Today was the last class of FYS, and it was bitter sweet. I learned a lot in such a short time from a class that we only have once a week. I learned about punctuality, time management, and a lot of things in general about being an independent adult, starting college. There’s no longer any teachers running behind you t complete assignments and to get your grades in order, it’s all on you, and from this class they made it very manageable to do so and to understand how to do so. This week has been rough to say the least, even though it literally just started yesterday. Been counting down until the semester ends, we have a long way to go, but not enough time for these grades to improve!!!

Today was the last day of FYS and to be honest I feel that this class helped me transition from high school to college very easily. This is because it taught me that sometimes in life/college, you have to do things that your not always happy to do but you have to suck it up and do it anyway. For example, the weekly reflections and monologues were not my favorite assignments but I had to do it regardless of what I thought. Also this class helped me acclimate into the Baruch events smoothly. If it wasn’t for this class, I would never have gone to a sports event or a STARR career workshop so I am very grateful I was forced to take this class.

My week has been pretty busy. I had a psychology test today which I was very nervous for. I was nervous because I didn’t do as well as I wanted to to do and it was stressing me out because it would negatively affect my grade. I stayed up super late everynight to study which was super exhausting and taxing but it honestly paid off because I felt confident after taking the test. There were a few questions I was unsure about but I hope I used my prior knownledge to pick the right knownledge. I hope I get my grade soon and hope it is a good one!

For my career enrichment assignment, I went to one of Starr’s workshops(Networking 101). I’ve been receiving instructions and guidance on networking from my peers in the clubs I’m in, but it never hurts to supplement my knowledge of it. While the presenter gave a pretty standard presentation about networking, one of the things I learned from this workshop was business card etiquette. He also gave plenty of bad examples of networking, some came from his own experiences, which I really appreciated because I always want to learn through specific situations and examples. Towards the end of the workshop, we had an opportunity to network with others in the workshop. It was very informal and although it did show us the core of the networking experience, I was hoping for there to be an emphasis on professional networking, so I would’ve liked a mock networking session in the professional sense. Here are some pictures that I took, sorry for the bad quality, just waiting on that TAP money to get a new phone :((

Today we had our last FYS class. We started off with monologue presentations and Diane(Diana’s?) blew me away. I liked how we used class time to finish up the survey. After Bernice gave her parting statement and FYS class officially ended, Gabriela showed up with donuts and munchkins and spent some time connecting with the few of us who hadn’t left yet. I share her sentiment that FYS classes were cut too short to allow us to connect as deeply as we should have with one another, but I also appreciate how I can sleep in on Tuesdays from now on. Overall I felt that while FYS didn’t really make a significant impact on my transition into Baruch, it definitely gave me a sense of community that I didn’t know I would appreciate this much.

This weeks class was where we shared out our mini monologues for the bulk of the class and though we’ve done this so many times, I myself was scared for everyone who went up there. Everyone looking at them, them not knowing what to say and kind of rushing just to sit down again. It was spooky, but what’d you expect on the week of halloween… that was corny. Afterwards, Gabby and Bernice divided the class in half and discussed with us whatever it is we needed clarity on, though we didn’t get to meet with gabby due to time, overall another FYS was cool this week.

1. I joined the Caribbean Students Association (CSA) a few weeks ago. I kind of just started going to their club room all the time and talking to the people there, and they all seem to like me so i made a lot of new friends.They are very friendly, they greet anyone who walks in even if its just to say hi. They usually have a lot of parties, and events that i attend. Most of the events are usually collaborations with other clubs, such as NABA. They have events on anything from game nights, resume writing workshops, opinionated talks, and even just events to help meet new people. They never forget to provide great food for all those who attend either. Flyers of the events are usually posted all over the third floor, on most of the doors. Whenever there isn’t anything going on we usually play games in the club room an have food and talk. Its the club in the suite that always has the music blasting. Its almost always fun in there. They would occasionally play man hunt in the school when theres nothing to do.  They also are very helpful with showing me around the school, telling me great places to eat, and sometimes even giving me things. I joined the club with one of my high school friends and they helped him study for midterms and tutored him.  They also helped me set up my schedule for next semester. Majority of the students in the club are on their second or third year, so they know a lot about the school and are always willing to help you out, and tell you about the classes you should take. Its a great community to be apart of, everyone pretty much looks out for each other. This is a picture of me helping them set up for their game night event.

On Halloween, I was at school late so some friends and I went to the Halloween Parade in the city because we were bored. We bought a five dollar masks and tried to see what was happening in the parade but there was too many people and we were packed between a lot people. Eventually, we gave up and started walking towards the train station and then I jumped into a fountain and got soaked and had to go home with no shoes because they were leaking. Looking back, it was kind of worth it because the everything else that day was a disappointment.

Last week during FYS, we had a presentation from the STARR Center on many benefcial opportunities given by Baruch. The presenter discussed the many workshops available to the students such as building a resume with a cover letter, preparing for a career and discussing majors. The presentation also talked about getting internships and explained on the website why internships are relevant, the types of internships and preparation for the internships.  The presentation explained self assessment, one’s interest, values, skills, personality, etc.

I finished all my midterms this week and i been studying hard so i am sure i did well on all of them. I have a 7 page paper due next week tho and I am really not lookin forward to finishing it. Everything has been great so far at Baruch and i started making friends and meeting people although i didn’t really intend to. I am more looking forward to my schedule for next semester, because I am tired of waking up so early, but besides that everything has gone well.