Gabriella Vishnevskaya

When I think of all of the resources that Baruch offers its students for a price of nothing, I honestly cannot feel anything more than gratitude. From the Writing Center, to SACC, to STARR, the list of places and people whose most important mission is to help us students, is almost endless. One of these resources that I use and abuse is the SACC center. I go there at least twice before a Calculus test, and the tutors help me enormously. Other than providing help in a subject, I’ve found that the tutors and staff at SACC offer more than just homework help/test prep. They offer insight into different professors, maybe even the one you have currently, they offer their advice (since the tutors are mostly upper-classmen) on Baruch in general and what classes to take, and most importantly, they’re there to just say, “I know what you’re going through, and this is what I can do to help.”

Although I have not utilized the services of the other resource centers just yet, representatives from some of these centers such as STARR, Stephen Franceour from the Baruch Library and the Writing Center have come talk to our freshman seminar class and what all of their presentations had in common were, “whenever you need help, we have all of these resources to assist you.” It really makes you appreciate how much help you’re offered, not just as an honors student, but as a student in Baruch.

But of course, I cannot forget the assistance I’ve encountered from being in the Baruch Scholars Program. Mr. Medina and my peer mentor, Sam have been my lifelines, and a perfect example of this is scheduling. Mr. Medina helped us perfect our prepared schedules for the Sprint Semester while Sam literally sat with us as we all tried anxiously to get into the classes we wanted, and then helped quickly to reformat our schedules if we did not get those classes.

All of these people and resources have helped make our community service projects a breeze, along with all of our other assignments. It goes without saying, that because of all of this help we are offered, it is only fair that we offer our help to those who need it.

If I continue to accept the help that I am offered in Baruch, then I see myself being successful in the next 3 years, not only with my GPA, but with different societies, clubs, and internships.

As a student in the Baruch Scholars program, I feel I am given opportunities that not many other CUNY students, or college students in general receive. We all know the perks such as free Macs, early registration rights, etc., etc. But the opportunities I am referring to are those that help us enrich ourselves.

As a Baruch Scholar, I feel the responsibility to give back. We live in the greatest city in the world and owe it to that same city to help out. The Honors Program promotes a culture of service that I haven’t before seen. Of course, all of us in high school had certain community service requirements to fulfill prior to graduating, but what was different about that was just that. It was a requirement. It was promoted as such and therefore not celebrated. Community service is not something that people should do solely out of requirement, but something that they do because they understand it is important to give back. Rather, the Honors program teaches us the importance of service, and it almost feels as if it would be wrong to not contribute something to the community.

As a Baruch Scholar, I believe my role is to enrich myself intellectually and culturally. In my classes, I should keep an open mind and absorb all of the information given to me that should help me succeed in the future. Along with this, it is important to dive into the surrounding cultures of the city, and one way of doing this is by volunteering. Nothing teaches being open-minded like seeing how other people live, and helping them.

Everyone has had those times in their lives on which they look back and think, “that’s when it all changed.” Whether the “it” that was forever different was minor, or whether it was a huge part of their lives. I am not any different. There are definitely several experiences in my life that have shaped who I am. But what is different about me, is that I’m not as much influenced by experiences as I am by people.

The people who have proved to be my influences and my main source of my values and morals are my parents. I am a perfectly balanced, mixed representation of both my mother and my father and I continue to realize this as I get older. I have my mother’s studious qualities, her timidness, along with her unfortunate worry issues. I have my father’s musical genes, his humor, but unfortunately his lack of patience. More importantly, I have both of their morals; morals of hard-working, honest, kind people who would never cheat anyone out of anything. I can say without a doubt, that I have a good head on my shoulders and a kind heart all because of them.

Even though I have had experiences and people that have altered me, I still don’t know where I’m going in life. What I do know is that because of my parents’ influences and their support, I will be going nowhere but up.

My hopes for the first semester is to excel in my classes. That’s all I want to focus on. I want to know that I have my classes under control before I jump into the rest of my college experience. It is the semesters that follow that I will focus on getting more involved in Baruch,getting to know more of the people who I go to school with, and having more fun.

My concerns for the first semester are to experience anything that will stray me away from my goals and from my schoolwork. I’m going to try my hardest to find balance in my life.