Author: Elissa Leung

https://vimeo.com/777119017

During the 2021-22 CUNYAC season, the first season back since the Covid pandemic, the Baruch College bearcats men’s basketball team defeated the Lehman College Lightning in overtime of the CUNYAC Championship. This year, the CUNYAC men’s basketball preseason poll has selected Baruch as the projected favorite to repeat as the 2023 CUNYAC Champions. With 9 returning players and an additional 9 new players to their roster this season, the Bearcats are looking to repeat as champions and hopefully make it back to the NCAA Tournament.

I plan to speak with one of the returning players, Mohamed Gueye, a junior on the men’s team, about his experiences on the team and his expectations for this year. Gueye received the honor of player of the week on December 6, 2021, during his last season after scoring a career-high 20 points in the CUNYAC opener against Hunter College. This year, in only the second game of the season, he led the team in scoring with 18 points in their win against Chatham University. For this project, I hope to speak with Gueye about his goals for this year and how he’s grown as a player these past few seasons. I also expect to hear more about how the team is accommodating the changes they’ve experienced since last season and how they plan to repeat as the CUNYAC Champions this year. For b-roll, I hope to capture video of Gueye at basketball practices, any type of preparations/routines before game days, and hopefully record some action at a game.

HOST INTRO: For CUNY student athletes, this is only their second season of competition since everything was shut down by the pandemic, and many find themselves overwhelmed trying to find their footing again. Student athletes everywhere tend to be pretty stressed balancing their course loads with their demanding athletic schedules. According to a recent study by Northeastern University “95% of male and 85% of female athletes report higher stress compared to 52% of non-athlete students.” Elissa Leung spoke with several student-athletes at Baruch College and found that this stress is compounded even further for students at commuter schools.

AMBI: Nat sounds of athletes chatting in level B2.

TRACK: Baruch’s athletic facility, known as the ARC Arena, is located in the basement levels of the Newman Vertical Campus building. The walls are abundantly covered with the school color, blue, and the trophies of the previous champions. Student-athletes gather here in between classes and in their off time to socialize with others, work on homework, and wait anxiously for practice.

AMBI: Nat sounds of men’s basketball practice.

TRACK: Jackenson Edme, a Baruch sophomore and a member of the men’s basketball team, frequently spends time down here to study for his classes. Between his classes and commitment to the basketball team, he says it’s a lot. 

ACT: JACKENSON: Yeah sometimes I feel overwhelmed and depressed. 

TRACK: He tries to stay positive by reminding himself that he’s lucky.

ACT: JACKENSON: Many people don’t have that opportunity but I do and I try to take it serious and be a student-athlete by trying to take care of my education and basketball and try to balance them I hope.

TRACK: As a second year student-athlete, he has developed new habits and learned from his freshman year.

ACT: JACKENSON: The covid year got everyone lazy I think. But after that year I tried to catch up with my work, I tried to do the same thing I did in high school which was not helping so I had to improve. So this semester I try to study in the morning and at night which is pretty good.

AMBI: Nat sounds of women’s volleyball practice.

TRACK: Isabella Doring, a sophomore on Baruch’s women’s volleyball team, has also been making adjustments. She’s had to, because she commutes from upstate New York—an exceptionally long commute even for a mostly commuter school like Baruch.

ACT: ISABELLA: A little over 2 hours each way and people thought I was absolutely insane for doing that last year and they were definitely right it is very crazy.

TRACK: She has practice or games 6 days a week, so she’s had to find ways to make those commutes productive. 

ACT: ISABELLA: I’ve definitely learned how to manage my time around the bus so some days depending on what’s going on in school like I’ll use the bus time as like Grind Time, study, get those assignments done, but other days I’ll really use that time to just relax and have me time and listen to music and take care of my mental health a little more so I feel like it forces me to kind of get that time in for myself.

TRACK: Like Doring, other Baruch student-athletes find extra time in their commutes to either study or reset mentally. Regina Kelley, a senior on the women’s tennis team, travels from Westchester everyday for school and finds her commute therapeutic.

ACT: REGINA: I would take those commute times to walk to school from Grand Central because that gave me like nice outdoor air even though it’s the city so it’s not that great but it’s better than nothing and it helps me think and clear my head and it reduces my stress.

