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I love productivity. I love meaningful experiences and the opportunity to acquire knowledge. MOST IMPORTANTLY I LOVE BLACK EXCELLENCE. I love being surrounded by Melanin with a touch of Success and a dash of Magnificence.

These are exactly the feelings that ran through my body at the NABA Eastern Regional Student Conference that was held in Norfolk, Virginia ( Oct 5th – 7th). NABA is a nonprofit membership organization that is dedicated to advancing black professionals in the finance, accounting, business and related services by providing various learning and networking opportunites.

Prior to the conference, I got acquainted with the executive board members of NABA. The eboard were very welcoming and helpful. Despite having their own responsibilities, they took it upon themselves to prepare us for the conference. During this time of preparation, I felt like I finally found my place in college, and that marked the end of my “transition period”. My resume went from looking like “OH NO BABY WHAT IS YOU DOING” to “…I MAKE MONEY MOVES”.  I was initially ashamed of my resume and hesitated to show my resume to anyone. However, after NABA fixed me up, I felt as if I pull my resume out just for fun.  I also attended a proseminar conference at one of the big four accounting firms Ernst & Young. This was the first tie I ever put on an actual blazer. I learned about elevator pitches, networking ; interviews and how to answer interview questions using the “STAR” ( Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach.  Towards the end, a dress for success fashion show was organized. The differences between business professional and business casual was emphasized, as well as appearance in general ( hair, jewelry, makeup, color coordination).

On Thursday October 5th, we were all on the bus to Virginia at 5:30am and the bus left Baruch at 8am. We got to Virginia around 2;30 pm, although we missed some interactive and learning sessions we were on time for the opening session. On Thursday night, there was a game night. This was mostly to break the ice and interact with other students from various colleges within the Eastern Region.  After the game night, a bunch of Baruch students all came to my hotel room to prep for the next morning. Our hashtag for this whole experience was #securethebag . On Friday there was a career fair, at which we engaged with several companies and even the Big 4 accounting firms. We delivered our elevator pitches, put our best foot forward and hoped for the best. We were out there grinding. Fees were sore from walking in heels for hours. It was worth it.

Thankfully, later that day I got notified that I’d been selected for an interview with Deloitte , one of the big 4 accounting firms, for a possible leadership program or internship opportunity. I was excited because I never expected for this outcome. I only expected to gain some learning experience and test the waters. After the career fair, I rushed to my room to do some more prepping because my interview was in a few hours. I went to my interview and I felt good about it. I wasn’t too nervous and I think I was able to garner just enough confidence. After my interview, I attended some sessions. Professional hours were done by 6, however you never know who you might run into in the hotel lobby so professional hours weren’t really over. After the day was done, I went to my room to take a nice long nap. Everyone from Baruch went out to eat at some restaurant but I needed my sleep. That night also happened to be the 80s/90s themed party. When I woke up from my nap, they were still at the restaurant. I decided to get dressed into my 80s costume and go join them at the restaurant. We stayed there for a couple of minutes , then went back to the hotel to change into out outfits for the party. The party actually started as soon as we walked in because we turned it up. It was a fun night, and I ended up winning  a $25 gift card for best costume along with some friends . The night didn’t end with the party . We turned up after….

Saturday was the last day of the conference. There was a scholarship breakfast, held in honor of those who were receiving scholarships. Two of the scholarship recipient were from Baruch. Then the rest of the day consisted of sessions and finally a closing session. The freshmen who attended the conference were given free registration for next years conference. After the closing session, my NABA squad and I put on the awesome shirts we customized and went out to eat. We also went on a ferry ride after dinner then we retreated to the “Rep your school” party. Basically it was a party to see which NABA chapter ha the most school pride and made the most noise. I just want to mention that Baruch is well known and also well hated because we dominate. Our students are always well prepared and we’ve won best Division Student Chapter of the Year twice in a row. Saturday ended the conference and we left Virginia on Sunday morning.

Overall,this conference was a wonderful experience and has had an impact on me individually and professionally. I will use everything I learned at the conference to my advantage and most importantly use it to help people who plan on joining NABA or going to the conference next year. I would like to live by the motto ” Lifting as we Climb”

 

Do you know that the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a “pay as you wish” organization? Basically,if you buy tickets at a museum ticket counter, the amount you pay is up to you.

 

 

I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 28th with my Art History class to see some of the Ancient Greek and Egyptian arts we’ve been speaking about in class, up close and personal. It made a huge difference seeing these arts that were projected on the powerpoint, and being able to see what had been discussed in class. I realized that if I have an art test coming up, I could simply study by going to the museum.

