Language Test

Spring break is slowly coming to an end, and it’s time to start getting ready for school again. It was nice while it lasted, but sitting around the house for too long starts to drive me nuts. I didn’t have a chance to really go anywhere for spring break because of work, but maybe I can come up with something to do over the summer break.

Well, since I am now going to be the president of the International Business Club, I’ll need to come up with some ideas for the club. I’ve thought of some ideas already but I won’t disclose them on here. You’ll have to come to the first club meeting to find out! I want the club to be fun, as well as educational for the students. I tried to browse around different college websites and read about their clubs and activities. I’ve noticed that many of their clubs have their own website where members can keep up with club activities, have access to e-mails and references regarding to the club, among many other advantages. Maybe once the club takes off, and the school allows something along those lines, I could get some members to create a website like that.

Yesterday I got a call from the school that my Polish language test has arrived! I was at work when I got the call, but got very excited because I was able to schedule the test for today. I was scheduled to take it at ten thirty today which was perfect timing, so I got to sleep in a little. Since this test was an off site exam, the proctors at Berkeley College were nice and helpful in the Academic Support Centers, providing an alternate option to take the test here.

The test consisted of four parts. The first part was listening to a story on tape, and then answering five questions about the story. My story was about the history of Poland and a famous castle that is located on the Visula River. The passage was quite boring, but the questions were pretty easy. The second part was to write a story on your own about a topic of your choice. I wrote about my experience coming to America as a child, as well as going back to Poland on my vacation two years ago. The last two sections were about translating. First I had to translate a passage of about three paragraphs from English to Polish and then the other passage of about the same length from Polish to English. From taking the test, I noticed that I have a much easier time translating from English to Polish which surprised me!

At the end of the test my arm felt like it was going to fall off! I am so used to typing everything, that having to write so much killed my arm. On top of that, I wrote the test in pencil so that I can fix any mistakes when it came to edit and review my work. I didn’t think anything of it because when you write during your SAT’s and any other examinations, you have to write it in pencil. As I was done with the test, I reviewed the instructions that the proctor read to me to make sure I did everything right, and there it said it, “Do not write in pencil”. I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding me! So I had to rewrite everything I wrote on top of how tired my arm already was. At the end of it all, I thought I might lose an arm but besides that, I think the test went pretty well!

Internship

I am on my seventh quarter at Berkeley now, and I am more than half way done with college. I have no idea where the time has gone, but its definitely still going. I was looking over my degree audit, a form that tells you what classes you have taken as well as what classes you still need to take before you have met all of your degree requirements, and I realized that I need two internships before I graduate. I am the kind of person that likes to have everything laid out and prepared for me for when the time comes. I need to go to career services to talk about my internships and get a head start on planning things so I’m not left out in the cold when the time comes. Its never a bad thing to be prepared!

From talking to other students I have heard that during your internships you need to work about twenty to twenty five hours per week. I am hoping that career services can find me a paid internship because it will be quite hard to work two jobs as well as go to school at the same time. Have to get that process in gear!

Habitat for Humanity

My classes for this quarter are now officially over. Tuesday I finished up my last 2 exams which went pretty well. In my International Business class my group had to present our case study. We ended up doing pretty well in the class, but some people definitely did not put any effort into their work which really surprised me. I was so surprised how lenient and patient my professor was. One group did only half of the project and the professor gave them a chance to present at least what they had but they refused to get up and do it. If I was in his position I wouldn’t have even gave them a chance to do that with the attitude that they were giving him.

When I went to the Leadership Retreat a couple of months back, we spoke to the president of Berkeley College about what kind of activities we can plan to help bring the diverse population of the college together. One idea was to get students to participate in the Habitat for Humanity program. It took a couple of months, but I was excited to see advertisements around the campus about the program as well as on Blackboard, the school website for students.

