Section LC21

Today (11/11/09 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) I went to a workshop in which we saw a screening from PBS called Your Life, Your Money. I went to this particular workshop because it was the last workshop that I knew of that was of the Student Life category. I had went with no hope of being entertained but turns out I thought wrong.

It started off with a brief welcoming by Jon Rubin, director of WNET/NY, and John Craig, director of WNED/Buffalo, followed by an introduction by Mark Martinelli, the senior VP of HSBC. Then came the screening. It was a really brief one for one that contained so much information. They had many people of different backgrounds and situations and used them as examples for the viewers so that we can all relate in some way. Though some were more extreme than others. They used Russell Simmons as an example of someone who learned to manage his money. I’m sure many would want to become like Russell Simmons and go from ‘Rags to Riches’ but unfortunately we can’t all (insert sad face here). Then they used a fourth year student as the complete opposite example. She used about $4,000 with her credit card and ended up with a debt of about $30,000! That was a huge leap and it greatly discouraged me from ever thinking about getting a credit card in the near future.

After the interesting screening, there was a question and answer session and one of the people who were taking the questions was Rochelle James, a woman who went from a terrible place to a somewhat secure life and providing for her two children as a single mother in the video, was one of the people who were taking the answers. It was nice that they had brought in people from the video to the workshop because then it was like being able to see the people who have gone through this not just in the video but in person as well. The questions that the guests had posed were ones that I hadn’t thought of and the answers that they received helped more than just the person who asked the certain question.

The workshop was wonderful. There was free food and a drawing at the end for gift cards to Barnes and Noble as well. And guess what…I was one of those lucky people! (There wasn’t much people there really so the chances of getting anything was pretty big for the most part) They also gave out free wristband flash drives as well as gift bags with the book, Get A Financial Life, a copy of the screening and some other brochures for the people who had went. All in all it was a pretty informative workshop, though a bit late, and it was worthwhile going to. I definitely walked out more informed than I had before the workshop.

I went to the Undergraduate Student Government Town Hall Meeting on November 10, 2009 at 12:30-2:30PM in VC 3-165. Overall, I thought this workshop was helpful because it informed me about events that were going on, things that were still in the planning process, and so on. If there’s one thing I got from this workshop, it’s this: join a club! Actually, so many people urge us to join a club because it’s so important to establish a little network and just get involved in the campus in any way possible. Also, if there’s any issue at all, anyone’s voice matters. It’s important to not only attend classes and just go home thereafter, but to actually see everything that Baruch has to offer. There is probably a lot more going on in the campus than what meets the eyes, and people will probably begin to realize this once they get involved.

I selected this workshop mainly because of the mandatory requirement in the planner. However, like most informative workshops, there’s bound to be something for me to learn (and if not, then something for me to refresh my mind on). I noted earlier that it’s important to join a club because I learned that most clubs here want people to join them. Even though Baruch is a commuter school, there’s still things going on that you’ll miss if you just don’t care.