Month: September 2017

Enrique Escobar 1st Blog Post

Hello everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the start to a new school year. One day as I was walking up to the 2nd floor, I was a sign showing all the LatinX events for heritage month. This caught my eye because it looked fun and because I knew I wanted to celebrate my culture with my peers. I decided to tell my friends to come with me to the opening ceremony and to the LatinX family feud. During the opening ceremony, they had plenty of activities in the lobby. The first thing they had was a table set up with tasty empanadas which were really good. They had other types of food there, but I couldn’t even go because of the long lines. Then they had a bunch of silly games we could play for prizes. During the entire event, they had Baruch radio playing a bunch of popular Spanish artists lie Romeo Santos and Bad Bunny. People ended up forming a circle in the middle for people to go in and dance. On the outside we all still danced even though my friends had no idea what they were dancing to. The whole event really made me proud to be part of such a rich culture.

The opening ceremony was organized well and made all the student life events look like they are worth my tuition dollars. Because of such an event, I’ve already went to the LatinX Family Feud with my friends which was also really fun. I also attended the LatinX meet & greet for a little bit as part of the Success Network program. I also plan on going to the other events like “let’s eat” and the “blind spot” performance. All of these events made me feel part of the Baruch community despite it being a commuter school.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative. This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

The Museum of Natural History

Wassup everybody!

I decided to hop on over to the Museum of Natural History. Always loved dinosaurs so why not? I’ve visited the museum before but that was about 5 years ago, so seeing it again after such a long time felt amazing. Of course upon entering you see the huge ticeratops and barosaurus skeletons. All along the walls of the museum you can see quotes from Presidents and from the U.S. constitutions. It was odd not seeing the museum packed… rarely ever happens. I immediately fast walked to the second floor where the dinosaur exhibit was. And there I was just surrounded by a bunch of dinosaurs. The inner kid in me was shaking with excitement. I walked around and went to each bone set and read the descriptions, trying to absorb as much information as I could. Seeing the T-Rex in its entirety was jaw dropping. And then I made my way to the famous inner hall which contained the massive brachiosaurus skeleton, spanning across the entire hall! Unfortunately I was a little stressed on time so I couldn’t take myself through the entire Dino Tour. Will definitely visit again, hopefully soon!

The Radio Room

For my club visit, I decided not to join any clubs because there was nothing for me since my main interest is fashion and all the clubs for fashion don’t exist anymore. However I went to the radio room because I love music as well and my friend Max was applying to it so I went with him to check out what Baruch and WBNB have in store. I won’t lie I was thoroughly impressed with the radio room and the professional studio atmosphere it gave off. I loved the Vinyl collection they had in one of the rooms, with it being topped off with the Chiddy Bang Cereal and other rarities. We also went into the radio room itself where my friend filled out his application while I was just checking out the amazing radio set up they had and I saw that the DJ was really flowing with the music, it felt like I was at 97.1 in the morning. The studio room was small but it had really cool lighting and reminded me of my friends studio room out in Brooklyn. Overall the experience was great and I go back there pretty often now just because it’s a lot of fun and everyone in there is really chilled out and always down to help with whatever problems you have which is great for me since I am a freshmen and I do have a ton of problems that they themselves have went through so it gives me a lot of insight.

Blog Post 1

Hey guys!

In this blog I’m going to talk about this week’s “Kesher” meeting in Baruch College. Kesher is a club where 40 jewish boys meet once or twice a week depending on availability. Every week A rabbi comes and lectures us on a range of different topics, this week’s lecture being on the holidays coming up. The first of the holidays is called “Rosh Hashana.” Rosh Hashana translates to new year. This year Rosh Hashana starts on Wednesday night and ending Friday night going straight into Shabbos essentially making it a 3-day holiday. This holiday lasts for two days and the basic idea of the holiday is to start a fresh year and ask god for forgiveness of all the sins you have made in the past year. There is ten days in between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and these ten days are vital in the forgiveness process. In these ten days there are many prayers added to the daily prayers where we admit to our sins and promise god to be better in the upcoming year. The next holiday is Yom Kippur and this is the most important day on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is a fast day where you can’t eat, shower, put perfume or wear leather for 25 hours. The rabbi told us that it is said that forgiveness is right in front of us and it in upon every single Jew to ask for forgiveness on this day because this is the day where god is the most forgiving. The Kesher program happens in a range of different colleges where a different rabbi comes to every college and lectures the community members in that school. Kesher is a great place to catch up with my friends from high school that are also in Baruch.

