m.ortega3 – Freshman Seminar Fall 17 LC14

Majors and Minors Fair

Last Thursday on November 9th, I attended the Majors and Minors Fair during club hours. As I walked into the multi-purpose room I could immediately tell that this event would be a great way to learn about the different majors, as well as minors, we can study in the next couple of years. Having several people representing these different departments provided an easy way to ask questions and learn more information. I came into this event with the intent to learn more information on the difference between the Mathematics Major and the Financial Mathematics Major. After speaking with someone at the Financial Mathematics table, I was able to find out about the many course requirements in order to fulfill the major, many of which involve finance and economics classes. In contrast, the Mathematics Major is more flexible, and requires that I just take a few required math courses, and then build up credits from a variety of other math courses available. As of today, I’m leaning more towards the Mathematics Major because of its less requirements, and because it would allow me to focus more on conceptual mathematics courses. Before leaving, I stopped Allan and Jason at the fair to take a quick photo:

Internship Seminar

Last week on October 5th I attended one of the Internship Seminars provided by the Starr Career and Development Center. This session was hosted by Michael Kalish, the internship coordinator at SCDC, and he had done a tremendous job presenting to us what defines an internship as well as the many opportunities we have at Baruch to research and apply for internships. When going over the presentation at this event, we discussed how paid internship programs are required to pay their interns at least $11 an hour, and that any wage lower than that is not acceptable. Internships that are not paid and do not offer college credit are also unacceptable most of the time. Different kinds of internships available on the SCDC website include, zero-credit internships, credit internships, paid/unpaid internships, as well as On-Campus Recruitment Internships. These can be found using our Starr Search accounts on their website. After reviewing internships, Kalish explained how we can build comprehensible, organized, and excellent resumes for internship and job applications. We learned that the main characteristics that should be emphasized on a great resume are: leadership, problem solving, results orientation, collaboration, and communication. Overall the entire discussion was much more informative than I expected and I felt that the SCDC was somewhere I would like to visit more often later on to prepare myself for my future at Baruch and afterward.

Latinx Heritage Month Opening Ceremony

On September 7th, I attended the Latinx Heritage Month Opening Ceremony held on the second floor lobby of the NVC. I arrived expecting a more formal kind of event, but I was then proved wrong once I saw the DJs from WBMB began to set up the atmosphere as the event began. While waiting for the crowd to build up, the were a couple of stands set up as well by the Latin American Student Organization(LASO), Asociacion Estudiantil Dominicana, and the Ecuadorian Club. Some really great food was offered here – my favorite being the empanadas since I’ve loved them since I was a little kid. At the Ecuadorian Club stand there were also certain drinks being served, the kind of drinks you wouldn’t normally see – like orange juice with milk. As an Argentinian, it was really cool to see a lot of the Hispanic cultures I’m familiar with be represented here at school, as well as seeing a lot of students embracing these cultures and having a great time. About 15 minutes into the event, there was a game played that was similar to musical chairs, except a group of people had to compete over dancing partners. It was absolutely hilarious and was great way for the students to have fun. Those who participated were also given prizes afterward. Later on the lobby turned into an actual dance floor and had a large crowd getting in on the fun. I would say that overall, the opening ceremony was a huge success, and I’ll be definitely looking out for other Latinx Heritage events this month.