On Thursday, November 16th, I attended a résumé review workshop. Once my reviewer was ready, she introduced herself to me. Her name was Michelle. We sat down in a room and I then handed her a copy of my résumé to read. She asked what year I was in at Baruch. I replied by saying I was a freshman. She was surprised to see that I did so many activities during high school. Michelle explained to me that my résumé and its content were very impressive. She said to me that there was no major changes needed to be made to my résumé. The only thing was to bring my award section above my extracurricular activities and to add my work experience, since I have not updated my résumé since I got my job.

After that, Michelle began to ask me questions about the MIT Enterprise Forum I attended in my freshman year of high school. I explained to her that it was an intensive one week summer program available to high school girls only. The goal of the program was to promote females to start their own businesses. Everyday, they would bring a successful, female entrepreneur to speak to us to give us advice and to motivate us. Aside from this, we worked on creating our own business plans in groups to later be presented and judged. My group created our business plan on a shoe with an interchangeable heel, which allowed women have the ability to change from high heels to flats without having to carry around extra pairs of shoes. Armed with our fantastic idea and our amazing presentation, we won the competition. Michelle told me that employers would definitely ask about that in an interview.

The next thing Michelle asked was about Global Glimpse. Global Glimpse was a program I participated in junior year of high school. The goal of the program is to give American students a glimpse of what life is outside of the United States while also helping us develop leadership skills. For two and a half weeks during my summer before senior year, I traveled to Ecuador with a group of students from several different schools throughout NYC and also from San Francisco. We were stripped from all our electronics, such as our phones, iPods, computers, and television, during our trip. We created meaningful friendships. We each had a day during the trip to be the “el lídre del día” (the leader of the day). We were in charge of waking everyone up in the morning, walking to get breakfast together, staying on track with the daily schedule, and much more. During the trip we also were broken up into a pairs to teach English to locals. With my little knowledge of Spanish, I was able to teach a classroom of children ages 10-15. My students fell in love with me and all the little games we played in class to put their knowledge to the test. I continued to explain my trip in Ecuador and the nonprofit organization my fellow Glimpsers and I helped. Michelle was amazed that I was able to participate in such a meaningful program, which distinguishes me from everyone else out there.

In all, I enjoyed my walk in visit at the STARR Career Development Center. I had an interesting conversation with my reviewer, Michelle, who gave me great advice.

Before I went to get my resume and cover page reviewed I thought that they were solid. To my surprise the first thing that I learned is that while my resume was pretty good but that there was still room for improvement. I had no idea what more I could improve when the reviewer told me that I could build on it. At most I thought that maybe my resume had small formatting mistakes and that my cover page was too short. However, my formatting needed more work, I didn’t put experience, community service and education in the correct order. After going over my resume and writing down revisions that I should make, we moved on to my cover page which I thought was what i needed the most work on, but apparently it was good and didn’t really need any work, just that I should change it up based on the job that I apply to. I really liked that the review only took 20 minutes and that it was really informative giving good constructive criticism and the means to improve my resume and cover page. I’ll be going back again at a later date to get my new and improved resume reviewed. Right now I feel that my resume while good in terms of format is short but I hope to be adding to it over the next few years.

 

As my friends and I went into the Maker Hub Pop Up Makerspace event, we were surprised with how empty the room was; as it only consisted of three students on their laptops listening to an instructor teach them about 3D programming and another student in the back of the room talking about engineering to another instructor. Since we didn’t have our laptops with us, we weren’t able to fully follow what the instructor was teaching about 3D programming. We decided to sit in the back of the room, where an accumulation of various 3D printed toys were scattered on the table. As we explored what all the toys were, the 3D printer in the corner of the room caught my attention. It was being used to 3D print a yellow toothbrush which was programmed on Thinkercad.com to make the design. To make the designs, you’re able to use Thingiverse.com to choose from various default designs then alter to your liking. The process was really cool because on Thinkercad, you could choose from the shape and how hollow the design was to what color you wanted your design to be.

The 3D printer that was in the room was one of the cheaper versions in the 3D printing world, coming in at $3000 per machine. It used a plastic called PLA, which was very cheap compared to other 3D printers such as the ones that used liquid or powder to make 3D objects. You would first have to insert a roll of PLA plastic into the printer then plug in your USB that had your design in it to start the process of printing. The toothbrush that was being printed took around 2 hours to make, since it was a fairly simple design. The instructor also told us about the Google Cardboard, which was a cheaper version of a virtual reality device. The Google Cardboard consisted mainly of cardboard with the main component being the curved lense and a slot to insert your phone in. After we downloaded the Expeditions app, we were able to see the Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Northern Lights, and outer space. We also learned that some designs needed support material so it wouldn’t sag down due to gravity such as 3D printing a chair but for other designs, you could get away without using support materials by using itself to support it. You could also mass produce designs by first making a template then programming the printer to repeat its process until you got the amount you needed. This event was very informative and has furthered my love for creativeness.

 

While walking down the hallway of the second floor of the vertical building, my friends and I were confused of where the Pop Up Makerspace was taking place. As we entered the room after going through a long and meandrous maze, we found ourselves in a small classroom of three other students and two older men. Two of the students were on computers learning how to use a program to create 3d visuals so that they could later print it at the 3D printing machine. Because we didn’t have a computer, we decided to head to the back of the room where there were several gadgets and instruments that we could use or play with. At first glance, we played with the tiny little 3D printed objects such as a tiny T.A.R.D.U.S, the phone booth from Doctor Who, a sofa chair, several phone cases, a puzzle cylinder, a few fidget cubes and spinners, and some other cool printed replicas of icons or logos. After a while, one of the adult men came up to us and started to talk to us about the simple google carboard virtual reality box. He told us that we could use our phones to look at beautiful scenery and pictures in the world and experience it as if we were there. We started to look at places such as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, a beautiful sky lit up by the northern lights, and the breathtaking view of the blue ocean. While attending this Pop Up Makerspace event, my creative and inner passion for innovation and engineering was rekindled. Baruch College is known for its wonderful business programs, but Baruch College is not known for its wonderful resources and opportunities for students to broaden their horizons and interests. Attending this event really made me enjoy the community that Baruch College offers to its students.