Author: f.secoquian

Baruch Voices was a really cool event that I managed to attend last Thursday, the 2nd of November. In this event, a student from each Freshman Seminar section recites his/her monologue for everyone in attendance to hear. These monologues pertained to specific aspects of these students lives, which is what I felt kept me engaged in listening to each of them. The topics from these monologues were very interesting. They ranged from things like the turbulent path towards being a dancer to the delectable nature of Popeye’s and the satisfaction it provides to a hungry, hard-working student (this was one of my personal favorites by the way haha). The emotions evoked in these monologues were also very diverse. They evoked feelings of depression, confusion, delight, and various other combinations. I could really see these emotions through the way the students voiced them out (especially with those who sent chills down my spine from yelling into the microphone in enthusiasm). Overall, Baruch Voices was a really pleasant event for me. By going to this event, I got a sense of just how different and diverse the Baruch community really was.

-Francis Secoquian

Yesterday, the 3rd of October, I attended a workshop on public accounting hosted by Grant Thornton. I was pretty stoked to find out that an event like this was being held this week because I’m an accounting major and I’m interested in pursuing a career in this field. I figured this would be a great opportunity for me to learn about a couple aspects about the field.

When I came to the meeting, I was amazed to find that the majority of people in attendance were juniors and seniors, well as far as I was aware. I was also surprised to find out that Grant Thornton’s not an individual person, but it’s actually a public accounting firm. A number of professionals from the firm came to present that day and they all so happened to be Baruch alumni themselves too!

The meeting started off with free pizza and soda, which I was relieved to figure because I forgot to pack lunch and didn’t have much money on me. Afterwards, the professionals from Grant Thornton gave their presentation. It provided us with information about the kind of positions there are in a public accounting firm as well as specific timelines for different kinds of business evaluations.

At the conclusion of the presentation, the professionals from Grant Thornton had us complete an activity that would give an idea of what it’s like to work as an accountant. We were given a sheet that had a variety of numbers and had instructions on what we were supposed to find using them. The activity mostly involved the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operation of numbers. But even with basic functions like those, the task was quite a challenge! While this activity might just have nearly gotten my brain cells fried, I had a pretty good time doing the calculations and filling in my results on that chart. Had I the opportunity to complete the task at my own pace, I probably would’ve done a better job at completing the thing.

Overall, this workshop on public accounting has truly been a pleasant experience for me. After the way I found enjoyment in the hands on experience from the task given to us, I’m feeling optimistic about my current decision to major in accounting.

-Francis Secoquian