I value honesty. Honesty in friendship. Honesty in the work I do. I believe in doing your own work for school but if I see someone cheating or copying homework I personally wouldn’t do anything. It’s not my business to be all up in other people’s business. They are free to do anything at their own risk as long as I’m not involved. Homework is just practice for the things that I’m eventually going to be tested on so I might as well do it.

Reflection #1: We talked about Academic integrity and how its fair and obligatory for all of us. Coming to class to see you guys is always fun, both of you bring a positive feeling that I would like to share in the class. The way how you guys presented academic integrity was coherent and very understanding. The topic of academic integrity does not apply in the class, but in our everyday life. From little to big things. I can tell that Academic integrity will be our foundation in this class.
Reflection #2: I came to class a little late, I apologize for that, but right away as I walked in to the classroom, I heard Study abroad and right away I was thinking what opportunities awaits. I heard how it was like to study abroad and the benefits of it. I agree with the idea of traveling and studying. New environment and new groups of people. Studying abroad does give me more curiosity and I hope I get the opportunity. The next thing was called the honors program, I wasn’t as intrigued as the study abroad, but the honors program does give you leadership opportunities and to serve the Baruch community. There were two types of honors program. The provost scholars and the inquiry scholars. Both are very similar except that Provost is a more restricted because it requires you take 8-10 honor classes, but you get more interaction with the faculty. The inquiry is the more flexible and creative scholars. You basically create, and research ideas and contribute in projects. I would prefer the Inquiry because it gives you the opportunity to spread your ideas. You never know if your ideas can bring in innovation.

College is harder than I thought it was going to be. There’s so much more work compared to high school, but also so much more time. I feel like the hardest part other than traveling an hour and 45 mins to school would be time management. As soon as I get home from school I take a solid two hour nap before any work gets done.

This week a person from the studying abroad program came into the room and talked about what is studying abroad, and how is it like. He gave information regarding housing, aids, and interesting places in which you can consider in studying abroad. Me as an international student am very interested in studying abroad for a semester since it will let me gain new experiences and meet different places, almost the same as when I chose to study here in the U.S. New experiences, more knowledge, then you become less ignorant.

Baruch has been an interesting experience. During the first week I was able to meet so many different kind of people and visit different places around the buildings. It was very complicated to get to different buildings, mainly because I had arrived like a week ago, so i didn’t know how to get to the subway station nor I knew which place to eat would be the best, neither I knew that there were different entrances. Everything seemed new to me. As days have passed I feel like everything has been easier and college seems more fun than what I thought.

I’m usually sleep deprived when I come to class because I do not get enough sleep during the night. For some reason I do not feel tired when I get ready to sleep and am wide awake with useless thoughts rushing through my mind such as ‘what is the specific reason for the gravitational pull of the Earth to the Moon?’ In that specific scenario, I got about forty five minutes of sleep because I looked up the entirety of gravitational laws. What makes it worse is I do not even remember what the answer was. The sleep deprivation has caused me to not pay attention in a majority of my classes, especially the earliest I have at 7:50am. The travel time from my house to Baruch also effects this as I have to wake up an hour and half earlier to get to class on time. I am thinking of getting Melatonin to knock me out so I get the rest I need because this problem can have a negative impact on my mental and physical health.

I’d say I’ve had a pretty good week. I definitely gave thought to the studying abroad program we spoke about in our last session. I already wanted to study abroad at least once, but I would love to do it with friends. To me the location doesn’t really matter as long as I’m surrounded by people I enjoy being with. I’ve already been to many places around the world (slight flex I know), but if I had to pick a spot it would be Tokyo, Japan. I just find Japan to be extremely interesting and I love their culture. The experience there is so different compared to any other country I’ve been to, not to mention the fact that any sushi there (even cheap sushi) tastes like high-end sushi from New York! To be honest I don’t really know anything about the Honor’s society though, it was a very brief speech and I am still kinda confused about it. Looking forward to our next class (and my trip to a museum that will follow it)!!

On September 3rd, in FYS, we did an activity where we had to guess different offices at Baruch based on the information that was given to us on the board. We were told to interact with different people sitting around us to try to figure out the office name/location. I appreciated the opportunity to be able to engage with others in my class that I have never talked to before. The exercise we completed allowed us to become more familiar with our campus setting which in my opinion is extremely important so that us students are able to utilize all of these resources that are available to us. Overall, I had a great time throughout the class and I’m lucky to know these things early on in my college career.

This weekend I visited the National History Museum with a group of my friends. I forgot to take a picture of myself, however attached is a picture of a bracelet I got while being there, for free! It was such an amazing experience. First, I went to the space exhibit where it showed the planets and little blurbs of information about the planets and some insight about space. However, my favorite section was with the HUGE whale downstairs. There is where the marine exhibit is located which is so amazing because of how they dim the lights and the room is almost like in a blue light making you feel as though you are actually in the ocean observing marine life. One of the workers told me that the museum sometimes has programs in which kids are allowed to spend the night in the museum and most of them are put on that floor to sleep because of how much floor space is there. I am interested in one day partaking in this activity. I love the Museum of National History because it always reminds me of the movie “ Night at the Museum.” Specifically the fossil exhibit reminds me of the movie because of the dinasour fossiks that came to life in the movie. It interested me that there were some exhibits that were specific to New York City. For example, there was an exhibit specific to birds found in New York City inside of the Hall of Birds exhibit. Also, there is a exhibit for the mammals found specifically in New york City. That was interesting to me because there are some animals that are native to our city. The cultural exhibits like the Hall of African Peoples, the Hall of Plain Indians, and the Hall of South American Peoples were interesting because they gave insight about the communities and cultures of people that we often don’t learn in school. Additionally, I got to see some of the traditional garb that these people wore or still do for traditional reasons. I find it very important to stay educated about other cultures so we are never ignorant about people’s traditions and communities. Also, they turn many of their exhibits interactive like the telescopes in the space exhibit to see stars. There is this one exhibit that the wall is basically see through and behind were multiple figures of animals in which the exhibit frames the biodiversity of nature.This experience was a perk of being a CUNY student because we are given reduced tickets making it easier for us to explore. Museums are essential in the learning process because a lot of times we cannot see the things we are learning in the scholastic environment and using museums, it makes it a more interactive process. The Museum of Natural History is one of my favorites because it has a little bit of everything there and they are consistently having events for the community so that people can get involved and make learning more exciting.

      On our latest FYS class, we had a guest speaker come and talk about studying abroad. For many this was nothing new as many students already had a plan on going to another country to pursue their major. However for the rest (me included) this was a new idea we were being introduced to. Now studying abroad seems like an interesting path to take while we are in college. The idea of travelling to a different country to study is really intriguing. I think it will be a great experience to be in a totally new environment in and out of school. As of now I am still undecided if this is a path I’d like to take but I am keeping an open mind and am willing to study abroad given the right circumstances.