My name Ishaq Hussain Mehfuz. I am  a 17 year old Pakistani American.. I enjoy playing video games. I enjoyed working out every now and then but because of my surgery I have to quit until the wound is fully healed.  Once I have finished my bachelors I intend to attend P.A.  School (still not decided where). My Baruch experience so far has been very great so far. My only issue is getting over my high school procrastination habit.

Tashfia Khan

Emp ID: 23751165

For my first workshop I decided to do the academic portion of the enrichment workshop. I went to the Museum  of natural history (I am on the far left with red vans). The museum wasn’t packed which was good because I hate being pushed around by people. I paid 1$ to get in even though that was not necessary because half of my friends paid 1 penny. Anyways, the museum was very interesting showing different cultures from different parts of the world.  My favorite exhibit was the dinosaur exhibit because I thought it was cool seeing how they were big they were and it reminded me of Jurassic world, which is my favorite movie.  My favorite dinosaur is the T- rex. I find it amazing how people were able to collect the bones and build each dinosaur together, even if not all the bones were real. Also I visited the mammal exhibit and I saw the big whale attached to the ceiling. I know whales are big but I never expected it be to that huge. I likes seeing the animals that are extinct too because I only saw those animals in movies or videos online. They looked real behind the glass so it the experience felt more authentic. I also really like the bird exhibit. It was really nice to see how different birds looked like in different regions all over the world, extinct or not. To be honest I didn’t think the museum would be that interesting. I expected to be there for 20 minutes get my pictures and leave, however now I do want to go to more museums and see more than historical features. I would like to see MOMA however it was closed for renovations. Overall I had a good time with my friends and I found the whole experience to be interesting.

Looking back at my past week, I can honestly say college has been going pretty well. I really enjoy the school and the people in my classes and dorm building. I have had a lot of work after class everyday but have still managed time to make many friends and do fun things with them. I also feel very independant which I like. I don’t mind doing my own laundry or making my own food. I have only had one test so far, for Musical in Civilization. I did well which made me happy because every test, quiz, or assignment counts a lot twoards your GPA here. I have been pretty exhausted though, because I have had a lot to do after class everyday. I also feel it is hard to sleep in late or catch up on sleep in college because there is always something else I could be doing. Because of this, I went to my home in Long Island this past weekend so I could rest and hang out with family. I spent time with my family and kitten who I have definitely missed. I also went to the annual soccer game played by the Varsity soccer team in my school. I have been playing in that game since 8th grade so I wanted to go. It was a very weird feeling watching the team, I have been on for years prior, playing in front of me. It was nastolgic though, and I’m happy I went. It was nice to catch up with my family and friends, but I still wanted to go back to college. I enjoy the feeling of being free and doing things on my own time. I don’t have to check in with anyone before I go in anywhere which is awesome to me. With that being said, it is easy to procrastinate when I have a lot of work to do. I always end up thinking of a million other things I could be doing instead of my work, like working out, cleaning, hanging with friends, netflix, food, and the list could go on and on. But I have really been trying to prioritize my work first and do everything else second. I enjoyed my past week at college and I am excited to make more memories.

For the first enrichment workshop I did academic. For academic I visited the metropolitan museum. The metropolitan museum was very gorgeous and the architecture was exquisite. I would definitely picture myself going back to the metropolitan museum because there was just so much ground to cover. They have so many different exhibitions. Some of the exhibitions that I saw were Ancient Greek and the Ancient Egyptian pieces of art, I also saw the Apollo exhibition. My personal favorites were the sculptures and the jewelry from the ancient Greeks. One piece I saw was large fragmentary colossal marble head. This marble head was from the Hellenistic period in Greece. It was one of the oldest known sculptures and it was made of marble and it was over life-scale in size.  It represented either a young god or Alexander the great. The gold jewelry was another personal favorite because I love gold and knowing how ancient the pieces were made it even more beautiful and valuable.  A famous piece I’d never thought I see in person was the Bouquet of flowers by Claude Monet. It is a gorgeous oil canvas of Sunflowers, my favorite type of flower. It was even a favorite of Van Gogh. All in all, it was a great experience visiting the met and I would love t o visit again to explore more. I think that it has helped me in my transition from high school to college because I think it has given me more independence to really explore the city without being supervised. I know I’m only going to make more experiences in the city and go on more fun adventures. The more I explore the city, the more comfortable I become with the setting and it’s people. From the beauty to the creative colors of New York city I can’t wait to gain more insight. 

