Month: September 2017

For my community service I went to volunteer at my old job which was at a place called Boosters Club. Basically what this is its a after school program for kids in grades K-6 in which they receive help with homework. During my senior year in high school I used to work here everyday after school and I would basically help kids do math, science, and English homework. After they would finish their homework I would read a book with them for approximately 30 minutes and after that we would all play games, either board games or actual physical games such as tag, freeze tag, hide and seek, etc.

Going back there felt so good because I truly did miss those kids. I was happy to see all my favorite kids. In the pictures attached you can see me the the kid, Miguel, doing homework but having fun at the same time and a tower some of the kids built with Lego’s. I like tutoring kids because I feel like I’m making a positive change in their life by helping them do better in school and making them see homework as a fun thing and not as something that’s boring and stressful.

When I first arrived to the place they were all in a circle talking about their days and when they saw me they all yelled “Mr. Johnny is here!” and that made me feel so happy that they were excited to see me again. I honestly didn’t expect that reaction from them when I arrived.

I decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday because I was in need of a place to do my blog post on. I went around some of the exhibits and most notably seen some armour and weapons from older Islamic culture, some art from preschool to grade 12 students, and some art from the gilded age. The feeling of walking from exhibit to exhibit was rather unique, like moving through different eras of history. I saw many wonderful works of art depicting struggles, victories, and even simple day to day life. Browsing the museum was a quick way to gain an appreciation for other cultures and history in a short frame of time as well as appreciate the events of the modern day. Browsing a museum is something I’d recommend everyone do at least once every 5 years to refresh their appreciation of the world around them, its history, and its cultures. However, unless you are a lover of art, I wouldn’t recommending going to the museum very often as it is likely to become boring. I probably won’t be visiting another museum myself until at least a year passes.

Personally, I appreciate listening to music more than I appreciate looking at art. However, this is not to take away from the value of witnessing and appreciating art, but rather to demonstrate that I would rather go see a live performance of music than go through a museum. There are similarities between art and music. The most simple similarity is the fact that they are both forms of art. While one makes its home in the vibrations in the air, the other makes its home in physical space. Another similarity is that they both can be historical artifacts. Yet another similarity is the fact that they are both most commonly utilized so as to create an expression of one’s innermost feelings.

On Friday I decided to visit a workshop called the “CPA Fair with PwC”. When I arrived there and peeked in, there were many individuals in business attire. In this workshop students at Baruch who are interested in getting a career in public accounting. They can come here to possibly get an internship or a job from the participating employers like “Citrin Cooperman” or “1800Accountant”. This workshop is beneficial for all because it can be quiet difficult to get a job or internship in public accounting when some businesses wouldn’t accept you. So by joining this workshop you get an internship and gain some experience. Although this workshop is for public accounting I feel is not for me. There wasn’t really anything interesting at the fair to be honest.

Unlike other workshops, this is not worth spending a day here unless you are majoring in public accounting or you have nothing else better to do. At the gym there were lot people were lined up at booths with their resumes and being interviewed at the booths set up. Even though I have no reason to be here, I thought it would be interesting to look around what the recruiters had to offer. There were many public accounting companies I have never heard of. For example, “The New York City Board of Education Retirement System” (BERS) helps workers employed by the city by providing retirement benefits to them. Is it guaranteed? I don’t know.

Hopefully I research about other workshop next time because apparently you need to look professional at the fair. Being the only one in casual attire, I was the odd one out. However, the fair shouldn’t take for granted because they can open opportunities that you can’t get by yourself. But this CPA fair wasn’t really for me.

The club I went to on Thursday was the “She’s the First Club.” The reason behind going to this club is really random, however I had a good time at this club. As you already know, on Thursdays we have club hours and during these club hours there is free food. So my friend and I looked around the 3rd floor for a club with food and the first club we found was the “She’s The First Club.” We didn’t actually figure out what the club was until the GIM so when we first went in, one of the E-board members wanted us to sign in. When we asked her what club we were in, she told us that if we wanted the free food we had to stay for the whole GIM to find out. So for the next 2 hours we sat there listening to their presentation eating all their free food.

Their presentation was impressive and I learned a lot about what the club does and what they stand for. She’s The First Club supports girl’s education and hosts events and activities to educate people about the difficulties girls around the world face to get an education. Although the club is new, the E-board members seem to know what they’re doing in their specific department and how to run the club in general. The club president was very generous and I got to know about her and her major.

I felt that this assisted me in my first semester at Baruch because being in a club allows you to connect with other people and find people with similar majors or interests. In my case, I met people with an interest in majoring in marketing like the club president. Meeting these people and coming to the events hosted by the club allows me to be more active during my time at Baruch.

 

 

This is a picture of me attending Brother Bingo for Delta Sigma Pi.  The way it worked was that recruits and brothers each had their own bingo sheet and recruits had to find brothers to sign different spots on the sheet and vice versa.  The bingo portion of this event really helped to start conversations with the brothers.  This gave me the opportunity to talk and ask upperclassmen and sophomores about Baruch, their majors and why they chose it, what Delta Sigma Pi is like and why they joined.  These conversations really gave me a sense of what Delta Sigma Pi was like; all the brothers seemed pretty tightly knit like a family.  The conversations also helped me figure out what the different majors were because before I didn’t really know what they were I just picked finance because I didn’t want to do accounting.  For now I feel like finance is still probably the best choice for me but now I have a better understanding of what it is, what it entails, and what to expect.

