Category Archives: Blog Post #2

It’s hard to be involved at my local Temple in Staten Island because I dorm in the city, and I’m always overwhelmed with school. However, I try to make time once in a while and go to my Temple on some weekends. It gives me a way to learn about my religion, and culture. When I went most recently, I helped the priest by performing certain rituals, and going around to the people who came, and giving them “prasadam”, which is food that has been blessed. You eat this (usually a sweet) after you have prayed. I will definitely be doing this more often. A widely celebrated holiday is coming up this weekend so I’m excited to attend the temple again, and help around with what is needed to make the celebration it’s best.

On October 18th I went to the TEAM Baruch meeting to find out more information about it. I first became interested in joining back in the summer when I met some members at my orientation. The members always seem to have a smile on their face no matter what task they are assigned and are always very helful.

At the meeting, I learned that I would need to apply to the club in order to have a chance of joining. Then if I got accepted, I would need to be interviewed. After that, I would have to go on a group retreat on January 18th. This all interested me because if there was multiple steps and challenges to joining and hundreds of people were in the club, I knew it was worth joining.

I decided after the meeting that I would definitely join TEAM Baruch because I could not see a downside to joining at all. I hope I get accepted and I can be a “TEAM” member.

I came across a small exhibit inside the Rubin Museum that gave me a visual on how Tibetan sculpting worked, specifically how the metal sculptures were made. I’d always thought that the statues were heated and molded by hand into the intended shapes, individually (like clay sculpting). Instead, I found out that artists would create a prototype first, put it in a mold, empty the mold, then fill the mold with liquid metal, and lastly paint in details (like eyes and lips).

This is a process that we still use today, though rarely is the finished product made of metal– it’s too expensive. Today, many artists (special effects artists) would make face molds so that they could create masks tailored to their facial features. It’s just surprising that the beginnings of this molding process dates back to so long ago.

Last week i was able to visit the Rubin Museum With My bro Tony. Upon entering we were very lucky because apparently CUNY used to have an agreement with The Rubin Museum but they never renewed it so the Rub

in Museum gave all CUNY students a grace period until October 31st to go in for free. Tony was so glad and relieved. Upon entering the Rubin Museum i realized that it was completely different from the two museums that i had already visited in the past (MOMA, The MET) The art pieces were amazing. I learned about what was called Garuda, The King of Birds a half bird, half human that was a companion to the Hindu god Vishnu. This Piece looked amazing. It looked like a little golden bird in a battle stance. Another piece that really Attracted me was the Guardian King which existed during the Qing Dynasty in China. The sculptures are said to be set on the four cardinal directions, commonly used to guard the entrance to temples. The Guardian King looked really amazing because its eyes looked like those of a real person. They shone and looked like they followed you. All in all i had an amazing trip and learned a lot about a new and interesting form of art.

I had the opportunity to visit the iconic Guggenheim Museum with Bloomberg employees last month. It was raining when I arrived but the Guggenheim employees escorted us to a special check-in place where we all gathered and  checked in our bags and coats.

Before the tour started, I got to talk to the Bloomberg employees and the work they do in depth. I got to know a lot about them and how much they loved doing their work. A few of them exchanged my number and invited me for a special tour of their offices with them which is very exciting.

We were also shown around for a special exhibition about perception. It was very artsy. The longest line I encountered at the museum was not for any exhibition but for a toilet. You heard that right. Not any toilet, though. It was a golden throne toilet worth about $2 million that attracted the visitors like honey attracts the bees.

I enjoyed the exhibitions and the fact that I made so many new friends who had a lot of common interests.

On Tuesday, October 18^th, I attended the TEAM Baruch Informational Session regarding how to apply to be a part of the leadership group.  I mainly decided to attend the meeting because I think Baruch’s Freshman Seminar teachers and Freshman Orientation Leaders have really helped me to adjust to the community at college.  Although I was very wary of attending a commuter college, I am happy to say after nearly two months at Baruch, I am enjoying my time here and I have been able to fit in.  Without the help of the leaders from TEAM Baruch I do not think my transition would have been as smooth.  At the meeting I was able to hear not only from the administration about the process of the application and the multifaceted roles that TEAM Baruch members take on, but in addition I was able to hear from three current TEAM Baruch members on their experiences that covered a variety of the positions.  The open question and answer session at the end was extremely useful because although I did not ask a question, I was able to hear other people’s questions and the TEAM Baruch members’ thorough answers.  Before attending the meeting, I was only curious about the leadership program but after hearing about the wonderful experiences I think I will start the application process.  In addition to Freshman Seminar teachers and Freshman Orientation Leaders, I now also would like to consider applying to be a Resident Assistant, which I found out did not require one to currently live in the dorms, and perhaps working in the health suite as part of the wellness program.  All in all, I am glad to have attended the meeting, and I am really starting to feel a sense of connection to the Baruch community despite my initial worries.

Classic Josh Face

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