Monthly Archives: November 2010

The new chapter of life for me is college. A new chance to start all over. For some, it is another step towards success. To others, it is a chance to go crazy. For me, it is to find my purpose in life.   During my first year at Baruch, it was a bit difficult to understand everything that goes on in the classroom. But then, I got the hang of it. All the classes began to come in tact. I am getting use to the academic life in college. My next step is to get use to the social life in college. So far, I’m doing good. I met some great people in my block. Usually when you go to a new school, you tend to take time to know people. Since the people I know have almost all the same classes as me, I got to know them very well. But I will never forget most of my old friends. Some of my old friends already forgotten about me. There are others I still talk to. For those that forgotten about me, it’s their loss. Even if you are nice to everyone you meet, it won’t mean they will all be your friend. I know for sure that I will soon make some enemies. You can’t make friends without making a few enemies. I am what you call a “man of respect”. If you want my respect, you have to show me your respect. That’s how you play the game. I won’t care if you hate me or like me. Whatever you feel about me, that’s how I will feel about you. On that note, I am having a blast. I’ve seen the people that attend this institution. I don’t really see anything to complain about. I feel like I’ve changed very much. In elementary, middle, and high school, I was this shy boy who didn’t like conversations. Now, I am the opposite. I feel more confident than before. I don’t feel as scared as before. I’ve become a real people person. That is a good quality for me to have for a career that I am aiming to obtain. For now, this is all I have to say about my experience at Baruch.

This was the second workshop we all attended in one week. It started off quiet differently than the first one. To entertain us while we waited this guy had the crowd guess the music that he played from a random persons iPod. The winner got to keep that iPod ( but then it was sadly returned to the owner).  Once the presention by Dr. Ellen Stein & Lisa O’Connor started it actually presented a lot of useful information. They talked about what their center has to offer and where they’re located for people that didnt know 🙂 . They had a nicely put together slide show, but it seemed like a lot of the stuff they said people more or less already knew. They had a slide on how to dress to an interview, how to prepare your resume, how to act on an interview, how to follow up with a thank you. These were all helpful. As well as the handouts they gave out during that had an example of a professional resume and a chronological resume. The presenters also talked about a personal pitch. A personal pitch is how you present yourself to the interviewer. You want to interest them and show your strong points without coming off arrogant. Then they even did a few personal pitches with the kids in other LC’s. Overall this workshop was helpful and it laid out everything that this center has to offer us. It has its own website so there’s even good resouces on there.
  The STARR center workshop did not dissapoint.

This workshop was not what we had expected. Upon hearing about it, we thought it would involve the students more than just the panel of speakers. We even took third row seats, well one of the classmates thought it would be a good idea. Althought it wasnt a terrible idea, it wasnt the best. The panel spoke about their real life experiences growing up in different countries and then moving to America. It was interesting to hear their stories. Especially Charles N. Li’s, who was also the auther of the book we were assigned to read over the summer. He seemed to have the most speaking time our of the four panelists. Mr. Li shocked everyone by saying that he was over 70 years old. that was something people were talking about even in the next class. What I liked about the panel was that they spoke about themselves but it really made you look at your own life and reflect. when it came time for questions from the students, I felt like they were all the same. No one asked anything that wasnt in Charles Li’s book. He really tried to answer by giving more information and making it sound cool. All in all this workshop wasnt what i had expected but it was interesting to hear what the panelists had to say.

