Happy Holidays!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have written a blog. I don’t think I have ever gone this long without writing something. Between work keeping me busy, trying to stay calm during the holiday season, avoiding traffic on the roads and keeping in touch with people it’s been very hard to manage my time. A lot of things happening all at once can keep you on your toes but I sure hope that you can dance on your toes at the same time to keep everything moving smoothly!

Something funny happened last week. I was doing some work and I decided to take a small break. I picked up the newspaper and I was reading it just like any other day. I got to the Local section of The Record, I flip the page and there is my face! Right in the middle of the page, about quarter of the page was my face on a Berkeley College ad. First I stared at it for a while with a shocked look on my face and then I busted out laughing. This was so unexpected that I couldn’t hold in the laughter and surprise. The ad was for an Open House that Berkeley was holding at the Garret Mountain campus on the 13th of December. I didn’t expect this because the picture they took was a totally different picture and it was pasted into the ad. Lucky for me it was a good picture!

I was going through my Facebook the other day and I noticed that Amy Young, the Student Development Director added some new pictures to the Berkeley Facebook on her page. The pictures were of her and Amisha donating hair to Locks of Love! I was so shocked and proud that they cut off the beautiful long hair for such a good cause. Even thought I cannot donate my hair because I dye it, I don’t think I would have the guts to cut off so much of my hair all at once. It’s too drastic of a change for me all at once. I am so proud of them for doing it though!

Every time I come back to the Berkeley website I see something new, or some type of change that was made to the website. It’s great how much the college is upgrading things. If you are an Alumni you have different Blackboard capabilities that are much more restricting than a student’s Blackboard. You can only basically use Career Services, E-mail, Community, and view your personal information. I wish I could view the announcement page so that I could see what is going on at the campus, what events are running and other things. I always like to keep in touch but without seeing the announcements I can’t really see what’s going on. Many times they have plays or BBQ’s that I don’t know happen because I can’t see it anymore. I hope that’s an update that can be made one day. I know some other Alumni who would like to still keep in touch with what’s going on at the campus.

The weekend has come and gone and it’s time to go back to work. Berkeley students are slowly getting ready for finals and the end of the fall quarter already. Talking to students makes me feel like I’m still in school which feels great. I remember quarters flew by so quickly so you really needed to enjoy them while you could. Having quarters instead of semester’s makes your whole college career feel like it’s going by quicker. Sometimes you felt like you blink and it’s gone!

I saw that Berkeley had a great event going on a few weeks back! The event was called the Multicultural Festival and it was created so that students can appreciate and learn about the different cultures on the campus. This event has been being planned since before I graduated. I am so happy to see it come together and finally happen at the campus. Check out the pictures!

Cultures

As a student at Berkeley something you will notice among the student body is the large diversity of students that attend the campus. You will see students from all over the world who speak different languages and have different cultural traditions. It’s important that you embrace this variety of people because recently I have learned how important cultural differences are in people.

Being in charge of hiring people you have to be very aware different cultural norms and be very open minded to difference traditions. This past week I came across a woman named Abby who had an excellent resume and was a very nice person. I am looking to hire people who can speak different languages so that I can diversify my market and work with different ethnic groups. She is Greek and speaks Greek fluently. When I was interviewing her I was surprised to find out that she refuses to work with other Greeks. This got me very curious about the culture and I asked her why. Apparently Greeks always refuse to work with different Greeks because they do not trust each other. They don’t mind having Greek friends, or associating with other Greeks but working with other Greeks is apparently out of the question.

I found this to be very fascinating because being at Berkeley exposed me to many different cultures but now I get to experience these things in real life. Berkeley offers many classes on cultures that I have taken, but there is something about experiencing these situations in real life that makes them much more interesting. I was prepared by my previous classes that many people have different values and cultural norms which helped me understand her. Someone who does not have this kind of training could react negatively to her approach to the interview, but because she saw that I valued her cultural view she was much more comfortable working with me.

Sometimes you sit in class and wonder “When will I ever use this?” Some things that I have learned I never thought I’d have to use but is now helpful to me. Never take what you learn for granted because you just never know when you will need it!

Networking

When you start working you end up having responsibilities that you have never had before. Working after graduating college is much different than working while you are in college. When you are in college you know that school is your number one priority and work is just a side thing. When you no longer have that school to focus on you come to realize that work is all you have going for you at this time.

