Freshman Seminar Fall 17 EWB

I decided to visit Model UN information session. In high school, I was a part of the Model UN club for all four years. In general, I feel like this club in particular is one that is honorable and should be taken advantage of. Indeed, I look forward to joining this club. Involving myself with Model UN can ultimately grant me opportunities to work with diverse students, further allowing myself to communicate with people who have the same interests as me. When I went to check model UN out,  I noticed the room was very diverse. The group of people in this club seemed to be older than me. Everyone spoke in a dignified manner, and had showed respect for one another.

My experience at the club event was great. I visited the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) in the first week and this week I went to the E-Sports Club’s first GIM. During both GIM’s, we did icebreakers which were a bit awkward but regardless, I was able to meet new people and learn about club activities. Both GIM’s completely filled the room with people, so it was exciting to see all these new potential friendships to be made. The leaders/executive members of both clubs were very friendly and outgoing. I also hung around the first floor, where there was music being played and there was actually quite an amount of people which I did not expect. Overall, the event showed me how Baruch can be more than just a go-to-school-and-go-home school and how getting involved can better my student experience.

The club I chose to sit in on was the Caribbean Students Association, and not because I myself am of Caribbean decent, but rather it seemed like the friendliest atmosphere with not too many members. At first site I thought the club was going to be about vacationing since most of the artwork was of beaches and resort themed graphics, but rather it was really oriented on students with Caribbean decent and the culture of the area (never judge a book by its cover). The club members were extremely friendly and most of the meeting was getting to know everyone and their backgrounds and sharing stories with one another. I would recommend this club to anyone that has Caribbean background and can connect with that, however as a Caucasian male I did feel a bit out of place since I myself do not share any of the background the other students did. All in all, it’s a great club if you can connect to the background but if you are not Caribbean I suggest finding another club to get integrated in.

Last Tuesday I attended the first Alpha Kappa Psi general informational meeting in an effort to try to expand my social circle and learn more about the fraternity itself. After sitting through the opening presentation, the brothers of the fraternity established themselves as ambitious, hopeful, and already successful individuals in the minds of many in the audience—or at least me—and they attributed much of the development of these traits to their role and efforts within the fraternity.

One could easily notice that Alpha Kappa Psi’s demographic at Baruch College largely consists of Asian/Asian-American students despite Alpha Kappa Psi not officially recognized as a club or fraternity/sorority that specifically caters towards individuals of Asian descent. Those who are familiar with Alpha Kappa Psi’s history would find this ironic due to its initial restrictive policies in regards to who was accepted; who were solely Christian males of the Caucasian race up until 1950. As an individual who attended school in a township where the Asian demographic is marginally higher than Baruch College’s, and as an individual who even had participated in clubs in which the purpose was to represent Asian-American culture, I still was quite astonished by the disproportionality in comparison to Baruch College’s demographic.

The purpose of that statement is not to suggest in any way that it is an issue of any sort or that I was bothered by this in any way; rather, it was to note that I was simply surprised by the lack of diversity in this specific fraternity. One could easily say the same thing about the disproportionate amount of African-Americans on the basketball teams at my former High School, yet some may expect it due to that similar disproportionality being depicted in the professional basketball leagues. Ultimately, I conclude that this feeling of surprise came from my lack of both familiarity and knowledge of student clubs/organizations at Baruch College, due to it being my first-semester.

I forgot to take a picture. My bad.

• On this day I attended one of the days of the National Suicide Prevention Week at Baruch College. At first glance, they challenged me with a question. The question was,” What were you made for?” In my head, I thought it was in order to fill my older sisters’ loneliness – which my parents told me was the reason. But I knew in reality I was here to make a difference in peoples lives. At least for the people who are around me or the people I surround myself with. At this event I was informed with of what suicide prevention is. Yes, its obvious, but they told me what it meant to them. Which was to prevent the further distress of suicide and the to mitigate the problems that surrounds that specific person. They also offered tips on healthy coping skills. This small event was more of a listening event for bringing awareness to this cause. Here I was simply informed and enlightened of the cause. I also learned on how to get even further involved off campus. Overall it was great.

I went to the UCLA lantern making to see how people are there and to also see if I would be the only white kid there. I wasn’t. All the people there nice to me and I felt relief. At first I wanted to get out of there cuz I felt like I didn’t fit in cuz I wasn’t Chinese or any other sort of Asian and didn’t have any sort of Asian heritage, I think. I decided to stay however because it was a calm environment and the people there reminded of my friends from high school and it felt nice and friendly. There was also free food and I couldn’t say no to that. I might go to their other events if I have the time since I enjoyed my time there.

Hillel at Baruch helps the Jewish people of the school learn about Jewish people around the world. I went to there first official meeting where the quickly discussed each group in Hillel. There is Yofi which stands for youth organization for Israel. This was basically the student government of the whole group. BOSS which is basically for Russian Jews. Alpha Epsilon Pi which is the fraternity, and WINGS the all girl group and unofficially a sorority. There are two groups that focused more on the finance and economics accept which are First Lex Corp, and TAMID. Both of which I will try to join. Hillel seems like a really inclusive place and a place where I can make many friends. I’m excited to be apart of it.

I went to the Model UN meeting or whatever. Seeing as my previous school had a Model UN I was shook that Baruch did too. I never did join in high school but this one was alright. They basically explained the gist of what Model UN does and how they went about the process of getting in. Basically Model UN has students represent countries and holds conferences. They mentioned to get in you have to do a whole interview process but it all pays off with how much they travel. Not gonna lie the minute I heard interview process I thought DUB. Not trying to get heavily committed here and with everything they said, girl its a lot. Maybe next time sis.

I attended a traders club event with my friend Karol. Genuinely I didn’t have interest but I came with him because he wanted to enter their mentor ship program. Considering I saw them at the first club fair, I didn’t really gain any new information. Personally I would be a little more interested in IMG if I were a finance major but I’m doing management so there’s really nothing for me at either TC or IMG. I had some interest in fraternities before coming to this school, but after interacting with the public/business ones I realized they are similar to real frats in terms of connections and networking however they lack the whole “fun” aspect.

Letter to self:
Dear future self,
Build the habit of productivity and getting things done, especially when it comes to beginning something and getting the ball rolling.
Remember to drop a tape on SoundCloud to increase your clout.
Become more selfless.

So the club that I attended was the Guinean Students Association. I saw their flyer in the front of school. Usually I don’t attend ethnically diverse clubs so I thought why not? During the meeting we did some ice breakers and watched a video. Going into this meeting I had no idea what Guinea Culture is/ what it’s like so I learned a lot during the meeting, and from google. Yes, I did search up the culture because I have no connection to it. So during the presentation they introduced the club itself and what they do. Most of the icebreakers were just introducing yourself to everyone and getting comfortable with the people. I don’t think I’ll join the club though, I don’t really have time.