Freshman Seminar Fall 17 DTB

It was one of the few days in the beginning of the school, year ( still is pretty early in ) I had no plans and messaged my friend to make some. We had the plan to meet up but to where, we didn’t know. I then asked her if she walked the Highline and when she said no we had our plan. We met up on the Friday of that week , we both didn’t have class so it was easy. I met her at the train station. Fast forward a bit we reach the end of the highline. As we’re walking down the stairs someone stops me to ask where i got my nice sweater from ( his words not mine). At the bottom of the stairs we looked around. Walking back seemed not adventurous enough so she suggested we head to the museum. I said i was broke but she said she’d cover me so that was nice. Luckily she didn’t have to since their is a discount for people 18 and older. So we head into the museum elevator, first to check in our bags then straight to the top floor by accident, I think thats how the elevator worked i’m not too sure. So at the top floor we check out the balcony and take some nice pictures with a clear sky, sun shining, and a great view of the highline. Inside we see a moving abstract art display which i have unfortunately no pictures of. At first it seemed weird the number of people there. When we got there the art wasn’t moving so imagine our surprise when we turn to the elevator and hear/see everyone else admiring the moving pieces, they even had an astrological show on the ceiling. My favorite part however, besides the pool table, was the Hammocks. Im not sure who’s work was displayed but there were hammocks set up in a dark room for the public’s use. We then enjoyed a couple minutes of leisure and got our pictures/videos. It was the best part. We checked out other floors where we saw a things ranging from anti-militant groups to anti-HIV/AIDS propaganda during the Reagan era, don’t quote me it might not have been Reagan. It was a cool experience and i’m glad i got to do that because if not i would have been home playing games and procrastinating if i had any work due.

Last Thursday,  my professor for Anthropology invited down a man named  Joseph Yearous-Algozin aka Joey from the Writing Center. He held a workshop for my class to help us prepare for our upcoming midterm paper due. Our paper is on the evolution of humans, which lets be honest isn’t all that interesting to write about. Joey made it kind of fun though and he used many different examples to help us get past the initial writer’s block. He used examples from Ernest Hemingway and told us how to use structure in our pieces to keep our flow. Joey used to teach at the University of Buffalo and went to Temple University and University of Wisconsin which are both very good schools for English. After being helped by Joey, it seriously opened my eyes to the benefits of the Writing Center and I now see how much they can really help. The only problem is that it seems as though everyone wants the Writing Centers help so appointments are very hard to find. You need to book them at least two weeks in advance to even have a chance of getting some help from them. That just goes to show how good they are at they do and how helpful they are for us students.

For my academic enrichment blog I decided to attend a math 2207 workshop. I chose this option not for the sole purpose of this blog but also because I was falling behind in class and needed some help. Growing up, I loved math and numbers. I always seemed to do better in my math class than any other subject. However, that all changed very quickly. From the first day of calculus I was completely lost. I struggled to keep up with the professor and her lessons. To catch up, I would try to teach myself the material at home but it  was never really successful. I would either give up or fall asleep. After  my first math exam last week I realized that I might need some help. This is why I decided to attend the math workshop. Although I was hesitant to attend since it started at 10 in the morning on a Saturday, (which is way too early for me on a weekend) I still decided to go and I am glad I did. Our tutors name was Abraham Tai and he was an amazing tutor. He explained the answers thoroughly and went over several problems with the group. He made sure everybody understood what was going on and that nobody was left behind. I remember watching him work out a complex problem all in his head in a matter of seconds. After seeing that, I realized that Abraham Tai is the real deal and that I was in the right place. I understood more calculus in those two hours than I have in the past weeks. I am very pleased that I attended and experienced this workshop because now I will be more willing to attend the following ones. I also would like to attend a one on one tutoring session too. I did not like the feeling of being unprepared while taking my first exam in class. I hope to be more prepared and confident when taking my next exam and I know will be if I keep attending these workshops.

