I visited the Star Career Development Center for my career workshop. I never knew that it was on the 3rd floor although i bypass their emails every week. I finally went and learned about the different schools Weissman and Zicklin and the different majors they offer. I also seen the requirements for the majors and what each class was generally about. What i found most interesting was that you can create your own major, which I didn’t think was possible. It seems like a very hard thing to think of, to create your own major but the STARR made it seem as though it wasn’t. There was also lots of flyers that talked about different job opportunities on and off campus. Along with jobs there were paid and unpaid internships available and they explained how they can benefit your college career.  They tell you some specifics on exactly what you will need to do to get most of these jobs and internships. Some of these internships allow you to also get college credit for specific class. There was information on how to make corporate presentations and what to expect when attending them. The STARR Development Center had the general and basic needs of anyone that wishes to be successful in Baruch College. I do plan on returning in the near future to see if i would be able to get a job, internship or even just basic help for my major.

My visit to the American Museum of Natural History was filled with sights of incredible artifacts.  With the millions of artifacts that are supposedly held in the museum, I was not able to capture everything in one day, however, I was able to view a large variety of artifacts ranging from bones of prehistoric predators to ancient stone tools used by early humans.  The place is very educational and interactive. I was able to view the butterfly observatory which held at least 400 free-flying butterflies along with a plethora of lush tropical plants. There are stands in front of the glass coverings that have a large amount of information about the species of Lepidoptera (Butterflies are a species of Lepidoptera which are flying insects). Another amazing block in the Museum of Natural History was the Hall of the Universe.  I was immediately intrigued by this section of the museum due to my interest in horoscopes. Obviously the Hall of the Universe was much more than the alignment of constellations and horoscopes, and I was able to view the diversity, beauty, and the violent history of galaxies as they were meddled together in the early universe. There was also a specimen of the 15 ton ‘Willamette’ meteorite, along with additional astronomical imagery of distant galaxies and nebulae– supported with the background history on the creation of nebulae from the death of ancient stars.  

Today I learned how to write a winning resume at the workshop held at 12. I learned about the format of a resume and all the components you must need. Honesty, it reminded me of when i had to write my resume for college. A lot of the components were familiar to me except i know that for a work resume it must be very concise, to the point, and also have my best qualities fit into one page. Some tips i learned were to always be truthful about my accomplishments and background. Within each experience, you should list the most relevant bullet points for the position that you may be applying for. Use heavy bond paper in a professional color (white, ivory, or beige) if you are mailing your resume or attending a job or internship fair.  Some sections that should be included in your resume may be your interests, volunteer work, relevant coursework, leadership experience, and academic projects. Some things that should not be included in the resume may be the use of personal pronouns (“I, my, his, her, them, their, your, mine”) and abbreviations (“corp., etc.”). There should also be no spelling or grammatical errors.  Objective statements should not be included, as the emphasis on the position you are applying for should be prominent in the cover letter. Social Security number, passport number or other identification numbers should not be listed as well.  Overall, I had a great time at the workshop and it was very helpful in giving me key information on resume writing which I will definitely benefit from in the future.

