On Thursday I went to the majors and minors fair. I went during my break between classes. I went to the fair because I am undecided for my major, and do not really know what I want to do with my life. I knew that whatever I do has to actually interest me, because otherwise I will not want to ever put enough effort into it to succeed in that field. However, if I choose to go into a field that I am interested in, hopefully I will be able to put enough effort into it to do well. When I went into the fair, they gave me a sort of map of all the majors and minors, and a form to be filled out when I leave on how much I learned. The first major I looked into was music management, because it is one of very few majors that seem like something i would want to do as an actual career. I talked to the woman in charge, and got the information of the head of the department. I intend on emailing the head, and possibly deciding to major in music management. I also went to the station for psychology to get info on minoring in it. Psychology has always been somewhat interesting to me, so it would be a good target for a minor. They gave me a pamphlet for what classes I would have to take in order to minor it. I then took a picture with the Baruch mascot, and filled out the form they gave me at the beginning of the fair. I would say that the majors and minors fair helped me get a better understanding of what I want to major in, and how to follow up to apply for the major.
Resume Review
I’ve had a resume made since I was in high school with the help of my older sister. She gave me the template and her resume to give me an idea of how I could make my own resume. Since I was only in high school, I didn’t really have much I could put on my resume. Now looking at my resume from about 2-3 years ago, I honestly think it looks really unprofessional. So I decided to go to a Starr Career Development Center Resume Review session. I met with Shaima and she was extremely helpful with editing my resume. She began by telling me what I did correctly and then proceeded to telling me what I could fix and add or take off from my resume. She told me different ways I could phrase things. She told me tips on how I should word my bullet points. When she was helping me with my bullet points for my work experience, she asked me to explain what my position was at the job and what I did at the job. This helped her get a sense of what my bullet points could be. It wasn’t a session where she was the one doing all the talking and critiquing my resume. It was more conversational and required my input as well to help come up with the points. After the session ended, she gave me a booklet called “Resume & Cover Letter Writing Guide.” This booklet contains everything that is needed to help write a resume and even provides examples of resumes. Looking at my resume after the session I had with Shaima, there is a lot of good and helpful feedback and comments not only on the side of the page but literally all over the page. I plan to edit my resume based on what I got from the session and will plan my next visit for a follow-up of my revised resume. I really recommend attending a resume session because it is really helpful if you are looking to create a professional resume. You can make a appointment on their website and they also have walk-in hours on Monday to Thursday from 3-6pm.
Baruch Voices Career Blog
Today, I went to Baruch Voices with my friends Ryan and Ben, since I go basically everywhere with them. It took us sometime to find the room, however, for we were walking around the entire 1st floor until we finally found the room we were supposed to enter. Once that fiasco was over, we went inside and sat down. We then got to hear a bunch of monologues from the students that were skilled enough to move on from their respective seminar class. I found that a lot of the monologues talked about the struggles that the kids faced with College in general. A lot of them complained how annoying commuting was, and how they all hated how some classes were very early. This made me realize that maybe I’m not the only one with problems such as this after all. It turns out that many kids other than me also face these problems, along with others. This made me realize that I’m not alone in college, and that I have plenty of peers that I can relate to with theproblems that I face as well. Some of the monologues were quite humorous, and I really enjoyed listening to a few of them, for they appealed to my sense of humor (thankfully). I was slightly afraid that I wouldn’t have a good time sitting there, listening to all of the students’ monologues, but I ended up having a good time. It also helped that I went with my friends. This career workshop assisted my experience here at Baruch due to the fact that it made me branch out my comfort zone of going home right after class, forcing me to stay at school and see what baruch has to offer for students, which was good. I think that I might stay longer after school now, so that I can see what other events I can attend, whether it be career related or for student life.
Baruch Voices
I, Allen Light, went to Baruch Voices. It was entertaining. It is now Sunday, and I only remember four of the performances, so I would say that only four were memorable.
The first person that was memorable was the Asian male that talked about biting down on ‘juicy, tender’ pop eyes chicken in a tone that made clear that he was thinking about something a good deal more lewd than that.
