Eric Brandman's Blog Spot

I think that I have a significant role in the Baruch and broader community as a Baruch Scholar and I think the same goes for every other person in the honors program.  Since our tuition is paid for us and we don’t have any financial burdens on us, we are not obligated to work part time to close this financial gap of money owed to the school that many others have. I have several friends in away schools that are having serious trouble with this. For example, this one girl goes to Syracuse, received no financial aid or anything, and pays $40,000 a year. Her parents are helping her out with some and the rest are loans. Before she even graduates college she is going to be financial in trouble and in debt probably about $80,000 – and that’s being nice about the numbers which realistically is probably going to be more. So she is going to be in debt before she even goes to graduate school and I can’t imagine how much more she is going to be in debt. Now she is working as much as she can and can’t focus completely on her studies.

I am in a completely opposite situation than her and because of this, I think we in general and especially I am capable of giving something back to the community. In the greater community, I think it is my job to help out and help fundraise events such as the Breast Cancer Society does. It should be a combined effort of people, setting aside differences and really impacting the community and changing the unfortunate people’s lives for the better.

Not only is it important to give back to the community, but to the school itself. If it wasn’t for the help of others, most of us Baruch Scholars wouldn’t be capable of applying to the honors program because it wouldn’t exist. So if those people felt like sitting back and doing nothing, where would we be now? I think it is very important to use the knowledge, skills, expertise, and maybe if your fortunate enough the money to help others. That is primarily why I signed up for Team Baruch, where I am looking forward to assist other freshmen in their college life experience. I think it is great to have someone to ask questions, help tackle problems that arise, or even just talk to about the school.