Category: Uncategorized

When I went to the met I saw a variety of exhibits they had to offer. They had an exhibit of ancient artifacts that were all in a glass case. The museum had statues and head sculptures from the times of ancient Greece. These statues were aged to the point where some of the noses had fallen off the heads. The Egyptian and African style art had more of a patterned based style and was more colorful as well as detailed. The  Egyptian and African art used more brown orange and red. They also incorporated ancient Egyptian symbols within some of the work. After this I was in the oil painting sections which was my personal favorite. One section had paintings that had more of a straight forward and in detail depiction of what it was supposed to be. The other ones were more of a modern art style incorporating more shapes and vibrant colors. In the pieces from the 20th century (especially the second half) I felt that it was more interpretive and the pieces were created to make someone think and often have someone come up with their own meaning for it. It was interesting to not just look at but also learn about the pieces and artist through reading the description.

Last week I decided to visit the school’s writing center. I had an essay due for my Great Works of Literature class so I wanted to receive feedback on my writing. When I first entered the writing center, I was welcomed by a student who worked for the center. She told me I had to make an account with the center. She kindly explained all the necessary steps and guided me throughout the process. After, she told me how I was able to schedule appointments for consultations. When I went to make an appointment for a session, I saw that most of the time slots had been taken. I realized how popular the writing center was and how many students utilize the resources given to them. This made me want to use the writing center even more. When I finally went for my advisement session, I was greeted by a friendly staff who introduced himself as Judah and my writing consultant. Without wasting time, he quickly asked for my writing. I was afraid of showing him my work because I was embarrassed that my writing did not meet college standards. After reviewing my work, Judah complimented me for my efforts at attempting to convey certain ideas. Without discouraging my writing, he kindly gave me feedback on how I could expand my thoughts further in my essay. He also helped me research primary sources that I could add to enhance my work. Furthermore, he eagerly answered all the questions I had for him and explained any misunderstandings I had. Judah seemed passionate about his job and showed enthusiasm for helping students like me. I was so grateful for his help and appreciated his constructive criticisms. I was much more confident in turning in my English essay after my session. Overall, my trip to the writing center was a great experience. I urge all the students to use the resources given to us. I will definitely be going back to the center for my next writing assignments.

For my other requirement I went to the Museum of Natural History. I went with a few friends and I won’t lie about it, it wasn’t that fun. There were a few cool things that I was able to see but that was ruined too because of certain circumstances. There was this cool space timeline show thing that you could go and watch but during the whole presentation people kept walking in from the exit area and ruining my immersion. There was this mummy exhibit that was on the fourth floor and it was the only thing that seemed cool to look at. I get up there and it tells me I have to pay to see dead people in glass boxes. No thank you, rather go to google images for that. I would rather have gone to another museum but most of them needed to be paid and I wanted to see the big skeleton dinosaur fossil thing that was in the movie Night at the Museum. I didn’t get to see that because the museum was so hard to navigate. Wanted to see the Teddy Roosevelt horse statue and relive my childhood but they played me. I even went to the marine life section and there was no water. The exhibits were just painted blue. In MY opinion, museum was not worth the commute. The animal statues were cool though. I saw a really cool tiger and snapped a picture

**Note: For those who may be confused, I use the term Latinx instead of Latino since Latinx is gender-inclusive. The Spanish language is unfortunately structured sexist, but thankfully many members of the Latinx community use the term Latinx now.

Hey everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend. Latinx or Hispanic Heritage month is probably one of my favorite times of the year. It’s a time for fun cultural festivities, food, embracing our history, and most of all, being able to connect with the Latinx community. It’s also a great time to spread culture awareness about the Latinx community, especially now in the political climate of this country.

We really are so fortunate that we go to a school that promotes such amazing events for Latinx Heritage Month! For those of you who may not know, I’m originally from eastern Long Island. I grew up in a pretty dominant white neighborhood. Growing up I had a very hard time finding things part of my cultural identity, I barely knew anyone else who was Latinx apart from my family members and some people from school. The typical American lifestyle completely washed me away of my browness, the only times I really could be surrounded by my culture was when I visited my home countries.

