Last Thursday I and a couple friends went over to the IMG meeting, a club dedicated to investing and learning about the stock market. My friends and I went over to the Trading floor in the library. I’ve never been in there, the lights were cool and so was the room, especially the ticker. The second we get there, there were 20 kids lined up all dressed up. And with all 20 of them began their long presentation. So many kids arrived that, half of them needed to be kicked out. So we all sat down and started listening. It started with a short announcement from the club leader, who just welcomed everyone and introduced the club. Following him was a much younger looking guy, he was very confident. He went on to introduce each member, stating how they got into the club and what they did while they were in it. They broke down the club into 6 major sections, and each section was split amongst 3 smaller groups. Each group tries to sell the rest of them on investments. And then they vote if they want the investments to go through. The club seemed really cool. After the short meeting, they stayed for a bit to answer a couple questions. After awhile I lost both my friends who were with me, they just started speeding across the room trying to make the best impression that they can. I go and ask a couple quesiotns, and met up with one of them who was a marketing major. He was nice but told me that club isn’t the best for what I’m going for. So I thanked him and decided I wouldn’t join the club. Overall the IMG meeting was nice but at the same time, it wasn’t for me. But at least I think my friends found a new home there.

  I forgot to get other people in the pic, I swear I

went. Alex can vouch for me.

I thought that my plan to be a no commitment commuter student would work. Go to class, go home, do not interact, I would be fine just as long as I got the work done. Then on Monday, September 11, I attended the “Writing a Winning Resume”  workshop. We were provided with a clear and concise breakdown of the basics of resume building from structure to content to the color paper to use, (the correct answer is no color), and were given detailed handouts to answer any further questions. Before this workshop, I did not think that the part time jobs I did to get through high school would matter, but now I know that thankfully all of those hours were not wasted. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that my intended marketing major gives me leeway to have fun with the presentation my future resume and I already thinking of exciting and interesting ways to sell myself to future employers. It was nice to find out that Baruch offers so many resources to educate and aid us through our career building process outside of just our normal classes.  My no commitment commuter student plan may be starting to change.

On Thursday September 7th, I attended a general interest meeting for the frat Beta Alpha PSI. I first heard about the club from a fellow grade member and so became very interested. When I came at the frat meeting room, I actually went to the wrong room because I misread the room my friend sent me and went to the room on the 11th floor instead of the 12th. After I figured out my mistake, I arrived at the club to just in time for the pizza. As the representatives told me more about the club, I became more interested in the club all together. The moment that really opened my eyes to how important this club could really be was when everyone in the club told us what business that they were interning at. Each one named really prestigious companies that everyone wants to work for. At the end of the speech, we had a networking section where we talked to different members of the club to ask them questions. The picture I have posted is with a sophomore in the club that is vice president of events in the club. He was kind of enough to take a picture with me because I had no other way of proving I was there because they had already taken the power point down. As I talked to more people in the club, I realized how big of a commitment this club was compared to others and now have made it my goal to join this club. The only problem I have is that I might not be able to join other clubs because this club/frat might require a lot of hours. One other club that I am really interested in joining is Model U.N because of the structure of the club as a whole. This club should be very fun even with its time commitment.

At first I wondered into a random group with the intentions of leaving after a few minutes, but the minute I walked into the Christian Fellowship group I was bombarded with love, smiles, and FOOD! The atmosphere was very calming and the group members were very nice. We all introduced ourselves and played a few games to get familiar with each other, and to test our ability to work without each other and communicate. For the first discussion we were put into groups where the topic was “Have you ever searched for love? and where have you searched either it being in a relationship(boyfriend, girlfriend) or love and acceptance from a family member or where ever you looked for love. I also met the instructor of a males group where they have in depth conversation about guy stuff and he actually has my major, so that will be a big plus in deciding if that is the major for me by asking many different questions of what to expect. The main purpose of the group was to understand the love and teachings of Christianity and what we believe in, and are we hardcore believers or is it a moderate love for our religion. Some of the stories that I heard were very weird, but others very inspiring and this was an experience that I will  take advantage of in networking and learning new people. The first impression was everything and the members were so cheerful at one point I thought to myself “why were they so happy?” I want to be that happy, and this is the type of environment I wanted to be in and converse in. The picture attached is the smiles of two well fed individuals with no clue of what exactly they were getting themselves into.

Honestly, last week I couldn’t find any activities to do for this blog as none of the clubs really interested me. That is, until I heard loud music coming from below while I was on the 6th floor. I just had to find out what was going on because I needed an event I was interested in. When I came to the 2nd floor lobby my eyes glanced around and saw tons of people crowded around at this huge event. It obviously grasped my attention and the event was just starting. There were a number of huge flags and the big words “LATINX HERITAGE MONTH” was pasted on a huge banner which I was sure nobody could miss. As a person who learned Spanish and Latin American culture for three years in high school and passed with flying grades, this was an event I decided I must attend. I haven’t touched Spanish in about two years but coming to this event reminded me of the fun times I had in Spanish class with the music, food and of course games and movies. The most memorable part about this event was when the people in the front were dancing and when new people were told to come up, everyone scattered. Food was great too, as I have always rejected eating plantains throughout my life but I felt I just had to try them. It exceeded my expectations and of course I had to get some empanadas. After experiencing an event like this I would gladly visit more cultural events throughout the year as I am a huge fan on exploring new cultures and life. This event has also brought more interest in joining a club for me because if there are more events like this at clubs, I might just start looking around for one to join soon.

