Author: m.binshtok

A month ago I attended the TEAM Baruch Orientation/Info Day. During this time I learned about all the position opportunities that TEAM Baruch offers. I was especially interested in the TEAM Baruch peer mentor position in which your mentor new freshmen. I find this job to be an especially special one because through this you can really aid the high school to college transition that all the freshman go through, one that can be especially hard. Going to this event made me eager to attain a peer mentor position in the future so that I can make sure that other students have a good transition, learn about their resources here at Baruch, and feel very welcome. I think that this would be a good position for me one day because I enjoy working with other people and making others feel comfortable in situations. TEAM Baruch emphasized the importance of working together as a community within the school, something I find very important at a commuter school like Baruch. I think because Baruch is a commuter school, it makes the transition for new students especially difficult. I think it’s great that TEAM Baruch offers jobs for students to make the Baruch experience better for them and other students. I learned that TEAM Baruch offers jobs in the career counselling department, and that there are even tutoring jobs available for Baruch students as well. I even bumped into one of the Baruch Career counselors that was at the meeting who also happens to be one of my neighbors, which was a funny coincidence. Overall, my experience learning about TEAM Baruch and the positions available was very enlightening. I hope that in the future I can join TEAM Baruch and become part of the community that makes Baruch a better place in all aspects of student life.

(Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic but I have email confirmation proof of my attendance)

 

 

Last week I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having spent most of my childhood there, memories always sweep into my mind as I walk into the grand halls, laced with gorgeous paintings. Only a few turns and you can jump continents and centuries of art. This semester I am taking Art History and Global History and both subjects find the Met to be quite handy. I went to my favourite place in the Met, The Lehman collection.

Walking the round galleries, filled with Reniors, Van Goghs, Monets, and Degas, the impressionist beamed before me. It made me very happy that I go to college in the best city in the world, in which an infinite archive of the most talented artists in the world have their art housed all together. It only takes about 25 minutes to get to The Met from Baruch, so as I sit in my art history class and see pictures of art, I often times wonder how much better it would be if field trips were still a regular thing.

Later this week I will be going back to the Met, this time with my History professor. She will offer us a tour, that will count as an assignment(isn’t that lovely?). As I walked through The Met, I saw art and artifacts presented to me in both my art history and global history classes. Seeing many works of art from the same period all together allows one to gain a new perspective on the time period, gives greater visual memory of the essence of the time period, and contributes to one’s learning experience when they see their academic subject matter in such a special setting. The Met has one of the best collections of Ancient Egyptian artwork in the world, which even includes a while Temple(The Temple of Dendur) that was transported from Egypt just for the museum.

So as my history midterm comes closer and closer, I see The Met as a great tool to study, but I also see it as an amazing opportunity to explore the art I love and connect with the culture that the city that I’m so lucky to call home has to offer.

On 9/11 I attended the 20 minute monday meeting at the Hillel with my friend Raphael. We were met with much welcome and as the meeting unraveled, we began to watch a 9/11 tribute video. It was a very emotional moment for me because I have always lived a couple blocks away from the World Trade Center and seeing the chaos that swarmed my neighborhood hit extraordinarily close to home. The video showed the plane attacks, people jumping from the buildings, and people’s reactions to what was happening. Although I usually have difficulty watching such traumatic footage of 9/11 I was glad that on such an important day I was able to watch it and feel like New York City has recovered well. All of New York City had to come together and help each other on this horrific day, and we spoke about how Baruch students dealt with the aftermath. We learned about a girl named Marina. A Russian Jewish girl who was born and raised in New York, and attended Baruch just like me. On her first day of work she was on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center, the same day that the planes hit the building. It was very sad hearing the story of the loss of someone who was so loved and smart, and whose background was so reminiscent of my own, and how one day their life just vanished. I was impressed with The Hillel’s efforts in speaking about the life of one of their past members with such meaning. The Hillel did a very good job talking about 9/11 and its effects on the world, NYC, and many different people. As its a very important event to me, it was very important to have been in a community that would take time to acknowledge it. And then there was pizza!!! Obviously adding to the already amazing impression I had made. I definitely will be spending more time in this closely knit community in the future.