karen chen

Participating in the Community Service Project has made me realize that it is not as easy as I thought it would be to volunteer for something that we truly want to volunteer for. It has made me realize that even finding an organization to work at is hard, especially if we need to cater to not only our own interests, but others’ interests as well. At first, it was hard to pinpoint a specific interest that all four of us were interested in because we had differing interests and not everyone was comfortable with some of the volunteer work that was brought up. Because of this, we had a hard time finding the right organization to volunteer with.

However, along the way, we were provided with a few websites that helped us each search for organizations that we would want to volunteer with. Through the use of these websites, we were able to compile a list of organizations that we could then narrow down to one specific one, as long as every group member was comfortable with the organization and its mission. Luckily, we were able to agree one of the organizations mentioned: the Wounded Warriors Project organization, whose mission is to help veterans.

Through this process of researching, I was able to build more experience in doing research and learned to identify the more credible websites from the sketchy ones. Doing this process helped me with my research in other classes because I was able to dismiss less credible websites and focus more on the credible ones.

I also learned from doing the Community Service Project that volunteering isn’t just about doing volunteer work for the hours. It is about helping those around you who have helped you or society as a whole, either directly or indirectly. It is about giving back to those people who helped you get to where you are today, whether you know it or not.

By being in the honors program at Baruch, I am given resources that I would otherwise not have. These resources should not be watsed which means that I should efficiently and productively use the resources I have been given by working hard. However, by working hard, I don’t only mean working hard academically, but also working hard to give back to the community. By giving back to the community, we accept the resources we have been given as well as sharing our own resources to promote growth in the community. We give to those who do not have the same privileges we have been given as well as the opportunity to foster their own growth.

There are many ways to give back to the community and one of them is by volunteering at nonprofit organizations. By doing community service, we realize that the resources that have been given shouldn’t be taken for granted, and that others have made the effort to give us those resources. Their efforts should not be ignored and should be taken into consideration. By doing this, we should come to realize that we should give back to the community so that others will be able to benefit from our help. Just like how we have been given resources by the community, we, in turn, should give our resources to the community in order to help others. Ultimately, being in the honors program in Baruch means that we are not only receiving, but we are contributing as well.

Hi.

This is Karen. I have a lot of interests but I don’t actively participate in any of them. When I do feel inclined in participate in any of them, it usually comes in short bursts. For example, I have taken an interest in coding as well as editing before but it didn’t last for very long. However, it wasn’t because I had lost interest in it (I still haven’t); it was because I became engrossed in a TV show that I then began to watch nonstop. I am also interested in foreign languages but learning them is an entirely different matter since grammar rules confuse me very easily.

Even now, I still have a lot of different interests but I have yet to find what I am really passionate about. From all the short bursts of time spent on different interests, I have found that I have an interest in the arts but I have not yet spent enough time on any one interest to really get to know about it. Hopefully, during my years in college I will be able to figure this out. Even if I do figure this out eventually, I don’t plan on majoring on anything art related because art is not my forte. I only want to be able to truly say that I am interested in something. In the mean time,  I will focus on getting through my first semester successfully and focus on my school work until I am comfortable enough to find a balance between my school work and varying interests.