Section BPR2B

The club fair in the gym downstairs in the basement of the Vertical Campus really gave me a variety of different options to choose from when it comes to extra curricular activities. Seeing that I am a freshman,  time is of the most importance for me so it was hard to choose only one club to join. There were so many different interesting clubs such as the Mac Club, Archery, many Ethnic-based clubs and probably one that really caught my eye was Ballroom Dancing. I’m not much of a ballroom dancer but I would give it a shot since I like to dance. I really learned a lot about the Baruch College from this event. To be honest, I really did not believe the “most diverse school in America” title, but the club fair really changed my opinion. I saw over 30 different ethnic-based clubs and I’m sure there were probably more. I know I have to join one of these clubs in the near future just to get a taste of what Baruch life is all about.

This workshop discussed depression, how it affects people, and how those people can be helped. We watched a video where many people who suffered from depression or had friends who were depressed discussed their experiences. This workshop was informative, as I learned a lot about depression, its affects and cures. Sadly, people who suffer from depression also sometimes have suicidal thoughts. Some people may act upon these feelings, and commit suicide. This has devastating effects on the people who loved the person. Suicide was said to be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. This is true, and so the workshop focused on suicide prevention. Detection is the first step, as we must pay attention to changes in own friends. They may be suffering from depression. Then we must get these people help. Even though people may not want help, getting them help is the best thing you can do for them. Depression can be eliminated, as can suicidal thoughts. It just has to be acted upon correctly.

This tour was that of an art gallery. The artworks that were arranged in this gallery were all painted by the artist Mercedes Matter. We were shown all different paintings and works throughout her years as an artist. The showing was  interesting, as it depicted how she painted objects without any specificity or exactness. Nothing was explicit and she often drew objects that resembled other objects. She commonly used triangles to depict things and we simply explored the ways in which she accomplished what she set out in to do in her paintings. Each painting had its own subject matter, but she seemed to have used fruit a lot. She also often used color to depict many different objects and situations. I enjoyed my art history class more than I enjoyed this exhibition. It was interesting, but not exactly my cup of tea.

On Monday November 18, 2009, I attended a workshop entitled “Pursuing Your Passion: Choosing a Major.” The room was large, but barely over a dozen people attended this workshop which made for a very quiet, but arguable cozy environment for discussion. Once we were seated, the woman coordinating the workshop proceeded to turn on a slide projector and gave us a very basic presentation about the different majors at Baruch. All of this information can be found online, and I had already looked through it all months prior to attending this workshop. Therefore, this workshop resulted in being an exercise in redundancy for me. The special tips that were provided were no big secrets either. Doing something you like is not a brilliant new suggestion to get you far, it is common sense. After the presentation, we participated in an activity which was essentially making a list of majors and matching them to careers. I did not see the benefit of this activity, since as I said before, this information is all on the internet, but I put effort into my list regardless. All in all, this workshop was a waste of time that I can only see benefitting those to lazy to log on to a computer with internet access.