Freshman Seminar Fall 17 DWB

I took a visit to a Jewish museum in which I learned a lot of close details I had not known before about the holocaust. I visited with my art history class and we got to look at original pajamas from the holocaust. We also saw original art pieces created by artists criticizing the nazis. Before art history I saw an art piece and I moved on without much thought. I just looked at the painting in face value. As I have gone through art history, I have learned the appreciation of art. The meaning and reasons behind why a painting is created is enough of an interesting story to me to look at it longer. It was really cool seeing pieces we discussed in class in person hanging on the walls of the museum. One of the pieces that stuck out to me was a depiction of nazi brutality in the form of a man being strangled by a brown bag. The words written on this artwork is what is important as it described Czechoslovakia a place that hitler decided to just pillage the entire village. The nazis left no women or children alive as well. The fact that my friends were along with me for the ride was fun too. What was really special about this visit was the fact we had a holocaust survivor come speak to us. The fact that the lady speaking to us was flesh and blood from the history of the holocaust was a complex thought to wrap my head around. She is also a baruch alumni. You can see your fellow peer Mr. Jordan Yee in these selfies. I also wanted to pay attention so I took these selfies mad fast.

For my career blog post, I attended a workshop at the Starr Center, ‘Lets Get STARRted.’ This workshop mainly focused on resume building and how this step is useful and almost essential to landing an internship or job in your desired field. During this workshop, the instructor handed out four samples of resumes and we were told to chose the resume that we would pick for an interview. We were only given one minute to look at these four different resumes. This exercise was helpful in that it exposed us to different types of resumes and what makes one resume better than the next, but it also demonstrated the fact that when looking at resumes, most people spend very little time and do not perform a thorough read. This is why it is important to avoid paragraphs in resumes and keep bullet form throughout. This will most likely keep the reader more engaged because they can move from bullet to bullet in a more efficient manner than they would if they were to be reading a lengthy paragraph. This exercise also taught us that minor errors, such as typos and format errors can quickly turn away those reviewing your resume. The instructor followed this in saying that it is crucial to proof-read your resume before finalizing it. The workshop later proceeded to inform us of what exactly to put in your resume, including your contact information, education, work experience, relevant skills, languages, relevant courses, leadership activities, extracurriculars, projects, honors and volunteer work. The instructor explained that it was important when stating your skills to list beneath in bullet form how these specific skills can apply to the job or internship in which you are applying for. Additionally, the instructor taught how including a personal section that touches on your personal interests or hobbies can be advantageous during an interview in creating a more hospitable atmosphere.

For my third and final blogpost, I decided to do something related to being business-like, since I do attend one of the most prestigious business oriented colleges in NYC.  It was an event where Wall Street investors came to a panel at Baruch on the seventh floor of the library building.  When I walked in, it was clear that the event was a very formal event, as many people already there were dressed in suits and other formal wear.  Their faces even seemed to look formal somehow.  The panelists sat and told the audience about their jobs, a quick overview of their past, and what they were planning to do in the near-future.  It was super interesting how much each of them had to say and how each and every one of the panelists knew what they wanted to do.  As a first-year college student, I have almost no clue what I want to do in the future.  Many say that i should pursue whatever i am interested in, but then you still have to worry about how you’re going to make money to pay rent, insurance, and my student debt.  This event really got me thinking about my future and what i should be doing instead of SLACKING.  I do have an interest in trading and the business market, but that apparently isn’t a reliable form of income. I beg to disagree.  Sure, there are times of loss and times of come-up that make you want to splurge on a new phone, but in general, I have earned more than i have lost trading stock.  There’s also the worry of the artificial intelligence sector getting so advanced that there will be no need for jobs in our future and that there will be a global income where people are paid without needing to find a job to work.  I am looking forward to that! 🙂 This picture is of me having a total blast at the event.

