September 2017 – Page 2 – Freshman Seminar Fall 17 CRA

DSP Brother’s Panel

Recently I went to the Brother’s Panel for the Baruch Business Fraternity DSP (Delta Sigma Pi). I had already gone to one of their General Interest Meetings and I really enjoyed the sense of community there so I decided to learn more about the frat through the panel. I was actually pleasantly surprised that a lot of the stories the brothers told were relatable. For example, one of the panelists is currently majoring in Graphic Communications and minoring in Psychology. At a first glance, a lot of people might be taken aback at her choice of majors at a business school, but she talked about how she wanted to pursue art, but not strictly in art. So she compromised by taking her interest in art and applying it to business with marketing. In high school, I studied graphic design and film and grew an interest in it, and even considered applying to SVA, but I didn’t want to go to a strictly arts school. The other panelists also mentioned their different experiences as a freshman and how they grew professionally and mentally through college with the help of the frat and the different internships they landed. It made me more comfortable in my current position because I thought I was behind everyone else since I’m currently Undecided.

DSP — With one of the “brothers” and two more of them photobombing in the background.

It was also really cool to see people who started in the same position as me land internships in Publicis, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and other well known companies. Like I said before, this was my second interaction with the frat, and yet there were so many people I couldn’t stop talking to. In a school as large as Baruch, it’s so easy to get lost, but it was nice to see a community with such a friendly and strong bond, and be very professional as well. This experience definitely expanded my perspective and knowledge of the college student life, and has made me motivated to do my best as well as enjoy the college life ahead of me.

The Counseling Center

On Tuesday, September 12, 2017, I decided to visit the Counseling Center that was taken place on the 2nd floor in the Newman Vertical Campus lobby. They had a mini table set up with brochures and information on the prevention of suicide. What made me interested in going was actually from a song 1 – 800 – 273 – 8255 by Logic. Walking up, they greeted us with small gifts such as a stress ball and a credit card holder that you stick to the back of your phone (I honestly don’t know what they’re called but let’s go with that). Immediately, they introduced themselves and what their role was in Baruch. I was drawn fairly quickly due to the fact that they were so welcoming and how they are important to the Baruch community when it comes to the students’ emotional health. When asked about how a student can overcome their depression, they answered with confident about what the student should do and how they can help. A positive outcome to the Counseling Center is the fact that it is free for all students. They also offer many services for students who are looking for the one that suits them the best. Students can visit the Counseling Center if they are stressed, depressed, or have suicidal thoughts. The Counseling Center is definitely there to help ease their mind. Besides the mass amount of information they presented to us, they also displayed an information board on suicide, that includes statistics, to further educate Baruch students about suicide. At the end of the short meeting, I was content that I decided to go and learn about the Counseling Center and what they do. It is a possibility that I will be visiting the Counseling Center when I need to destress myself in the future. If you need to speak to someone in private about how or what you’re feeling, I highly recommend going to the Counseling Center.

Baruch ESA Blog#1

The Baruch ESA Club doesn’t ring too far from home. When I was in high school, I was a part of a similar club. Although I had already plan to go to other clubs that would serve a more practical purpose in helping my college experience, a few of my friends who are upperclassmen, are already a part of this club. I had only plan to visit this club for the first few minutes before I would move on to meeting the other clubs.

One of the perks of joining this club is that you are allowed to access a computer lab, which has a set of high end computers. My friend who was a part of the ESA division one team told me that I would only have to join for a few minutes, and I would be given the rights to the computer lab.

Although I did intend to only stay for a few minutes, I decided to give my respect and stayed for the entire presentation before moving on to seeing other clubs. The club was in a small room, not enough seats for all of the members, however it is a friendly community. Everyone who was a part of this club already knew the interest of others. After the presentation was the refreshments, pizza from 7-eleven, which I personally only took one bite.

Overall it is a club that I could relate to. The environment, and the gaming culture of the people around the club are of familiar territory. I am searching for a new experience as I embark into the life of Baruch. This club is not my first choice, but I was able to kill two birds with one stone. Access to the computer labs and the experience to write this blog.

E(A) Sports – it’s in the game

Albeit not being the club I intended to join, coming here made me realize that there are more people that enjoy similar things and we don’t have to feel left out or geeky.

I do play games at home and enjoy doing so, so coming to clubs that match ones interest should be second nature. But nowadays, games don’t make me feel joy anymore for lack of a better word. I would get seriously affected by the game and sometimes ignore my own needs like hunger or just ignore my parents.

