Over the past week, I decided to explore Baruch by focusing on its clubs. I was aware that this college had over one hundred and fifty clubs. However, I was not completely familiar with what all of the options are. Around the school I had seen many posters about the UCLA club. I have also been approach by people who were already members of UCLA, encouraging me to join their club. After hearing what they had to say about the club, it made me genuinely interested to find out more about it. The UCLA members described that the club was about promoting culture, especially Chinese culture. So, I decided to go to the meeting set up by UCLA because I wanted to learn more about the club. At the meeting, there were speakers talking about the club’s upcoming events and what the club represented, and they had a presentation about it. What the members had to say made me even more interested in UCLA. I wrote my contact information for them so I can get involved in the future as well so I can find out what I can do to get involved. After the presentation was finished, we played a game involving everyone at the meeting. The people in the room were split in half into two teams to compete against each other. For each team, there would be a leader to represent the players and be the speaker for them. Whenever someone had an answer to a question players would shout the answers to the team leaders. The leaders would then tell the hosts their answer so that the answer could be verified as right or wrong. These games were a lot of fun because everyone could get their voices heard if they wanted they wanted to. They were points awarded to these games and a winner was declared at the end of each game. After playing games, the club took a group photo of everyone that attended the meeting. 
Month: September 2017
UCLA
I was recommended to check out this club by my friend. I did not initially plan on joining this club, but then I was convinced by one of the club members. As I entered, I was astonished by the number of people there. IT was packed and I was feeling uncomfortable with the crowd. The room was packed: the chairs were filled and there were even numerous students standing by the walls and sitting on the floor. The club members gave me a brief explanation of the purpose of the club; that was when I decided that I wanted to be part of the UCLA so I signed up by giving my basic information along with my email.
The most tempting part of her explanation were the activities that the club was involved in. The following Tuesday, September 12, she notified me that there was going to be an activity where we would be making paper lanterns. Even though it sounds exciting, I doubt I will be able to have the time to participate due to my schedule. It is a shame that I would not be able to go, but there will always be next time for the activities.
Furthermore, she explained that the club was not as demanding as it sounded, and the events that they were planning seems to be quite interesting. For instance, she described that the UCLA will be holding a sports day like event where we would be participating along with other clubs. This seemed to be a fun and interactive activity in which I look forward to!
As I was conversing with the club members, they wore a bright welcoming smile and their tone was of excitement. It made me feel like they are having fun and that joining the club would also provide experiences in which I would enjoy. 
-Vicky Lin
Finance and Economics Society
Last Thursday I went to the first general interest meeting of the Finance and Economics Society. I first heard of FES during convocation day. I did not really get to learn much more about it because there were just so many people during the first day where all the clubs were gathered. I went in hoping to learn more about this group other than what I saw from convocation day. I’m planning to major in finance so I was thinking that this organization would help me learn the skills needed for a career in this major. The general interest meeting was very informative and gave me much more insight into what the group was about. It was cool to learn more about the people in FES and what kind of opportunities they offer. The meeting opened up with members giving a PowerPoint presentation that summarized what people in this organization did and the different programs they had for students. They offered programs that included a mentorship and analyst program. I am currently interested in the mentorship program as it could help me look into more specific career paths. FES also had other interesting events that were mentioned. One of them was a resume building workshop which is something that I would definitely want to check out. At the end of the presentation there was a team building exercise that involved making spaghetti towers using spaghetti, tape, and a marshmallow. Before we left the meeting, there was a group photo of all the freshmen who showed up. I hope to attend more of the FES events and meetings as the school year advances. So, to sign off on this blog post, I have included an image of me included in the group photo at the general interest meeting and a picture of me holding the spaghetti tower.
For the academic activity, we were supposed to participate in a community service project, attend a heritage month event, attend a health and wellness or athletic event, or join a student club or organization. I chose to do the latter and I was glad I made this choice. While walking to my next class I noticed some flyers hanging on the walls. Quickly I noticed they were for club meetings and were trying to catch out attentions. The one that really caught my eye was the United Chinese Language Society of Baruch College. I myself, am Chinese and felt like this would be a perfect way to make some new friends who had similar beliefs and felt like we could bond much better. Upon first entering the club meeting in a classroom, it was packed with people. I honestly don’t like a huge group of people together all at once because not only is it crowded, it is hard to make new friends in there. I quickly took a seat and thought to myself this was possibly one of the worse decisions I could have ever made this year. But I was clearly in the wrong. The advisors of the group proved me otherwise as they were friendly and played a few games with the whole group as an icebreaker and we were all able to get along and have fun with each other. Some even came up to me to have a friendly chat with! We played many games such as Google feud, Zoooomed in, and more. There must have been over 100 people in the club but it was definitely worth the time. Not only that there was free food served for us! I believe that having joined
this club I will be able to strengthen my social skills and be able to apply this in the outside world and be able to talk to others more freely!
