have gotten from my teachers and mentors on those writing pieces I’ve done for IB, I consider myself to be a good writer because my writing styles and approaches definitely has worked for me considering the fact that I was awarded the IB diploma. My approach to writing is that I tend to break the process into three different steps, which are prewriting, focusing and analyzing ideas, and lastly, the structuring, evaluation and editing. During the prewriting stage I generate ideas, form questions around it, and try to figure out how I should go about answering it. During the focusing and analyzing ideas stage, I tend to do most of my thinking and writing, as well as make any changes if I feel would be appropriate. During the last stage of structuring, evaluation and editing, I do all of the proof reading and self-editing to make sure that my writing piece is the best as it possibly could be.
NANA (Fengchan Huang)
I would assume the writing as an essay. First I’ll set a topic based on what the teacher asks me to write. Think of a major thing, and start with those things that have little connection with the major, and then gradually connect to my main points. So usually my essay is kinda like those essays that people like to continue reading. Slowly indulge in it. At the end, I will sublimate the whole topic. So that makes the readers feel that it is meaningful after reading my essay.
ARIK NOAH
My Name is Arik, I’m currently a freshman at Baruch with an intended major in Real – Estate. When I approach any type of writing assignment I like to follow a certain process that helps me receive the best result. The first step I use is to start investigating what I am writing about because I feel that it is very important in any paper to have an active engagement with what you are writing about. The second step I use is to prewrite and organize all the information I have obtained through my investigation. Once I have prewrited my paper I start my final draft, the last step of editing and citing my paper. This is the best process to use when coming about any type of writing because you can really hit every point for the perfect paper.
TASNIM KHAN
My name is Tasnim Khan and I am a freshman here at Baruch College majoring in computer information systems. Some of my hobbies include dancing and photography! When it comes to writing, my process consists of brainstorming ideas and first jotting them down somewhere, I then work from there. I have not gotten into the habit of properly planning or creating a rough draft for my writings and I rather write whatever comes to my mind. Once I feel satisfied with my work, I then proceed to edit and rearrange certain sentences and phrases until I am content with my writing. In the past, I have always approached writing in a positive manner as long as I am not limited from my own words. I find that I work best with writing when I can openly reflect on a certain topic and from time to time an outline helps aid me in that as well. I do not normally write in my free time unless I desperately need to let out my thoughts, however, I sometimes find writing essays on certain topics enjoyable.
MATTHEW ORTIZ
My name is Matthew. I am 17 and I live in the Bronx. I am actively into boxing and sooner or later I plan to go professional. I’ve been boxing for 3 almost 4 years now. On my free time I like to go on drives and listen to music. I am a freshman and I am majoring in Real Estate.
ERYK TRELA
I’m a new student of Baruch College and will be in part of the 2025 graduating class (hopefully ????). My intended major is international business. I would like to create my own business someday and run major operations in the US and Poland, the two places I call home. I most recently graduated from Aviation High School in Long Island City. I loved doing all the hands-on work at A.V.H.S. like welding, inspecting for propeller-shaft runout, repairing cooling fins and all the other jobs. Now I am genuinely looking forward to learning and being a bearcat. I’d like to think that I have a unique writing style but that’s my opinion. Whenever, I write about I topic I like to jot down some notes that come first to mind. Then, I expand on each of those notes adding extra details and all the other good stuff in the actual piece.
JILLIAN MEIDLINGER
I’m Jillian from Ithaca, in upstate NY. Now I live in Manhattan with my two roommates. We are all business majors at Baruch. My writing throughout highschool evolved as I found helpful tools necessary to produce longer and more cohesive essays. Freshman year I focused more on creative writing with some longer essay assignments. Then as I took harder English courses I learned how to format my work differently to accommodate longer argumentative essays, where we were defending a thesis. I still think I have a lot to learn on how to structure longer essays. I would like to improve on presenting my evidence in a way that remains engaging to the reader.
AKOSUA OMARI-DOTTOH
So, a little bit about myself. I enjoy listening to music, mainly R&B but I can listen to many different genres. I also like to draw and paint, read poetry, and have fun. Some of my favorite shows are the 100, the Fosters, and Black Lightning. I’m also a freshman with the intended major of Marketing Management. My writing process usually begins with deep thoughts. Then I tend to write down a sort of outline to try and organize my thoughts. Finally, I begin to write a first draft, go back and re-read it or have someone look over it and spot areas of improvement, then edit for the final draft.
