I attended a Starr Cover Letter workshop on November 7th.  The workshop centered around trying to assess the skills and techniques needed, in order to build a coverletter. I believe this helped many of my peers and myself by understanding what needs ro be done in order to attain a job position preferably one in association with your intended major.

The workshop was very active and discursive as there was plenty of useful information along with participation from the crowd and lots of participation from everybody involved. We watched the person present a power point to successfully write a  Coverletter.  In this presentation , we went through some postive and negatives of what a coverletter should be like and identified several factors.

It was a great workshop anf would recommend.

I am on the Baruch College Varsity baseball team.  I came into Baruch College knowing I was already on the baseball team here.  I had a meeting with Coach Torres in October of my junior year of high school.  At the time, Baruch wasn’t my number 1 choice, but coach said I had a lot of talent and he liked me and he said if I did come to Baruch, I had a spot on the team.  I am one of 6 freshman on the team.  We have been practicing tuesdays, wednesdays, and thursdays for the past three weeks. We have a game this saturday also.  But after saturday, the fall season ends and NCAA (national college athletics association) prohibits us from having any team activities until exactly one month before the first game of the season in the spring.  I have made a lot of friends on the baseball team, and going to practice is definitely something I look forward to.

 

I have been playing baseball since I was 4 years old, so practically my whole life.  A lot of my closest friends are baseball players who I have played with throughout my career.  I knew I wanted to play baseball in college so the fact that I had a guaranteed spot on the team here had a big impact on me deciding to come.  As you can see, I wear number 44.  Now this was definitely not my first choice.  My whole life I have been either 2 or 23, 23 being my all time favorite.  And I am lucky because the guy who wears 23 now is a senior, so next year I will happily hand off 44 to one of the freshman and take 23 for myself.  Most people choose their number because it’s their birthday or it means something to them.  However, I just think 23 looks really good on a uniform so i have always chose that number.  We play our home games at MCU Park in Coney Island, so if any of you are baseball fans you can hop on the train and come see us play!

For my blog, I decided to visit the Met museum which offers a variety of exhibitions showcasing the many aspects of human life and development, as well as an anthropological insight on our world. The museum has three floors including a roofotop and it is actually quite diffucult to get around pretty easily, so i suggest you get yourself a map to navigate yourself around. Out of all the exhibits I decided to specifically target the Egyptian civilization exhibit because I find it really interesting how Egyptians were able to construct such a complex state of society with relatively no means of machinery or tools such as those used in our contemporary world. In order to better understand this and gain a better perspective of what it truly meant to be in this era it was essential to look at the many forms of art and symbols that shaped their social construct.

In the exhibition I was exposed to pieces of art from 2010 BC -1300 BC all of which were recovered from archeologists as well as architectural works which helped build the framework for Egyptian history. I was most astonished by the tomb and the pyramids that were constructed in the exhibition along with the detailed marking known as hyroglyphics engraved in each. This systematic system of writing seemed so complex to me yet so simple in their world; reflecting how advanced Egyptian civilization was at the core of human excellency.

Not only did they device all these early developments in that time period, but they were also able to paint. The paintings shown in the museum were said to have a one to one scale and they accomplished painting through a candle light. It’s pretty amazing how they go from tracing through a candle light towards something much great as they transfer the art to waterless paper.

Overall the experience let me be more aware of the cultural influence of Egypt and allowed me to develop a new found sense of respect that’s stems from early civilizations successful attempt of an ideal society as well as their intuiveness .

I spent my recent club hours break at Baruch much differently than I usually did. For past month or so, I would usually put this two and half hour break in between classes into working on some form of school work or spending it to eat lunch with a friend down at Madison Square Park. This Thursday was a bit different from my usual break spent either alone doing work, or in social activity away from the school. With this upcoming Baruch Blog being due soon for my Freshman Seminar class my friend and I had to think of some sort of activity that would satisfy one of its requirements. We decided to head towards the direction of the club rooms.