Athletics Department/ Art Galleries
On Monday 9/11/17 I gathered up enough courage to go to the athletics department to ask about the tennis team. All i wanted to do was gain some information but the second I said “tennis”, the sports adviser John Nevins immediately started telling me, the coaches contacts. I’ve been playing since the age of 4 through private lessons and because my high school never had a tennis team, I decided that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I emailed the coach a few hours later and immediately got a response saying to call him. I had a very nerve wrecking phone conversation, because he was assuming that I had been competing my whole life since I had been playing for so long (I haven’t), and he was making it sound as if the whole team were some pro-athletes. He interviewed me, asking questions about my skills and finally told me to go get all the paper work filled out so that he could see how I play and join the team. This day has been overwhelming but this chance to play is exactly what I needed. I suddenly feel like there’s more to college than just studies.
Aside from tennis, art has been a major part of my life since I was 3. These past few days I took my friends with me to the Met, and several art galleries such as Gagosian gallery, David Zwirner, Fridman gallery, etc. We were all in the art program in high school, but we’ve never branched out to actually walk around and look at art, until our senior year. I was personally inspired to paint more after visiting these exhibitions, that gave me a new appreciation for art. When I was little even though I loved drawing/painting, I always thought museums were boring because they had so much historical items that made no sense to me, and the colors were dull or black and white. However, I learned that it simply depends what museums you go to and what parts you visit. Art comes in different forms and something unique about it, is that everyone can find something they like. One of the galleries I went to had a pumpkin bigger than me, and a circular statue that you could climb into. I recommend everyone to visit places that they least expect to like, because you never know that might turn out to be your new favorite destination.
These last two paintings are mine and have been inspired by the galleries I visited.
UCLA GIM#1
I first saw the UCLA Club on convocation day and I was a bit confused because I was like why are they promoting a school in California here at Baruch. Later that day I was handed a flyer for that same club and I found out UCLA stood for “United Chinese Language Association”. The flyer told me that the first General Interest Meeting was on the next Thursday so I was like aii cool. I didn’t intend on joining at first because I wanted to check out the other clubs to see if anything appealed to me and sadly, nothing else did. I asked a few friends if they wanted to come with me to the first GIM and they agreed. At first I didn’t expect much because honestly I went for the food but after finding out what the club was about, I became more interested. The executive board introduced themselves and went through the PowerPoint explaining what they do in the club and what they strive to accomplish as a team. What really sealed the deal for me was when we played two ice breaker games. We played a weird game where 3 people asked each other questions back and forth based on the scenario and whoever couldn’t come up with any more questions was disqualified (a bit confusing, I know). The second game was Pictionary and it’s basically when someone draws a picture and their team members have to guess what it is.
Peep me in the white shirt drawing something because nobody wanted to volunteer and my friends forced me to go up.
Carrying on, that day was honestly my favorite day of the week because not going to lie, my first week at Baruch was the best (I want to blame the weather). After meeting new people at the club and laughing a lot, I saw what it’s like to have fun in college and that was when I realized hey, college isn’t so bad. I finally understand why many people encourage you to join clubs because it’s the only way you’ll have fun and be sane. Not to mention you get to meet awesome, new people. In the end, I did not get food but I was able to join an amazing club and I can’t wait to go to future events to embrace and learn about Chinese culture.
The Chit Chat Club
On Thursday, I went to the Chit Chat club with my friends that are shown above. They were the ones that told me about the chit chat club. I was saying sure, why not? I should go take a look and also go for the sake of the blog. Another reason I went was because my friends told me that there would be free Chinese food.
I wasn’t sure what this club was, I thought that the students would just be chit chatting just like what the name of the club says, but that wasn’t the case. As we were eating our food, Connor Mullan wanted us to participate in a game that was a combination of telephone and charades. The first person knows the career and has to act it out to the next person, he/she then has to copy and/or know what the person before them try to act out. The last person has to say career that was being acted out. When I was watching, the game seemed fun and exciting, but when it was finally my turn, it actually turned out pretty embarrassing. Not only was I standing in the middle of the room where everyone can see me, but the career that I had to act out was a professional dancer!!! The person behind me went all out in dancing, and when I saw him act it out I was thinking to myself “OH NO WAY?! I HAVE TO DANCE LIKE THAT TO THE NEXT PERSON?!” As if standing in the middle of the classroom wasn’t enough for me to crawl into a hole.