WILVER MARIANO PERALTA
My writing process I have had has been a writing process where I don’t overwork myself much before the finished piece. Usually If I don’t write a full on draft, I will do a light draft. In this draft I will structure my essay and my ideas. I will have an introduction, body, and conclusion. In this I will write down my key points that will be included, so that I don’t forget them when it come down to writing the last piece. As an example lets say im writing an essay about the the Cold War. For a body paragraph I might write a key word like the Cuban Missle Crisis which is something I can ellaborate on alot. For my next topic within my body paragraphs I might write something like the weapon warfare between the United States and the Soviet Union. That same process is the same I will use for introduction and conclusion, as I look over the draft and see if there is things I am lacking. Afterwards, I will write the final piece.
ERICK NUNEZ
My name is Erick, I am 18 years old, and I’m majoring in general marketing to hopefully become a marketing manager one day. I play basketball, make music, and I live with a family of 3 in Queens. My writing process isn’t as great as most simply because I do not plan anything before I write an essay. I usually begin my writing by jotting down what’s on my mind. My biggest setback especially when taking the SATs was time so when I would read the prompt, I would highlight anything in the text I’m responding to that has to do with the prompt. As soon as I’m finished reading, I begin to write and fix any errors I make along the way. When my writing is complete, I make sure to re-read it twice for any errors or if I want to change anything. For example, if I feel like a sentence doesn’t go with the sentence before or after it, I make sure to re-word it or simply replace it with a better sentence.
ATAI ISAEV
My name is Atai. I am 17 years old. I live in Brooklyn. I went to Brooklyn Technical High School. Planning to major in CIS.
In the past I just kind of wrote what I felt was right in the draft, then let the teacher see it, then get chewed out on all the mistakes I’ve made, and finally fix those mistakes and submit final draft. I’m pretty bad at formal writing and building an argument from the evidence that I have. I am also pretty weak with long writing assignments.
SELINA WANG
My name is Selina Wang and I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. My family comes from a southeastern province in China called Fuzhou. Although English is my second language, I am fluent in both Chinese and English. This results in the majority of my family members pestering me to help them with translation jobs since I am the oldest child in the family. I wouldn’t count writing a hobby of mine, but it isn’t something I dread either. During high school, I took a few writing classes, such as, contemporary literature, british literature, college composition, etc. When writing essays, the most difficult part for me is usually finding a way to start it. When I get to the middle, I usually fly by it before I know it. Often times I end up exceeding the word limit and have to go back to delete a lot of unnecessary information such as any repetition or grammar/spelling mistakes. But that’s the art of writing. Editing is an essential part of writing. My favorite part of writing is the feeling of accomplishment you get after you see all your effort pay off from typing endlessly for hours on end, right in front of your very own eyes.
NICK SERRAO
Hi Everyone! My name is Nick, and I’m from Queens. I am majoring in accounting because I enjoy working with money. One thing that I do for fun is buying, selling, and collecting popular sneakers and clothing. I also enjoy hanging out with friends and doing fun new things. When it comes to writing, I am not very much of a good one. Throughout high school my style of doing my essays was waiting until the last night that it was due and then doing it all at once. That method wasn’t necessarily bad for me since I work better under pressure, and I would still get high grades on the assignments. In this class I will be changing my way of writing and I am going to periodically write my essays and split up the work, so I don’t have to end up doing it all at once.
ELLIE NOLAN
My name is Gabrielle Nolan, but everyone calls me Ellie. I enjoy going to the gym, reading true crime novels, hanging out with my friends, and going to the beach. I am friendly and a social butterfly. I thrive in reading and writing because it’s one of my best subjects in school. My writing process is straight forward: analyze the prompt, collect evidence, organize information, jot down notes, and begin writing. I like to be organized, thorough and spend a lot of time on my writing pieces. Personally, I’m best at argumentative essays because I am able to back up my writing with evidence. I’ve found it pretty easy for me to write essays on the spot, but I prefer being given time to plan out my writing.
STEVEN GARCIA
As a person, I would describe myself as a bit meticulous, I constantly double-think and emphasize trivial things. I also enjoy some occasional humor. As a writer, my conscientious personality is reflected. I’m big on editing, if the assignment is serious, I can sometimes spend double the time it took me to complete the draft on editing. I also enjoy finding creative new ways to craft sentences. When I tackle writing, I usually have a conversation with myself. I see writing as a method of understanding oneself better. A form of extracting and solidifying lingering thoughts in your mind. I view writing as an endless landscape, infinite possibilities, and each sentence you write has a little to say about yourself.