What is a art history class that don’t always assign you to go to museum and write about something? My art history class assessment was to attend a art museum in New York City,  and pick out my favorite art piece from the museum. Then describe what I see and why I picked it out. I also had to sketch the art piece I picked to write about. As I walked into this amazing building filled with culture and beauty called the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was so overwhelming. I was overwhelmed because I didn’t know what to do first. The building is so big and they’re so many great art exhibits to choose from. I’ve just decided to go on a tour. My tour was of the Egyptian Art exhibits. While about 20 minutes in, the tour guide directed us to this beautiful Egyptian sculpture that caught my eye instant. This sculpture is called the “Offering Bearer Estate Figure”. The “Offering Bearer Estate Figure” reminded of a beautiful African queen that I use to see in old school African movies I use to watch in Barbados with my grandparents. This sculpture made me feel home and gave me good child hood memories. When I saw this sculpture, I had a flashback of me when I was 10 screaming to my grandmother “I want to be a African Queen one day!” I knew I could make a solid connection, and I definitely had more of an understanding of this piece, despite having just seen it for the first time. I just knew this was what I wanted to write about. I wrote about how I noticed that wood was the material used to create the work of art. The “Offering Bearer Estate Figure” is very noticeable carved out of wood and painted different colors. It has a ruff looking texture that looks like its carved with a knife. This piece of art “Offering Bearer Estate figure” is a woman that is walking while carrying a box on her head with her left hand and is holding a bird in her left hand. The box has a animal foot peeking out the top. It looks like it can be a cow or horse foot. I came to the conclusion that she was walking because when you look behind her, her left foot is in front and her left side of her butt is lower than the right. This artist makes a illusion that her weight is shifting while she is walking.  She is bare footed is a colorful dress on. The dress is mostly a red, green, blue, black, white, and tan color. Her hair is also green. The jewelry on her ankles and wrists are the same colors as the dress. They also have the same design as the top of the dress. This is a is naturalistic and realistic subject of work. The proportion of this sculpture is good for a human figure. The women is tall and skinny. She also has big eyes and look as if she had on make up. She has very black eye liner around her eyes and very dark eye brows The bird she is holding in her right hand is painted brown and red. The paint on the bird is chipping off and it is very obvious it is wood. This was an amazing time at the MET museum. I thought it was going to be a boring project but it was fun.

I recently visited the Met museum in Manhattan, I have not so much of a museum type of person but it was needed for my art history class. I went alone, which wasn’t a good idea, I did not stop to think how big the met really was. I grabbed the map and attempted to visit each section. The assignment for art history was to find a work of art that grasped my attention, sit down and sketch it then construct a paper at home explaining the image to someone. This was much harder than it seemed, after walking through countless exhibitions, I did not feel any sort of connection with any of the images. Finally, I entered the sculptures section and there was this one piece right in the center, as soon as I saw it a million questions came to mind. I wanted to know what was going on, why the people in the sculpture looked the way they did. I walked around the sculpture analyzing the details and decided to chose this sculpture for my assignment. The sculpture was called Ugolino and His Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, it included 5 male figures, each in a different posture with different facial expressions. The description under the sculpture told the story of a father, his sons and grandsons locked away in a tower. From the sculpture it was easy to tell that they were not in good conditions, their flesh appeared to be disappearing and their bones were visible. I never thought a work of art could have caught my eyes as much as this sculpture did. This activity forced me to go to something I wouldn’t ever picture myself going to, especially alone. I was able to engage more with art while actually enjoying myself at the museum.

On  October 5th, I went to the Whitney museum with a few friends and I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been to a few museums before but I don’t remember any of them, so I’ll be looking at all of these art pieces with fresh eyes. The outside of the building was huge which was to be expected, it’s a museum after all. Everything looked elegant and fancy and upon entering the interior was just as big. I thought we had to pay for the tickets but luckily the tickets were free for CUNY students. After scanning our tickets,we arrived at the sixth floor and we were hit with a bunch of art from paintings, to photos, sculptures, and some video clips. The theme of the sixth floor was to show the incomplete protest of america. This was interesting as I got to see many different styles of expression. There were art pieces depicting things during the time of the Vietnam war and things from present day. On the seventh floor the themes were family and community, work, home, the spiritual, and the nation. There was a lot of different things going on in this floor and it was a lot to take in. But my favorite painting while roaming that floor was the white painting on a white canvas. It was really funny when we saw it because we were talking about this exact painting when we were walking to the museum. After that we walked outside which was basically a huge balcony. We also took this thine to walk up to the eighth floor and that floor was showing art in motion. Sadly we came too late and we couldn’t see the art pieces move and I was confused when we were roaming that area. I thought most of the art were huge baby mobiles when I saw them and when I asked my friends they told me it was about art in motion. Since this was the last floor we decided to leave and the elevator we took was massive. It could probably fit 50 people considering the size and the interior had a painting of a basket which was really unique. This experience was really cool, although it was mostly sight seeing I saw a lot of cool art pieces in the process.

