Author: k.kan

On Thursday, November 9 2017, I attended the Baruch Major/ Minor Fair, located in the Multipurpose Room during club hours. Even though I am currently marked as a Marketing major, I mostly came to Baruch with an open mindset, and unsure as to what major and career I truly want to pursue in. While there are many fields in business, and Baruch is largely a business school, I wanted to explore other fields that Baruch offers as well, possibly to pick up a minor in the process.

First, I went to the Marketing table, the major I’m currently marked down as. I spoke to the lady there, and learned a bit about the many fields and tracks that makes up Marketing. So even though I originally expressed an interest in Marketing, finding out about the many directions the field can actually lead you to made me take a step back and reconsider just what would fit me best.

I stopped by at the Accounting table after, as many of the people I know at Baruch are pursuing that major. I spoke to Lorraine, the lady there who told me a bit more about the major, and the rigor that many accounting majors go through, but also the benefits and range that the field of accounting provides. I left that table impressed by what I learned.

Finally, I visited International Business. Being another major I had interest in, as I enjoy learning new foreign languages,  I believed that this was a major that resonated with me, especially as I plan to take Japanese next semester, which would surely supplement my academics well. I spoke to the lady there and learned of the many opportunities abroad, not just the mandatory study abroad, but the different internship abroad opportunities the department can sponsor or introduce you to through 3rd party programs.

Though by the end of the event, I still haven’t finalized on a major, I left with more knowledge on just what each major can lead me to. Being a freshman, I still have lots of time to finalize on a major, so at the moment I am not too concerned. I’m grateful for being able to attend this event.

On Thursday, October 5 I decided to attend one of STARR’s Career Workshops, the Internship Seminar. As it was required to attend an internship seminar before applying to an internship yourself, and I had personal interest in getting an internship, I was quite interested. Despite the seminar starting at 12:30, I managed to show up 5 minutes late. Luckily, the seminar hadn’t yet started and the presenter and internship coordinator, Michael Kalish, was very forgiving of me. We began the seminar by first defining what an internship is, which is “a temporary professional experience that provides a learning experience in your chosen career”. Michael Kalish then went on to explain the different types of internships. There are the paid internships, the unpaid ones, and the ones that offer you in school credit. For students that are currently not enrolled into any of the schools within Baruch, there are Zero-Credit internships.

While some of this info may seem basic, I learned of a lot of technicalities for the first time. For example, an internship cannot be considered paid unless you are offered at least $11.00 an hour, and you must be at least awarded credit in an internship or otherwise you are performing free labor which is illegal.

Kalish then took us on a tour through the STARR website, teaching us how to upload our information, and how to look for a job, and even search techniques that can help us find the exact internship we could be looking for. He mentioned the many resources that STARR provides to all students and encouraged us to come again should we need help on resumes or interviews or any sort of professional assistance. Unfortunately for me, as I am a current first term freshman, I don’t have enough credits to even go for a Zero-Credit internship, so a lot of what I learned is currently not applicable. However, I’m going to use this time to work as hard as I can so that when I finally am able to apply for an internship, I will be ready. I was really grateful for attending this workshop.

Despite not even being Filipino, at my friend’s insistence I attended FUSION’s (Filipinos United Students In Other Nations) first General Interest Meeting. As I wasn’t sure as to what I would be expecting I was very impressed by the club’s overall vibe and energy. I watched a video of their skit that they made for a competition the previous year, and though it was very cheesy it was very entertaining and made me wish I could have participated as well. After the presentation, we played a game of rock paper scissor where if you beat someone, they join your “group” and cheer you on until you conquer other “groups” and eventually the entire room. The prize you earn for winning is a windbreaker with the club’s logo on it. I only barely lost when I conquered everyone in the room except for the last person who only had one other person in his group – it was a very climatic ending to a suspenseful game. After the meeting, members of the club personally invited us down to their club room on the 3rd floor, where we were introduced to every member, and were even given free cookie dough to eat which turned out to be very tasty. It was a really welcoming experience. The most exciting part however, was hearing about FUSION’s dance team, ConFUSION. Having danced some hip hop in high school, I was very excited to hear about this, and my friends and I immediately expressed interest in joining. The people at ConFUSION were very welcoming, and even invited us to their practice later that day. So despite it being very last minute, we got right to it, and showed up to shadow ConFUSION’s practice. We had a lot of fun, and despite it only being one day with the club, I’m already looking forward to this year with them.