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Freshman Seminar was a good class in my opinion. I liked my mentor and instructor, and they were both very kind and lenient. I liked the laidback feel of the class, and how we never really had to do work. I also enjoyed some of the field trips. For instance, the trip to the Rubin Museum of Art was a really cool experience. In addition, some of the workshops were extremely helpful like the one on how to set up your classes. This class helped me get fully acclimated to Baruch, and showed me the important things I need to know to succeed in this school. Some of the things that I didn’t like was how the class started at 9:30. I have to commute from New Jersey so I had to wake up at 6:30 to make it to class on time which was very difficult for me to do. Also, the blog posts were kind of tedious, but they weren’t that bad. All in all, I liked this class and thought it was a great class to start my career at Baruch with. Thanks Ying and Brett for being great mentors, and maybe we’ll meet each other in the future!!

If I could pick one thing to change about the class it would be to have more in class debates and discussions and less informative lectures. To go through a 20 slide powerpoint on the career center may be helpful to some, but engaging in a class wide discussion helps students to build persuasive skills which will carry on to their professional lives.  When the students had to pick a point of view point of their own and argue that point, this to me was the funnest part of freshman seminar simply because it was the most interactive and interesting activity of the entire semester.

I think that the freshman orientation class , at the start, was annoying , because it made me wake up early on a Tuesday , which I could’ve just woken up lateLike I do Thursday. But now I realize it really did help. Te little things we talk about in class did make me a little more knowledgable on how to get around in Baruch. And Isis enjoy the thing we talked about in class especially thedays where thoughts our thoughts on certain subjects.

My completely honest opinions on this freshman seminar class is that it was really fun. It was something different every week and that’s something that i’m truly gonna miss next semester. It took me away from the actual work of college and I had a lot of fun learning random things about the policies and expectations of Baruch as those are things I’ll need throughout my years here. The activities we did in class were extremely engaging and challenged me to think about many things such as morals, obligations, etc. The only bad thing I have to say about this class is the workshops that were mandatory. If the workshops weren’t mandatory this class would be perfect. I’m actually doing this blog post to avoid having to go to the make up workshop. If I was a peer mentor and actually ran the class I wouldn’t make the workshops mandatory I would instead have the students pick what they would rather do. If they would rather go to the workshops then they could do that and not have to do any blog posts or if you don’t want to go to the workshops you could do extra blog posts. But that’s just me and other than that I had tuns of fun and am grateful for the experience.

If I was Ying for  a day I would make the class more fun. For a few days we played a debate game where there were two sides and we got to choose our side and defend our claim. I had alot of fun actually, and I really wanted to do more of them. We had really good discussions concerning the issues brought up such as ethical dillemas. I think if we had more of these it would have been a much more enjoyable class, which is very needed when the class meets at so early on Tuesday mornings. Also, it would be alot more fun if the class could meet in between our history class (which is right after) and our english (which is 3 hours later). having it in between would cut out our 3 hour wait period

the way the Reuben Museum of Art inspired me is to always give something a chance before i speak my mind on a subject. At first i thought it would have been a waste of time to even attempt to go to this event even though it was mandatory  as i got there i realized that it was very interesting. I always love art but at first i was skeptical to go to such a place especially that i was dragged to go there. Once i hit the first floor i saw excitement and my desire to learn more kicked in suddenly. its crazy how giving something a second chance can change your whole perspective on something. not only did the Museum show me marvelous art work and sculptures but, it taught me to never judged something without knowing about it at first. The Museum itself showed how even before technology had a huge expansion craftsman showed so much detail in there art work. its amazing how a person can turn a rock into a human sculpture and show a story on a piece of cloth using paint. My personal favorite thing at the Museum was the sculptures of the gods that were worshiped. it showed me the creative mindset people have to view higher power. they tend to always show gods having more of something. example more heads arms legs etc. this shows gods think and can due tasks at a faster rate that humans cannot do. the sculptures also show the gods being something beyond human sometimes even being animals or exotic type creatures never seen before with different color skin tone. the more of something meant the more power the god had and also whatever the god held meant what type of worship you had to do to get that item.

Out of the several special events and workshops we attended, here are my thoughts on Baruch Voices – the most recent such event of showcased poetry and monologues.  The pieces, written by students and read aloud by rehearsed and animated narrators, were undoubtedly one of the most interesting gigs I’ve seen on campus.  Spanning an array of topics ranging from overbearing parents, suicide and lust for bacon, it was apt to give anyone looking for something funny, serious or both a decent time.

None of the messages found in the topics particularly resonated with me on a personal level, but I give serious props to the second and fourth orators (both male) for their acting and voice talent.  The feel, the attitude, and the spirit of these works were very well portrayed and “lived-through” the actors on the stage, but especially through these two readers.  In regards to the writer with the greatest talent, this would easily be the piece on growing up.  The selection on bacon lust, however, was a close second.  I think the part on restrictive parenting was quite trivial; it was the individual that still needed to grow up if they hadn’t found the stones to say no to that sort of control by age 19 or 20.  The suicide piece could have also had more constructive and inspirational twists or spin, but instead it still felt a bit downer even at the conclusion.

In short, checking out Baruch Voices just once won’t hurt; it’s likely you’ll have a good time if you have nothing else to do.  Again, kudos to the talented people writing and recounting these works, the school is better because of you.

– ZH

I enjoyed the first show we watched, even though I’m not really sure if that counted as an enrichment workshop. I think it was cool because they really did hit on a lot of things college kids face. It resonated with me is because I think that I also have a lot of advice on the things they were talking about, but don’t really know how to give it out unless someone asks. But the performers on the show took the subjects, added a funny twist on them, while still maintaining that truth about it. They talk about everything from sex, to drugs, to roommates, and to feeling lost in college. All things that college kids face, and might not know about. They showed the and sides to things, even if they added a comical twist to it. I thoroughly enjoyed everything they said, and it also made me feel a bit better about being lost in college. Its not like high school where it was easy to know everyone, in college you are on your own, but never truly because you can make friends whenever you want. The singing and dancing just added more to the entertainment side, and its nice to know that there are people out there who care to inform the young people about what to expect.

My first few months into Baruch have been alright. Ive always hated schoolwork, so I didn’t really expect to enjoy college. I thought I could breeze my way through Baruch like I have always done with school, but guess what caught me off guard? A lot of work to do, a lot of things to remember. I walked into class the other day, right into a test because I forgot we had one. I think I know what my grade for that test is looking like. And as we speak I have 2 essays do, which I really haven’t made any progress on. So I think ill be spending my saturday trying to finish up this homework. So yeah, Baruch hasn’t been the greatest thing ever, but its not that bad. I met a few cool people, but not really interested in doing much more because I just wanna keep up with my schoolwork and fix my gpa next semester after the horrible things I’ve done to it now.

My first few months at Baruch have been quite a new experience out of all of the things about Baruch the one that stands out to me most is my three hour math class. The one word I would use to describe this class….miserable. It has to be the hardest class I have ever been in and it makes me question what my future would be like if I stayed at Baruch for four years. If I can’t even handle the introductory math class maybe the school with the hardest math classes I’ve ever taken isn’t the best fit for a person like me who dreads abstract math. Other than that I do like most of my professors however a few of them seem to treat their students with the same disrespect we all got from our disengaged high school teachers. However some of my professors are great and make me consider not transferring out of Baruch.