TRACK: Kelley feels that Baruch being a commuter school has a large impact on student-athletes like her.

ACT: REGINA: I definitely think it’s affected sort of my grades in a negative way. I think that being at school and having everything on campus would greatly reduce the stress of the student athletes. I know a lot of student athletes who commute and they get home at 11 o’clock at night from practice and they can’t study, they have to sleep.

TRACK: But student-athletes like Doring say they’ve grown a lot through these challenges. 

ACT: ISABELLA: I would say you’re so much more resilient and strong and capable then you really think you are because all this stuff I didn’t really have a choice you’re just kind of thrown into it and you just have to make the most of it.

TRACK: The women’s volleyball and men’s soccer teams will compete in the CUNYAC playoffs this week to finish off Baruch’s run at the fall CUNYAC championship berths. For Baruch College, I’m Elissa Leung.

HOST INTRO: The second class of Baruch College’s senior undergraduate students graduating after the Covid-19 pandemic is approaching in less than a year. Seniors are finishing up their final coursework and actively looking for future career or graduate opportunities in a post-covid world. Elissa Leung spoke to one Baruch College senior student about her current courseload and her future plans after graduation.

AMBI: Nat sounds of students talking by the gym

TRACK: I’m here with Julia Cuttone in level B2 of the Newman Vertical Campus, next to the crowded entrance of the gymnasiums and the overhead of the swimming pool. She’s a senior undergraduate student-athlete at CUNY Baruch College. Cuttone says she’s been able to relatively manage her course load so far.

ACT: JULIA: Honestly, all my in person classes have been going really well, it’s just my asynchronous class I’m finding it’s hard to manage because I’m not able to stay on top of deadlines, so that’s just a work in progress for me.

TRACK: On top of her rigorous academic studies at Baruch she also juggles different extracurricular activities and leadership roles.

ACT: JULIA: I’m actually the Baruch SAAC president, so I have a lot of responsibilities with that, planning events, getting the student athletes involved in community stuff. I also write for the Ticker a little bit on the side. And I’m on the softball team.

TRACK: While she finishes up her eventful last year at Baruch College, she thinks about her future plans after graduation.

ACT: JULIA: So my ultimate goal is to become an athletic director at a Division III college. So, I’m hoping that I will be going to grad school within the next few years for business administration or sports management and then taking it from there.

TRACK: Seniors like Julia Cuttone will continue to power through their last couple of semesters at Baruch College and work towards their future goals after graduation. For Baruch College, I’m Elissa Leung.

The 2021-22 school year was the City University of New York Athletic Conference’s (CUNYAC) first athletic season back from the one and a half year Covid-19 pandemic hiatus. Two years’ worth of new collegiate athletes were entering while old athletes returned after missing a couple of seasons. The CUNYAC sports scene completely changed, entire team rosters were different, some schools even had entire freshmen-based teams. At Baruch College, athletes needed to learn or even relearn how to balance school, sports, work, and life. Being a collegiate athlete means more than just showing up to practice, with it comes enormous pressure to keep up with studies, maintain strength and conditioning for the season, and lastly find some personal time to wind down. 

This school year, the majority of Baruch courses have changed back to in-person or hybrid. Some students entered their second or third year never having been on campus until this year. With these recent changes comes the need to adapt, altering previous study habits, as well as prioritization of mental health. The quick changes in less than two years can make it exceedingly difficult for students to adjust without feeling overwhelmed.

I should not have any issues interviewing athletes since it would be easily accessible on campus. For this project, I hope to speak with student-athletes from a variety of sports (swimming, basketball, volleyball, etc.) about their work-life balance and how they navigated any mental health issues they may have had. I would like to interview athletes of different class standings (freshman, seniors, etc.) to observe any differences in habits or changes in mentality. I anticipate getting audio of athletes in their sports environment which would provide diverse natural background sounds based on the individual interviewed.

https://medium.com/@elissaleung/chinatown-is-changing-e1de7635eada

https://medium.com/@elissaleung/chinatown-is-changing-e1de7635eada

https://medium.com/@elissaleung/2eb097c73742