I went to Mr. Maher, the director of student development to find out more information about the event. The event will take place on April 13th, and everyone has to meet at the school quite early. We are then going to be transported to Paterson, where the Habitat for Humanity headquarters is located. After that, we get our location where we are going to work, and hopefully are able to start the work around 9am. The work will continue from 9am until about noon time, where then we will have lunch. After lunch we will go back to work until about 4pm, and then come back to the campus. The school is providing all of the transportation as well as lunch for all students that are participating!

It’s great to see that what we as student leaders wanted to accomplish, the school is helping us to do so. We told the college president that this is an activity that we are interested in doing, and the Berkeley College staff helped us accomplish our goals. This gives me faith in the school that they will continue to help me on my road to success in college as well as in life with things such as their lifetime job placement assistance.

Tying the ends.

It’s finally Sunday, and my weekend is slowly coming to an end. We had another snow storm from Friday thru Saturday, so I had somewhat of an extended weekend. During this time I had a chance to work on my assignments that I have to do for my finals. My mission for this weekend was to finish a final exam packet for Business Ethics, type up a case study, figure out a problem for International Business, as well as review some formulas for my math class.

I had my final test for Organizational Behavior on Thursday. I was nervous about taking it because I didn’t spend as much time studying for it as I would have liked to. However, in the end, I didn’t do too badly on it. Berkeley College has a link on Blackboard where you can check your grades at any time to see how you’re doing in your classes. This is the only reason I know my grade already, because as of Thursday I’m done with that class so I no longer have to go back. At the end of the class the professor gave each student a book that she participated in writing.

I’ve spoken previously about the International Business Club and its faults. Going forward, I’m hoping to make some changes to things to help the club be more successful in its efforts. Thursday I got lucky when I ran into Mr.Maher who works in Student Development. I was able to talk to Mr.Maher about the current International Business Club president. I was very upset with him for not showing up to our last meeting on Wednesday and for abandoning the club. I spoke to him about the issues that the club has been having, hoping that we can come up with a solution to help the club be successful.

Mr.Maher then told me that next quarter he’s no longer interested in being the president because he’ll be switching jobs and his class schedule will interfere with him being an officer. I was actually kind of glad to hear that because he really hurt the club this quarter.

It’s too late to do anything else this quarter, but hopefully we can get more members to join next quarter during club orientation day. On that day, all the clubs get together in the Student Center to recruit students. I’ll be the president of the club for next quarter, so I’m planning to sit down with the new members and hear their opinions of what they think would be good activities for us to do. I believe that getting all the members involved in coming up with ideas and organizing things will make them feel more involved in the club.

I already have some ideas on what we should do for next quarter’s activities. Mr.Maher even offered to sit in on our first few meetings to help us create good ideas and help us lift the club off the ground. I am very excited about the new events we’ll be organizing and I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress!

Busy, busy,busy....

Can we say busy bee?!?! Two more days of classes left, a week of finals and I am done with this quarter! It seems to me like all the work is piling up for me all at once. I have never been so ready for spring break. All my friends are on spring break now, but Berkeley College has a spring break a week later than most colleges. I like this because when I’m on vacation, all my friends are already back sitting in classrooms!

I have been preparing for finals all week as well as trying to do the remaining of the work that is left for my classes like small projects and papers. Good thing I’m not doing anything this weekend so that I can get it all done! Tomorrow is one of my last classes for Organizational Behavior because we handed in our final papers early and just have to take a test tomorrow to finish up.

Berkeley College was offering stress management course today which I wish I could have gone to but unfortunately I was stuck at work. It is finally getting warm outside so I hope were going to have some good events going on at the campus. I heard that the Paramus campus is having an open day at school where you can bring someone who is interested in attending the school to sit in on your classes and spend the day with you. I think that is such a good idea because what better way to see if you like the school than go to the school for a day!