 

Henry Barnathan

Lexicon General Interest Meeting

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.In the past week, I’ve attended many general interest club meetings, including Lexicon’s. Lexicon is the school’s yearbook committee. It’s the only student run organization that makes and sells its own product: the yearbook. Lexicon, within itself, has many committees. These committees include: photography, graphic design, finance, management, and marketing. Meeting the heads of the team made me think that it was indeed something that I would like to be a part of. They were very welcoming and seemed genuinely excited about the work that they do.

At the meeting, they did a run over of each committee, explaining the responsibilities and targets. I was most intrigued by what the graphics and photography department had to say. The photography department is responsible for any pictures that would go in the yearbook while the graphics department makes the physical yearbook.

I also had the opportunity to meet with each of the e board members along with some of their senior members. Attached is a photo of me with sadia, who was last year’s chair of Graphics for the yearbook. After engaging in conversation with her, she told me that being in the graphics committee doesn’t require you to have any skills beforehand but rather the heads of the department teaches you any and all the skills necessary. This was great to hear as I am actually super interested in learning graphics but I just didn’t know where to start from. The current head of department, nudrat, also said that they will be hosting a few “graphics 101” sessions, which I’m really looking forward to. This club allows me to grow so much in areas that I am interested in and that can help me in my future. I’m currently undecided in my major but having graphics skills and marketing skills will never hurt me.

Also apparently one benefit of joining Lexicon, is being able to attend almost all the big events and getting to know the general baruch population. This is so exciting, as a freshman, this will allow me to expand my horizons and get to know more people and to see if I’m Interested in other events.

Lexicon’s first cosponsored event is this week on Tuesday. The event is going to be hosted by the Muslim Student Association. Sadia is also co president of the club so she was able to give me the inside scoop and invite me. This school year is starting off great! Can’t wait to go to all the events the clubs can offer me. #freefood!

Museum of Modern Art – Austin Budhram

A few days ago, a friend and I decided to visit the Museum of Modern Art. I haven’t been to a museum in several years, which made the experience very new to me. When attending the MoMA, I didn’t realize how crowded it would be, since we attended on a free-admission Friday afternoon. I didn’t know that admission is free on Friday afternoons, which is an admirable promotion by MoMA. Even though the place was extremely crowded, the employees at MoMA were very polite and kept the lines of people organized. The layout of MoMA was very structured, as there were five large floors filled with diverse works of art. Even though some floors did not interest me, the 4th floor stood out above all. There were works of art from various periods, including fauvism, expressionism, surrealism, and pop art. The variety of art on display gave me the opportunity to experience all that art had to offer. On the 5th floor, there was a replica of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, which was surrounded by at least 30 people. Personally, I would have enjoyed the museum more thoroughly if there were less people in attendance.Since I had an Art History assignment based on attending the Museum of Modern Art, I expected myself to leave as soon as I found everything required. Instead, I found myself looking through the entire museum, analyzing each work of art. I critiqued the artworks based on the techniques I’ve learned in class, such as the use of colors, objects, and so on. All in all, visiting the MoMA allowed me to connect the experiences outside of the classroom to what is learned inside of the classroom. As a result, linking these various aspects of learning together allowed me to fully understand what was being taught in the classroom. 

Sameera Chowdhury – MoMA

For this assignment, I decided to go to the MoMA. I have been to MoMA before a couple years ago, but I completely forgot how much I liked all of the artwork in there. In a lot of museums, a lot of the art can come off as old and of the same nature, but MoMA really has work that is more striking and bold in my opinion. It’s probably because as the name suggests, the art is more modern. When I first walked into the museum, I was quickly overwhelmed with how many people were in there. However, the fact that the museum was well organized and easy to navigate through made that a little better. A lot of people were gathered around a certain painting and I got the chance to see that it was Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night, which is even more beautiful in person. This painting was on the fifth floor, which was my favorite floor. It’s the floor with all of the collection galleries, having all of the famous pieces of artwork that I have grown up seeing and hearing about from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Frida Kahlo. I saw paintings that I totally forgot I previously analyzed for art in middle school, such as Dali’s Persistence of Memory and Rene Magritte’s The Lovers. It was cool seeing the physical art pieces that I have analyzed before from the computer. Outside, there is a courtyard that is really nice for fresh air, places to sit, and more artwork to admire. It’s especially nice considering the amount of people inside the museum. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the entire day to look through all the floors and see all the artwork, but I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits I did get to see.