The number one thing in the work force is who you know. This is something people repeat to you all the time but you don’t realize the importance of it until you are actually out and working in the field. When I was in school people always told me it’s important to make connections with people and network but I never understood why. I knew it had some importance because it’s always good to know people, but not to this extent. When I work with people now, I always try to make a long lasting relationship because you never know who you may need in the future. It’s always important to treat people with respect and treat them the way that you want to be treated.

One example of this was when I went to the career fair. There were many companies that were there and talked to some students when a student came up to them. What I did is I walked around and talked to students myself instead. I asked them how they were doing, what they thought of the fair, I introduced myself and I’m sure that I left a much more lasting impression on them than other companies. Now that many companies are laying people off the companies that are hiring act as if they are doing you a favor. Many times I feel they tend to forget that they need mutual respect in order to have a good working relationship with an employee. When a company respects the employee they build a much better relationships and the employee tends to be much more productive. When I look for people to hire I try to make sure I treat them with respect and make it known that they are valuable. Many companies treat their employees like an expense but I try to make them feel like an asset to the company.

Meeting new people is very important to me right now because I am trying to create new connections. Yesterday I decided to join a gym, SPA 23, so that I can take classes and network with people. There is a very broad range of people who attend SPA 23 which will give me the opportunity to make connections with various people. You have to be creative in meeting people and I am happy that I made the decision to join the club. They have really cool classes that you can take for free such as yoga, Pilates, kickboxing etc. I am very excited!

Career Day

Wow, talk about not blogging in a long time! I have been so preoccupied with many different things that I just haven’t had the time to sit down and think of something to write about. I really love what I do but boy, it keeps me busy.

Last Friday was Berkeley’s Career Day. Even thought I was not looking for a job, I decided to still attend and network with current and graduated students as well as the different companies that were there. I wanted to have a table set up at the Career Day for my company but I spoke to a woman named Barbara and she told me that they already had enough of companies in my field attending. At first I was bummed to find that out but then I thought that this will just be a great opportunity for me to talk to people.

Many times Career Fairs are frustrating because some companies do not give you much information. Often they tell you to go to their website and look at what positions they have available. When this happens to me I get very frustrated because I didn’t come all the way to the career fair just to be told to go online. If I wanted to just go online I would have saved gas and just gone online. Berkeley Career Day was great. The companies there were friendly and some of them even did interviews on the spot. They had rooms and tables set up just for interviews. They even had group interviews.

Since I did not have a table I walked around and talked to people. When the economy went down the demand for our managers and trainers went up very high and we are currently looking to put a new management team together. Most companies are laying people off but our company is hiring! This makes me so excited. I walked around, asked students what they thought of the fair, and told them about the opportunity that my company is offering. They seemed very excited and I already invited some of them for an interview tomorrow.

It was really nice going back to a school activity and talking to people I know. I ran into many Career Counselors and people who work in Student Development. I talked to them how glad I am that I finally graduated and how well I was doing. I wish I could have seen Dean Hughes because I have worked with him so much but maybe next time!

Activitites

For many people graduating college means never being involved with their school again. People graduate, move away, and don’t really care to stay involved. In other cases there are situations where people do want to stay involved but their college does not offer any opportunities for them to get involved. I have only been a graduate for a little over a month, but I was already offered opportunities to attend and participate.

Next week Berkeley is having a career convention for graduates. During this time people can attend, see other graduates, explore careers available and talk to different vendors. This will be held during the activity period at the Garret Mountain campus. I am very excited to see everyone at Berkeley. I miss everyone at the Student Development department as well as everyone that I have worked with.

Another exciting activity that’s coming up is Career Day. Career Day is a modified Career Fair where instead of trying to find a job, students are there to learn about jobs, interview practices, find out what employers are looking for and maybe they will get lucky and find a job. Many people have misconceptions about job fairs thinking that you go there to find a job. Sometimes this does happen but Career Fairs are there mostly for networking opportunities. You meet employers and make possible connections with people that may be useful to you.

I am really excited about this Career Day because I am not only trying to go there as a graduate but as an employer as well. I got an e-mail from Mr. Wood, who is in charge of Alumni relations that this event will be going on and if you are an employer you can also have a table. I have e-mailed him last week and once this week but I have not yet received anything back yet. I will try to call him today or tomorrow to see if I can get a hold of him through the phone. My company is currently looking to put together a new management team and we are looking for well rounded people with a strong business mind and someone who likes working with people. This Career Day event would be a perfect place to start my search.

I also need to call Berkeley to find out about my diploma. It has been over a month since I have graduated, but I haven’t heard anything from the school yet. I knew that it was going to take a while because they need to confirm that you have completed all the requirements, but I’m not sure as to how much longer this will take. I did receive a great letter from one of my loan company though! It said that because I have achieved above a 3.5 GPA I do not have to pay off my loan! How great is that? That must have been the best letter that I have received all month. It pays off to pay attention and do well in school. It saved me about $4,000.

