This summer I will be spending my time interning at an Israeli startup. I’ve had limited experience working in the real world since I’m just a first semester freshmen so I didn’t really know how to navigate dealing with professionals in the work force. As I was worrying about what I would put on my resume, I figured that I would seek career guidance at Baruch’s STARR Career Development center.

Right from the start, people were there to help. One nice lady sat down with me for an hour discussing what things I can put on my resume and even gave me some advice about how to conduct myself in an interview. Coming in as a first semester freshmen, career and professional work are about the furthest things on my priority list, but the STARR Center presents a space and a team of people to aid you in your path to the work world.

As many students at Baruch know, school can be pretty tough. Coming in as a first semester freshmen, I found and still find it very difficult to manage my workload. PreCalculus 2003 is by far my hardest class and I struggle to attain the material and my grade usually suffers as a result.

Earlier this week, one of my friends suggested that I try out the SACC Tutoring center to put in some extra learning time outside of class to get ahead on the material. I figured that it’s worth a shot so I signed up.

Instantly, Professor Abraham Tai was eager to help as I threw many math problems his way. He went through it with me step by step until he felt that I understood the material. The front desk was very helpful too as they provided me with a pencil when they noticed I didn’t have one.

I recommend for any student struggling to keep up with their work to visit the SACC Tutoring center. Quite a life saver.

,Yoni Gelfand

Being a Jew in a secular college has its own challenges to say the least. But having spent a year and a half in Israel, I came into Baruch a semester behind all of my friends who decided to end their respective Israel trips six months before. So even within the tight knit Jewish community in Baruch I sort of felt like an outsider since everyone was so accustomed already.

Within the first hour of stepping into Baruch for my first class I heard about the Hillel. It was odd to me that I never heard of the Hillel on campus before, but when I came to visit, I immediately felt like there was a community in my school that I feel comfortable associating myself with and shares my values.

Hillel held an event two weeks ago to introduce all the various student run groups that they offer. YOFI (Youth organization for Israel) is a group that meets together to discuss different challenges and perspectives towards Israel. Tamid is a business-orientated group that tracks and studies the economy and market trends in Israel. Both groups and many others provide an outlet for like-minded Jewish students to get together and discuss substantive matters while simultaneously preparing each person with real life skills. Each board member of the Hillel went to the meeting and stuck around after to answer questions.

The Spring semester is a very awkward time to start college. Most of the students that surround you are already accustomed to the college environment and know how to navigate Baruch life. But the Hillel serves as a place where you know you have a community of people that can relate to what you’re going through and have the tools to get you started and comfortable in a place where that’s normally a challenge.