The Merchants House Museum was an interesting experience to say the least.  Upon entry I could tell that the house was very old. The four floor home housed furniture clothing and other items that the Treadwell family used when they lived in the Greenwich Village Home. The original 19th century furniture did seem to be in good condition which I found pretty impressive. At the beginning of the self guided tour I was sent into a coat room that had a coffin sitting in the middle. Inside of the coffin were instructions on how to take your very own “Post-Mortem” picture. I found this extremely creepy and considered leaving. This would only be the first of a many unnerving occurrences in the house. The museum had a Seabury Tredwell mannequin lying in the bedroom. I also couldn’t help but notice that my visit came during the time that  museum was doing a death and mourning exhibit so the central theme was how the family dealt with losing their loved ones. I thought the servants quarters were the most interesting room in the house. I visited that room last and I was a little disappointed. Throughout the house they described the hard labor the hard labor that the servants went through and I just felt they may have deserved a little better than to be cramped up in the attic in such a small room. Overall I found the entire experience unnerving. It was very disturbing especially because the death and mourning theme. I do not plan on ever going back and I would not recommend this museum to my friends or anyone for that matter.

Last week Jordan, Fred, Vincent and I went to a STARR Career Workshop. The workshop was on the seventh floor of the library. It was a workshop on careers in Wall Street. It featured a panel of experienced men an women who were Baruch graduates who work on Wall Street. They discussed their stories including their high school and college experiences and how they got to where they were. Listening to their stories was very inspiring and informative. I learned a lot about the importance of getting a job that you like and that you are happy doing. I also learned from them how they were able to get to where they were which I can apply to my life.

There was one persons story on the panel that really stood out to me. It was a man who after high school tried to make it as a rapper but that did not work for him. He then went to community college and transferred to Baruch to study finance. After Baruch he worked on Wall Street and handled Low Income Housing bonds for a large company. He had to leave the company because of a family emergency and went to Florida. In Florida he started his own business where I believe he bought and sold low income properties in New York and Florida. His story really stood out to me because he did not go to school at first and yet he was able to become really successful.

I learned a lot from this panel about careers in Wall Street and finance but also about success in general. The tips they gave about hard work and finding something to do that makes you happy really stuck with me. One of the things that they said that I found to be really inspiring and will always think about was that you need to take risks in order to be successful and get your dream job. I really enjoyed this panel and learned a lot of useful things that I can use when pursuing my career.

For my third blog post, I had to go a career fair/enrichment workshop. I decided to go to the intern or work abroad fair with my friends Riley, Sage and Breyahna. In the conference room, there were tables neatly set up in the room with different types of programs to help you work or intern abroad. I took a selfie with the CIS abroad book they gave me because it was the only one I could find. The stations had many types of information on how to go abroad. You could study intern or work and you would be able to be there for however you want or for a specific amount of time. Some of the programs were affordable and even if they weren’t you could get scholarships or funds to send you abroad. I was really surprised about this because I wouldn’t have to pay out of pocket if I wanted to study abroad. I think that it’s really amazing people want to give students opportunities to go away and experience different cultures as they study and work for their own benefit. Not a lot of people have this opportunity and the fact that there are fairs like this are great to expand your connections with others. All of these study abroad programs had options to go to places in South America, Asia, Australia and Europe. It is an amazing thing for those who want to go away and experience different cultures. Even if you don’t like going to these types of events you can always get a bunch of free things to fulfill your desires. I got a bunch of candy and I enjoyed talking

to all of the people there. There were also student representatives, and surprisingly I was familiar with one of them. She is part of the E-Board of Japan club. I think it’s really cool even students want to help in student career fairs.

By being in art history with professor Gail Levin, I, as well as most of you had the (mandatory) chance to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage here in New York City, near Battery park.

I’ve visited many sites and museums around the city but this happened to be one which I’d never been to, so it was interesting to see. We had a tour guide take us around to some different areas of the museum. He was really informative. I liked seeing the photos of the victims from when they were all alive and happy – it was surreal. It made them seem like people, who had lives and families rather than mere statistics.

