I attended Baruch Voices the other day casually. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to one of my friends just told me to follow him. The room was pretty crowded with first year students all excited to see their classmates share their monologues. My friend dragged me with him because he said the kid that won from his class had a hilarious monologue and I couldn’t miss it. When we arrived, there were no more seats left. Waves of students were coming and going as each presenter went on and off the stage. The atmosphere was nice and comfortable everyone was very respectful of every kid presenting. This was a nice small social event that allowed lots of kids to express themselves through their monologues. I didn’t know many of the kids, but I did recognize a few faces. It’s interesting to think about because these are all kids who just started their college journey like myself. We’re all the class of 2021. The monologues were all very authentic and different. Lots of these kids were very creative. One of my favorites was this one monologue where the kid explained a SpongeBob scene from the perspective of Squidward. Other kids shared very personal experiences about who they were and how they felt about school. Another one that stood out to me was this rap song this kid made. They sadly couldn’t get the beat up, so he rapped it acapella. He had everyone in the room listening closely and hyping him up. The experience was better than what I expected. I was amazed by the creativity and the support kids had for their classmates. Baruch creates a very comfortable environment for students and this was recognized at this event. I hope to attend more events like this one. 
Author: a.figueroa
Visiting The Study Abroad Fair
I usually go to the basement during my free time here at Baruch. Usually everyone from the soccer team meets down there and we usually go and sit in our coaches office and just talk. This past Thursday there were about ten of us down there having our lunch right before club hours and saw people coming down to help set up for The Study Abroad Fair. Coming into college studying abroad is something I’ve been looking forward to so I saw this as an opportunity to not only complete this assignment, but also gain a better understanding as to what I need in order to study abroad. Baruch offers you the opportunity to attend many different countries, but they usually only allow juniors and seniors study abroad. The options are endless covering almost all the different parts of Europe. Usually you go away for a semester, but you have to make sure you take courses that will keep you on track with your graduation plan. You have to meet with an advisor and have to file a special application in order to take advantage of this opportunity. The countries that stood out to me the most were China and Netherlands. Chinese culture and very interesting and I would really love to experience living in China for a semester. Now Netherlands on the other hand just stood out to me because I want to experience life in Amsterdam. Foreign Exchange students from there were explaining to me how much cheaper it is to live over there and how life in Europe isn’t as stressful as it is in New York. All these students in the fair are exchange students here at Baruch this fall semester. They were advertising their schools and trying to convince you to come out and explore not only their school, but also their country. I was already looking forward to studying abroad, but now I’m even more anxious to do a semester in China and enjoy myself in Amsterdam. I have something to look forward to. 