The second person worth mentioning was a Black female, who talked about how people tended to judge her, before getting to know her. They saw her hair, which according her took two hours to do, and decided someone who spent so long working on her hair can’t be smart. They looked at how she dressed, and decided that she was a whore who had a sugar daddy (her point, not mine). She then went onto this awe inspiring tangent about how she was not average, and that “magnificence radiated off her skin.” I found this to be quite refreshing, because everyone else was there either to do a blog post, or to get something for their resume.
The third person worth noting was a second Black female, who talked about her hair. She remarked that all the models on T.V. had straight hair, so from a young age she tried to imitate them. It was a classic coming of age story. Hated something about herself that she couldn’t change. Tried very hard to fix said defect. Grew up and realized she was perfect just the way she was. She know has curly hair. After her performance I complimented her on it.
The final person worth noting was a new friend I made before the show. Her name is Abigail. She is a Caucasian female. Her monologue was about her life in upstate New York, and how much more exciting the city is.
Baruch Voices
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.
Baruch Voices
I attended Baruch Voices on Thursday, which was a performance of multiple monologues written by first-year seminar students. These monologues were the best from each FRO section. When I entered room 1-107, where the performances were taking place, I recognized other students from my freshman seminar class also present. In fact, the picture I shared is one I took with JJ, Ryan, and Ben who I share most of my classes with. After the majority of the seats were filled out, we were asked to swipe in and shortly afterwards the performances started. The very first monologue shared was by a Sikh American who shared his experiences about being judged and discriminated against. He mentioned about his treatment after 9/11 and even being called Osama. His monologue was very passionate and serious and he ended it with an encouragement for everybody to unity strongly and fight these problems. Belonging to a misunderstood minority myself, I was able to empathize with the message of his monologue. Many monologues were about starting college, some the first day of school. I could relate to all of them. Everyone seemed to share the same nervousness and anxiety about going to a new school with few acquaintances. My own monologue was about my feelings and rush on the first day of school. One student’s monologue was about coming to Baruch by himself. He said he was alone, as there was nobody else from his high school also attending Baruch. The word goodbye was mentioned numerous times throughout his monologue, as if to stress the student’s loneliness. He said college is a new journey, a new chapter in his life, similar to his first day of high school. He said he became a better individual by the end of high school, and hopefully the same will occur when college finishes. Overall, all the monologues shared were ones I could personally understand, as they were typical emotions and experiences of first year students at Baruch, or really any college. Attending Baruch Voices made me realize I actually am not alone and that everybody was just as lost as I was in the beginning of the year. I am glad I decided to attend Baruch Voices and learn about this connection we students have.
Visiting the MoMA
Last Wednesday on October 25, I was able to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) with a few of my friends for free using my Baruch ID. I had never been there before, so it was an exciting experience. The only art museums I have went to were the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When I entered, I got a cute ticket with a painting of a flower on it. It was around 4:40 P.M. and the museum was going to close in almost an hour. We didn’t know where to go, but there was apparently an exhibit on the 6th floor that was limited time only, so it seemed like a good idea to go there.
The exhibit was called “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” The existence of the exhibit really surprised me because despite the fact that the MoMA is known for having modern and contemporary pieces, I expected to see paintings and sculptures. The exhibit reminded me of a shopping mall because there were so many articles of clothing everywhere. I saw many shirts, pants, shoes, suits, graphic tees, jerseys, undergarments, and cultural clothing. I was taken aback when I saw shoes from Nike and Adidas, but I realized that they fit in perfectly with the rest of the collection because of how popular they are and how seemingly everywhere wears them. Something that really stood out to me was Issey Miyake and Fujiwara Dai’s “A-Poc Queen.” Compared to everything else I saw, it was really extravagant and elegant. It filled a large area of the room with its presence. There was one big roll of textile, and it was hung across multiple nails on the wall to accentuate its length and size. The long seams of fabric being displayed was extended to a piece of clothing a woman was wearing. It was as though the woman was wearing one long continuous dress that didn’t have anything part of it sewed on. By the time we were done observing the exhibit, it was time for the museum to close and we had to go. I may have only been in there for almost an hour, but I found the MoMA to be a fun place to explore.
Museum visit
I got off the 7 train with my friend and we had over to the Queens Museum of Art. We picked this museum to go to because she wanted to grab food in Flushing right after we we’re done looking around. The museum was hard to find as it was in the opposite side of the park from where we entered. The park itself was bigger than we had expected and we were slightly tired by the time we got inside.
