The STARR Career Development Center Cover Letter Workshop was the only good option I had: it fit nicely into the long break last Tuesday. However, it also turned out to be very helpful. I have only  written one cover letter before and it was not even for myself, so this workshop pointed out all the things that I had done wrong. Originally, I just looked at the formats online of cover letters and tried to follow along the lines of what others had written.

One of the things I did wrong in my letter was that I did not restate the contact information in the conclusion. I thought since the contact information was already in the heading, it would be repetitive to restate. One girl pointed this out in the workshop, but the presenter told us it was to make things as clear as possible and that it was a formality that should still be followed. Another thing I failed to do was ask for an interview or state that I was looking forward to an interview. I thought it would presumptuous to assume I would receive an interview, but I learned in the workshop that this is one of the main points of a cover letter. What I should have done in my cover letter was include my interest for an interview in the conclusion. We learned that bullet points can be used in a cover letters and that we should not restate what was already said in the resume. Overall, we were taught about the goals of a cover letter, the three paragraphs it should be formatted in, and the formality that it should be written in. A helpful tip that was given apart from the cover letter was to create a real voicemail and not let it stay with the machine.

Finding the New York Transit Museum turned out to be a challenge. I was expecting it to be a building with a sign in the front like most museums. The entrance of the New York Transit Museum however, actually looks like a regular train station leading to the small museum underground. Once I got there the first thing that drew my attention were the vintage turnstiles. Parts of it were completely wooden, unlike the metal ones of today. They had large gaps in between each turnstile that allowed many people to squeeze through without paying. I found out that the loss in profit was so large that the turnstiles were redesigned with all the gaps fully closed. Jumping the turnstiles was still a problem, but at the time simply closing the gap resulted in more revenue for the stations.

The rest of the museum is set up like a vintage train station, with red, yellow, and green railings.  They  have also preserved the transportation itself. I was able to go on and sit down in the old trains and buses. The signs were interesting as well. Some explained old laws like one that said spitting was illegal. Others showed the street names and the price of a ride. At one point it only cost five cents to get on a train. One exhibit described how transportation, especially the Fulton Ferry, helped Downtown Brooklyn evolve. This exhibit was interesting to me because I live in Downtown Brooklyn and used to go near the riverside with my friends where we could still see all the ships still moving through and the old train tracks that used be there. Most of the tracks are gone now and have been constructed over, but in some places the metal tracks still pop out along with brick tiles.

After wandering through the third floor hallways for the fourth time and asking directions from two people who were even more lost than me, I finally found Baruch’s Model United Nations. They had already split into groups and started ice breaker games. I quickly joined the FT Team. We really tried to win, but we ended up being the worst team there and couldn’t even score a pity point. After the games, the members of Model UN gave us a short presentation on what we should expect if we joined and what they would expect of us. This is the point when I realized how dedicated they all were to their team and how much they all enjoyed being a part of it. They explained about how they had amazing mentors to coach them when they first joined and how they were eager to do the same for us.

During the meeting I also realized what a big commitment Model UN would be. My high school had a Model UN club so I had some idea of all the work that went into preparing for the conferences, but I wasn’t aware of all the training that came with the college version. The team members were very reassuring however. They explained that they all had full workloads and that although the time commitment might get stressful at times, it would be completely worth it. Baruch’s Model UN goes to the largest conferences in the United States. Their travelling team gets to visit and explore Canada as they attend a conference there. They get to meet and create close friendships with people from all around the world. According to one of the team members the few days together at conferences allowed him to make such strong friendships that he would even get invited to visit his new friends in their home countries.