Mina Park

NEXT STEPS….

After our meeting with the Student Success: Student Life Panels, I’ve come to realization that I need to start getting involved now. My plans were to spend the freshman year adjusting to the college life and then move on to participating. But, I now know that my time is being wasted and I need to prepare for the upcoming experiences.

Until now, the only faculty and staff I’ve encountered were Mr. Medina and Maria. However, after our intimidating meeting, I vigorously searched our Baruch website for clubs and is planning to join one soon. I have not decided which one to join but my interest is leaning towards T.E.A.M Baruch. I noticed I’m too late to join now but I’m going to prepare myself for next semester and keep up with the dates.

Also through our Freshman Seminar meetings, I realized that I wasn’t appreciating the resources that are available for me. I considered the support centers, our own librarian, student clubs, and especially our faculty, staffs and peers to be something that is just there and something that I can utilize if I wanted to but did not need to. But, it’s totally not like that. I need the help that those generous people are offering and it can never hurt me. There is no benefit for them for helping me but there’s a huge benefit for me.

Thus, I decided to not pass on this precious opportunity and one day I’ll be the one offering help because life is about giving back. I probably wouldn’t have come to this realization if it wasn’t for FRO 1000H. Thank you Mr. Medina and Maria and of course, Baruch.

What does it mean to serve your community?

I believe that my role as a Baruch Scholar in the Honors Program or the broader community is to learn and give back.

Here, learning does not simply just mean the academic aspect. It applies to all kinds of experiences: social, moral, physical, mental, all kinds. I believe everything happens for a reason.

When I was young I went through a lot, things that were difficult for an 11 years old to handle. Divorce of my parents, separation from my mom, adjusting to new family plus a whole new country, death of my father, another separation to reuniting with my mom, these incidents struck me hard back then. But, I survived. I overcame my difficulties and accepted the fact that these experiences were the ones that made me strong. Then I realized that going through all this in the earlier stage of my life was a huge benefit. Now, I can relate to people that are going through these similar experiences and offer them help or at least comfort. Like Professor Teufel has mentioned, pain is private and no one could actually “feel” the pain one is going through, but we can always use our experiences to try to feel their pain and I absolutely agree. If I had not learned the grief, anger, and sorrow, through my experiences, I would not be able to reach out to those in need, which I consider giving back to the community.

As a Baruch Scholar, I want to learn and experience everything that the program is offering. I am not attending classes and memorizing thousands of concepts just to have a stable future. I am doing all this so that one day I can use these knowledge to reach out to students who needs my help. I want to be a well-rounded teacher who can lend a hand in all kinds of aspect when they need help. But for now, I’m the one reaching out and lending a hand is exactly what the Honor Program is offering. The program is giving all Honor students a chance to experience the world and is supporting them until they can stand on their own. Then, those who received help will give back to the community by serving and offering help to those now in need and the cycle continues.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN AND WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Hello 🙂 My name is Mina Park. Please call me “mee-na” not “min-ah”. Even though “min-ah” is the correctly pronounced korean name I have, I prefer “mee-na” better.

I am 19-years-old, born in August 16,1991. I am a proud immigrant who arrived “fresh off the boat” in 2000. It’s almost 11 years in America. Wow. To tell you the truth, I was fooled by my parents. I “was” suppose to visit my grandmother for winter vacation but ended up living here… But, I like it. I feel so thankful that I live in a society where education is not FORCED on me. Hehe 🙂

I live in Flushing with my mom and an older sister. My dad died when I was in 3rd grade due to a disease called Hepatitis B. It was a tragedy back then, but now I feel comfortable talking about it. It’s nice to live with only females in the house. It feels free, really. There’s no hiding things 🙂 (ladies might understand kk). My mom is a facialist and my sister is currently attending Hunter College, majoring in public health. We are very close and I wouldn’t change them for anything in the world.

Also, I am a Christian. My values and beliefs mostly comes from the christianity background. What I do is to praise God and I am not ashamed of it. Actually, my goal for the future is to major in Marketing, minor in Psychology(for children). Then, go to Graduate school, major in Education and finally owning a Christian after school academy. I love children<3.

However, all that is in the future and what I’m concerned about right now is time management. I love watching Tv and playing video games…. Once I start either one of them, time just flies by… So my hope for this semester is to reduce the time I spend on television and games and focus in reading the textbooks! The professors cover so much in one day that I hardly have the time to read all~ the textbook. TIME MANAGEMENT is what I need now!