Monthly Archives: December 2012

My favorite workshop was “Baruch Voices.” I thought it was pretty cool that those people told their stories in front of everyone, especially since some got very personal, I thought it took a lot of courage. And it was also a little weird listening to the problems of everyday people who you might never expect to deal with such things. I think that’s what kept people on their toes as they watched the performance. It was a good workshop to attend and a good experience for my first term.

Another free-write… This time I’m supposed to write about my most embarrassing situation. There’s no way I’m going to do that. I’ll just write random words to make it look like I’m doing the assignment. “Bubbles. Clown. Cards. Slippers. Pineapple. Cinnamon”. Okay, this is getting kind of boring now. Wow, everyone else is still writing. They look so focused. I wonder what they’re writing about. Their stories are probably so different. I mean, they must be since each person in here is so different from one another. I never actually noticed it before: The people here come from so many different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and religions. It’s SO different from all of the other schools I’ve attended where we all had the same religion. My last school was actually an all-girls school. Yeah, I guess I had a pretty limited upbringing. This is so refreshing though. A variety of people. Finally. Now that I’m thinking about it, this is probably one of the reasons that I like Baruch. It’s kind of awesome that I have friends that come from like five different nationalities. Imagine if the whole world could be like this classroom. Imagine if people could just embrace their differences, no matter how big or drastic they are, and get along with one another or, at the very least, sit next to each other and not fight or argue. That would be pretty amazing. Everyone living in peace. If it’s possible in this school it must be possible in the rest of the world. Oh, time’s up. I’ll just jot down a few more words to fill up the paper. “peace, happy, friends, diversity, Baruch.” There. That should be enough.

The enrichment/workshop that I enjoyed most out of the freshman seminar class was the stress workshop. I found the whole workshop pretty neat. It showed us multiple ways to deal with stress such as breathing exercises and identifying the problem and finding solutions to the problem. We also learned how to meditate which was an epic fail for me. It was nearly impossible for me focus as my mind kept drifting in random things.  I don’t usually use this methods to deal with stress, but it’s good to know that there are other ways to relieve stress. I love the stress ball though, i found it pretty ‘cute’.

My favorite enrichment workshop was the one we had to go to out of the three options. The speaker was marvin and the workshop was aimed to help us manage our time in college as well as choosing our core courses for next semester. It really set me straight on what i had to include in my schedule so i was not lost during my schedule planning. He also taught us how we can take away time from things that are less significant to finish things that are more significant such as research paper and/or studying for a upcoming examination. I really thought it was gonna be a useless and boring workshop and they would probably treat us like kids. To my surprise it was quite the opposite, they gave me really essential information and treated us like adults.

Out of all the workshops we’ve been to this semester, my favorite workshop, like most people, is Baruch Voices. Although it might have been the most educational workshop, it was definitely the most interesting. The actors made it extra entertaining by exaggerating the monologues, especially the Asian actor.

It was nice listening to other people’s monologue and relating to how their freshman year went. I could relate to a lot of the problems that was addressed in the monologues. There was also a lot of monologues written by people that went to my High School which made it more significant. The monologues revealed a lot about them that I never knew.

The actors did a great job showing the monologues and bringing out the message of each of them. My favorite one was the one about quitting smoking by the Asian actor. He gave it a really funny twist and kept the audience engaged the entire time. Another monologue that left an impression was the girl that cut herself. It reminded me that a lot of people are different on the inside than what they appear to be.

One workshop that I enjoyed was the workshop on the LGBT community. This workshop demonstrated the importance of being very sensitive to LGBT people. I realized that I need to be more careful with the words that I speak in public. I do believe, however, that the presentation came across as a little bit too forceful. I believe some of the scenarios in the video shown may have been a little exaggerated and overly aggressive. Despite this, I still learned many valuable lessons from this presentation that I plan on implementing in my life right away.

I definitely enjoyed my first semester in Baruch. It has not been an easy adjustment, but I think I am starting to get a hold of it. I’ve realized that it will take a lot of hard work to do well but I am prepared to give all my effort. Most classes haven’t been too difficult thus far with the exception of Calculus. I came into Baruch expecting Calculus to be my hardest class after taking it in High School. I do think though that even if my grade doesn’t end up being great, I will be able to put Calculus behind me and not have to worry about taking any more math classes. This way I will be able to move forward with my cores and get ready to take classes for my major. I believe that next semester I will be able to do even better. It may be more difficult, however, as I am planning on being in school only 3 days a week while interning the other two days. I believe that I will be able to take on the difficult challenge, however, and succeed.

The enrichment workshop that I enjoyed the most was the one that taught us how to properly release stress through deep breathing exercises.  I never knew that simply breathing could fill me with such complete and utter zen. My head was clear for the first time in months and I was not worried about any assignment,deadlines or due dates. I just lived in the moment. Since that workshop I have used this exercise every morning to clear my head. Instead of waking up in a panicked daze I am able to be calm and handle the work cut out for me. It prevents me from becoming overwhelmed with all of the work I need to handle. I know that this will be a valuable exercise for me in the future especially given the fact that finals are approaching. Ultimately this workshop has given me a new perpective on stress management and how to handle work in the years to come.

I think the most was the last one where they taught us how to register for classes as well as check the availabilities for the classes as well. I didn’t know anything because I’m a freshman and I’m always lost when it comes to technical things. The women who came in helped us tremendously by actually going through the sites with us and showing us exactly where to go. When the day of registration came, I couldn’t say I knew exactly what to do, but if it weren’t for that workshop, then I’d be completely lost. I successfully registered for all my required classes and was able to navigate the site.