Author Archives: ss129676

Soyoung Kwon

EHS Thanksgiving Food Drive

1. How did your community service work help the community?

Some people really overindulge with Thanksgiving while there are others starving in the city. Being a part of the food drive and also donating helps the community by giving the less fortunate a bit of a “real” Thanksgiving.

2. What were your initial reactions upon hearing that you would be engaging in a community service project?

Initially, I was a little annoyed that there would be out of school work for a zero credit class. After some thinking I realized that this shouldn’t even be considered “school work”. Giving back to the community should be something that is genuinely voluntary.

3. How did it make you feel to give your time and energy to others?

It felt satisfying to give back and know that someone truly appreciates the food that is being given to them by an anonymous person.

5. What stands out as the best and/ or most trying experiences that occurred while engaging in your community service project? What did you learn from these experiences?

I think the best experience that occurred while engaging in this project was just talking to the other people who also volunteered to collect food about their personal experiences and stories of people they know.
6. How did engaging in this project relate to your education and the larger issues in society?

It opened my eyes to the fact that the homeless people that I see everyday are friends and family members of other people and see poverty as pathology.

7. How did your community service experience relate to the “Leadership and Service” session?

N/A

Did not attend.

8. How has your community service experience changed your thinking, attitudes, and actions towards others, yourself, the community, and community service work as a whole?

Since I helped collect food and also donate food for the drive, I became more understanding of the people on the subways who collect food on a daily basis for the homeless and less fortunate. I have a new admiration for these people.
9. How has your community service experience impacted you personally? What is the most important thing you learned about yourself throughout this experience?

Participating in the food drive helped me take a step back and look at the larger picture of life; there is more to life than just school,work,family, and friends. I was reminded that taking care of your community is also very important. The most important thing I learned about myself from this experience was that I can help make someone’s day everyday.

10. Were you satisfied with your experience overall? Why or why not?

I wish I was able to be more active in the food drive, but it was an overall fulfilling experience.
11. do you see yourself staying involved in the community during your college and adult years? Why or why not?

I’d like to stay involved just because I feel as if change is really possible if more people get involved with giving back to the community.

Soyoung Kwon

EHS Thanksgiving Food Drive

1. How did your community service work help the community?

Some people really overindulge with Thanksgiving while there are others starving in the city. Being a part of the food drive and also donating helps the community by giving the less fortunate a bit of a “real” Thanksgiving.

2. What were your initial reactions upon hearing that you would be engaging in a community service project?

Initially, I was a little annoyed that there would be out of school work for a zero credit class. After some thinking I realized that this shouldn’t even be considered “school work”. Giving back to the community should be something that is genuinely voluntary.

3. How did it make you feel to give your time and energy to others?

It felt satisfying to give back and know that someone truly appreciates the food that is being given to them by an anonymous person.

5. What stands out as the best and/ or most trying experiences that occurred while engaging in your community service project? What did you learn from these experiences?

I think the best experience that occurred while engaging in this project was just talking to the other people who also volunteered to collect food about their personal experiences and stories of people they know.
6. How did engaging in this project relate to your education and the larger issues in society?

It opened my eyes to the fact that the homeless people that I see everyday are friends and family members of other people and see poverty as pathology.

7. How did your community service experience relate to the “Leadership and Service” session?

N/A

Did not attend.

8. How has your community service experience changed your thinking, attitudes, and actions towards others, yourself, the community, and community service work as a whole?

Since I helped collect food and also donate food for the drive, I became more understanding of the people on the subways who collect food on a daily basis for the homeless and less fortunate. I have a new admiration for these people.
9. How has your community service experience impacted you personally? What is the most important thing you learned about yourself throughout this experience?

Participating in the food drive helped me take a step back and look at the larger picture of life; there is more to life than just school,work,family, and friends. I was reminded that taking care of your community is also very important. The most important thing I learned about myself from this experience was that I can help make someone’s day everyday.

10. Were you satisfied with your experience overall? Why or why not?

I wish I was able to be more active in the food drive, but it was an overall fulfilling experience.
11. do you see yourself staying involved in the community during your college and adult years? Why or why not?