College was something I always forward to, I wanted to be a part of school with an amazingly diverse campus. Ultimately, one of the reasons why I chose Baruch. Also, upon doing some research on Baruch my senior year, I found out there was the Latin American Student Organization or in short, LASO. I knew that I had to become involved, it would be such a great opportunity to embrace more of my Hispanic heritage. Along with that, meeting other Latinx people and enriching myself through the experience!

This past month, three other Latinas and I prepared to participate in Nuestra Belleza Latina. It’s an event at Baruch held every Hispanic Heritage Month that replicates an actual beauty pageant Nuestra Belleza, in which is exclusively for Latinas from different parts of Latin America to compete.

On October 3rd, the ladies and I represented our own individual countries in front of a panel of judges. The pageant consisted of three portions: talent, questionnaires, and evening wear. As a proud half Nicaraguan, I represented my country of Nicaragua, the largest country in Central America. For my talent, I played guitar while other girls danced, performed a poem in sign language, and even played Despacito on clarinet. We then answered questions pertaining to the Latin American community and our own self identities. I was asked things such as who was my number one latinx inspiration and how did I represent my culture on a everyday basis. Then came our evening wear in which the girls and I dressed in formal outfits, thus concluded the night.

However not only did the audience witness a pageant, we also had invited special guest performers as well. What kind of Latinx event doesn’t have a plethora of food, dancing, and music? Performances such as from the dance coordinator of LASO, Carla, who performed an amazing salsa routine to Celia Cruz’s “Quimbara”. After our questionnaire portion, I was able to go on the floor and dance some merengue with friends (despite the fact that they couldn’t dance, but they had a great time making fools of themselves).

It was an extraordinary night for the members of LASO as well as everyone else who came to watch. I think the best thing about participating in a pageant like this is the fact that all the contestants life myself showed a different aspect on what it was like to be Latina. Our community is so diverse, and we are often subjected to be a certain way by society. However, Nuestra Belleza proves that the beauty of the Latinx community is so diverse. Even as someone who hates being on stage, I had such an amazing time. Being able to celebrate my culture almost gives me a self of confidence. I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t, for once I could embrace my identity because my browness is what makes me beautiful and unique. I encourage you all to keep yourselves socially aware when it comes to any type of heritage or history month! We have such amazing clubs to offer such enriching opportunities. But since Latinx Heritage Month ends in a couple of days, I hope you all make the best out of these last few days and celebrate our culture with us.

Viva la Raza!

Today I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Rodin Exhibition. It was my first time ever visiting this museum, and for the future I would like to tour the whole museum and take in everything it has to offer. The exhibition has plenty of paintings and some sculptures made out of plaster or terracotta. One particular sculpture I enjoyed was named Beside the Sea. It was a nude woman with her back hunched over. I found it to be quite peaceful since she seemed to be calm and in the middle of drifting her hand across soft sand. Another interesting sculpture was the Head of Balzac. This sculpture was a man’s head made of bronze. This head portrayed exhausted, and perhaps irritable emotions. This sculpture was very different compared to Beside the Sea because this one emphasized the man’s agitated brow, pug nose, and a mouth that looked like he just tasted something bitter. I learned that Rodin used different techniques for drawing such as the drypoint technique which is where you use a needle directly on a metal plate to draw. He also used watercolors from time to time to convey a sense of energy such as in his painting The Embrace. One painting that caught my eye was The Abandoned  where a woman lay on a bed, covered in bed sheets with a melancholy look on her face. I enjoyed having the opportunity to visit this museum, and I can’t wait to go again!

The time had come once again to write a blog post and I had no clue what to write about. I had made the mistake of waiting until the last minute to find a school activity that was eligible for a blog post and I had begun to panic. Thankfully, a friend I went to high school with (that now goes to Baruch) informed me that she was involved in a club that I could check out. I went to the club room to find that the club I was attending was “Anime Club”. It’s important to note that at this point in my life I don’t have much of an interest in Anime, but as I needed to write a blog post about this experience I figured that I shouldn’t cut it short. Despite what I originally thought was going to happen I found that I actually enjoyed the experience quite a bit. While I didn’t fully understand the things the club members were talking about, it was evident that they were incredibly passionate and that made the experience an exciting one. It’s always intriguing to see people discussing the things they care about and that was exactly what I was witnessing. While attending the club didn’t give me an interest in anime it motivated me to cultivate interests of my own in the hopes of one day experiencing the joy and passion that those club members felt.