Interviews

As I wrote in my last blog you go through a lot of changes during college but you go through more changes even after college. Some change is voluntary and some change in inevitable because you have to adjust to the change of environment around you. You get to meet many different people and you notice the different types of qualities in people.

Being in a position in my new job where I hire people on a weekly basis I get to see many different faces and personalities. Being exposed to so many different people you get to compare them to one another and pick out people you like versus people who would not fit in with your company. The thing that I pay attention to the most is people’s interview skills and how they can maintain a conversation. Let me tell you, it is amazing what you come across!

Some people that I interview I would never even guess they graduated from college. They are sloppy, no manners, thinks their doing you a favor and just act ridicules. In my opinion this not only makes them look bad but also the college that they graduated from. Coming from Berkeley I have a full understanding of the interview process, the possible questions that may be asked and I know to prepare for an interview and not just show up. Berkeley not only taught me how to interview but they also were there for me to do mock interviews if I needed it. They would role play with me and ask me questions an employer would so that I wouldn’t be so nervous.

Some of the things I see is people coming to an interview in sneakers, not groomed, don’t know how to answer questions or don’t even bother brining in a resume. Once I asked a girl a question and she sat in front of me for at least a minute unable to tell me 3 positive qualities about herself. I remember in Placement Seminar we had to write out all the good and bad qualities about ourselves and how to make the negative stuff sound good. For example, when you want to say that you like having your way, of course you wouldn’t say that. Instead you say that you are persistent and you like to get your idea across.

I am so happy that Berkeley was able to provide me with out of college experience in college. Watching some people today makes me feel very good about my skills and I can feel confident that I stand out when I go into an interview. The best part is that even though I have already graduated I can always go back and practice with a counselor. They will even edit my resume for me if I need it. How cool is that???

Life and Motions

This morning I woke up at 5am with the worse sore throat ever. Because I work at my own convenience I decided to not go to work because I want to rest and get rid of this sore throat. Now that I have had some extra time, I have decided to reflect back on my college career and give people some advice.

The number one thing that hit me the most is how many changes you go through not during college but after college. Throughout your education even though you are on your own you are still sheltered by the people around you. The best way for me to describe this is through different bodies of water. For example when you are in high school it’s like you are in a fish bowl. You meet different people, you still live at home, you get fed on time, people clean up your messes, look out for you, take care of you etc.

When you reach college you are now in a pond or a lake. You get to meet a larger variety of people, you have more freedom of where you can swim, you don’t have as much restrictions, more options are available to you such as clubs, organization etc but you are still pretty sheltered by the people around you. Sometimes environmentalists come in to clean up lakes and ponds to make the water better, sometimes they come in and put more fish in. Similar things happen when you are in college. You have tutors to help you, recruiters bring more students in for you to meet and there is help everywhere in case you need it.

When you finally graduate college and you are done with your education you have finally reached the ocean. Now you are free, happy, think you can do anything and then reality hits you that you are on your own. There is nobody there to hold your hand and you hit the survival of the fittest instinct. You have to learn to control your own time, be responsible on your own, take care of yourself and make things happen for yourself. You have the whole ocean available to you but where you go and what you do is up to you. You just have to be very careful where traps and dangers are lurking.

The changes that I noticed in myself after graduation are amazing. I have met a lot of great people that have rubbed off on me which helped me change my personality and perspective on life. I was never a fan of change because I like things organized but I realized in real life there is no such thing as no change. Change happens every day and you have to adjust in order to survive. I have definitely become more independent and can make my own decisions much better.

Many times your personality doesn’t fully develop until you move out of the house and you are in a totally different environment. Being around people you know and family you tend to act a certain way but being around new people you also act different. When you spend enough time with new people and don’t have to meet certain expectations of people you know, you change your perspective on things and your personality. Your priorities shift where what once was important no longer is and what once wasn’t important now is.

In a nut shell there are many changes awaiting you when you graduate college. Sometimes people don’t believe a thing until it happens to them but this is something that I have experienced firsthand. As much as I don’t like change it’s something I had to adjust to and just go with the flow. College is an adventure but life after college is an even bigger adventure! Just think, it’s like having the WHOLE ocean to explore!!!

