a.dsouza – Freshman Seminar Fall 17 DTC

Aaron at Career Prep

Aaron D’Souza

At Tuesday’s career fair prep, we learned many valuable skills for standing out among the recruiters. At the prep, three speakers talked about dressing formal, being friendly and open, and making a strong first impression. One key point they stressed was the elevator pitch. This consists of a 30 second to 2-minute speech detailing your interest, skills, experiences, goals, and why you are a good candidate. The resume should include all relevant experiences, achievements, skills, and education. I have an old resume, and after this meeting, I plan to visit STARR to get advice on updating and improving it. In addition, anyone interest in going shouldn’t be afraid. The speakers told us that companies are looking for freshman and sophomores more and more for entry level positions. The career workshop also talked about how contacting recruiters and how to conduct ourselves around them. Finally, the speakers told us to choose our top five companies, because there will be long lines, and we will not have a chance to meet with 82 different companies.

Aaron at APO

Alpha Phi Omega is a service themed fraternity within Baruch. I attended their second general interest meeting, which included some great activities and surprises. In the beginning, I met in the designated room and was greeted with warm faces and friendly smiles. Multiple students in the club greeted me and happily made conversation. In addition, all the members were light hearted and made the experience enjoyable and memorable. My first impressions were positive, and I will continue to attend club meetings. This clubs hosts multiple events and attending these events will grant an interview to be inducted into the club. This clubs helps the community and is part of a larger APO fraternity nation wide. Their main goals are to develop leadership skills in members, share friendship, and to serve others. During the club we played ate pizza and spicy ramen, and played a speed dating game, with a three minute time for each round. During the game, I got to know multiple different members, and I got to learn more about Baruch as well as hear about their experiences. I learned about credits and different pre requisites to Zicklin, as well as experiences from students currently studying my planned major. I plan to attend one more event for APO so I can be considered for their interview, and hopefully become an official member. Anyone looking for a club to join, I recommend checking out Alpha Phi Omega.

Aaron at the MET

For my academic workshop, I chose to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum contains new exhibits including World War I, a picture gallery, and a new fashion collection, all of which were interesting. This trip helped me to complete two assignments, but more so allowed me to enjoy new works of art, and taught me a bigger lesson.

An extra credit assignment for history required me to critique three pieces in the World War I exhibition, and I chose to complete my blog post by critiquing Talking Pictures: Camera-Phone Conversations Between Artists. This exhibit is a picture gallery made by 12 different artists, who were asked by the MET, to communicate with another artist for five months via pictures or videos. The room is white with two text bubbles on one wall as you enter. Pictures were printed and hung up on the wall, although no distinguishable pattern emerged. Even with a short time frame, the many artists coming together told a complete story. Unsurprisingly, the lives of a collective group of people even over a short time was fascinating and beautiful. From two people being pregnant and giving birth in the same month, demonstrated through pictures of their newborns, to protests activist groups, an unintentional but provoking theme emerges; life may move too fast.

This assignment helped me to complete two projects and will influence future papers, but it left a stronger and more meaningful impact on my college career as a whole. Seeing these images of people moving through their daily life made me realize I need to slow down and appreciate what I have. I must, and we should all, take the time to create lasting memories, rather than losing special moments to the routine of life. This activity helps me in my first semester at Baruch by allowing me to enjoy my college experience over chasing my career goals. Lastly, this activity helped me to value in each day, and see the importance of enjoying school.