Attending Baruch Voices made me realize how diverse Baruch College actually is. Listening to freshmen present their monologues proved not only to be entertaining, but also, it evidenced how so many students at Baruch have such different backgrounds. I think this is a mere reflection of the fact that we are in New York. The city is commonly know as a “melting pot” due to the presence of people from different backgrounds, with different cultures and values, and this was clearly shown in the short afternoon of presentations.
Despite the diversity, I also saw people with similar things going on. Selfies were being taken constantly, of course, due to the blog post. But still this didn’t distract the students from cheering on their peers just before they were about to recite their monologues on stage. Too bad our class had no representatives, because in the audience, we had numbers.
As opposed to the monologues heard in class, which were mainly about starting college, I liked how the students in Baruch voices focused on other subjects. Some of them were very personal, which is interesting because most people wouldn’t feel comfortable with sharing these to a room filled with strangers, and it definitely builds a relationship with the audience.
I think that the fact that the performers were all students contributed to an overall relaxed and casual event, rather than a boring and formal ceremony. Multiple raps were made, and most monologues were actually humorous, which made the presentations even more interesting and definitely requested the active participation of the audience. This also made time fly but, making it seem like we had only been sitting there for a few minutes, and not more than an hour.
I didn’t quite know what to expect when I was walking into the multi purpose room, but now I’m sure that it was much more that just writing a blog posts. I think that the event gave students the opportunity to speak what was on their mind, which is an excellent way of getting freshmen involved in college life.
Summing up, I would say that Baruch voices was a very interesting experience, full of excitement and emotion, and next year, even though I will not be required to attend to write my blog post for my first year seminar, I might still stop by to listen to some monologues and share a few laughs.