We began with the Tiffany Lamp exhibit as it was very bright and colorful. These stain-colored glass lamps were all unique from each other as no two lamps are made to look the same. Individually they are not so appealing but that maybe due to my disinterest in the arts. However, seeing all of them together made them look very harmonious. This represents the population of Baruch to me as every person I met so far has been different; some of whom I enjoy to hang out with after classes.
Next we visited The Wandering Lake by Patty Chang. This gallery struck out to me because there was a large model of the painting right in front of it. It almost bridged the gap between the artist and I. My friend told me that it reminded her of how different Baruch was on paper compared to when she first started. After adjusting to being a student at Baruch, Baruch felt more comfortable to be in, almost as if a second home. I agreed with this because to me, thinking about college was a bit stressful initially. It did not help with the amount of work that was foreshadowed during the first week of classes. As time went by, I found that by reworking my work and free time schedule, the workload was actually reasonable.
Student Life
With permission from Mike, I was able to count donating blood as a Student life assignment for the blogs. Donating blood was something I was always willing to do. So I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. This was my first time donating blood and I made a schedule online. The day of donating blood, you are supposed to drink a lot of water and eat well. When I got to the place, I had to make a donation card and fill out a bunch of forms and questionnaires so that they can see if I was eligible to donate blood. After I was claimed eligible to donate blood, I had to wait on a line which took like 30 minutes. When it was my turn I got up and sat an a reclined chair you would see in a hospital. The person that was taking my blood was very nice. He stopped the blood flow to my arm to locate the big vein he needed to inject the needle into. I;m not the type of person to get queasy when seeing blood so I was completely fine. After injecting me, I waited what seemed to be around 3 minutes but to my surprise, they told me it was actually 6 minutes. Apparently I was one of the people that finished quickly because I saw some people still drawing blood before I sat down. After I was finished they brought me to a table where there were an abundance of snacks. There were mostly snacks with sugar or salted-chips and apple juice. This was to prevent people from feinting or getting dizzy after donating blood. Of course I took some free snacks with me for the road. Overall, my experience was very delightful. I know some horror stories where people feint or have a huge bruise the next day at the spot where they drew blood. For me, it was completely fine. I would donate blood again and since I have a blood donor card, I don’t have to fill out the questionnaires again.
Student Life: Joined a Club
Because it had been a while since I reviewed what was required to be an actuary and what actuaries do and because everyone who was familiar with Actuarial Science and everyone’s mother had told me that Actuarial Science was hard, I decided to join Baruch’s Baruch Actuarial Science Society to get a better general sense of what an actuary does and to figure out my plan to my career option. And golly gee willikers am I glad I did: all the claims that Actuarial Science is hard—which is mostly why I am decided on this major—were reaffirmed and greatly supported, and it has been stated in every other meeting that it would be best for any would-like-to-be-actuary-majors to start preparing for the actuarial exams in one’s freshman year, while one is not as busy as one will be in the following academic years.
As shown by the provided photo showing my ugly face, I recently went to the club’s Resume Review/Interview prep workshop-like-thing that was stated to be the prelude to the actuary Alex Zaslaviskiy’s continued Interview/Exam prep workshop-like-thing. By the by, purported by the club’s facebook page, Alex is the founder of the club and “[…] works at New York Life,[—a life insurance company that everyone and everyone’s grandmother would kill each other to work at—]and has firsthand knowledge of the actuarial interview process.”
Back to the resume/interview workshop, I believe it wasn’t a waste of my time, even though the majority of the information covered was definitely more valuable to those of the club who have already taken some of the exams or have completed some of the VEE classes that Baruch can’t offer to freshmen: I saw what a typical, rather a desired, actuarial resume looks like; I learned some useful interview skills; some more possible answers to the dreaded “So, what are your strengths and weaknesses?” question were provided; the requisite and desired actuarial skills have been expanded on; and pizza was given.
So, yeah, whereas doubtless few people are able to become an actuary without any which kind of help, I believe that joining this club, the club able to teach a very not-smart person like myself the basic steps to becoming an actuary, was a great choice.