JAMES KOLONIARIS
My name is James Koloniaris, I’m 18 years old and I love to have a good time. Some of the things I enjoy doing span from going to the gym to playing video games with my friends. One of my favorite hobbies is basketball; I met most of my friends through the sport growing up. Due to this, I’ve developed lifelong connections and bonds with these guys that I don’t think anything can break. Another thing I enjoy is just learning about my history and culture. I’m greek and I went to a greek school up until eighth grade, so I speak the language and know a fair amount about the culture; also, I can read and write the language too. Speaking of writing that’s also one thing I enjoy doing. My teachers always told me that my writing style is as if I’m having a conversation with someone and that it’s not formal enough for college, I just enjoy doing it. My favorite form of writing is creative writing. My teacher in eleventh grade had this thing where every Friday was journal day and she gave us a topic and we just wrote about an experience or created a story. Sometimes I just got lost in the writing and it didn’t even feel like work.
CRISLEYDI PAULINO
As you know my name is Crisleydi Paulino an I am a freshman in college. I have my own makeup business in which I launched almost a year ago. I take a lot of pride in my business as this is something I hope to continue in the future. A few characteristics to describe myself would be outgoing, determined, driven, and joyful. When it comes to writing my process varies depending on how much time I have. For finals in high school, I would have to write a five paragraph essay within 50 minutes, and my colleagues and I weren’t allowed to see the prompt until the day of; My thinking process had to be quick but also precise. Other times we will prep a couple days before the final in which we had done research, looked at articles an images to help us write our essays. I prefer prepping and doing research before a writing assignment because I don’t feel the tension of turning in a well written essay with little to no time of organization. However I can say that I do work well under pressure and I’ve earned good grades on these finals.
ARIEL MANRIQUE
My name is Ariel, and I am and undergraduate freshman at Baruch. I grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, where I currently live. I am seventeen years old and I am an only child living with my mother, father, and dog. In my freetime, I love to play video games and I also love reading manga and watching movies/tv shows. In the past, my writing has mainly been the minimum required in terms of language, punctuality, and overall just what is asked of my via the project document. Lately however, my writing has been a mix of what is required and a little dazzle of my own personality and flare. I usually craft my essays in the normal fashion, with introduction first, body paragraphs second-fourth, and then finally the conclusion paragraph. Lately in my final assignments for highschool, I was tackling essay writing differently. I was writing my papers with conclusion/body paragraphs first, and saving the introduction for last because it was one of the easiest parts.
TASNIMUD TANZID
I am Tanzid. I love to play soccer and video games. One thing I want to mention about myself is that I believe in “Go Hard or Go Home ”.As I am not good at English, however, I have always tried to improve my writing skills by learning different types of writing methods. At first, I have always tried touse punctuation perfectly in a sentence as punctuation is one of the most basic materials for writing. Secondly, I have tried to make a good thesis statement in my writing because I think the whole essay depends on how good the statement is. Moreover, evidence from the text was one of the major materials of my writing in the past. Finally, sentence structure and the connection with a thesis statement, in conclusion, were my major used materials in writing in the past. Besides all these writing methods, I have always tried to maintain good grammar, correct spelling, and proper analysis in writing in the past.
WEDAD MOURTADA
I’m from Lebanon, but I was born and raised in Queens. I would describe myself as curious and attentive, and, also, I wouldn’t say I like telling people about myself because I never have anything interesting to say. So, I guess that says a lot about my personality. I’ve pretty much always had the same approach for writing since 8th grade. In the past, if I had to include textual evidence in my writing, I’d write down all the possible evidence and start eliminating the ones that aren’t strong enough. I’d always have a detailed outline no matter what I’m writing about. I’d have a first draft, and then I would ask someone to revise my first draft, then I’d write the final piece. One thing that helped me write a good essay was forming my thesis after explaining each argument in the body paragraphs. This made my thesis stronger because it meant that I’d only include topics that I knew I could create a strong argument for. I realized when I wrote my thesis first, I’d have some trouble explaining some of my ideas, so I’d end up changing my perspective, which would confuse me. However, when I only had about 45 minutes to write an essay, I’d only have an outline because when I didn’t, I noticed that my writing wasn’t as strong as it could be.
IBRAHIM RAUF
My name is Ibrahim Rauf. I am a freshman at Baruch who graduated from the collegiate institute of math and science high school in the Bronx. I am a determined and outspoken student who is obsessed with sports. My writing process isnt the strongest. My writing in the past used to be my weakest link in my educational career. But overtime I have grown in my vocabulary and being more articulate in how I write. After taking AP literature, my writing structure substantially improved. I hope to achieve a stronger skill in my writing in this class.
JORDAN HERNANDEZ
My name is Jordan Hernandez. I’m a freshman and I’m from Brooklyn. The field of study I got into is financial mathematics. My favorite subject is math. When approaching writing in the past I usually always have to jot some ideas down and then I usually just start to write. As I go along I like to add or remove things from my writing. I usually like to write a decent amount of drafts because my writing skills aren’t the best. My favorite type of writing is when there’s no topic, it’s just free writing, I feel like I have no limitations.