If you knew me 4 years back when I was starting high school I was a very different person. I was reserved and didn’t talk much because people found me weird and annoying. By the time senior year rolled around I realized you only get a chance at life once and I shouldn’t waste it. This made me come out of my shell. Now when you see me I’m probably always smiling and talking to people. I have a bad habit of randomly going up to people I don’t know and I’m always happy when people come to me because I’m very socially active you could say. Early on I realized living day to day gets quite repetitive and boring. Every morning getting up at the same time, not eating breakfast cause I don’t have time, getting to the train station, getting to school, same classes. The routine stuff became annoying and I decided early on that I don’t want to be the best at one thing, I’d rather be mediocre at everything because I wanted to try everything the world had to offer. So I began investing my life in trying new things. Stuff like fashion and hype don’t make sense to me, a lot of my friends are into sneakers and trends but I never understood the craze so I had to find other things to appease my mind. And so I began my quest of learning new things. I joined clubs and sports I never thought I’d do. I was scared of blood and needles so the best way to start off was to start donating blood 3 times a year. I realized that there are children who have needles going in them everyday in hospitals which they don’t have a choice about so I could handle it. I also had asthma so I joined track and lacrosse to prove to myself that it wouldn’t stop me. The scariest thing I’ve done is take my dads old Harley out of the garage and teach myself how to ride a motorcycle. This is one thing I recommend everyone to learn. The idea of going 90 mph on something that has 2 wheels with nothing in between you and the ground is an exhilarating feeling. Immediately after that I wanted to learn how to play the piano. At first I wanted to learn to try the violin but it is an expensive instrument so I had to buy an old keyboard instead. After learning how to ride a skateboard I begged my mom to teach me how to sew. My upcoming goals are language and learning how to cook. Something about language amazes me and I really love how different words can mean different things to different people. I know 4 languages Hindi, Urdu, English, and Punjabi. I took 5 years of Spanish and everytime I meet someone new I ask them to teach me at least a couple of phrases from their respective languages so this is why I know how to say things in Ukrainian, Arabic, and Malayalam. Cooking amazes me as well. Food that doesn’t go together per se but the idea that right amounts of little things can make the difference between a bad plate versus a five star dish. I have always wanted to be a chef but the idea was put down by my father who thought it was gay for a man to cook and said it was for women. That’s also what he said to me when I read a lot so he threw out all my books. I haven’t read a book since. It is why I am now taking Finance instead of doing what I love. It took awhile for me to figure out what I want to do after my dad wouldn’t allow a son of his to take culinary arts, but I thought since I’m a people person and I’m very hands on the best route would be business and maybe if I was successful enough I could open a restaurant.

I have never used resources before in my life. My ego just made me assume I can do everything on my own. College gave me a wake up call because I realized to be successful I have to use the resources around me that I am provided. I walked into STARR career center not knowing what it was or what to even ask really. I did some research on the website and walked into STARR. But the people there were very helpful. They showed me how i can search for internships as a student, and go to different career fairs. They showed me how STARR can help with career development and making decisions about majors. And aside from also helping with graduate and law school programs they also help preparing for internships and jobs. This was so crazy new to me, what other program would allow you to take out professional attire like suits for an interview, and even set up mock interviews for you to practice before the real one. I knew I would definitely be using STARR a lot. They offer assessment tools to gather information on values, skills, accomplishments, personality style, interests as well as other areas important to career development to assist you in major selection and career choice. This way people can make active choices in their careers by exploring and testing. The room for creative expression is also there with programs to make your own major and even crafting your own career.

A big problem for me was that I was a commuter to Baruch all the way from the city of Yonkers. This made very little time for me to be socially active since most of my day was the commute back and forth from school. Student life changed this for me. My friends told me to join them at the game room one day and I decided to go. I used to play pool back home so I rented a pool stick from student life. Immediately I saw how accepting and open everyone can be. It wasn’t difficult to make friends. And  even though I wasn’t amazing at pool nobody cared because we were all there to get to know each other not to show off. Before I knew it I was going to student life all the time to rent a pool stick or ping pong bats. Soon enough some of my good college friends were made sitting around in the game room just talking to people. And to think it all started with a pool stick! Aside from all this student life gave me information on club fairs and they informed me of a bunch of events I could go to. This is where I learned about the leadership bootcamp as well as Team Baruch.

I was a little nervous going into my first team Baruch info session meeting. But I had friends there who have been to previous meetings and told me that I’ll be fine. The Team Baruch training program is a dynamic developmental experience in which students are challenged to introspectively examine who they are as emerging leaders.My first impressions of the meeting was how great it was that the entire thing was mainly student organized. The authority figures of the team were all Baruch students, which means i could be up there one day! All in all I learned a lot about the club and its academics and the opportunity it provides to Baruch students. Along with Academics the team is very open and informative. It helps provide familiarity with the school and its events. Team Baruch is definitely something I plan on joining because of its focus in academics. It helps each individual along with each individual helping those around them. This adds a lot of help to leadership qualities. Successfully completing the training program enhances self-awareness, communication, interpersonal, conflict resolution and mediation skills. These are all important skills to have in an academic setting as well as later on in life. We also learn about team dynamics and how working within a high-function team can elicit positive social outcomes. I was very interested in joining Team Baruch because one of the potential positions are being a peer mentor and being an orientation leader. Before this semester I was very confused about college in general and these people made me understand it a lot more so I also want to help others academically in any way i can.