So, about the International Business Club! Last week because of snow I was unable to attend the meeting so I did not have a chance to speak to the president of the club. Today was another meeting that I was hoping I could get my chance to express my feelings and concerns for the club but he ended up not even showing up for the meeting. I waited for about twenty minutes but no luck. Then I tried to go and see the Student Development Advisor so I can speak to him about the situation, but he wasn’t in his office either so I will try to catch him tomorrow. I really want to resolve this issue and make the club a success.

I am excited about the next quarter coming up. I have never taken night classes before so I am curious how they different from day. That is if they even differ. It’s also exciting to know that I will have a whole day to do whatever I want and just attend a class in the evening. I am so glad that Berkeley College has the option of mix and matching classes for your convenience. Next quarter I am going to aim to take some online classes too but this time I will remember to register early! What’s going to be better than sitting at a pool at home over the summer and taking a class while laying around.

Well, I am off to bed because tomorrow I need to prepare myself for my last class and for a long weekend of doing work!

Hanging in there...

Ok, I am sure all of you are wondering what happened with the International Food Day event. Unfortunately, it did not happen, which is very disappointing. Tuesday morning I went around looking for any sign or form of announcement regarding the event, but there was nothing. I went to an advisor to see if they knew anything about any announcements but even they knew nothing. I asked the advisors what they think I should do and they advised me to cancel the event because a one day notice is not enough time to have a good turnout. I tried to call the president of the club around 9am, but he did not pick up his phone. Since there was not much that could be done at this point, I left him a message that I am canceling the event because nobody was aware of it.

I felt bad because I did not know the phone numbers of all the members who were in charge of bringing some type of food in. I was hoping they wouldn’t bring something in expecting the event to take place only to find out it got canceled. I finally got a call back from the president of the club around 3pm, but was unable to pick up the phone because I had a doctors appointment. He left a message saying that the event will be canceled because the school has something else going on and that the event cannot take place this Thursday. This confused me since the event was supposed to take place on Wednesday. Either way, we now have to reschedule the event. Due to the way he managed the event, such as not putting up any signs and then not letting other members know what is going on until the last minute, I have lost a lot of my trust in him and I feel that he is quite irresponsible when it comes to being a club president.

Wednesday we had more snow once again. It always seems like it only snows on either Mondays or Wednesdays when I have classes that I do not want to miss. School was not canceled but most students did not show up anyway because of the poor road conditions. That day it took me an hour and a half to get to class! By the time I got to class, the class was over but I’m glad that my professor is understanding and did not count that as me missing class.

Today I was able to get a head start and work on a few of my final exam papers since I do not have any typical exam tests. For one class I will have a paper due about something I enjoyed doing in class from the book. This should be fun since I will be writing about what I liked instead something that is being forced upon me. In another class I have a take home test which should be pretty easy if I put some effort into it and in another class I have a group project where we have to work on a case study. I am hoping to get all A’s in all my classes, but we will see how that goes.

Berkeley College is having some interesting activities going on soon that I wish I could attend. Next week on Wednesday the school is having a stress management seminar where you can learn how to deal with stress and how to avoid it. I could definitely use that but unfortunately I have to work and cannot make it.

This weekend, one of the professors who is also an actor is putting on a play at the school. I have never been to his plays but I have heard they are very good! This weekend I am going away so I cannot make it to that either!

Today in class I got excited because I was able to use my experience from going to the Leadership Retreat in Baltimore. In my organizational behavior class we were talking about change in organizations and how hard it is to accomplish. When I was at the retreat we spoke about change as well and how hard it is to change peoples’ habits. I gave an example of when we talked about the rubber band effect and how a person is like a rubber band when trying to change. A rubber band when stretched has a force pulling it back down to go back to its normal state the whole time until it snaps. This is like a person trying to change because if you are trying to change and achieve something, your will power has to be strong enough to keep going and not revert back to your normal state. Depending on what you are trying to achieve or change, sometimes you even have friends, family members, or people you care about trying to pull you back and prevent you from changing.

