Month: October 2017

On Thursday, I decided to take advantage of my five hour break and visit the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). There were a total of six floors with two exhibits on each floor. Throughout the museum, I was able to see the interpretation of objects in regards to  contemporary and historical innovation in art. Although the majority of the exhibits were interactive, my favorite one by far was the Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound. Within the exhibit, what captivated me the most was the Polyphonic Playground. Earlier in the year I had watched an interview from the creators in which they explained their motive for such an innovative creation. The Polyphonic Playground is an adult-sized playground built with the Touch Board and Electric Paint that allows one to physically interact with the interdependency of sound and materials. Being able to see it and associate it with my music history class was definitely the highlight of my experience at the museum. Overall, I had an enjoyable time and look forward on returning in the future.

Recently, a recruiter for google visited our school to answer questions and provide some basic information about the work environment at google and what they’re looking for in potential employees. I had initially decided to attend merely out of curiosity and because I had heard so many wonderful things about working for google. It was not entirely what I was expecting but it was very informative. I was initially rather startled to find that almost everyone in attendance was dressed very formally, as if they were expecting to be interviewed on the spot. It seemed that the presenter was just as surprised as I was, she was in a t-shirt and jeans. As the presentation began I realized that there would not be any specifics discussed and that I should just try to gather what information I could with the hope that I might be able to work towards a career with them. I was absolutely shocked to discover that I was the only freshman there! I had assumed that at least a few people would be trying to get an early start. But, anyway, most of what was discussed was along the lines of trying to lure more people into applying at google, which I was interested in doing anyway…  But they also went on to discuss some of the basic things they are looking for when hiring. They are apparently mainly looking for marketers and your degree is not the most important thing at all. The one thing they stressed above all else was making a visible positive change in the world. Annoyingly, that’s rather vague. So I’m working on figuring out for myself how I might go about doing that. Of course, I also plan on trying to get into both of their internship programs, see if i can’t get my foot in the door.

This past weekend Malik, Malichi and I had the honor of being chosen as 3 of the 36 students chosen to represent Baruch at this years NABA eastern regional student conference. This conference saw over 600 students from various universities in the east with only 18 of us being freshman . We were blessed to be sponsored with an all expense paid trip to Norfolk Virginia from Thursday October 5th-Sunday October 8th. The conference occurs each year with the focus of getting young minority students the opportunity of interacting and meeting professionals from some of the worlds top firms and banks. Many students won scholarships from the firms and even had the opportunity of being interviewed for internships and jobs at these companies .

On Thursday as we arrived a bit later than was expected I only had the opportunity of attending 3 events. The opening session, An information session on Capital One, and the Game night event. At the Opening session we were divided into 30 or so groups each with about 20 people where we had to manage an investment portfolio as a team in order to see which group could rack up the greatest revenue in a limited amount of time. I later attended the Information session where I was then able to connect with recruiters and was even able to apply for an upcoming finance summit being held by the company. Following this I went to the game night event where I was finally able to take of my suit, eat, and learned to play spades and went on an undefeated streak with my partner Jessica. I lastly headed back up to my hotel room to prepare myself for the early morning the next day.

On Friday my roommates and I woke up early in preparation of the career fair being held from 8-11. Suits pressed and resumes in hand, we headed down to the 3rd floor to find the grand hall bustling with companies and people interacting with each other. After the initial butterflies in my stomach I took a deep breath and walked in confidently to introduce myself and network with the professionals. At the end of the Career fair I had networked with recruiters from 2 of the big 4 accounting firms and various other smaller firms and banks and learned about various opportunities for myself as a freshman in their companies. I later attended various seminars throughout the day such as “careers in government” and “fraud in ethics in business”. The day was wrapped up with the 80s/90s themed party that was held where you already know your boy got litt

Saturday was the last official day of events which began with the scholarship breakfast where I am proud to say that 2 of our Baruch students where awarded scholarships for their hard work. This was also followed by various seminars, one of which was ” investments 101 ” which I attended where we had to balance a persons budget to ensure that they could pay back all their debts and had money left over to save and invest. We all later had to attend an event where our groups from day 1 were granted an hour to film a video that brought attention to a specific problem in the world ,mine being depression. Following the presentation of everyone’s videos there was another party in which the various Naba chapters got together to have fun for one final time .

