Month: November 2017

Baruch voices was funny, emotional and certainly worthwhile. I had three favorite performances/pieces. One was the piece on Squid ward and the bubble show. I honestly thought the student was sharing his life story until the very end. I found it quite interesting how real he made the perspective of Squid ward sound. It was well crafted and the plot twist at the end was absolutely hilarious. I’ve never heard of someone describing a story from the viewpoint of a Spongebob character, and for that I give this guy’s piece a 10/10. Another comedic performance was the one about the juicy KFC chicken. It made my mouth water and crave some KFC. The imagery, language, and the students tone made this piece funny and relatable. I don’t know whether or not it was intentional, but the student had his hat tilted so far down that it was very difficult to see his face. Either way, I’m glad that he chose to do that because it made me focus more on his language and made it easier for me to picture the scene in my head, rather than focusing on his facial expressions. Lastly, the piece “Wasting Time” left me thinking about it for a while. I found this piece relatable since many of us struggle with procrastination from time to time and desire to one day take initiative and do something meaningful. I feel that this piece tied in perfectly with the current place we are in the semester, where many of us slowly become less and less motivated, but this work slightly pushed me to think about how productive I can be when I’m wasting time.

One event I attended was Baruch Voices. It was a showcase where different members of FRO classes presented the monologue they were required to write. Baruch Voices was a great experience! I really liked this event, because it brought the freshmen class together. Listening to the monologues they wrote was nice, because it also showed me I could relate to people I don’t know as well as showed me things I didn’t know about my friends. It was funny to see the stories people could come up with. I was inspired by the storytelling skills that some people had, so much so that I wrote a story when I got home that night. One of my favorite speakers was Fathia. She talked about her Nigerian culture and it was cool to learn in such a creative way. I also enjoyed Zion’s presentation. He talked about loss of individuality in today’s society and how we compartmentalize people and their ideas. It was really deep. Another monologue I enjoyed was Tiana, from our class. It was just as good as the first time I heard it, and made me empathize. Overall, I’d consider the event a success. The only thing I would recommend is having a portion similar to an open mic sort of thing, where anyone in the audience could also contribute to the show. I would also suggest refreshments because every event is better with food and drinks. In all, the event was a great contribution to my freshman experience and made me more familiar with my fellow classmates of the class of 2017.

I recently attended a workshop on the benefits of working for start-ups rather than big businesses. It was hosted by two twins who had experience in both big and small business, and vastly preferred the second. The audience was told about how when working for a big business your job tends to be very specific and thus boring, not to mention the lack of responsibility you have. However, if you work for a start-up, they will be forced to use whatever skills you have due to their limited budget. In addition to this, if you work for a start-up, chances are that you will quickly be given significant responsibility as a start-up does not possess the budget to hire a manager for a department. I initially thought that the workshop would be a waste of time, and that it was simply a way to get a blog post done. However, after attending the workshop it’s clear to me that the information I received was incredibly valuable and may be of use to me in the future. This workshop also taught me a valuable lesson, if you’re passionate about something you can make anybody around you feel a fraction of that passion. I have little to no interest in startups but due to the sheer charisma and enthusiasm of the hosts, I began to feel interested in what they had to say. By the time the workshop was over I found myself very curios about the differences between big and small business, and I even did some light research.  

• Michael Jones

The Starr Career Development Center helps all undergraduate students plan their careers.  They are there to help you plan your career when you graduate from Baruch.  I found the career center very helpful.  The staff at the career center helped me create a better resume.  They read what I had and gave me constructive criticism to make it appealing to employers, taught me how to properly format my resume and the importance of a cover letter, and gave me insightful career advice.

The Starr Center helped me create a better resume that would be appealing to future employers.  I was told what key words to use that would jump out to hiring managers.  Some words that are important to use are: managed, learned, utilized.  These words will help me to be more desirable to prospective employers.  The Starr Center also stressed the importance of networking and establishing contacts.  Networking can help with internships and future job openings.  I plan to utilize the different clubs that we have at campus and the career networking events even though I am only a freshman.

The Starr Career Development staff offered insightful career advice.  I would like to major in Finance while at Baruch College, however, I was not aware of the many career options that a person with a finance degree has available to them.  I could combine my interests outside of school to my interest in finance.  For instance, I can work in the finance department of a fashion designer or cosmetics company.  The staff person also gave me suggestions and advice in getting accepting into the Zicklin School.  I was told about possible internship options and classes while an undergraduate at Baruch College.  The Starr Career Development Center is definitely a center that I will be visiting again in the near future!