Coming from a Polish family, my parents are very over-protective and are always afraid of change and going away from the norm. They are afraid of me trying new things that are not secure and taking a risk because sometimes you may not achieve what you want and you may fail. Berkeley College has definitely taught me that it is important to take risks and chances in order to succeed because if you do not even try, how can you achieve anything. Things just do not come to you themselves, you have to strive for them.

Well, it is getting late and I still have some work to catch up for my classes. Till next time!

Running out of time!

I am starting to get quite agitated and nervous because time is running out! With the International Food Day just two days away, I hope that everything works out well. Some members were in charge of putting up signs around the school about the event, but I have yet to see a single sign up! This is bad news because people will not know that the event is going on and we will lose money on the project. As I mentioned earlier, this event is very important to us because we have lost some members already and this is a way to show them that we can still pull through.

Not only is the International Food Day not announced yet, on Wednesday, the day of the event, it’s going to snow! This can either mean two things. One, we will have no school or a delayed opening and all our hard work will be for nothing, or two, we will have school and everyone will be forced to come inside because of the snow right where the good food will be and buy our food.

Tomorrow is going to be quite a hectic day for me. I have to run around to all sorts of stores trying to get things for the event since we do not have that many members. I am in charge of the hot dogs, seasoned rice, and today I found out that I need to get tray stands too so that we can heat up the food. The member who was in charge of that found out that he does not have any at home so it ends up that I have to get some. After I get all that stuff, I need to cook! The cooking part will hopefully be fun since I do enjoy cooking. I don’t think that I have ever cooked in those amounts though!

I never knew being in charge was this much responsibility! It is my goal to make this event successful. I will go to someone tomorrow to find out about the signs and why they are not posted. Even though it may be a little late at this point, a day notice about the event is better than no notice at all!

Wish me luck!

Almost over!

Last day of classes for me this week! Yesterday we had our meeting for the International Business Club to make the final decisions for the International Food Day event. Pulling everything together is a lot harder than I expected it to be. Doing this project though is giving me a good experience in what it is like to be a manager.

I have been trying to work on some activities to do next quarter with the club. One of the ideas is to possibly have a clothing drive with the warm days approaching. Everyone starts taking out their summer and spring clothing out of the closets after the winter months have passed, and usually find a bunch of clothing that they know they will never wear! I am one of those people myself, and I hate seeing clothing go to waste. I have done some research for non profit organizations around my area and now have some locations in mind.

I spoke to someone who is very involved in volunteering and doing a lot of activities for non profit organizations to get some tips and ideas. I was told that it’s good to call the shelter before doing the drive to get an idea of what the shelter is in need of. For example, they may have an abundance of shirts but may be in need of pants. In this case you would try to get as many pants as you can.

On Wednesday we also had a Jazz band play during our activity period. I’m not sure if I remember their name, but it was quite interesting. I love watching bands play live and seeing their talent. They played all types of different songs, even some we were able to sing along to. I stayed for the show until had to go to class.



For some reason, with all the classes coming to an end and the quarter being almost over, I can’t find any motivation to do anything. I have some papers to do, and research to catch up on, but its just not working! I think I’ll make the Presidents list this quarter if everything goes well. At Berkeley you make the presidents list when you have all A’s and the Deans list when you have all A’s and B’s. I just have to make sure that my Organizational Behavior test goes well and I get a good grade on the final paper, a 5 page essay on a subject of my choice.

It looks like we have some interesting events coming up at Berkeley. When you are a student here you have access to a thing called Blackboard, a website where you can check your assignments, upcoming events, view your grades, take care of students accounts and much more. I love reading the upcoming events so that I can mark my calendar. One thing that caught my eye was the student versus faculty volleyball game. I may consider participating in that! It’s important to get to know your professors and staff, so this will be a good way to network. As also it will be a great opportunity to kick their butt in some friendly competition!