Freshman Seminar Fall 17 CRA

Author: i.shimonova

Baruch Voices

Baruch voices was an inspirational event in which a variety of students spoke their minds, hearts and souls out without the fear of being judged.

Some students spoke about the simple things in life like snow, food, or how they did not even have a topic to write about for the monologue. Other students wrote about some more serious topics like racism, sexism, and social-cultural barriers. It was very interesting to hear students speak so freely about topics that are deemed controversial all over the world.

One of my favorite monologues was by a girl who spoke about how she was going against the wishes of her parents and family to follow her dreams. Her monologue rhymed about the hardships of being a girl from a traditional family who believed that girls do not need or deserve to be educated. How girls should marry young, dress and act modest, never step out of line, and never speak up or share their opinions. How girls should marry wealthy business men and never follow their dreams. This girl stood on the stage and spoke about how she is going against every wish her parents ever had for her by simply wanting and striving to educate and stand up for herself. I liked this monologue most of all because it felt like I was listening to myself speak up on that stage. I knew exactly what she was going through and it almost brought me to tears knowing I was not the only one going through that in such a diverse school.

Although I forced myself to go to Baruch Voices and thought it would be boring, I ended up really enjoying myself. I hope to attend next year as well.

Career Building Blocks

As a DIY type of person, its usually hard to reach out for help because that requires swallowing your pride and showing weakness. I’d rather struggle and figure things out myself rather than ask for a helping hand. Attending the Career Building Blocks program, it was an easier way of saying “HELP ME PLEASE” because it did not involve any direct plea.

At this event I learned how to create a resume that will stand out to future employers, how to choose my major based on the vision I have for my future, and how the Starr Career and Development center can aid me in every step of the process.

When I first came to Baruch I thought that my intended major will be Business Management. People assume that the manager runs the company/branch, which is true, but I have a larger goal for myself. At this session I realized that my intended major should be Business Entrepreneurship. I want to have my own business which means I won’t be some boss with some authority, but The Boss with all the authority.

This event also taught me how to write an appealing resume. I currently have a high position job as an medical office manager, but in the future when I do apply to other jobs, I will need an eye catching resume to help me land the dream job.

Overall I met a lot of inspirational people and helped build my “Career Building Blocks” to the next step in my future.

Monologue

Average

Lost

Subpar

Invisible

How easy is it to relate to those four words. At various points in a person’s life they can feel like any of these words. Take it from me, I speak from experience. Most of my life I felt out of place. You rarely hear of a girl from some small farm country leave a relevant mark on this world. Looking at me, the way I dress or hearing the way I speak, its almost impossible to tell that I’m not from here. That I did not grow up in an”American” household. Looking at me, it’s hard to tell that needed a lot of medical attention throughout my life for unexplained medical anomalies. Looking at me, you cannot tell that I am the first person in the history of my country to be born on midnight of New Years Eve. Any person who looks at me thinks that I’m the average American teenager.

With a single glance, its easy to find people who are taller, more attractive, more successful, more goal oriented, more organized, and just overall better than I can ever be. I am pretty sure that a lot of us have thoughts like this as well. But one thing that I have learned from everything that I have just shared with you is that we shouldn’t aim for perfection. We should not aim to be “normal”. And we should definitely not aim to be like everyone else.

Only now, at nineteen I realized,

Why should I try to fit in, when I was born to stand out!

A New Twist on an Old Classic

My First Writing WorkshopI had my first writing workshop ever yesterday! Even though it was fairly foreign to me I actually enjoyed it. When I saw what I signed up for I thought, “this wont be anything new”. I attended the “Compare and Contrast Workshop. We compared different ads and I learned that comparing and contrasting was more than meets the eye. We discussed gender roles, female empowerment, and objectification of the female body just by observing three images. I enjoyed the topics we discussed and the various comparison techniques we learned. We learned how to use a Venn diagram three different ways. we learned how to a symmetrical and asymmetrical Venn diagram to compare and contrast the similarities and difference in the advertisements. This overall will help me in my first year at Baruch because I have to write a few comparative papers this semester. The techniques that I learned will actually make my writing process go by quicker and more efficiently. This will also help me in the future when I have to draw comparisons between three or more things such as three pieces of writing, images, or the combination of the two.

what seemed like a boring and simple workshop at first turned into something more deep and meaningful. Reviewing how to write a proper thesis statement was also one of the main elements of this workshop. I gained a few more valuable resources for proper thesis writing and added then to my repertoire. I enjoyed this workshop and hope to attend more in the future that spark my interests like this one did. Thanks Baruch for providing this valuable resource. I’m used to figuring things out as I go, but this really cut the work time in half of the assignment that I have due in a few weeks. As usual Baruch Academic help  is there right when I need it.