 

Out of the three enrichment workshops I chose to do the Student Life topic first, and out of the options for that I chose to write about a club I enjoy, Hillel. My first interaction with Hillel was during convocation day at the club fair, I noticed people wearing yamakas (the little circle some jewish men wear on their head) carrying around signs about the Hillel. Originally I was nervous about approaching them as I have been surrounded by the jewish community my whole life, and I was planning  on slowly moving away from that lifestyle. My mind was changed when I decided to just take a chance and talk to them, they were really kind and welcoming and I am totally satisfied with my decision to approach them. The next day I walked into the clubroom and was welcomed wholeheartedly by everyone there, someone even took me out to grab lunch! It’s an amazing environment and community, and they even have kosher food! I can just hang around in their clubroom, or if I need to get printing done I can do that there. I’m able to have a great conversation with anyone in hillel and everyone is always open to listen. They have great events daily (apart from the free kosher food), such as Wednesday’s “Kickin’ it with Karen” where you can fix up your resume or talk about any business-related issues you’re having. If I’m ever feeling lownly or down I know I have a home away from home here are Hillel Baruch, and I know that they’ll make my day better. I’m incredibly grateful that there is a jewish community within the college and look forward to many more great memories with Hillel! To end it off I’d just like to say that it’s not just a club, it’s a family!!

 

This week, things started to really accelerate, life, classes, days. Everything is moving so quickly. Honestly, I really do not know how I stay on top of everything; I guess great time management, which is weird because I have never been good at time management. However, life has been treating me great. I went and visited Pittsburgh for the weekend to surprise my family. My mother was completely shocked. It felt like it went by like a dream though, it was there one minute, and the next it was gone. I am really glad I got to see them though. I am back now, and ready to tackle another week of class!

For my first enrichment workshop, I went and visited The Met! I was delighted to see how perfect a day it was for this quick excursion. I arrived sometime around 11, and it was packed! Nonetheless, I waited in line for entrance straight into the Ancient Greek Exhibits. The exhibits were filled with marble statues, sculptures, and monuments. It really is a wonder how they even got some of the stuff in there! Despite these thoughts, I tried my hardest to engulf myself into the reality that these pieces are apart of my heritage. Growing up Greek-American it was fascinating to realize that these pieces of art were crafted during my ancestors time. These pieces are jaw-dropping to say the least. The sheer skill, talent, and craftsmanship that was needed to create these pieces is extraordinary. I marveled at the stone columns, the brilliant jewelry, the marble sculptures, and the amazing stone armor. Despite my complete wonder of these pieces, I stepped into the Ancient Rome Exhibit. There I saw many more creations just as I had seen in the rooms prior. Many say that the Greeks and Romans were merely identical and I could definitely see that through the art displayed. Moving on, I went to the second floor to visit the temporary Apollo Moon Exhibit. It was crazy to see the the films, the telescopes, the maps, and the photos taken of this celestial body. Although The Met is known for its art, the mere spectacle of the astonishing astronomical object will lead many to agree that it is art. I would have to say, for me, art has always been a sort of acquired taste. Some pieces I love, and some I do not, but that does not make any less valid. This trip was absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to go back!

So far its been 3 weeks of classes and its been the same as it has been the previous week. Slightly more work however and more quizzes but still pretty light and straightforward. All my classes have gone fairly well.  During our FYS class today we had someone from the study abroad office talk to us about their study abroad programs and I’ve always wanted to study somewhere far. To be in a new environment, where I can learn and explore new things is one of the things I look forward to studying abroad. So I am considering to apply for that when the time comes, also applying for the scholarships. We also talked about the honor programs at Baruch and what you need to achieve it and I also hope that I can achieve those necessary requirements to validate for those program.

It is the second week of school and I am slowly adjusting to my class schedule especially especially my early morning classes at 7:50 am. I have learned a lot so far in my classes especially in psychology and philosophy. I have learned aspects or morality and the true meaning of goodness or happiness in philosophy and have learned function of the mind and brain in psychology and have found both subjects very fascinating. English however may be kind of annoying considering we have to be there for almost 2 hours. All in all the majority of these classes have seem to be pretty straightforward and my professors seem to be pretty good.