We were assigned some questions to answer based on what we saw at the exhibits, which I found distracted from the real experience, but then again it was a class trip, so it was expected. At least it wasn’t too long. Professor Levin herself gave a little presentation in front of a sculpture hanging on the wall.

There were so many areas of the museum which we didn’t get the chance to explore at all, so I’m considering going back to check those out. There was also a great view of the Statue of Liberty. One of the best parts of the trip was that we got to see a real holocaust survivor, who also happened to be a Baruch graduate.

Overall, I’d say that I much prefer visiting museums over attending regular class lectures. I think it was a creative and engaging way to relate art to history and to keep us entertained.

(I didn’t take a picture at the museum but I was there – you can ask)

I took a visit to a Jewish museum in which I learned a lot of close details I had not known before about the holocaust. I visited with my art history class and we got to look at original pajamas from the holocaust. We also saw original art pieces created by artists criticizing the nazis. Before art history I saw an art piece and I moved on without much thought. I just looked at the painting in face value. As I have gone through art history, I have learned the appreciation of art. The meaning and reasons behind why a painting is created is enough of an interesting story to me to look at it longer. It was really cool seeing pieces we discussed in class in person hanging on the walls of the museum. One of the pieces that stuck out to me was a depiction of nazi brutality in the form of a man being strangled by a brown bag. The words written on this artwork is what is important as it described Czechoslovakia a place that hitler decided to just pillage the entire village. The nazis left no women or children alive as well. The fact that my friends were along with me for the ride was fun too. What was really special about this visit was the fact we had a holocaust survivor come speak to us. The fact that the lady speaking to us was flesh and blood from the history of the holocaust was a complex thought to wrap my head around. She is also a baruch alumni. Here are some selfies that I took real quick because I was paying attention to the speaker. As you can see our fellow peer Jordan is in the picture. 

For my third blogpost, I had to satisfy the career/workshop requirement.  In order to fill this requirement I decided to attend the study/work abroad workshop.  This workshop was very interesting because there was a variety of organizations that all had different study and work abroad programs.  There were some programs that were specifically study abroad, then there were some that were work and internships abroad.  I was shocked at how cheap it can be to study abroad, there is no extra tuition and other costs are affordable.  I was also surprised at how determined many of these study abroad organizations were to make the effort to accommodate students as much as they could.  Many of them help with visas, airport pick up and drop off, housing and some of work abroad programs even arrange internships and work for the student.  As emphasized at this workshop, I think that studying abroad is very important for students.  It’s good to experience other cultures and ways of life of places around the world.  It’s common for people to say they might not travel because they don’t have the time or the money, but studying or working abroad can help with that because it is no extra tuition and you are going to school while you travel.  I learned at the workshop as well, that there are a variety of places available to study in.  There are many  options to chose from that range from South America, to Asia, and to Europe. All the people representing their organizations were informative and knowledgable about study abroad programs as well.  At this workshop I learned a lot and hope to study abroad in the future.

• For my career blog post, I went to check out the Starr Career Development Center on Tuesday, November 14, 2017. It wasn’t hard to find and get info. They are located on the second floor all the way in the back towards the elevators. There was a secretary who led me to talk to 4students who were hustling and doing work. They informed me on how to structure my resume and not to go overboard with and just add the important things. Even though I plan on going to the military next year if I fully recover from my injury or when I graduate. It was interesting to know that if I ever decided to change my mind and not enlist in the military, they would be there fo me, and help me find a job that works for me. They also told me that I need to act professional when talking to employers and fellow coworkers. They said that when working in the future you should always be presentable and well groomed while at work. They said a simple thing like doing your hair can give you an edge, because it shows that you want to be perceived well taken care of. They also discussed, that a lot of companies post internships on their website, and that some of those internships were only available to Baruch students. You guys should check them out if you don’t have a job, lined up for you. Thank you and enjoy the rest of you day.