At first we had much trouble in deciding on what club to join as we were faced with a board listing a myriad of clubs and organizations. Some of the clubs were culture based and others were more interest and hobby based. We were at a complete loss for which club we would join, so we wandered the halls of the club rooms peeking in room by room. It was in this process that we met the vice president of the anime club, who happened to know my friend, approached us. She recommended that we join the anime club. As we walked into the room, we were introduced to a brightly decorated room covered in various posters. There was also of course, the group of about ten club members sitting in the room discussing their various interests some relating directly to anime and some just being general conversation. My friend and I were very welcomed by the ”officials” of the club, and began talking, getting introduced and settled into the club. It was here that we found the club we were looking for the whole time, being surrounded by friendly people of similar interests, we look forward to our future Thursdays here at the club room.

I knew about this organization in high school. The Hillel has expanded to many colleges for (but not entirely) the Jewish people. I knew about this club because it would connect Jewish teens in college. When I walked in Baruch, Hillel was the first place I was looking for. Not only because I was hungry and desperately needed kosher food, but rather because I wanted to meet more people. Hillel, did just that. Right when I walked in (took 30 minutes to find this club), I was greeted by the head of the EBOARD(not the one in the pic, that’s just a random staff). He welcomed me in and told me all about the Hillel.

Hillel is here to bring college students together and have fun at the same time with your brothers. The Jewish connection just makes it better, we all know the same language. The club is also there for me to learn more about Israel, stocks and investments. This club also has like mini clubs in it for me to join, like the Tamid group or the Gesher (Typically for Syrian Jews like me). So when I walked in, I knew this is the perfect fit. I met my Jewish brothers. I felt like I was at home. The program offers so many amazing things that I will love to join and be a part of. Just like last week on Thursday, they brought in a woman who beat cancer and she told her story so we can learn from her. Just like for example to never give up and your family is always there for you. These are life lessons that Hillel teaches and I feel lucky to have this program here to help me, guide me, and help me grow for the rest of my years in college.

On Thursday, I decided to visit the finance club in hopes of acquiring a better understanding of how this club can essentially prepare an individual for what they intend to major in. Accompanied with the fact that it could propel you to an internship or pave way towards something greater and outside academics in general ; so I was more so interested in what that experience would be like.

In this meeting, I came to find out that the club consists of a Mentorship program and an Analyst program which primarily focuses on financial analysis and investment banking to achieve a clear understanding in finance. They hold various events ranging from annual case competitions, resume reviews,mock interviews, to various tours and site visit weekly workshops. All these events which help students develop their skills intuitively and becomes a gate way towards career readiness and overall growth.

The assignments that they discussed in the meeting were said to be due every single thursday, so I believe the club shouldn’t affect a persons performance in every other class they take and they also stated a newsletter was to be read every sunday night. The workshops that each member must attend to occurs every tuesday and each member is required to attend a total of 6 workshops.

The application for these programs the club is offering is open to freshman and sophomore students. It is a ten week program to give a solid foundation in finance through assignments and projects. They stated that members are paired with graduated professionals who have already achieved success in their fields. The analyst program is a semester long program where a key concept known as investment banking will be discussed and looked into deeply to focus primarily on topics involving M&A financial modeling,  company valuation,  deal research, and Industry discussions.

Board games, just the name itself makes me bored. As a kid, I could never understand why people played them as a form of entertainment. I would play them whenever I needed help sleeping. Which is why when I heard about “The Grid,” a club that revolves around people playing board games, I was certain I wouldn’t like it. Yet, despite my apathy for board games, my friend, Ellis, convinced me to join the club. He seemed very enthusiastic about, especially about a board game called “Werewolf”. After explaining the rules of the game, how it worked, and how you won, even I was interested. Still though, it wasn’t a video game or something. “How entertaining can it be?” I thought to myself. Regardless, I decided to go with reluctance, but that reluctance soon went away.

We went on Tuesday, September 5 during club hours to “The Grid”. We entered to a lively room full of enthusiastic people. Everyone was kind and friendly and introduced themselves immediately. They even ordered Popeyes for everyone to eat; Man, I love fried chicken. I felt welcome and a bit more enthusiastic myself about playing the board game. To my surprise, I really enjoyed “Werewolf”.  It turns out, a board game played with 20+ people is very entertaining. There’s never a dull moment.

If there’s one thing I got out of this experience, it’s that College shouldn’t be just about learning, I realized you should have fun and enjoy your time there. Sometimes you have to escape your comfort zone and try out new things. Who knows? Maybe you’ll like said thing more than you first anticipated. I know I did. I plan on going to “The Grid” every week during club hours. I’m even considering joining the E-Board next year.