Well, the first question we were all asked at freshmen seminar was “How is it going?” The response was unanimous: How is what going? No one really knew what to say or how to answer. I guess if we’re talking about school then it’s going pretty well. The first few assignments have been returned with grades well above average. Yes, the work has really been piling on and killing the weekends but on the bright side more than half the term is behind us. The friends and social aspect of college has been fantastic. The first friends you make in college usually stick with you. Mostly its really great to be in the city everyday, our wallets dont agree but its been totally worth it. I mean sitting in English class and seeing the Empire State Building out of the side window is not something every college student can say. Hmm…empowerment. That topic is really hard to talk about let alone pick a moment when I felt empowered. That word is too strong for anything that i have experienced so far in my life. So thats a raincheck on that question. What do I like best ? I guess my best friends and my family. Because those people are there for you no matter what. The people that make your life a little bit brighter deserve a little recognition. What ever it is that puts a smile on your face is really whats best for you. I think of myself as a down to earth person that gets along with almost anybody. I will say that i do have a stubborn side to me and that sometimes causes incidents but im a Libra, and the mediator inside of me always tries to smooth it over in the end. I think that college will challenge everyones character and the best qualities will have to win. So far, college has been more than i expected. The next four years will definitely be interesting.

this workshop was actually really helpful. i heard about this group but didnt really find out much about what they do bu through this workshop, i learned how they help students become a successful bussinessmen/women.

i thought that having mock interviews and pre-presenting a presentation were clever. these would help me a lot because i need a lot of help in presenting and having successful interviews. also, i got sample resumes to look at and refer so that i can make mine look better and professional.
this workshop was worth attending.

The most amazing thing i heard during this discussion was that Charles Li was 71,72 years old. I would have believed if he said he was 48. So the only thing i wanted to know from him is how he was able to skip 20 years in time to the future and look really young.

i was also surprised that how many people actually struggle with identity because they are interracial. i’ve always thought of myself as a korean boy so i never had this type of mental struggle.

I’m nineteen, I’m asian, but not one of those typical asians that gets 800s on math sections of SATs. But I wasn’t good in reading or writing either. I think that’s my biggest problem. I still haven’t figured out what I’m really good at and what I can do to make a living out of. People told me that its best for me do what I like to do and follow my heart but I don’t think I’ll be able to make much out of playing drums or swimming professionally unless I’m better than Michael Phelps or Thomas Lang. He’s the best drummer alive, just in case you guys were wondering who he was. So those are the things I enjoy doing. I like swimming a lot because it involves a lot of movement and requires energy so it’s good for exercise but I don’t get all sweaty like other exercises even if I swim for hours. And I like playing drums, but not by myself because I’m not good enough.
and about college. College is interesting and hard but not as much as hard as I imagined it would be. But it’s starting to get harder with all the readings and papers i have to write. I don’t feel like I’m having the college life that I have expected. Maybe it’s because Baruch doesn’t have one of those big outdoor campuses like the one I’ve seen in movies.
My biggest problem right now is revising the English paper so that I can get a better grade because I still haven’t touched it. I don’t enjoy reading. I never enjoyed reading. I considered reading as a substitute for a sleeping pill because it seemed like it that I get sleepy every time I read. But I guess that’ll have to change since most of my classes are all about reading, especially Sociology. It’s even worse in sociology because I barely even get what the whole thing is talking about. I kind of get the big picture of what the next class is going focus on, but nothing specific. One of the things I like about college is freedom. Professors don’t put a lot of pressure on students to take notes, read the assigned readings, and do the home works, but I still do them because I feel the need to do all of these in order to write better papers and get better grades.

it seems that ironically, the first class of freshman seminar that i missed would actually be the most useful one offered to us student. Unfortunatelly sickness cannot be timed, however i am certainly interested in the center and will look it up on my own time. This post is dedicated to satisfying the mandatory requirement of filling a void of space with a blog about the starr eperience.

wish i was there

sorry

adam

Primarily, I am bewildered by the fact that the people who are in charge of our freshman seminar course didnt realize that i attended the assembly; god knows where they were when i was dragging a quarter of the class to the front row. That was certainly a very interesting result of my dedication to the program.

I was certainly inspired by the four speakers in the front, although i didnt learn alot despite listening to what they had to say. 90 percent of the assembly was charles e lee, author of the bitter sea, telling stories and reminiscing on his childhood. Ill infer that the point of the assembly was to get us, the students, to think more about who we are as individuals and where we came from.

this is me