I’d like to stay involved just because I feel as if change is really possible if more people get involved with giving back to the community.

My first semester at Baruch College met my expectations for the most part. I think the only flaw I could find is some of the professors. But every school is going to have unbearable,smelly, or unbearably smelly professors. I wanted to avert this problem next semester by registering for classes with professors that have good ratings on ratemyprofessor.com, but I wasn’t able to do so. Hopefully the comments about the professors I’ll be taking aren’t true.

I thought I was “all grown up” my senior year of high school. In retrospect, I was incredibly naive for even thinking that. I think I’ve grown more within the past 4 months than ever, and I know I still have more to grow and learn from. For example, I’m still learning to reach out to new people and hopefully, I won’t have a problem with that by the end of next semester.

Stanley S. Litow was the speaker of the seminar Beyond Responsibility: The Role of Citizenship in the 21st Century on December 8th. He is the Vice President of IBM’s Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, and also the President of the IBM Foundation. The main topic of the session was Corporate Social Responsibility, the backbone of IBM’s successful business strategy.

This enrichment workshop was awkward, to say the least. I was the only one not in business attire. On top of that, the woman who was writing my name down to “register” for the seminar asked me,”Are you sure this is the right one you’re looking for?” No,lady, I’m not sure. How many seminars could Stanley S. Litow be conducting at Baruch that night? I’m sure he’s a busy man.

Despite the awkwardness, I found the workshop to be very informative and helpful. I wasn’t even aware of the concept of corporate citizenship until this workshop, and I’m very interested in looking into it.

My name is Soyoung Kwon, or Skwonny,Skwonto,Skwon, or Soybean as I am so colloquially called back at home. I wanted to be able to say that home USED to be Connecticut and that I’ve made New York into my new home, but that wouldn’t be very accurate. What makes “home” home for me is the network of friends I have. Being a part of the music scene in Connecticut has made my network of friends branch from Southington to just about the entire state. Even though I’m having the time of my life in the city, I still miss being able to arrive to shows alone and know the bands, venue owners, promoters, and kids equally as friends.

Since I’ve moved to New York, I’ve been to 4 shows. At each show, I noticed the obvious differences in the scenes. At the hardcore show, I saw the guys sporting other band shirts, beards and skinny jeans discussing the Boston hardcore scene or how awful such and such’s new album is. At the electronic show, the guys had their thick rimmed glasses, disheveled hair and were discussing new equipment and illegal substances. The other two were an instrumental and an experimental band, both with very different groups of people. Despite the conflicting genres, these shows all had something in common, something that is depicted at every show nationwide: circles of friends; the friends whose entire relationship is based on a shared interest in the same music. These friends are usuals at shows and can be seen together at all times. I was always a part of one of those “circles” since my very first local show in the 7th grade. I felt a pang of homesickness at each of these shows, but then I realized that I traded this sense of comfort and familiarity for the opportunity of something greater.

What I need to remember is that Connecticut may be “home”, but it definitely is not where the heart is. I’ve rummaged throughout Connecticut so much that there’s nothing left to excavate; it can’t offer me anything else. So what CAN offer me something?

“New York City, the Mecca and hub of the cultural world” -Stevo, SLC Punk,1998

I’m an eighteen year old Connecticutter with a penchant for coffee. Moving from Southington,CT, I’m expecting Baruch to broaden my horizons culturally. I really liked that it’s considered the most diverse school in the US when I first applied. With that, it’s also a very competitive school, so I’m a bit intimidated right now. There are a lot of concerns I have, but here are my top 3:

• I won’t be able to handle the workload.
• I’ll fail my required courses and have to repeat them.
• I won’t make a lot of friends.

I feel like almost every freshman at Baruch is worried about at least one of those, but still…

Hopefully, my first year at Baruch will help me open up socially and teach me to really focus on education. I was always so used to knowing everyone in Connecticut that for the first time, I’m having trouble talking to people here. I have a few friends from home in the city, but I really need to be able to open up and meet new people.

Town of Southington