Author: m.ashear

On Thursday November 2nd  I attended Baruch Voices. It was essentially all the fro class monologue winners presenting their monologues. I heard a few  monologues but the one that stood out the most to me was someone who spoke about how he faces Islamaphobia just about every day. He said that since 9/11 he was never looked at the same way and he feared that he would never be looked at normally ever again. This message resinated with me because I realized how serious the topic is from someone who is actually effected by it. Also, I was able to take a life lesson that no matter where you come from or what you look like you deserve to be treated equally. Although I will no longer be a freshman next year, I still might consider going back to the Baruch Voices next year. It was really a great experience and I advise you all to attend next year.

During the summer I was sitting with two of my friends on Broadway eating lunch. Somehow, the topic of traffic in Manhattan came up. We decided that the only way to absolve Manhattan of its traffic problem was to completely disallow passenger cars in the city. Of course emergency vehicles would be allowed, but also taxis would be allowed for people who really need a car.

The main form of transportation would be the subway system but other alternatives would be:

1. citi bikes – sometimes faster than cars, very efficient, affordable and good for exercise
2. Walking or Jogging – good exercise

The only major problems we could think of were:

1. Getting from New Jersey to Queens by car – You would have to go all the way around Manhattan through Brooklyn and staten Island. A possible solution would be a bridge that stretched across the width of Manhattan connecting queens to New Jersey
2. Another problem would be that that the entire car industry would tank, especially the parking lots in the city.

In the end there are many benefits of curing Manhattan of its traffic problem but also problems that outweigh the convenience of a trafficless city.

For my second blog post I decided to got to the Museum of Mathematics. The main reason I chose this museum was because of its proximity to Baruch, being only a 5 minute walk away. Being that math has always been my achilles heal in school I wasn’t expecting to have a good time. As I walked in to the museum I was expecting my visit to be free but as it turns out, the school ID isn’t as magical as it seems as I still had to shell out 11 dollars. At this point I was a bit upset because not only was I somewhere I didn’t really want to be but I also had to pay to be there. I began to look around at the various exhibits in the museum and realized that this museum had two floors and over 20 exhibits. The first exhibit on my right was an exhibit about number lines. My brain instantly thought, “skip” but I decided to wander in just in case there was something worth seeing. As it turns out the exhibit explained in simplicity exactly what number lines are and what their practical life application is. The next exhibit I looked at was actually pretty cool. Basically every visitor can design their own shape virtually, and if the shape is unique enough, it is selected to be 3d printed and put on display. My design was an 18 sided die but unfortunately it wasn’t selected to be displayed. After I finished my attempt at a cool shape I realized that I had been working on it for almost an hour and that it was time for me to leave. I guess I kind of had fun in the end, but I still wouldn’t go back.

On Thursday September 7th I attended a UNICEF@Baruch club meeting. At first I was skeptical about joining a club that I knew little to nothing about, but as soon as I walked into the room, I was greeted by the club president Emre. He explained to me how he too was skeptical when joining UNICEF@Baruch. After introducing himself to everyone Emre explained to us what UNICEF@Baruch is really all about. He told us that we as college students can play an extremely important role in protecting the rights of children around the globe. Just a few of the amazing things UNICEF does to aid children around the globe; they provide for children who normally can’t provide for themselves by giving them everyday  household essentials that we take for granted, they provide them with education, and they treat children to the equality they deserve. At Baruch we can assist by raising awareness, advocating, and fundraising for UNICEF. This club is assisting me in my first semester at Baruch by broadening my horizons and teaching me that not every person I run into in the world will be as privileged as I am, and have been brought up the same way I was. For me, a typical hardship of life is my phone dying, but for some children in the world it can be as extreme as walking 10 kilometers to the nearest clean body of water. I am glad I attended the UNICEF@Baruch club meeting.