It’s all a trap that once we experience feel the instant gratification of but lose touch of important aspect of. I don’t mean to say games are bad and I love games but I want to do something more than gaming.

Of course if you are a professional gamer than my words don’t apply as games are their life and everyone’s life is different and should be respected.

But, being the first club I have visited I was quite grateful to see how people are friendly and willing to meet new people. Just these qualities alone are able to captivate people into joining the family.

The room was also packed full even though we were in a tiny classroom the interest in the club was apparently on many peoples faces.

Although the esports club isn’t one I intend to fully partake in I would like to enjoy the special computers of the club and meet people who has interests in similar things as myself and perhaps can rekindle the joy I once had playing games.

ESA first meeting:D

During the summer before class began at Baruch, I was chatting with a few of my upperclassmen friends about advice at Baruch. A few of them mentioned joining a club at the beginning to help make new friends as well as to help waste time during those club hours. Two of them recommended me to come and check out the ESA club which hosted events and activities that I was mildly interested in. Influenced by the people around me to join this club I went with a few of my friends to their first Interest Meeting on 9/7/17 to find a lot of people happened to share the same interest with me. In that room, there were at least forty others that were at the meeting. They gave us an explanation about the club and broke us up into groups to get to know each other more. It was fun to find out what other people thought about the activities that I enjoyed. They also gave out refreshments and pizza which was also a bonus. After the icebreakers, it became a socializing room where everyone would just get together and have conversations about many different things. It’s really nice when you get to meet people for the first time in your life and a few minutes later you go on to being good friends. Everyone began socializing for the next hour or so like they knew each other. It was as if everyone came together and just forgot about their downs and only focused on the ups. Coming to the first general interest meeting for ESA helped me make new friends, create my first few steps as a first year at Baruch.

Beta Alpha Psi

It was my second week at Baruch and I heard these people on the second floor chanting. “Finance, Accounting, CIS!” I was with a group of friends at the time who were mostly pursuing a major in finance so it caught our attention immediately. The president of Beta Alpha Psi approached us and taught us about their motives in training young adults like us into professionals. I was intrigued by their enthusiasm and decided to attend the general interest meeting the following day. I arrived early to secure a seat since they told me their last meeting had over 80 people. During their presentation, I learned lots of information on internships, mock interviews, and resume review. I was actually amazed about how many members in BAP had internships at big banks such as Wells Fargo, Chase, etc. The way they presented themselves were also very professional, giving me inspiration to someday develop similar traits. After the presentation was over, we were given the chance to ask BAP members any questions. I wanted to find out more about potential careers with Finance and how the salaries were in each field. Charlie, who was part of BAP directed me to another representative who told me about investment banking. He surprised me with numbers that I didn’t think was possible. I learned about front office positions who were making 130k dollar salary with 2-3 internships. What I thought was a dream suddenly become achievable. Networking was also something that I learned throughout the GIM #2. I then knew that I had to go out of my way to meet new people in order to have a successful career.

A visit to the Model United Nations Club

During the first week of September when all the clubs started to have official general interest meetings I decided to check out Baruch’s Model United Nations Club. Behind the game room inside the USG’s conference room was the United Nations flag draped over the USG’s emblem and a few members/onlookers already there. I had participated in the Model United Nations Club in High School and had hoped College-level Model United Nations would be the same. After the room filled up slowly we did an Icebreaker breaking up into four teams and arranging ourselves in a number of series such as height, birthdate, etc. It somewhat cooled the rigidness of the room and we started delving into what Model United Nations is. Officially Baruch has the Model United Nations team which is a part of the Model United Nations Club; the team goes from conference to conference acting out as the real United Nations roleplaying as their respective nations given to them to solve a world problem. It’s very similar to speech and debate but with the slight change in that you would represent a nation that has interests in the topic at hand. An example is if the U.S and Russia were represented in a topic about the contested Crimean region; the Russia delegate would refuse all attempts to cede the Crimea claiming it is Russian whereas the United States delegate would claim Crimea belongs to Ukraine. To add to that, in most conferences there are “Crisis Committees” or “Historical/Futuristic Committees” wherein delegates have the powers of their nations; they can assassinate other delegates, start wars, fund coups etc, but all within reason. Its not all fun and games in College Model United Nations however, the older members pointed out,

Application emails from the Model UN Team/Club given to those who attended the General Interest meeting on 9/7

as copious amounts of research are required to be at level with other highly competitive delegates and one must fully commit to Model United Nations. However that does not deter me and I fully intend to apply to the club.