Communication skills are the the basis of success in the world in every aspect. From personal relationships to school to the work place, communicating with your parents, your peers and your employers is the key to success. In the last 10 years, the technological advancements have stunted the importance of communicating in children especially. Today texting, gaming, tv, etc has kept kids occupied without direct communication to others. Back in the day, children played outside together, always communicating with eachother. They spent time with family participating in progressive activities. Today children play games online, chat with their friends and do not leave the house to play games. The do not communicate with friends in person, do not stay active with family, and are not very social. The lack of communication leads to many serious problems, including obesity. The young generations are becoming lazy, antisocial, game-aholic who cannot focus in school or simply introduce themselves to others in person.

I attended this Arts workshop on Oct. 6. I am actually a photography enthusiast and really enjoy photography. I did not learn much in this workshop because of my previous experience but I was glad to attend and see so many interested faces. Also there was a nice collection of photographs taken by Baruch students. I feel as if the workshop was very well organized because it gave just enough information to intrigue the students, but did not load them up with difficult techniques. It was made to interest the us and it successfully did so. I enjoyed this workshop the most.

On Nov. 19 I attended this Career Exploration Workshop. The guest speaker was tax lawer Sidney Kess, one of the most recognized individuals in the tax industry. He came to speak about his career and how he overcame hardships to get through college and lawschool. It was very funny because the students that organized this workshop wanted to ask Mr. Kess particular questions and he blew them of and spoke about the importance of the involvement in your college. Instead of explaining particular aspects of his career, he focused on reaching out to all of us to explain the importance of family, education and career choice. It was a very light and enriching experience to see an old man speak of his influential life.

This workshop was in the Mishkin gallery and it was basically paintings from the artist Mercedes Matter. A woman walked around and discussed her paintings and the symbolism in it. Mercedes drew alot of shapes and fruits in her pictures. She was an artist in the 20th century. I think some pictures were interesting with the use of different colors. In general this workshop was kind of boring because a woman was basically just walking around and describing each picture. I would not recommend this workshop unless you’re really into art. All the paintings in the gallery were donated. I thought the most interesting thing discussed in the workshop was how they are hundreds of art galleries just in New York City. However alot of them are closing with this declining economy.

I believe this was the most useful workshop i have gone to. In this workshop they discussed about how we should dress and act to possible employers. They also told us about writing thank you letters, which will give us an edge over our competition. They made us interview each other during the workshop to show us what kind of questions we can be asked and how we should respond. Internships are very important and this workshop defenitely make me want to get an internship because they explained how internships are a gateway to jobs. I think the speaker made everything very clear and  i defenitely would recommend this workshop. Interviews are going to be a part of our life and it was defenitely a good preparation for the real world.

This workshop went into great detail in teaching us tricks in getting good grades in our math courses. The most useful thing they presented us that day was how we should break down our notes and make sure its easily understandable so when we look back it we will understand it. They also discussed tutoring and how we should take advantage of the tutoring system. Practicing is very important and we should practice until we fully understand each type of problem. I think this was a pretty good workshop, but alot of the things they spoke about was common sense like we should get a good nights rest. I would not recommend this workshop, it wasn’t that beneficial.

I attended the Managing Relationships workshop on October 8th. this workshop was run quite well if i say so myself. they had two powerpoint presentations running on each side of the room. the major idea behind this whole presentation was to learn how to manage the relationships one has between their family friends and even romantic which i wasn’t expecting. they asked us to pair off into groups of three and talk about how we manage our time between the work we receive through our college classes and the time we spend on our friends family and romantic friends. the operators of the workshop wanted us to meet new people and talk with new acquaintances throughout the room. this workshop helped me create a more understandable time table for my life and even helped me improve my relationships with the people i know.

I attended the Changing Nature Race, Power, and Ethnicity in the era of Obama and Sotomayor which consisted of various club spokespeople  that discussed how both Obama and Sotomayor are changing the face of America. Also they emphasizing on how the minority population are shifting from whites to other immigrant groups such as Hispanic. They then started to show graphs and maps to show the shift on how the United States is changing. And one of the causes according to the spokespeople is Obama and Sotomayor. They have changed the way the world has is seeing the US. Before the world hated us for having white Christian presidents and now our relationships have changed to something better. Then the spokespeople  began to talk how the issue of racism still affects the world. I agree that racism can never die, it will always exist. Then people in the audience began to ask questions about economically the minority has shifted. Sadly to say this but it seems that the rich are still becoming rich while the poor are becoming more poor. But to me it seemed like this workshop was a motivational speech given to give spirit to those groups of minority. Obama has inspired many to do so. And so hopefully we all can be the change.

On thursday October 15th I went to the SACC- Everything you need to know to pass math workshop. i was really interested in this workshop because this year in math has been very unlike me i have usually excelled but with my teacher i haven’t been doing as well and i figured maybe this workshop can let me in on some tips to help me in the Baruch style of math and help me also with some study tips because in math in my opinion its either you understand it or you don’t. The speaker was a woman who tutors in the  SACC.  She was extremely  informative and gave tips that seemed to be pretty useful.  She told us that to do better in math we might need to do a number of things some would be to keep neat notes, so that you can understand what you wrote when you look back to study, don’t miss class, make study buddies, utilize SACC and tutoring when you do not understand the material, have a good attitude about math, and do all the homework’s. a final note would be to use the tutoring center in Baruch its free and is very well respected.

This workshop was definitely a very convincing and inspirational to me. It taught somethings and revealed somethings that I never known about myself. The workshop consisited of two men from Verizon who were out to give out a power point presentation about how to succedd in the business. They talked about how to network yourself and how to create your own image. First one must have the passion to be successful. Afterward make yourself gain experience through school and through clubs and internships. This is building the resume or a portfolio. Besides this, the spokespeople would talk about how to sell yourself to a company, but at a decent level. They talk about the 30 second elevator speech and what should be in it. Also they talked about how to communicate. I was surprised to hear that body language and eye contact are more important than the words you use in conversation. Image is important in the business world as well. No matter how much you hate it, people are judging you by the looks. So in an interview dress sharp and look professional. I asked a question to a spokesperson, and the question was, when it is OK to be blunt in an interview. He responded that its not ok to be brutally honest, but if you mix your passion with the real reason (money) on why you want a job then say it.