Author: m.antturi

For my Student Life Blog post I went to the Baruch school gym to play basketball with Nick, Glen and Hafizur. We had just finished our Anthropology class and had a few hours to kill before FRO, and so headed down to the basement gym were we were able to play a few good pickup games. The teams were me, Glen and Nick versus Hafizur and two other students that were also in the gym. The first game we totally crushed, while the second was closer but we still managed to win. We went at it for about an hour and a half, and definitely got some nice exercise. I was highly impressed by my fellow student’s basketball skills, especially Glen’s three point shot, Nick’s post-up game and Hafizur’s  crazy blocks. My shot was pretty off and I didn’t play my best, as I haven’t really been playing much basketball the past few years, but was still able to get some nice plays and shots.  I’m really glad I went and will definitely be going more often in the future. I was able to get some exercise, have fun and meet some new cool people. It’s great that they have a gym at Baruch that’s available most of the time and allows students to play basketball during their free time at school.

An hour before my second math exam of the year I was panicking as there were still a few topics that I did not fully understand. I had tried to make sense of my notes, done practice problems and even asked friends for help but I still felt like I wasn’t completely ready. It seemed like a lost cause for those topics and I thought I would certainly do poorly on the exam because of them, and perhaps even fail.

Before losing all hope however, I remembered somethingwe had been told about in my First Year Seminar class: the SACC math tutoring center. Quickly I grabbed my handy FRO student handbook, looked up the location and ran up to the 2nd floor. I entered the SACC office and asked if I could get tutoring for Math 2003, to which they thankfully said yes and that there was a group tutoring session going on that I could join. The tutor’s name was Abraham and he was with only one other student. I sat down with them and pulled out my notes and study materials. He asked me what he could help me with and so we went over the problems I was having difficulty with. Though he was fast paced, he went over every step and clearly explained how to do the problems and what I was misunderstanding.I was able to ask questions at any given point and made sure I was actually learning. We also did some practice problems, which was very helpful in teaching the material.

Overall it was a great experience and I left with a much better understanding of the topics I was confused on and with much more confidence for my test. It was very nice and helpful to be able to go in last minute for just 20 minutes and get things explained, though I think I was lucky in this sense and would have to make an appointment nexttime to ensure availability.

On Tuesday November 28th I went to the, ” Mastering The Job Interview: Advanced” Career workshop with Alex and learned some very useful information and skills that will certainly help me with future job interviews. It was located on the 2nd floor in room 290 at 5pm, an hour after our last class of the day (math). Naturally I was pretty tired, however my excitement did not waiver and headed to the event with great enthusiasm.

We arrived early and ready to go, only to find out that the event was meant for Juniors and Seniors. I was utterly disappointed, but had come too far, waited too long and couldn’t just turn around now. Thankfully, we were able to speak to one of the event hosts and explain our situation. He told us that the event is better if you have taken certain previous workshops beforehand, however was still able to  give us useful information and tell us some basic things on how to prepare for interviews as well as the aspects of a good interview that are most important.  Because of this we did not stay the entire time. Still I am very glad we went because of the helpful information I did learn and willcertainly be going to this Workshop as a Junior.