Changes

Have you had a chance to look at the new Berkeley website and see all the changes that have been going on? I haven’t been on the Berkeley website for a while because I graduated and no longer need to log into blackboard. The other day I finally made my way to the website and I was all confused where to go! EVERYTHING is different but it’s a good different. I love the new colors they used and the way they organized everything in order to make navigation easier for the students and potential students.

When I started to explore the website I realized that Berkeley used its current students to use on the website, not models! How awesome is that the school can be proud enough of its students to use them? When I realized that I started looking through all the different pages to see where my face would end up! I saw the blogging picture every time I moved from page to page and it made me laugh every time because it was me everywhere I navigated.

Another change that I noticed is that I now have different Berkeley Blackboard access. I can no longer view things that are going on at the campus such as activities announcements, classes available, advisement, financial aid etc. All that I can view now is announcements from career services, the student self service to view my past payment history and grades, e-mail and the community tab. I was a little disappointed about this because I love seeing the activities on campus that I could possibly attend. Instead I e-mailed Ms. Young and asked her for the calendar of events. This way I can stay updated and pick which events I want to attend even though I have already graduated.

Multicultural Chillax

I have not written on my blog for a while but I have a good excuse! I was in Europe!!! I finally came back on Sunday, and I was so happy to be back. I always love vacations but I always get home sick and want to come back after a week.

I need to catch up and let you know about some of the events that we have been doing right before I graduated. As you know from previous blogs at the end of each quarter we always do a Chillax day where we have activities for students where they can relax, take a load off and have some fun before the week of finals. Well what we did this Chillax day is we combined two events together and made it into one.

Ale who is the vice president of the school really wanted to do something multicultural related because Berkeley is such a diverse school. We were running out of time because we are about to graduate and we have submitted proposals months ago. What we finally came up with is a Multicultural Chillax Day! It ended up being so much fun. We had food that we served for absolutely free, games, painting, and much more. Ms. Young was away on vacation so she was unable to help us but I think we did a pretty good job. Check out the pictures!

The End

I have been so caught up with the end of the school quarter that I haven’t had a minute to sit down and write a blog. Yesterday was my last day of classes besides my online classes and it was such a nice fair well that Ms. Young made for us. As goodbye presents we got beautiful scrapbooks to make us remember Berkeley and all the events that we have done, a GREAT chocolate cake, and were still going to receive something in the mail as a thank you for all our work. It was so exciting but sad at the same time. We tried to find Dean Hughes to say our bye’s but we were unable to find him. We will still be coming on campus all the time so I’m sure we will see him again and again.

Yesterday we also had a pizza party in our class! For the last day of class which is the day of our final we decided to collect money from the class and buy pizza. At first another student was in charge of it but somehow in the process I became in charge of it! After our fair well with Student Development Ale and I went to the pizza restaurant picked up our pizzas, got some drinks, napkins, I brought plates and cups from home and we had a great party together!

Since I will be graduating I will no longer have anything to blog about regarding Berkeley activities since I’m not on campus anymore. What I will continue doing though it letting you know what life is like after Berkeley. I can blog about what have I learned at Berkeley that I am using today in life and how I can refer back to the school for help and assistance. Even though you are a college graduate, that college will always be part of your life. I am very excited to step into another part of my life and begin something new all over again!

Almost the End

Graduation is only a few days away and I am slowly getting very excited. Sometimes I think of never going back to school and it’s just strange thinking about that. Every time I pass school supplies in the store I think that I don’t have to get a notebook anymore or go back to school shopping etc. Once I start working full time I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself without having to do extra work when I come home from work. I got so used to this lifestyle for so long that it’s just strange knowing that it will be gone.

I asked Ms. Young if it would be possible for me to stay on the mail list once I graduate. Even though I will not longer be here I will want to stay informed about what’s going on, participate in some activities when I am in town and just visit everyone I got close to. I’m curious to see as to who the next president will be and who will take my place from September to November when they elect a new president. I will definitely miss everyone here.

Today was the longest day of my life. For my new job I have to get licensed in order to work and I need to take a 20 hour class. Well come to find out this class is 10 hours a day for 2 days! I spent 11 hours in a classroom today learning about financial information with one hour break for lunch. I have to admit it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be but it was pretty long. The good thing was that everyone in the classroom was in the same boat and we all supported each other through the process. There were about 40 students in the class and it was nice to get to know different people. Next week I have to do another 10 hour session and then take a pre-test to qualify for my state test.

After I do all that I am off to Europe for a week and a half!

Almost the End

Yesterday was the last SGA meeting that we had with all our members because next week Ms. Young will not be there. She is going on vacation and we are on our own next week to run the meeting and the Chillax event. This Chillax day we decided to spice things up a little make it a Multicultural Chillax! It was sad that it was the last official day of all the members together but I’m also happy that I am graduating.

