Baruch definitely has a richly diverse and talented student body. At Baruch’s got Talent we witnessed  everything from your traditional singing and dancing to  magic and  jump roping. It was  interesting to hear the feed back from the panel of judges. The magicians Kevin and Kwame showed their impressive magic abilities and kept the audience guessing as to how they pulled off the tricks. There were many rappers but the most entertaining was a young man’s original work entitled “BlackBird.” His was the most sincere of the rapping performances and it was this piece that earned him the popular vote. This was a very entertaining night that allowed me to experience the rich talent Baruch has to offer.

On Thursday afternoon, I attended Baruch Voices, in which about eight people presented monologues. It was one of the most interesting things I’ve heard in a long time. I could partly relate to almost all of them. The monologue that stood out the most to me was presented by a girl who talked about following your dreams. You’re told to follow you’re dreams yet they don’t tell you the hardships it comes with that. On one hand, you want do something that’ll make you happy, but on the other hand, if what you want to do doesn’t pay enough, you’re told to be realistic. Everyone wants to have a job that’ll make them happy, that’s a given, but sometimes there’s a point where we’ll just give up on that and conform to society. However, there’ll always a part of you that’ll wonder what could of been if you decided to do what you want to do. I think you should never give up on something that you are willing to work hard for, even if people deem it “unrealistic”. Don’t listen to people that’ll bring you down and just focus on yourself and your happiness.

Two weeks back UNICEF at Baruch held an event called ‘Tappy Hour’ which would help many children suffering from poverty throughout the world. Me, being the secretary of UNICEF at Baruch was part of the event. The event consisted of various fun and informative stations. Not only was this my first time participating at a UNICEF event, but this was also my most productive contribution so far to UNICEF. Just like many of our guests, I too had a great time and simultaneously got the opportunity to learn more. As a result, I became more eager and passionate about helping others, and it paved the way for me to become a more involved volunteer for UNICEF.

After many weeks spent practicing our routine while being plagued by constant unexpected problems, the day of Baruch’s Got Talent finally arrived. We hoped to win, being as every other act (with the  exception of one very ambitious jump rope routine) was centered around performing music or spoken word, so we would have the element of surprise. Unfortunately, after a performance that was the best it could be, being as one last unexpected problem (the camera not being able to project what it was capturing onto a giant projector screen to make the trick easier to see) decided to rear its ugly head, we received a lot of applause from the audience, but criticism from the judges, most of it concerning that final problem. It was a learning experience though, teaching me and my partner that we have to be 400% prepared before we try anything like this again, not just 100%, as you never know what could go wrong. Our synergy was also off on stage, with a few instances of one of us doing something too early or too late, causing the other to have to adapt to prevent the illusion from falling apart. All in all, I enjoyed participating in Baruch’s Got Talent, and the most talented person definitely won. If I ever consider magic as a career choice, I know that I can use this experience to rectify numerous errors before they even occur. (Note: No picture is attached because I forgot to take one and Candice was coordinating the event so she definitely knows that I participated, in addition to Douglass being selected (randomly, by our assistant) for the final illusion. Solid alibi crewwwww)

Earlier this week, I made an appointment through Baruch’s Starr Search website for a counseling session. My counselor was Ms. Ricki Weitzen. She was very welcoming and accommodating to me as a new student to Baruch College. She asked me about my interests and really listened to what I said asking follow-up questions to help me flesh out my answers so I can could see them more clearly.

She opened up my mind as to my previous stance on getting more involved at Baruch. At the present time, I am dead set on getting into Team Baruch however, I am now considering joining the music club on campus as well as some others. She noted that I have creative interests although I do not view myself as a creative person. I spoke to her about my ability to work well with other even though it is not my particular preference and about possibly pursuing a degree in Human Resources.

She made sure to mention the host of fairs that happen at Baruch College. It was truly eye opening. One point of new information that I learned was that Baruch College can set up intimate one company presentations geared specifically toward interested students. That was something great to learn.

I am very pleased with my first experience with Baruch’s Starr Center. My counselor and the staff were extremely helpful. I hope to make use of them in the future.

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

I was excited when I found out that we have an e-sports club, I didn’t expect it to be as lively as it was. Everyone there is mostly friendly so it’s hard to be shy unless you try really hard to be. I also didn’t really expect it to be as crowded as it sometimes is but that’s a fun time in itself really. It’s hard to find bad things in a club where everyone just wants to chill and play video games all day. Also, apparently they ordered a bunch of high end gaming computers so that’s something to be excited about (getting destroyed in 300 fps 1080p is always fun). I do wish we were able to meet more often but that’s something that’s not too much of an issue. Here you can see Kevin showing off his card witchcraft, too spooky.

The SAAC center at Baruch provides excellent tutoring in many different subjects. I went to go over some topics before the big math exam and I can say with complete honesty that it made a very big difference. The tutors there are patient and can quite literally answer any math question you throw at them. My biggest advice to first timers going to the SAAC center is to make sure you have questions ready for the tutor. Make a list of what you need help in and choose a few problems related to that topic. The tutors need you to be ready to provide them with the questions so that they can provide the answers. If you show up without any real direction as to what you need help in or show up without example problems to go over they will not be able to help you effectively.

On Thursday March 17, the United Chinese Language Association hosted a movie day. The movie played was none other than that of martial arts legend Ip Man, Bruce Lee’s famous teacher. The first half of the movie displayed the many different schools of martial arts during that time period and showed the effectiveness of the fighting style known as Wing Chun. The second half showed what China was like during the Japanese occupation of China during Second Sino-Japanese War. It is a very interesting film that should definitely be checked out not only by  fellow martial arts enthusiasts, but also by those that want to be transported to another time period. Heads up, the movie is in Contonese so there will be reading involved – but this does not detract from the beautifully choreographed fight sequences and the emotional drama that unfolds.

On Thursday, 3/17, I went to go see the film “The Flat” that the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center Film Series presented. It was an interesting film, almost completely in German with English subtitles, about a man who searches through his family’s history after his grandmother dies. After sorting things out at his deceased grandmothers apartment, he finds out his grandmother and grandfather traveled to Palestine with another couple, one of whom was a Nazi propagandist in the 1930’s. The man later finds out that the Nazi propagandist was Adolf Eichmann, who was eventually named a war criminal. The man, understandingly, is confused as to why his grandmother and grandfather would travel with such a man.

The movie presented many moments of intensity, but also had some moments of humor. My favorite part is a part when the man invites a book collector over to his deceased grandmother’s apartment to go through the books she had. The book collector saw a collection of Shakespeare and said they were meaningless and that Americans usually buy Shakespeare to look “cultured”. It’s funny how different countries value certain things that are wildly popular across the world.