study abroad fair-shawn tatynskiy

This week I had the pleasure of visiting the study abroad fair. I chose to check this opportunity out because I heard Baruch has great study abroad programs and that couldn’t be truer. Baruch offers a vast amount of options when it comes to studying abroad as they have a list of countries, covering almost all of Europe. As a high school student growing up I would always dream of spending my time learning in a different country. I was excited to not only excel in school but to also learn the culture and traditions of a European country. Baruch offers its study abroad program for juniors and seniors mainly. To go through the study abroad process one must meet with their advisers and set up their courses of the semester they will be studying abroad as it is vital to stay caught up on your education during your stay. Some of the countries I dream to visit would be Amsterdam and the Czech Republic and maybe Prague. These countries are of interest to me because they are so different from New York City and I want to take that opportunity to learn the culture and the ways of the people that live in these countries but also to take a step away from hectic city life and try something new. At the study abroad fair I was able to meet with people that took this opportunity and were able to study abroad. This is what excited me the most about the fair since they got to share their experiences with me and really got me excited to seize this opportunity in the future. My junior and senior year I will definitely take part in these programs and fulfill the dream I had since high school. With Baruch’s great many programs and options I know I will be able to study abroad to experience the ways of life in Europe and to also excel in my education, as the new experiences will definitely reflect on my work in the classroom.

Afnan Shariff Finance and Economics Society

On September 7th, I had the chance to attend the Finance and Economics Society (FES) general interest meeting. My intended major is Finance, so this club was definitely a right fit to check out. What surprised me was the amount of people that showed up to the meeting, with the room being extremely crowded. The leader of the club, Verina, greeted us and we were given a plethora of information. We were given insight on what the club was; it consisted of finance/economics major hopefuls trying to make it into the finance world, and engaging in activities relevant to their future. This club had a variety of programs, such as an investment program and a mentorship program. The mentorship program grabbed my attention as there are mentors who take on mentees and help them with everything related to their major, providing advice, and helping them prepare for the future to come. However, it’s highly selective. The GIM moved to us conducting a team building activity, which consisted of the groups to construct the tallest tower made from spaghetti, a marshmallow and tape. Although my group failed, it opened our eyes to what the club consisted of and what would be expected of us if we work at top firms.

The members of the club were super friendly and welcoming. They made it aware that this club would require all of our time aside from school, so I knew from there that although this club and the mentorship program would be highly beneficial for me, I knew I could not give all my time to this club, due to the throes of freshman year and adjusting to the college life. It was said that we can at least attend six of their workshops to be a part of the general club, so I hope to do that. I was lucky enough to go to this GIM as I have met people who are experience what I want to be in the future and I now know who to go to for help for my major and my future.

Visiting the Rubin Museum

My trip to the Rubin Museum of Art was unlike any other museum I’ve ever been to. I went to the museum for an art history class assignment. It was a very unique experience because it was an interactive museum where sound is used to portray history. The first exhibit I visited was the Henri Cartier-Bresson: India in Full Frame exhibit. There, I learned of the famous Buddha figures of India including Gandhi. It explained the many deeds they did and the rituals performed for their deaths. Next I visited The World of Sounds exhibit. That was my favorite because it was interactive. When you pressed a wall, an Indian prayer or song echoed through the halls of the exhibit. One of my favorites was when I was standing in the middle of a platform with a semi-circle of various Indian instruments around me. As I stepped closer to one instrument, the louder it played. When I stood in the center of the platform, all of the instruments played at the same time creating an ancient Indian hymn that was recited to Indian deities. The World of Sound exhibit also featured a room where an om was chanted as a peaceful place to sit and relax and engulf yourself in the prayer. It was really interesting because the oms that were being recited were recorded in the museum by regular people who also visited the museum. It helps to show the emphasis of how connected the museum is meant to be. This activity has assisted me during my first semester at Baruch because it gave me an insight as to what college assignments are all about. It has shown me how to apply real world visits to academic assignments. It’s a different experience than writing essays in high school where we would just read about an exhibit online then write about it.