Before going to college, I attended a Jewish school my entire life since kindergarten. After finishing high school, most students have the choice between two things: spending a year in Israel before ultimately attending college, or going straight to college. Although what seems like my entire graduating class took the former option, I obviously went with the latter.

Although I came into college alone, I still was able to enter knowing some people, and that’s because my brother who is two years older than I am has some friends who go to Baruch too. Through them, I was introduced to the club, Hillel @ Baruch, which is a Jewish organization where any Jews that go to Baruch College can visit. Hillel @ Baruch offers many Jewish services, from the availability of Tefillin (phylacteries), a set of small black leather boxes with scrolls of Jewish scripture inside them which Jews use to pray every morning, for those who did not get the chance to do before coming to school – to a daily prayer service where a group of Jews who attend the club will be able to pray together. Additionally, every Tuesday and Thursday, they hold events, such as their first “Welcome Back” event back in August to a class called “Hebrew in Harmony.” Additionally, every Wednesday they have a learning event called “Pizza and Parsha,” which, exactly as the name implies, participants sit around discussing the parsha (weekly Torah portion) of the week, and later on Wednesdays there is another class where a rabbi comes in and gives a speech about something relating to Judaism. During these events, they provide kosher food, making it the only place on campus I’m able to trust when it comes to food as I follow kosher dietary restrictions. Additionally, sometimes at these events, they hold raffles for those who like their Facebook page. I don’t think I’ve ever won anything in my life before but because of Hillel @ Baruch I have already won two things from the events (those being a portable charger and a Starbucks gift card, and I don’t even drink coffee)! I do try to attend as many of these events as I can, although there is a roadblock in the way on Tuesdays because our FRO class is held during club hours.

Hillel @ Baruch is a great club on campus and I would recommend it to any Jewish students who don’t know about it yet.

On October 2nd i visited the Hillel at Baruch, Hillel’s main mission is to get jewish students at Baruch and all over the world closer to their jewish culture and religion. Hillel clubs, nationally, are in most universities to give Jewish people on campus a sort of home type of feeling. They inspire people to engage with other jewish students here at Baruch, and help them learn to inspire others at Baruch. when i walked in it was this little cramped room that had so many people walking in and out, people learning, people teaching it looked like something i wanted to be apart of. they offer kosher food every day, which helps out the kids here at Baruch that keep kosher food and do not need to shlep lunch with them everyday. it also acts as a social meet up for all jews on Baruch campus to come hang out and it is right next door to the ping pong game game room. There are also some people that have offices there that you can make appointments with and talk with them about school, questions on religion, and even just talk to get to know another jew. There is also such a great feeling knowing that there is a place at Baruch that can care to your special needs with open arms. Hillel envisions a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel.

This was my first time visiting the Museum of Modern Art and it was quite an experience. The museum itself is incredible, 6 floors, and an outdoor lobby. My original plan was to start from the 6th floor and make my way down to the first floor. I did, in fact, start at the 6th floor, and it was the most interesting one to me. The museum had just opened up a new exhibit a few days before, Is Fashion Modern? I started out excited and loved seeing the different pieces through the ages. It was interesting to see how many trends of the past have come back into popularity. As I made my way to the 5th floor, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. I saw many famous pieces I’ve heard of before, and it was pretty cool to see in person, versus a google search image. I sometimes felt like I wasn’t doing it right though. I would simply walk through the museum, and look at the pieces, but I noticed just about everyone else was spending at least a full 60 seconds observing each work of art. I was about halfway through the 3rd floor when the security guards began ushering everyone out of the museum because it was closing.  On my way out I discovered a window that overlooked the outdoor lobby, and I must say, at 5:20 the lighting was impeccable for taking photos. In all, it was a great experience, especially because it was free, and I would love to do it again with some friends.