 

Today I decided to face the scariest office in the whole world, the STARR office held in the second floor. I thought it would be embarrassing to ask “how to apply for internships” when it was just right there on the website. I entered the office, someone came right to me and asked “how can I help u”. I asked the stupid question without thinking. He looked at me as if I was dumb and I was like “yeah, I don’t know how to do it”. Well, it didn’t turn that bad because he saw my face confused and he didn’t mind if the question was stupid, he just kept giving me advice. He recommended to make an appointment next time if I want to do a resume review, or a mock interview, or career advisement anything. Also on the other hand, while he was talking I asked if I could bring my resume so that they could see it and review it. He said it was fine, as long as it is in the walking in office hours. While I was leaving he told me if I had any questions I am welcome to come back. Then also gave me a packet of resume & cover letter writing guide where I could get help with my resume

So for my career workshop I decided to go to the Bloomberg Terminal Course/Workshop that’s offered at the trading floor (which by the way I had no clue even existed until a really good friend of mine told me to go there with him one day). I think it’s a really useful course since a lot of companies use the Bloomberg Terminal, and the online course (which uses modules and is kind of similar to the SPARC course in a sense) teaches you a lot of useful economics stuff which can not only help you get ahead of the game before you take either macro or micro economics, but also is just useful information to know in general. Anyways at the workshop I was introduced to the bloomberg terminal and I was able to set up an account in order to start the online course on my own. They explained to me some basic stuff but after that I was mostly motivated to do as much as I could on my own. I’m currently still in the middle of the online course but I find it really interesting and have only gotten I think one question wrong out of all the quizzes I’ve taken so I think the course does a really good job at teaching you what it quizzes you on. I really look forward to seeing where this gets me and can’t recommend this enough to everyone else, it’s a very easy opportunity to take advantage of at Baruch and most schools I know of don’t have their own trading floor (which again, I have to say is literally so awesome and I feel like I make progress in life everytime I walk into that room). Definitely think this was an enriching experience and hope that my writing about this will help others down the road!

So since I missed like two classes of FYS due to being in Israel I’m just going to write a bit about my time in Israel over the course of about 8 days. When we first got to Israel it was right before the start of the Jewish holiday Sukkot, we immediately got settled into our hotel which we have gone to for the past 7 years (without missing a year) for this exact same holiday. After we got settled my extended family who live in Israel came to join us for a big dinner in order to celebrate the first night of the holiday. The next day we decided to just relax in the area around our hotel (Herzliya) due to us just going through about 20 hours of travel. We walked around the pier, went into the mall and bought some groceries, then we walked around the beach-side area. Overall it was a pretty relaxing day, we had some good food as well which was always nice. The next day we decided we would travel to Jerusalem and spend 2 days there, so we drove about 3(?) hours and checked into our temporary (even more temporary than the first) hotel. Afterwards we went to the old city and walked around, of course I recognize it pretty well at this point since I go to Israel every year, but still I always enjoy seeing the old city- especially the Western Wall (sometimes called the Crying Wall or the Kotel). After this we had dinner and slept through the night (as normal people do). The next day was the first time I ever actually split up from my dad in Israel, he went to visit his long-time friend while I visited my friends from High-School and this one organization (not gonna get into details it’s complicated). It was really awesome seeing them, especially since they were experiencing something totally different from me and from what they said, they were having a really good time there so I am happy for them. We spent basically the whole day just hanging out and walking around parts of Jerusalem I’d never even seen before. After this I met back up with my dad and we drove back up to Herzliya. Once back in Herzliya we mostly had a routine, we would hang out with my cousins, usually around Tel-Aviv, for most of the day. Being in Israel was a really awesome experience and I’m glad I was able to go again, it’s always been a special place to me and I look forward to the next time I go there. If anyone ever has a doubt in their mind about going there- go! It’s one of the most amazing places in the world in my opinion and definitely worth seeing with your own eyes at least once.