Freshman blocks really limit the exposure to new people.  Every class is pretty much the same people and this event really allowed me to meet a variety of people, from different majors, to different age, and different interests.  And the bingo aspect let me learn more about them because it forces you to ask questions you wouldn’t normally ask like their favorite ice cream flavor and this allows for a better connection.  This even forces you to talk to new people and it was very awkward at first but slowly after talking to more people it got easier which is important especially during the first semester because being in a completely new environment with completely new people you have to start over making friends.

I had recently attended a Latino Heritage Event on Thursday, it was family feud. The atmosphere was great and I enjoyed myself as the audience seemed to be more into it than the teams competing, except for maybe USG. They were jumping and cheering at every right answer and really seemed to be into it. The crowd had many outburst at some of the answers. The crowd was screaming out answers just to maybe, if they were lucky, have a person on any team hear it and use it. An example of this is, a person answered that he ate rice with his hands and the crowd went crazy. They couldn’t believe it, they were yelling better answers and he came up with “rice”. The diversity is what astounded me the most they were all kinds of ethnicities there. I met a Pakistani senior, his name was Zain and he made the night more enjoyable for me. Some of the questions for the game varied from “Best Latino athlete” to “What food do you eat with your hands”. There was so much joy and laughter throughout and I felt that it was a great night for everyone not only myself. Sadly, I wasn’t able to see how it finished out but I will be going to more of these events in the future.

Recently this past Thursday I attended one of the many Latinx heritage month events hosted at Baruch. The event was Family Feud: Latin edition. The questions varied from “popular Latin pop star” to ” What did your mom use to hit you with”. I had no idea what to expect first walking in, but i was hit by a storm once it got started. The immediate liveliness was delightful. The energy that the contestants had translated itself to the audience. The room was filled to the brim with that same energy. Once a question was answered a sea of tension filled the air, then the answer would be revealed followed by a lot of disappointing groans or a rush of joy and happiness.

The people that took part were clubs such as USG and LASO there was also audience participation. As the night went on there was more enthusiasm that came about and I could feel myself getting sucked in. I met a senior named Zain and he was very energetic and is majoring in digital media. I did not know what to expect but I am by the end I was very excited although I left early I would like to have know how it ended. Even though it a a Latin heritage event there was a diverse group of people, much like Baruch is. Baruch being very diverse is a great thing to see. This experience was great and I hope to have many more.

Baruch College is renowned for its diversity.During the Club Fair on Convocation Day, I was amazed all the different clubs and organizations Baruch had to offer, specially all the nationalities being representing by students. My high school back in Boston was pretty diverse, but it was never as celebrated and appreciated as much as diversity is here at Baruch.  Everyone is welcome to join any club, no matter your race, gender, or orientation. This sense of inclusion is most likely unmatched by any other institution elsewhere.

For the task of participating in an event, I chose to attend the opening ceremony of Latinx Heritage Month. I am a first generation Peruvian-American. I take great pride in my Peruvian heritage and culture, as well being Hispanic in general. I wanted to immerse myself within my culture and get to know other Hispanics as well. Hispanic culture is known to be fun and lively, and this is exactly what I witnesses as I was there. The sounds of reggaeton, bachata, and merengue filled the entire lobby, as I ate my free plate of tostones and salami. What saw however was really beautiful to me. Everyone in the center dancing to the music was not just Hispanics, but everyone of different nationalities all immersing themselves in the hispanic culture and enjoying it. In this tumultuous time in American, with the fierce battle going on between our current government and immigration, it was wonderful to see everyone celebrating a culture that is seemingly under constant threat daily. I signed up for the Hispanic clubs in attendance. I hope to use these clubs to  bring myself closer to my people, gain support, and also give back to the community that cherish so dearly. I don’t know where exactly the path I’m on will take me, but what I do know is that I will never forget my roots.

I decided to attend an exhibition at the Museum of Natural History for my academic workshop. They had an exhibition about space explaining how the universe works and how it’s composed.

I decided to attend this workshop because space really fascinates me and I wanted to learn more about this interesting topic. In the exhibition, I saw a 30-minute film talking about the Big Bang Theory and how it has been proven to be true by scientists. Scientists discovered gravitational waves that were produced to be believed since the birth of the universe. Apparently, they’ve found waves of light that track back to nearly 13.6 Billion years ago. These waves spread out in an outward manner proving that there is a center to the universe but it can’t be located at one certain point because if you take any spot in the universe it seems as if that’s the center and everything is moving away from that point.

As well as learning about gravitational waves I learned about how big the universe is speculated to be which is infinite. After the workshop ended I was asking myself if I really wanted to major in the business field. I’ve always been fascinated by space and everything involving space such as planets, galaxies, stars, etc. I know I’m not the best with science but I have always been good when it comes to astronomy.

I had a really good time going to this exhibition and learning more about this interesting topic about space. I hope to be able to learn more about space and stay updated with what scientists keep discovering about it.