All in all the ESRC was very informative and helped me to further narrow down what I want to do with my career and showed me the path I need to take in order to make sure that I accomplish my goals. I got to make some amazing friends and learned how to carry myself in a professional environment. This was an event that I am very grateful that I was able to attend

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend the day at the American Museum of Natural History with amazing friends! As I arrived to one of the entrances to the museum, Nicholas, Aidan, and I were greeted by a short line outside… and then a surprisingly lengthy line that zig-zagged back and forth towards the check-in counters that we were on for a good hour. Surprisingly, Rackle and Sam were waiting for us right by the other side. As Aidan’s face expression describes, I was wondering what I was doing here so early. Then as Nick’s expression shows, I thought to myself “yeah.. I guess it wasn’t that bad at all.” This trip here was quite educational for all of us, and this really isn’t a sarcastic statement or a statement to make it seem like we are just doing this because we want to pass our Freshman Seminar! My favorite part of this museum was the Biodiversity Exhibit; filled with various replicas and preserved bodies of various species of mammals, fish, crustaceans, birds, amphibians- practically anything you can think of. The coolest part was the large whale that was displayed in a big room with information and replicas of various fish species from colder water areas like the Southern Oceans. I have always been fascinated with animals, especially marine life, so seeing and reading about so many species was a fun experience and something fun to learn!

On Monday, October 9th, I went to the American Museum of Natural History on the upper west side of Manhattan. It was my first time visiting this museum, or any museum for that matter, and I was very excited. Although it was raining throughout the day, I was able to successfully meet up with Sam, Nick, Alex, and Aidan at the museum. It was shocking to be standing in line for almost an hour to purchase an admission ticket on a holiday, but the wait was worth it. I had been told that the museum is really big, however I did not believe it until I was actually there, and what I saw was breathtaking. We went to multiple exhibits, specifically, we went to the Dinosaur exhibit, the Hall of Biodiversity, Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life, Northwest Coast of Indians, Akeley Hall of African Mammals, and Reptiles and Amphibians. If I had to pick an exhibit that was my favorite, I would have to choose two: the Dinosaur and the Milstein Family Hall exhibits. While walking around the Dinosaur exhibit, consisting of the Saurischain Dinosaurs and the Ornithischain Dinosaurs, I was able to look at dinosaur fossils up close and personal, something I always thought was fascinating. I could not believe the skeletons of the dinosaurs displayed were actually real, I still can’t. I enjoyed how they had a large variety of Dinosaurs and not just the common ones such as the T-Rex, but I liked seeing that too! While walking through the Milstein Family Hall exhibit, I thought it was very informative It was intriguing to learn about various types of sea life that exists within our oceans and seas. Also while in this exhibit, I had the opportunity to listen to the different kinds of whale noises, which I thought was humorous yet interesting at the same time. This trip to the museum assisted me in my first semester at Baruch because I was able to retain and learn new information, and on my way to the AMONH, I was able to locate other museums. Being able to find and visit museums will inevitably help me while at Baruch because learning about history, art, culture, etc. are universally beneficial.

When Aidan, Alex, and I arrived we saw a small line forming near the side entrance. Little did we know that there was a large zig-zag line inside, we ended up waiting for about an hour…We finally met up with Racquel and Sam and got to explore some interesting exhibits. The exhibits that we liked the most was the Bio-Diversity exhibit and the Marine Life. The Bio-Diversity exhibit had all types of animals, ranging from vertebrae such as lions, and birds to invertebrates, which had a plethora of insects.The Marine Life in particular had some preserved lobsters that were huge! Finally, my favorite exhibit and perhaps the one everyone gets excited about are the fossil exhibits which have all kinds of dinosaur bones and remains. I found it very interesting how certain ancestors of wildboar, with huge tusks, weren’t actually carnivores. There was also a relatively new exhibit that I hadn’t seen before. The last time I visited the museum was when I was in middle school, about 6 years ago. However this new discovery from Argentina was just introduced in 2013, which for me is relatively new because most of the fossils they have are pretty old and were discovered decades ago. All in all, I had a great experience and the fact that entry to many cultural institutions in NYC are free because I’m a CUNY student is encouraging me to go visit other museums.

One of the places that we had to go to was Academic and to fulfill this requirement a group of us went to The American Museum of Natural History on Columbus Day. Despite the amount of children there, I say we had a good time. I learned about real history things such as what early Camels look like (which are weird), and the history of New York itself. My favorite part though like Alex’s was the biodiversity exhibit where I learned and saw hundreds of different animals, insects, and environments. It was so cool to see the different types of marine animals, which is fascinating because the Earth is composed of 71% water, namely 95% ocean, and we’ve only explored 5% of that. Which is very insane to think about. I also learned about how ridiculous the museum is. The line to get in wasn’t bad but the line inside to get a ticket was an hour wait, but Racquel and I did it. The food is ridiculously overpriced, ($7.35 for dino nuggets and $4 for a bottle of soda) which is where they make their money I guess. If you’re in the museum the whole day be prepared to starve or sneak food in, because it’s not worth the amount of money. Overall though, I had an amazing time learning about so many animals and fossils, and I was able to share it with amazing friends.