After the game, the information about the club was presented to us. The Chit-Chat club doesn’t require a membership, meaning that anyone can join, even those that are already in another club. The purpose of this club is to connect students, meet new people and allow them to express their ideas and opinions freely. Thursday is “speak your mind” day which basically allows everyone to say anything they want. There are also different events that will occur each month, but I don’t remember what events there were because I have a really bad memory.
In the end, this club is pretty fun. Everyone is so open mined, easy going and friendly which makes the aura in the club comfortable. I look forward to the future upcoming events and meeting new people that can potentially be my friend.
UCLA Meet
My first impression of UCLA, the United Chinese Language Association, is that it is a very large community. All the club members are very friendly, and a lot of people seem to know each other there. UCLA is a club that is designated to Chinese culture and heritage, but everyone is welcome to join and participate in its events. Out of curiosity, I decided to go to its second meet on Thursday, September 7th. When I arrived to the meet, I was pretty surprised to see how many people there were. The room was packed, and all the seats were filled, so many people were sitting on the floor. Although I was kind of late, everyone was very welcoming. When I joined them, they were in the middle of a Google Feud session, which was pretty hilarious. A lot of people were participating, much to my surprise, and I found myself wanting to take part in the game as well. Everyone was yelling a plethora of silly answers, and it was very amusing. After playing Google Feud, we played Zoom, a game where we had to guess what the very zoomed in picture is. This game was harder than I thought, although other people had no problems with it. There was one person who got most of the answers correct. Throughout the meet, many students were laughing, shouting out answers, and enjoying themselves. Eventually, the games had to come to an end, but the meet was not over yet. There were refreshments, which were Chinese food and drinks. As we all ate, we socialized and talked to people both familiar and new. UCLA seems to be a very inviting group, and I am considering in joining it. Although I don’t particularly like large groups, UCLA is very friendly, and I feel quite comfortable to be in a group like theirs.
My first club meeting at Baruch
On Thursday, September 7, 2017, I went to my first club meeting at Baruch. Having known about the types of clubs at Baruch before school even began, my first appearance at a General Interest Meeting had been overdue. Over the summer, I coincidentally ran into a gathering of Baruch students from VSA at Roosevelt Island while barbecuing with my fellow executive board members of a community service club I was involved in at my high school. On that day, I was informed about several clubs and the greek life at Baruch. Fast forward to orientation day, the club that stood out to me the most at the club fair was UCLA, one of the clubs mentioned to me and I looked forward to attending a general meeting. Although I missed the first, I was sure to attend the second meeting.
Stepping into the club room for the first time, I was surprised that such a small classroom could fit such a large crowd. Making my way to the front of the room, I sat right in front of the projector because all the seats were taken in the back of the room. After being given a brief summary about the purpose of the club, we spent majority of the time engaging in group games. The first game we played was a spin on the classic ‘Family Feud’ in which the room was divided in half, forming two opposing teams. That turned out to be the most enjoyable game as I found people’s answers to be quite amusing. We followed up by playing Zoom, a game where pictures were zoomed in and we had to guess what the original picture showed. Concluding the general meeting, free food was served. Yum!
I’m glad I was able to attend UCLA’s second general meeting of the year. It really reminded me of the times I spent at my local church, bonding with others around my age during fellowship; exploring culture, family and service.
Baruch UCLA 2nd GIM attendees:
Sitting in the front:
Me on the left-most part of the picture hehe
UCLA Club Meeting
Last Thursday (September 7th, 2017), I attended the UCLA (United Chinese Language Association) general interest meeting. I was informed of this club during Convocation Day at Baruch. There was a club fair and a lot of clubs were trying to recruit people to join. There were tables set up for clubs and people going around with club flyers to pass out. As I was riding up the escalator, some UCLA club members snagged the opportunity to inform me about their club. They had handed me a colorful flyer and proceeded to talk about their club. I don’t quite remember what details they said, but I do remember that they mentioned how there was going to be free food at the first meeting.
At the meeting I attended on Thursday, the room was very crowded. Lots of people had showed up and there were not enough chairs for everybody. The meeting started out with information about the club and some of the events. Then, there were some icebreaker games. One game that we played was called Google Feud, which was based off of the rules of Family Feud. Another game that we played involved us guessing what the zoomed in picture was. A picture would be zoomed in and we would have to try to guess what the picture was of. These games were pretty fun and enjoyable! Afterwards, people lined up for the free Chinese food.
During the meeting, I signed up for the club by putting in my name and email address into an excel spreadsheet. The club sends out newsletters to the email we provided so by reading the newsletters, I can be informed of any future events and attend some of them. One event that is coming up is the Lantern Making Workshop. In this workshop, UCLA will demonstrate how to make our own paper lanterns, which seems pretty fun!