Freshman Seminar Fall 17 DFD

On Wednesday September 6,2017 I attended a general meeting for Alpha Kappa Psi, which is a business fraternity here at Baruch College. A K Psi provided dumplings and soda to everyone who came. There were four speakers who had already graduated from Baruch who were a part of this fraternity, Vincent Li of the charter class, Min Jee Choi of the alpha class, Gavin Li of the gamma class, and Sotiria Zouroudis of the delta class. They each gave informative speeches and answered many of our questions. Each of them told us their stories with AK Psi and their current careers and occupations. This meeting opened me up to many different things since the questions asked were really informative. 

During my first two weeks here at Baruch, I decided to become more involved in clubs and organizations as a way in which to meet new people and learn new things. While I signed up for a variety of different groups this last week, the one that I’ve visited the most frequently is Hillel, a Jewish-based organization that meets on the 3rd floor of the Vertical Campus. While I was admittedly skeptical at first to join a faith-based organization, I was very immediately surprised by the kindness and camaraderie I saw, in addition to how welcome their group is to new members. Everyone that I was able to meet were not only hilarious but caring and respectful to all that was around them. Throughout the two weeks, I was invited to an abundance of events that they had put on. With activities ranging from simple discussions, to evenings out in the city, to large luncheons in their headquarters, there was never a shortages of good times to be found. Highlights of my experience with Hillel thus far have simply been coming in between classes to talk to people over a cup of coffee, as pictured in one of the images above. Also shown is a screenshot of a text exchange between the leader of the group and I starting a discussion on hosting a religious dinner on an upcoming Friday evening in the dormitory. Within the Hillel, there are a variety of clubs that I also developed an interest in, including AEPi (a service-based fraternity), First Lex Capital (an investment agency run by students), Tamid (a business club that works with Israeli-based startups), etc. It’s my intention, in conclusion, to participate actively in all of these clubs available to me, in addition to being a part of Hillel as a whole.

One of the clubs here at Baruch that I’ve been visiting the past few days is Hillel. Hillel is a club for (but not limited to) Jewish people. Since I’m technically part Jewish, I figured I’d drop by and see what it’s all about.

When I got there I was greeted by a bunch of people, some freshman most upperclassmen. They were sitting and talking while watching tennis. Immediately I realized this is something I could do. While there I mingled with some cool people. While I’m still not exactly sure what the central focus or purpose of the group really is, it was a cool vibe and a nice environment. It seems like a good tool to meet people and almost a warm up for other clubs I’ll eventually get into at Baruch. I can definitely see myself dropping by again in the future.

For my Fro enrichment activity, I chose to go to an Alpha Kappa Psi meeting with a few of my friends. Alpha Kappa Psi is a business Fraternity, so at the meeting, there were four alumni speakers who were pretty diverse as they all had different occupations and graduated at different times from different majors. This allowed for more varying answers to the questions they were asked. After the speakers finished they had an open Q/A session. At the end of the session, you had the chance to personally talk to the speakers, other alumni, and upperclassmen about their experiences and getting internships. Altogether I found it very helpful in going to this meeting.

On August 31st I attended the general interest meeting for the Baruch Actuarial Science Society (BASS). This is the main club that I was interested in joining here at Baruch since I intend to major in actuarial science. At the meeting I learned about how to become an actuary, what actuaries do, what it’s like to be an actuary, internship opportunities, the actuarial exam process, and more. This was a very informative and important meeting since I’ve never met or talked to an actuary, so I had little idea of what it’s like even though I plan on going down that career path. The reason I want to be is an actuary is because I love math, finance, statistics, and I want a decent salary. The meeting confirmed that actuaries are heavily involved with mathematics and that their median salary is $100K+. The meeting also specified what classes to take in order to be on track in becoming an actuary, since you don’t even need a degree in actuarial science to pursue the career. This is because actuaries become accredited by taking various exams that span several years. So as long as you study and pass the exams, you can major in whatever you want (typically math or finance related, though). I’m glad I attended this meeting because they emailed me a ton of information relating to the career. I plan on using this information to build my resume and start internships during my college career. For example, actuaries should know how to use excel, VBA, and SQL which are programs used in the career. I can learn how to navigate these programs in my own time outside of class so that I will have a competitive edge over my peers. As stated in the meeting, internship positions aren’t easy to acquire, especially in NYC, since employers are looking for the best student they can find. BASS will be able to guide me as I start my actuary journey and I look forward to future meetings.

I didn’t take a picture of the meeting so here is a screenshot of information provided there.

        Well, I went to an ALPFA presentation. For a while I couldn’t find the room at all, and when I thought I was late I realized they were waiting for the pizza to come and then they would begin. Took a slice of pizza and then they began, though I interrupted, not on purpose, because I didn’t know where the garbage was. Anyway, the purpose of ALPFA is to help students develop abilities that will most certainly be useful for their career. In this presentation, they explained how to do an interview right, how to connect with people that can help you progress in your career, and how to follow your if they keep contact with you. For interviews they told some pretty obvious stuff, such as keep a good posture, don’t look arrogant, speak loud enough, but other things weren’t as obvious, such as making the interviewers talk about themselves simply because they love to do that. They also mentioned to respect their time if they have many other people to talk to, or include those others in the conversation to show that you’re willing to work with strangers. For the follow ups or thank you letter they mentioned that you shouldn’t right away be asking for a position, and that you should be careful about giving names out. Instead, you should, well, say thank you, mention what yiu talked about before, and see if you can meet each other again. Well, I’d say that attending this made me think that there’s a lot I still don’t know, and a lot I will have to work on, and get involved into. But well, most likely I will get used to what I have to do, and thankfully I have friends that can advice me, and have already adviced me actually, about what I should do.

I decided to visit Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity here in Baruch. I went with a few classmates. I met a sophomore who I knew there, Isabel Zou. She told me what the fraternity was about and introduced me to some really cool people. As one of the 4 clubs/organizations I came to Baruch being interested in, coming to this meeting helped me get an impression of the fraternity that will ultimately mark my decision.