Month: October 2017

Over the weekend I wasn’t in New York, so I wasn’t able to go to a New York Museum. I stayed at my friends dorm and explored the city. I ended up walking by this museum and thought it was a great opportunity to walk around and hang out with my friends. There were many exhibits that on display but the ones that caught my eyes were the exhibits on space. There were models of different planetary masses and it was fun to see these realistic models of different stars and planets. One that stuck to my mind was a model of the sun. The sun wasn’t just a yellow ball of fire, but was more detailed. It had cool and hot spots, sun spots, and sun rings. If anyone is in the Boston area I highly suggest checking out the Boston Museum on Science.

So I went to the American Folk Art Museum last week and looked at the work made by people in the 1700s I believe. It was very interesting to look at these pieces and see the amount of work that went into making it because everything I saw there had a lot of very small details and were all made by hand. Some of the pieces there were worn or used by American and British soldiers. Everything there had a history behind them and I learned a lot of things that I did not know about the history of the United States. In the picture I posted you can see a quilt which is made from military fabric and each one of the triangles that make the pattern is hand-sewn individually. Looking at it made me really appreciate the effort that was put into making these, and it also amazed me the good condition in which they have been kept since each one of the pieces in the museum is at least 200 years old.

Continue reading “MoMA”

For my second blog post, I decided to visit a museum because of how convenient it is. Museums are everywhere and I could just hop to one after school. I decided to hit my friend up and we decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. When I got to the Museum, i found out that the amount you pay is up to you. I got on the line for the ticket, and everyone in front of me PAY at least some small amount of money. I decided to pay a little , otherwise we would feel bad. The museum was a complete maze. I did not know where I was headed as we walked. I saw a lot of statues in the beginning from the statue of Anubis to knights and more. There was also partial parts of pyramids and ancient objects. There was descriptions and story of each object but I did not read about most of them. Then I got to a room with a mini temple with water surrounding it. This brought back memories because I went to this museum when I was in elementary school. Soon, the guards informed us the museum was closing, so we decided to leave the museum. Overall, it was a fun and interesting trip because I usually never go to museums.

 

Today I went to a writing workshop. I went not only to write this blog but to get helpful advice about how to write, more specifically, how to make a draft. I did not expect much when I decided that I would attend, maybe a couple pointers here and there but after a few short minutes I was able to learn so much. Some tips I received included different ways to draft. I always had this view that a draft should be the first version of your final essay but I was intrigued to find out that a draft can be something as simple as bullet points. As I continued to work my way through the workshop, I learned valuable advice. One of the main points that surprised me most was the fact that you don’t need to start an essay in the introduction. I often struggle with starting essays and I felt that this was important for me to understand. We were given time to write a draft of our own and I decided to use this time to write a paper for English. Starting my essay from the middle made it so much easier to start, I did not have to make a catchy introduction, instead all I had to do was provide the bulk of the paper, the parts that require facts, making it easier to write my introduction based on what I already wrote rather than the other way around that I usually struggle with. This workshop was also able to provide me with ways to be more creative when trying to come up with an idea as well as how to put those thoughts into words. One way that I was told to be more creative was to do something such as clearing my mind by just going for a walk. Something as simple as that would be able to help my writing. I would have never thought of something so simple which is why I am glad I attended this workshop; It was definitely helpful and I would suggest that anyone who is having trouble writing go to a workshop and see if they can learn anything valuable they didn’t already know.

Last month, on September 14, I had a wonderful trip to one of the largest museum of art in America, which is The Metropolitan Museum of Art ( known as the MET). It was the first time I’ve ever visited a museum in America and I was so curious and excited. I and Felix went together after school and we had so much fun there. The only word that could describe our feeling at first is shocked. We were shocked by the grand main gate and the enormous construction of the museum. It took us a huge amount of time to finish the journey and gave us so many experiences about art that we never got before. We could witness directly the most famous and the oldest masterpieces, statues, etc. The permanent collection consists of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters and an extensive collection of modern art. The most favorite part of my journey was visiting the European sculpture and decorative arts collection. It is one of the largest departments at the MET, holding in excess of 50,000 separate pieces from the 15th through the early 20th centuries. In addition to its outstanding collections of English and French furniture, we entered dozens of completely furnished period rooms, transplanted in their entirety into the Met’s galleries.

p/s: Felix was scratching his head because he could not figure out how beautiful the table is. (picture below)

I went on the Fashion in Art tour in the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was about an hour long. I found the tour very interesting as it was designed to explain the depths of both modern fashion and fashion dating back as early as the sixth century B.C. The tour went on to explain both the mindset behind the fashion of the time period and the technicality behind actually making it. The tour underscored both, the largest trends of certain time periods and the most divine costumes of each time period. I found it incredibly interesting that in wanting to creating a unique image for themselves many designers of earlier centuries began to introduce unconventional ideas in their designs, including using materials as abstract as wood and stone to create their outfits. I was able to meet many people at this tour who all had a common thread of interest in fashion, two of the attendees were siblings completing their freshman year of college as well.

On October 5th, I met with some representatives from the bank, HSBC. They told me about the opportunities their company has to offer, especially for students at Baruch. HSBC is a world renowned bank that specializes in trade services. They even have a scholars program for juniors and seniors. After learning about HSBC, I definitely plan on applying for their amazing programs.

I was always interested in studying abroad in college, but I never had the chance to know more about the process. Thus, I decided to attend an info session to learn more about its funding. Initially, I did not know about this session until a friend introduced it to me. I went with two friends and we were a bit late. It was on the thirteenth floor and we got a little lost. It had already started by the time we went inside and was handed with lots of handouts of different scholarship programs. In the session, I learned a lot about the various opportunities to fund studying abroad. There were programs that are specific to certain countries and general programs such as the Gilman scholarship. Although there are many opportunities, it is difficult and competitive to get accepted. The application process is long and time-consuming. The instructor or adviser speaking in the session gave some helpful tips in getting accepted by emphasizing the need to write great essays to impress them. She also explained what certain programs are looking for in their candidates which I thought was very useful. Overall, the session was fun and informative to be in.

This info session had made me realized the competitiveness of these scholarships. It somewhat made me nervous for going abroad as it is an expensive and intensive experience. However, the session had also excited me to go abroad and learn more about the cultures. Although I’am not planning to study abroad this year, I became more interested in studying abroad in my future years in college.

P.S.: I forgot to take a picture in the info session, but I hope having these handouts will serve as proof that I went there.

 

Recently I learned a very important lesson, that leadership is a highway, it is not something that can be achieved overnight but being a leader means putting in time and effort into your personal growth. I learned this during the 35th annual leadership weekend, which completely changed my outlook on being a leader. I had always thought being a leader meant to separate yourself from the crowd and do more than just to follow. Although this might be true to a certain extent, a more important thing to know as a leader is that following is itself a type of leadership, because without followers there would be no leaders, so to become a leader one must first become a follower.

During this weekend not only did I learn the important traits of a leader but I had the privilege of meeting some amazing people. Within minutes of the bus ride to camp speers YMCA, where the leadership weekend took place, I met an amazing group of people and throughout the road trip there was a party at the back of the bus. When we reached camp I saw one of the most spectacular things, a night sky shinning full of stars, it was a spectacle that left all of speechless and amazed. One of the most exciting thing that I got to do was explore the woods during the night, it was exciting and scary at the same time but the company of some amazing people made it all worthwhile.

From learning about leadership to discovering the woods at night, this was truly an amazing experience and one of the most memorable event that I have been a part of at Baruch.