A major reason I chose to attend Baruch, is the high population of fellow Muslims. Growing up on Long Island, there was never a large Muslim community near me. I never had an MSA to join, or a large muslim sphere of influence nearby. I wanted to change that, and the Muslim Student Association helped me do just that. When my friend Shahid and I arrived, there was nobody in the room besides two other freshmen, so we decided to go check out the South Asian Student Association. We stayed there for like five minutes and then I saw that there were a bunch of Muslims walking down the hall, so I dragged Shahid back to the MSA room and the meeting began. The president, Mohammed Amla began the meeting by introducing the board, handing out the free food (which was a major reason we decided to attend the club), and then told us the method that we would begin to introduce ourselves. We were supposed to say our name, grade, major, and then do a never have I ever. After, they began to go over all the MSA sponsored events that they were holding, they’re a bunch and I’m gonna try and go to all of them. Finally, they had their sister clubs, Women in Islam, and Muslim Business Association speak. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, I hope they learn to become more organized and meet on time, but I definitely want to go to more of their meetings.

(P.S my friend Shahid forgot to take the selfie of us so I’m just going to attach a picture of me holding all the fliers and hope that works)

One of the many draws to college is meeting new people and joining the many clubs and groups there are. One such group is UCLA or the United Chinese Language Association. They’ve held two GIM, of which I attended the second. Originally, I was informed of this club on our day of convocation, where a few students were handing out flyers for people that were interested in the club. After taking one, they had me register with an email and name, and after that I was to show up to a meeting. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the first meeting, so I attended the second meeting. When I got there, most everyone was already engaged in activity and they began to play a game where you had to guess what an object or person was based on a zoomed in image. The game was a great way to lighten up the mood. We all had a chance to engage in some form of conversation to get to better know one another. Near the end of the club, there was some confusion due to us needing to gather for a group picture, but the room was tight and there was not much space so we ended up being all clumped together. After that was all settled though, they began handing out the food which had arrived moments earlier. That didn’t work out too well because everyone was freaking out over free food, and both lines were enormously long. I couldn’t stay for the food because I was running low on time, but the club had dispersed soon after I had left. Even still it was an overall great experience and I would like to attend more meetings as well as other clubs to better understand the school and to meet more people.

So I totally forgot about this assignment until Tuesday, luckily I found out there was a career day prep workshop at 5 pm. I was starving after my pre calc class and I only had 20 minutes until the workshop so I grabbed something quickly to eat and stuffed my face. I ran in a few minutes late with food in my hands and I felt a bit awkward. Anyways… the workshop was actually very helpful. There was a presentation and about 3-4 speakers. Each one of them made very good points about how to ace an internship interview. There were small details like having a good handshake or sending a thank you follow up email to your interviewer that I would have never known had I not attended this workshop. Also they gave us some good resources to find information about companies and specific internship positions for us to use to help improve our interview because projecting confidence and knowledge about the company is very important. I also learned that its actually important for me to ask the interviewer some questions as well. For example some things I can ask is “what qualities are you looking for in your new employee” or “what sort of training will I receive.” Another important point was not to sell yourself short. Employers are impressed by all sorts of interests, backgrounds, majors, and hobbies. Organization was another important point, keeping business cards and company literature organized and taking notes about your conversations and impressions will be helpful when preparing for interviews or making employment decisions. Lastly and most importantly is to know your resume perfectly so you can help walk your interviewer through it with clarity and confidence. At the end of the workshop all of our questions were answered. Overall the workshop was very beneficial and I would like to attend one again in the future.

Before coming to Baruch, I studied as a drama major for four years in high school. Before that, my heart belonged to dance. I think it’s safe to say that art, of all forms, has always been one of my true passions, and a big part of my life. Of course, having the opportunity to go to so many incredible museums with my CUNY ID, I plan on taking advantage of this perk.

The Whitney is the first of many museums I plan on attending in the near future. From the moment you walk in, you can tell that thought has been put into every inch of the building. From the big glass windows letting in all natural light, to the pole with different embellished animal-like creatures hanging in the center of the spiral staircase taking you to the first 5 floors of the museum, to the pristine positioning of each exhibit, this museum is a 5 star experience. There are a few interactive areas of the museum that enhance the experience even more. One section features a full size walk-through sand and stone path, with live birds in a cage, that transports you to feel like you are not indoors at a New York museum. Another section (where my selfie was taken) is in a room filled with hammocks, and videos projected on the wall. The themes scatter themselves on each different floor of the museum, and progress from a wall of flowers made from different flags around the world, to an extremely powerful social justice floor, to war and peace, to sculptures, to the simplicity of a roof with a view of much of New York. It’s almost like that last balcony is allowing your mind to take a break and really absorb all the images and emotions you’ve experienced on your journey up those 8 floors.

I feel like I can never really get as much from a museum as I want to from one visit, so I definitely want to go back and dive deeper into the world of the Whitney Museum of American Art.