One of my favorite paintings  was The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur. This painting is Bonheur’s best known painting. The painting shows the horse market held in Paris. For a year and a half Bonheur sketched there twice a week, dressing as a man to discourage attention. This painting reminded of Mulan; simply because of thefact that the artist had to dress like a man to be able to create this painting that received wide praise when it debuted at the Paris Salon of 1853. I wonder how much her work would’ve been impacted if she hadn’t dressed like a man. I also fell in love with another painting,  it is called Hagar in the Wilderness by Camille Corot. In this painting, it looks like a woman is praying to the heavens , crying for help because her son is unconscious. This woman is Hagar, a slave whom Abraham fathered a son Ishmael, with.  Due to Abraham’s wife Sarah being elderly and barren. After Sarah bore her own son Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael were driven away into the desert of Beersheba. My art teacher explained that , there are two versions as to why Hagar was in the desert of Beersheba. The Christian and Islam version. While the Quran affirms that this was yet another test for Abraham,the Bible asserts that it was result of the rage of Sarah. If you look closely at the painting you can see an angel in the sky, coming to Hagar’s rescue.

On September 28th, 2017 my Art 1011 class and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view the Egyptian and Greek Art due to the fact that we are currently learning about these time periods in class.  Our teacher, Professor Morosse, thought that going to the Met would be a great way to teach and feel more connected to the art.  We first went through the Egyptian exhibit and saw the Egyptian wall paintings and the Temple of Dendur.  I very much liked the Temple of Dendur considering that in the room it’s in, one side of the room is just windows filling the room with natural light making it more interesting.  My favorite part of the Egyptian exhibit was a small ancient Egyptian faience hippopotamus.  It’s blue and has these intricate designs, I quickly took of a picture of it so that I could use it for my art report and it wasn’t until I got home that I realized that I took a picture of the wrong hippo.  I took a picture of what the Egyptian faience hippopotamus is juxtaposed to.  After the Egyptian exhibit was the Greek exhibit which is comprised of vases, sculptures, and other decorations.  The vases were very intricately painted and each vase tells a story.  Seeing them in person was far more interesting than learning about them in class.  The last exhibit we went to was the Contemporary Art which I didn’t really get to see considering I had to leave early.  Overall, going to the Met was a great experience and way to further teach the class about what we are currently learning. 

Today, September 7th, was the Latinx Opening Ceremony to jumpstart Spanish Heritage Month. It felt like a fiesta with all the Latino clubs coming together and the WBMBBIZ DJ playing all the best Spanish Hits. I spent the day with my friend Olivia and the first thing we did was go straight to the photo booth, which we both very much enjoyed. We then went to get food and to sign up for clubs – I signed up for LASO and ASEDOM clubs. The opening ceremony was very interactive in that people were pulling those in the crowd to dance and two games were played: Musical Chairs with a twist and Mar y Tierra. I participated in both, but my favorite was the musical chairs because of the twist, instead of chairs there were four people who stood in the middle who you’d have to dance with once “música típica” came on.

If “college parties” was a criteria when it came to committing to a college, I definitely would not be at Baruch. On Thursday August 31st, USG hosted a Student Loft Party on campus. Honestly I didn’t really know what to expect due to a few reasons. 1) The party was on campus 2) Professors and officials were in that same building  3) It was my first “college party” . Usually I don’t think twice about what to expect from a party because after all its just a PARTY. However judging from the various snaps of my friends at their college parties, there was no way a real college party was going on in that building with professors and college officials. I had no initial intention of going and didn’t even make a decision until 6pm that day, which happened to be when the party started. I got there at about 7:30 pm. It was an interesting mix of people. There were people playing various games , life-size chess and jenga. There was also this interesting game being played and when I asked how it was played I was told ” I don’t exactly know whats going on, but people seem hype over it.” Some people were actually having fun and dancing while some were standing the corner judging those with interesting dance moves. There were a couple of people who didn’t enjoy the djs taste in music and went up to him a coupleof times to tell him how to do his job. I think he told them not to come up there again. I overhead someone complaining and also saw them dancing to the same djs music they had a problem with few minutes ago. Unfortunately when I got there the food was gone, free food doesn’t last long at Baruch.  The party definitely had it’s moments , my favorite was watching those two Kappa boys do the shoulder shimmy.  Baruch doesn’t have the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity but those boys definitely had the Kappa moves. I danced  few times and definitely laughed hard at the people with interesting dance moves. My expectations didn’t really match the reality due to the fact that it reminded me a lot of my middle school prom. After all it was a student government event on campus and maybe

that explains why it was so calm