Author: aleksandr.gorbatenko

My first semester at Baruch was interesting. I cannot say that it was completely different from what I was expecting from College but in a sense there were quite a few surprises along the way. In the beginning I did not like many of my classes and I was not sure how everything was going to turn out and December and the end of the semester seemed like a lifetime away. Now, it is all almost over and it feels kind of surprising to be living today’s days and knowing that you’ve been through so much. As the semester progressed I grew to like most of my teachers more and the fear of this being college and doing bad went away. I realized that there are chances to fix your mistakes if you messed up and I also found out that if you thought something was very hard then chances are that all of your classmates also thought so and then the professor will realize that and allow you to get back on track along with the rest of your classmates. I actually figured out for myself that the hardest thing about college is not the classes themselves and the teachers who are giving you your grades because in a sense it really is a lot like high school and there have always been and there will always be teachers who are harsher graders and who are mean and other teachers who grade very fairly and are nice. The hard part is actually staying on top of everything and keeping track of all that you have to know and do to make sure that you do not fall behind. You have to transfer your college now credits and ap credits and constantly be checking back and forth if it went through. You have to pick classes for next semester and chances are that many of them will already be filled and that is very stressful in a sense. In other words, even though you will not constantly be preoccupied with work, you will always have something to do in college and something to check and look for and worry about. You can never say I am completely free let me enjoy my weekend and not think about anything. In that sense, I think it would be much more beneficial to us if we didn’t literally have to pick all our classes ourselves. We should be given a lot of different blocks with a lot of different choices similar to the one we were given this semester and then we should pick the ones we like. Because registration for regular freshman is so late and because mine is even later then most other people in my block I feel rather worried about picking my next classes for next semester. In fact, I think this topic concerns me more then the tests and all that other stuff in all my current classes. In conclusion, my first semester was pretty good and I cannot really complain about anything because if you do your work and try your best your guaranteed to do fine, but at the end of the day I cannot say that I’m not glad that’s its almost over, because I really am really glad that one day soon I will be able to go to bed at a normal hour and not have to think about anything for once.

Similarly to what everybody else said, the Mishkin Art Gallery was not at all what I expected. I was very surprised to see what it actually was because I thought that it would consist of much more than just framed pictures in a small room. Of course, as far as framed pictures in a small room go, this exhibit was somewhat interesting in the sense that it incorporated within itself such a great deal of different ideas and topics. This is pretty rare for me to say because just like others have mentioned before me, I am not the biggest fan of all the artsy stuff and this exhibit was not exactly where I was dying to go from the very beginning, but it did not turn out to be too bad and it was pretty interesting and not very time consuming. Dr. Kraskin was the one giving the tour and in terms of tour guiding the experience was a success because even though the pictures might not have been interesting at all to the naked eye, the fact that she was there and was describing different aspects in such great detail definitely added to the experience and allowed me to understand things that that I would not ordinarily understand and extract from regular pictures or photographs. However, judging from the fact that this tour was like and seemed as if it was a private one, I would say that it would be an understatement to say that this gallery is not the most popular destination for students of Baruch College. There are definitely many different ways in which the gallery could be made into a much more engaging experience that would both make it more interesting and allow for a much more populated flow of people to its doors. Nonetheless, it was not a bad experience and definitely something worth experiencing and it was a good way of fulfilling our LC’s art workshop requirement.

Last week, we also got a visitor in our Freshman Seminar class on Friday October 29^th 2010 at 9:30 AM. This workshop fulfills our career exploration requirement and was presented during class time. Our visitor was May and she was a representative of the STARR Career Development Center. She came in to talk to us about our resumes and our potential interviews that we will have to pass in order to secure a well-paid job. She made it clear that these two things are just as important as having the actual grades or the extra curricular activities. She emphasized over and over again how important presentation is when it comes to the resume and interview, more specially the interview. She said that it is very likely that you will be able to win over the employer with your personal character traits if they are the right ones even if you might have lower grades or not much experience. She said that the relationship you make with your future employer in that 30 to 45 minute window is one that can make all the difference. I have heard quite a few different presentations similar to this one in the past and I have even created a resume for myself before although I never really used it or found any good use for it but I did find that this presentation had some good aspects in it. Her presentation style was not the best and did not make me instantly want to listen to her but for the most part she did say a lot of things that I found to be both true and interesting and somewhat revealing. One of the most interesting things that I learned is that at the STARR Career Development Center we could actually set up mock interviews for practice. I found this to be so interesting because I never knew this service was offered and I haven’t heard of this service in other schools and I might actually take advantage of this opportunity in order that when I actually go to a real interview I will not be as nervous and will have a very good idea of the questions that I will be asked and the tone and pace at which the interview will proceed. I also found it very interesting that there are people in Baruch who are willing to help you in that way for that specific purpose. Although they will help you with only the basics and no one will literally go into full depth of your personal situation I still think that these opportunities will be very helpful because they will serve as good practice for the first couple of interviews and those interviews will serve as good practice for the ones to come and the ones that you will be taking much more seriously.  Overall, I’m not sure that May’s personal way of presenting all this information was necessarily correct but nonetheless she mostly got the point across and was able to inform us of this part of the center so we at least know that this type of help exists and could potentially be pretty useful.

