The enrichment workshop was a surprisingly enlightening experience. Going to Baruch, I’ve been told by several people that it’s a school where you go to class, get your work done, and go home – but I wanted to make much more of the “college experience.” I told myself I would get involved in numerous things at Baruch, but I didn’t and the enrichment workshop taught me that it’s never too late. Just because Baruch is a commuter school, it doesn’t mean we can’t make these four, five, or six years a “traditional college experience.” The clubs are always prominent and recruiting and there are many opportunities available here at Baruch, but they aren’t just going to be handed to us. We must go out and take it. The enrichment workshop inspired us to be leaders. Just because our friends or family don’t believe that Baruch can give us that “college experience,” it doesn’t mean we have to follow their words. College is what we make out of it, so we might as well try and make the best out of it, get involved, and explore the things we are passionate about.

I thought that the enrichment workshop was very interesting, the people who presented did a very good job of giving unique examples of leaders, such as Abraham Lincoln and the architects of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Before the workshop I had a pretty clear idea of what a leader is, however after the workshop this idea was even more clear. It was a very engaging workshop in which they asked us (the audience) questions. The panel of the five leaders from their respective clubs put in great insight on life at Baruch.  The most important thing that they said is that your experience at Baruch is what you make of it.

Being a Freshman, I have not been really involved with Baruch. I have signed up to receive newsletters from clubs but I have yet to go to any of their meetings. I plan to go to one club meeting before the semester ends. This workshop inspired me to join clubs for next semester, I will be more open to trying them out since I feel that I have learned a lot about Baruch this semester.  Perhaps, I will join a Fraternity next semester or at least attend one of their meetings.

-Julian Niemetz

         I believe the enrichment workshop was meant to reiterate the fact that leadership is prevalent is everyday life. Just some of the many examples given include the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge along with Abraham Lincoln and his accomplishments with abolishment of slavery. Many of the examples were previously taught to me and it was clear that these people were major leaders during their time. The focused soon changed, as the man in charge began speaking of leaders in our lives, here at Baruch College. Furthermore, he said we were soon going to be the leaders in our school and our community. That in itself, did not exactly motivate me. What actually motivated me was hearing the stories of the older students who were once in the position that I am currently in now.

         All five of the students that spoke directly related to the way I was feeling. They came to Baruch College and it was strictly school work for them. As anyone can imagine, that was quite boring. They quickly matters into their own hands, and now mostly as seniors, they are Presidents and Vice Presidents of some of the Baruch College’s major clubs and fraternities. The students inspired me not only to join the clubs but to also become leaders of the clubs. I plan on joining Team Baruch in the upcoming semesters mainly to practice my leadership skills and have a better time here at Baruch College. Throughout the workshop, questions were also presented to us all based on our views of leadership. Every student had a different answer on what leadership meant to them and how they practice it within their everyday lives. To me, leadership means being able to cooperate and working together with many other people in order to achieve a common goal. We practice our leadership skills on a daily basis, whether we are working on a group project in class, or teaching somebody younger than us the right thing to do. To conclude, I believe I learned a lot more than I expected from the enrichment workshop.

The enrichment workshop was inspiring to me to join organizations and clubs within the school. I had listened to the experiences of the speakers up front and had been urged to join clubs and get involved in my school. They told us stories about how they had been going in and out of Baruch College every day during their freshman year feeling like they weren’t a part of anything. They also stated how they did not feel like they were getting the college experience that we all see on TV. Ever since I started going to Baruch, I’ve felt the same way. But recently, before the workshop, I have joined one club which I feel can offer me some sort of the experience I’ve been looking for. I didn’t really need the workshop much to convince me to get involved. I plan on getting involved a lot more. Right now I’m just trying to get used to the workload and my time-management. Next semester I’ll get involved with about 2-3 clubs/organizations including the current one and see how that plays out.

Susan Kim

1. What was the “theme” your group selected for your front page, and how did you select it? How did the articles you selected fit within that theme?

1. My group’s theme was food. We chose food by thinking about what each group member loves: food! The articles we selected fit within our theme because they were all related to some sort of food or restaurant.

2. What was your individual role in the group process working on the NYT project?

My role in the NYT project, was write a local story on food so I based my article on a local restaurant.

3. How has your experience within this project influenced your understanding of “news literacy”?Provide a link to your NYT Front Page Project.

My experience within this project influenced my understanding of news literacy by helping me better understand how important it is to keep up with the news on a daily basis.

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/fantastic5/

1) The theme for our front page was music. We selected music as our topic because the members in our group and I all enjoy listening to music regularly and thought that it could be a relevant topic in the news.

2) My role in the group was to write two articles, the universal article about music, as well as, the national article about music.

3) Before this project, I would say my news literacy  was “moderate,” but now it is at a much higher level due to realizing of how potentially interesting news can be if it pertains to something you find significant.

Our front page can be reached by clicking here.

Me and my group picked sports as our theme since the majority of us are into sports we felt we could excel at this selected topic. The articles fir into our theme well and gave us good diversity at the same time since we were interested in different sports thus broadening our reach in the general interest of our peers. My individual role was one international article and one random article, the random article I kind of cruised NY times until I found one I liked but the international I had my eyes set on this past Olympic games from the start. It has made me more interested in the NY times articles, and occasionally se what’s new.

Here is a link to view all our articles

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/nytsports/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=post&all_posts=1

1. What was the “theme” your group selected for your front page, and how did you select it? How did the articles you selected fit within that theme?

The theme my group selected for our front page is smartphones. We chose to use this topic because the impact of smartphones are relevant to the daily lives of many Baruch students, if not, our generation.

2. What was your individual role in the group process working on the NYT project?
My role in the group was to write two articles on smartphones, both on the global and national scale.

3. How has your experience within this project influenced your understanding of “news literacy”?Provide a link to your NYT Front Page Project.

My experience from working on this project did not greatly influence me on “news literacy.” Outside of this project, I am already aware and up to date with most of the significant discussions on the news.

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/theuseofsmartphones/

1. What was the “theme” your group selected for your front page, and how did you select it? How did the articles you selected fit within that theme?

1. The theme of our group was food. We selected it because everybody loves food. All of our articles were about food around Baruch, the United states, and around the world.

2. What was your individual role in the group process working on the NYT project?

2. My role was to write about food around the Baruch campus, so I took a different take and wrote about the food carts around Baruch because food carts are a great and cheap way to eat for struggling college students, such as myself.

3. How has your experience within this project influenced your understanding of “news literacy”?Provide a link to your NYT Front Page Project.

3. My experience within this project influenced my understanding of “news literacy” because I wasn’t really familiar with how newspapers formatted their covers and stories. This gave me a little bit of understanding on how it works which is especially great since I’m an aspiring writer. It also taught me to have a sense of urgency on keeping up with current events.

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/fantastic5

1. Our group chose to do medical care as our theme. We chose this theme because it seemed relevant at this time, especially with the whole Obamacare change that is coming in 2014. The articles I selected had to do with health insurance, and medical cost.
2. My role in the project was to summarize an international and national article about medical care.
3. This project hasn’t really influence my views on news literacy. I read newspapers daily and get all my “news literacy” from there.

https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/orangebuttercream/