For this blog post, I decided to go to the Met. It was not technically free since it is pay what you can, but I did not mind paying a few dollars to get to see some beautiful art exhibits. I have been to many museums before, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, this time it was a little different. This time, I was significantly older than the previous times I have been, which changed my perspective on the trip. I decided to visit the American Paintings and Sculpture exhibit on the first floor of the Met. The first thing that I noticed were the beautiful green lamp posts, which immediately drew my attention in. Then my eyes fell to the sculpture of the gold archer, who was upholstered in the center of the exhibit. I stood there for a few minutes basking in its beauty, and then took a lot of pictures. In the exhibit, there is an area where you can sit and eat, and since I was a little hungry, I got a sandwich and water and just sat in that area. While sitting there, since I was alone, I had a lot of time to really examine the art pieces, mainly sculptures, that were in my view of sight. It was a really nice time and I listened to music through my headphones while I did this, which made it an even more peaceful experience. After I was done eating, I left that particular exhibit and wandered the Met some more. Then an hour or so later, I left the museum all together. After having a chance to reflect on my experience at the Met, I realized I left with a very positive attitude. I connected with the art in a way I had not been able to do before and that was a new experience for me. I also realized that I actually do enjoy museums, contrary to what my ten year old self believed. I am excited to visit many more through out my college experience, especially since I can get in for free with a student ID. Also, it was really awkward taking a selfie in the middle of a museum, but I tried my best.

Early in my career at Baruch, I attended a club fair in the school. While I was there, I found out many things about student life in Baruch and the various clubs available. During the fair, I spoke to many club members such as those in the marketing club and student government. I was given many flyers and handouts for a multitude of clubs some of which I threw out, others I kept because of possible interest. The club fair was on the first three floors of the Baruch building and there was free food everywhere so I took advantage of the situation. I was going from club to club getting food from the different rooms and by the end, I found myself in the student government room at the end of the hall. From here I found out a little about student government and life at Baruch. I went in there with some friends so when they were ready to leave we left and started to go more into the main area of the fair. While in the crowded walkways we were approached by multiple clubs, some of which I don’t remember and gave them my email. I don’t think I have gotten a response of the clubs to it is possible that I entered the wrong email. What I noticed is that the people pitching their clubs were often not very informative. The description tended to boil down to “Ya, we just chill. We’re cool people, you should join the club. Hahahahahaha.” Which is fine for a club like the business frat which followed that formula closest. I had a lot of fun looking at the clubs but I wanted to see how school was going before joining any. The club that I was most interested in joining from my experience was the marketing club because it sounded interesting. I may join it in the next semester so that I am acclimated to college. Because of the time that this fair was it allowed me to talk to people who have been to the school for a few years about their experiences and give me a heads up on what to expect. I think that the club fair after convocation was incredibly useful and am grateful I attended and took advantage of the opportunity.

For the academic portion of my blog, I attended The Hall of Science in Queens, New York. The museum has several cool exhibits which featured “the Mercury capsule”, visual arts, a sports center, etc. The museum has a convenient parking area, and a student discounted price of admission of $13. College in general will force many of us to go out and explore communities, museums, etc. in order to fulfill certain assignments. This trip made me realize that not all of this is as tiring and/or annoying as it seems. I dreaded having to go to a museum for this class, but I realized it’s something you can take for granted. The “Hall of science” is great for both kids and adults, take a younger sibling, cousin, friend along to enhance the experience. It gives you an excuse to go out with friends and do something you might not do on a regular basis. I learned about color removal, got to see different Geometric figure works created by Karl Szilagi, and got to see the first United States Production spacecraft that was built. The capsule was first launched in 1960 off a beach in Florida, even though no one flew in it, the passengers would have survived. They provide separate galleries, movies, and even 4d shows if anyone is interested. Next time I have a rainy day I won’t be hesitant to go out to a local museum or even tutoring at the SAAC center at Baruch. I personally dread doing things for the first time, and with all the academic activities Baruch/Museums have to offer, the fact I enjoyed doing it for this class, I’ll take greater advantages of future opportunities.