Last week, on Tuesday October 26th 2010, our whole LC went to Mason Hall for the East – West, Identity: Journeys and Transformations panel discussion. This discussion took place from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm and was a mandatory academic enrichment workshop that we had to attend with the rest of our freshman class. There were quite a few different panelists present who each shared their experience with us, but the main reason for this get together was, of course, Charles N. Li, who is the author of The Bitter Sea and who was present there in front of us and ready to answer our questions. Like mentioned by some of my classmates in the previous blogs I got to read this did not seem like the most interesting event ever straight of the bat when I first heard about it and the fact that it was mandatory did not make it any better obviously, but in the end it actually did turn out to be quite interesting because this was an opportunity that does not come around very often. We usually read books and look at the authors and think to ourselves how great and amazing and almighty they are especially if the book is good but we never quite realize that they are in fact regular people just like us who simply put a great deal of effort into making writing their fulltime job. Also like mentioned previously I do regret not having my book there so Charles could sign it, but disregarding that it was a rewarding experience to see Charles in person and have him answer many questions that people asked. When reading a book we get the idea that the author knows exactly what he or she is going to say and that he or she never stutters or stops to think exactly what he or she is going to say but of course these authors are in fact just people and Charles also had to slow down and sometimes re ask the question just so he could answer them. I liked one question in specific when a kid asked him if there was any significance to him naming the book The Bitter Sea. For such an easy question for an author I found that Charles had quite a bit of trouble putting words together to answer it. Instead of revealing some deeper meaning and making us think again how intelligent he is, he just said that it was something catchy and something that came to him and had absolutely no significance. I was a little disappointed in this response as I was asking myself the same thing as I was reading the book and I was expecting a much better answer. Of course the other big hit was how good Charles looks for a 70 year old man. That was the other question that caught my attention as this kid asked what was his secret for staying in such great shape. I could relate to the feelings of the person who asked the question as I myself believed Charles to be not more than 50. Overall, I found this experience to be much better and much more rewarding than I thought it would be when I was walking in.

Hey guys, my name is Alex. Recently, what I’m afraid of is not taking school seriously enough and in effect not doing so well. With everything that’s been going on recently, unless it’s the weekend, the only thing that makes me happy is my bed and my pillow and days off from school.  On weekends, seeing my girlfriend and my friends is really what my life is all about. My grades and my education is what’s important to me right now and it’s even more important now then before because I actually have to pay for it now. College is definitely very different from High School and College is not easy. The teachers aren’t too bad but I have to study and do my work every single day and rarely ever get a break. I don’t even remember the last time I had a normal night of sleep. I basically live my life for the weekends because other then that it’s the same thing every single day and it’s not that fun, it’s a lot of work. The thing I’m actually enjoying most about college is my business class. I find it to be very interesting and economics really seemed to be a good focus for me. So far I would say this is the only class that is helping me decide what I want to do with my life in the Business field. My biggest challenge in school would have to be Philosophy class. Its actually the easiest class I have, there are no tests or quizzes, but I have no idea how he will actually grade us or what will be my final grade. Now I will move on to a time in my life that I felt empowered. By far, the moment I felt most empowered was when I got driver’s license and then my car. These two things just open up a whole new level of freedoms and I was very excited when I first got them and even now driving and everything that has to do with it excites me and might even cheer me up when I’m down.  As for my motto is really is a simple one.  I believe that everybody has a certain potential and that potential is different for everybody because some people really are much smarter than others and some people are much better at doing certain things then others.  So to me its all about trying my best to do what I can because there is no such thing as perfection and then the rest is really not up to me anymore, I did my part I did everything I can, the rest is to be played out by life and we just have to play along.  I try to be a good person and a good student. I try not to start things with people unless they really do something stupid.  I always work hard for my grades and I try to get the best grades I possibly can. My family is very important to me and so is my girlfriend. My family consists of the only people that I can actually be fully relaxed around and although my girlfriend isn’t actually part of my family but it feels like she is. That concludes my monologue.