Author Archives: bernard.agrest

It’s been around 3 months, and my first semester in Baruch has come to an end. All in All, my first semester went by quickly. I made plenty of new friends and have had some fun experiences. In some ways Baruch exceeded my expectations, in others it failed them. Coming into Baruch i assumed two things. One was that it would be exactly like high school while i was in class, and two, it would be exactly how college should be after. I thought this because a lot of my friends go to CUNY’s and have all said it was very much like H.S. In this regard i was wrong, professors didn’t care about my work, or my attendance. And i was happy because For me this was great, i was extremely tired of being nagged along in H.S. The second regard was my assumption that life outside of college would be loads of fun, but for some strange reason, Baruch a college located in the heart of manhattan is not located close by to any place where you and friends could go, so me and my friends ever wanted to go anywhere, we had to take the train which was very disappointing.

My classes this semester have gone very well, Ive been very impressed with the teachers. Many of them want you to succeed, but they don’t give out grades. I realize that to earn a good GPA in Baruch i will need to put in work. I cant wait for the next 3 and a half years.

-Bernard

On November 14th our freshman seminar class went to the Rubin Museum. The Rubin Museum is a museum that is dedicated to the arts of the Himalayas and India.  The museum trip was something that i found interesting. We looked at paintings and statues of art that depicted stages of transformation from regular people, to enlightened people. I found this interesting because they way to tell if a particular person was enlightened was shown by the ears. Another interesting thing about the museum was the statue of all the heads of a person. All in all this was a fun trip and i enjoyed visiting the museum.

– Bernard

The first workshop that i did was to go to the first meeting of the writers society. This meeting was Thursday, September 8th during club hours. This meeting had approximately 15 people in it, not to mention the 3 students, and one professor who helped to run the club. The meeting lasted for about an hour and 20 minutes. The first part of it was spent talking about what the Writers Society did, its affiliation with “The Ticker” and its use of blogging. The second part of the meeting was spent going around the room class-room asking everyone to say two truths and one lie, with the rest of the group trying to identify which of the three statements were truths/lies. The last part of the meeting was spent in giving examples of what kind of writing would be done in the class. One of the students who ran the group, Dariya Makhova, read aloud one of the assignments that she would give us. The assignment was a description of a person that you find intriguing, that you have never spoken too. I enjoyed the meeting, but decided not to join the club because i was reluctant to commit to something in my first weeks at Baruch.

– Bernard

Beginning in 9th grade i have spent one Sunday a week at a place called JCHB ( The Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst ) volunteering. There i watch over little kids as they play different sports such as basketball, volleyball, soccer and Ping- Pong. When i first started doing this i thought that it would be very boring, but i was surprised. The kids were fun and receptive to instructions, the other volunteers were my age, and i never really lost interest. Over the years i started coming to the JCHB more often until i was offered a job there. Now i do not volunteer on Sundays as often as i used too, but i still come by two or three times a month.

Baruch Voices was an interesting experience. I got to hear many different monologues. Personally, I did not like Baruch Voices because most of the monologues were too personal. While I have no problems with personal monologues the fact that the monologues were presented by someone other than the original writer of the monologue made me feel that the monologue lost some of its personality. On the other hand i did enjoy listening to some of the monologues, many of which were very interesting.

– Benard

My name is Bernard Agrest, I am 17
years old and I am a freshman at Baruch. I was born in Russian and moved to
America when I was 5 years old. I speak both Russian and English fluently.
Coming from Midwood High school, a school with a population of almost 5000, fit
into 1 small building, I have had no problem adjusting to the amount of people
in Baruch. My passion is playing the piano. I started playing the piano 6
months ago, and from there my interest and love for the instrument has only
grown. My favorite types of music are classic rock, and metal. My favorite
sports are basketball and volleyball.

I don’t think that its easy to
describe yourself, but id have to say the thing that I find that the most
important about myself is my realism. Some people always try to see something
good or bad in life, but I see life as it is. I’m also an eternal
procrastinator, which most people would say is a bad thing, but it somehow
works for me. The closer I am to an assignment being due, the easier I find it
to settle down and do the work.          There
are many things that are different in college than In high school. The workload
is more serious, and the teachers never pester you to give it in on time. I
find this a lot better than a constant annoying reminder to do your homework,
even if occasionally I will forget to do a hw. Another thing that is different
in baruch is the use of electronics. Most teachers don’t care, about you having
a cell phone out, as long as it doesn’t interrupt their lesson. The best thing
about college so far is the long weekend I have every week. Having a 3 day
weekend allows me to get all my homework done without worrying about classes,
but it also leaves me with sufficient time to hang out with friends and just
relax.

Hey Professor Blank

Im just sending you an email to tell you that i wont be in class today, i have been sick for the past couple of days and as a precaution stayed at home today.

At 17 years old i very few people know who they are, and even fewer can describe themselves accurately. Personally i think i am a realist. I tend to view the world in a structure. I dont usually plan for things to go wrong, so im not a pessimist, but im always aware that the possibility of something going wrong is always possible. My top 3 concerns for Baruch as a freshman are about its organization, its lack of functional escalators and lack of public housing. Baruch’s organizational system is horrific in my opinion. Before my placement exam i spent countless hours calling the school, and never even having someone pick up. Eventually i physically went to the school and waited almost an hour to be told that my placement test had not been graded yet. Baruch is a relatively large school, and as such getting to class can be a hassle, especially if you have classes back to back. Unfortuantely the escalators never work, and the elevators take too long. I frequently walk from the 4th to the 10th floor, which can be a hassle. My last concern for baruch is that it has almost no affordable public housing, and the housing that is affordable is already taken. Most college students look toward college to move away from thier parents, and here i am stuck at home for another 4 years. Baruch has not been majorly different from my highschool. The city is a minor improvement from my old school, but even in high school i had any number of places to choose to hang out with friends. Ironically, while Baruch is located in the city, there are very few places to shoot pool and the like close to it. The only major difference in Baruch for me are the teachers. Teachers in highschool always pressured you to do work and the like, which only made me want to do it less. Here the teachers dont force us upon anything, which i find to be refreshing. Finally i think my first year of college will make me mature in regards to my decesion making. I hope to make ( and have already made ) new friends and i look forward to the upcoming year.

Hey Im Bernard and im a freshman in Baruch. I was born in Russia. When i was 5 my parents moved to America. I like to play sports such as volleyball and basketball. I was on my high schools volleyball team from freshman to junior year, and i quit senior year to get a job. I started playing piano 4 months ago and its one of my favorite things to do. I wanna major in Business with a minor in law.