For the Multicultural Chillax day we wanted to spice things up before we leave and make things more interesting to students. We will have the regular Chillax day with mocktails, crafts etc but we will also add entertainment. Ale who is the vice president was supposed to work with a new club at Berkeley called LASSO but they have not gotten back to her or come to our meetings. We are not sure what they are up to or what they want to do about the event. They were going to do Latin dancing and inform the students about the different cultures of Latin countries. Should be interesting!

In my Global and Social Change class we are planning to have pizza on the last day of class. At first someone else was in charge of it but then the guy didn’t want to do it anymore and asked me if I could be in charge because I’m more responsible. At first I was hesitant of doing it but then I figured I’m in school anyway I might as well organize it and pick up the pizzas. I’m excited that my last few days at Berkeley will be fun.

Graduation!

Happy Labor Day! Today we had no school, no work and a lot of lounging around! This weekend was my birthday/graduation party and it was a lot of fun. I had all sort of students come from college, neighbors and friends outside of school. My party started at 4pm and it lasted until about 11pm. I really enjoyed myself and it was great to see that people cared to come and see me on my special day.

Many SGA students feel that Berkley should have 2 graduations. I am graduating in 08 but I won’t walk graduation until 09. All my graduation props will say 09 and it just won’t be the same because I graduated in 08. Because graduation costs may be high due to renting out the place etc maybe it would be a good alternative to allow students who will be likely to pass that year. For example for the past 10 quarters I have always gotten honor roll and chances are I will not fail a class before my graduation. It would be nice if we could walk the graduation in April since I will be graduating in September.

At Student Government I am slowly starting to run out of things to talk about. We have accomplished a lot of things in the past year and I hope we keep on doing a great job. I don’t want to plan too much into the future because I will not be here and I want the future president to do as he/she pleases and not have to still run off of things I planned. This week we have a meeting with other campuses and Berkeley staff to talk about the things that we think Berkeley needs from a student standpoint. We have been planning this meeting for a very long time and we are happy to see it come together for the last time before I leave.

It will be very hard to leave everyone I know and the SGA that I helped to build. I guess it’s a process of moving on and starting fresh. I hope that I can always come back and help them out whenever they need me.

It's My Birthday!!!

Today is a beautiful day because it is my BIRTHDAY!!! This year flew by and I have no idea where the time has gone. I remember when I was a child and waiting for Christmas felt like forever and now a year just flies by like nothing. I heard that the older you are the faster time goes because a year is such a smaller part of your life. For example when your five one year is 1/5 of your life versus when your 50 it’s only 1/50 of your life which is a lot smaller of a piece. I can just imagine what people in their 90’s feel like! They must blink and the year is gone.

Anyway, yesterday at SGA I was pleasantly surprised with cupcakes, flowers and a bracelet made out of beads from SGA. It was very nice of them to do that and it put a BIG smile on my face. At the meeting students were very interested in what happened at the Leadership follow-up meeting and we were happy to tell them. The most important things we mentioned were the transportation, meal plans, and our conversation with the Berkeley COO. Needless to say they were very thrilled that the word is getting out there and some changes may be made.

Today at the Garret Mountain campus we are making jewelry! We have been working to collect donations for JDRF for the walk in November. Today students who want to make jewelry have to give us a donation and then they can make anything they want. This event will be really fun because people really like to do crafty things at this campus. The weather is perfect today so it will be really nice to spend time with my classmates. It’s so sad knowing that it’s the last few days I am here but as with everything else “To every end, there is a new beginning”.

Lots of Work!

As you know the end of the quarter is approaching and just like any other end of the quarter work is piling up and I need to keep up. I would say that my Sociology class is the most time consuming because the professor gives us a lot of work for an online class. Last week for example I had to do 2 discussion boards where you have to make a main post and then respond at least 2 times to your classmates, 4-6 different videos you have to watch, read two chapters from the book about 40 pages long each, read and review 2 PowerPoint presentations, read lecture notes as well as other materials that the professor provides. It’s a lot of work!

One thing I love in this class is the National Geographic’s website that the professor introduced us to. I always knew their website existed but I never bothered with the videos that they had. I love going to the website when I have spare time and watch different videos about the different cultures we have in this world. Its funny and interesting at the same time to see how different people see different things. For example my most eye opening video was of people who scarred themselves on purpose because they believed that scars made you beautiful.

In the modern world we may think that’s crazy and how could that be beautiful but you have to look at the the different things that we do that would sound crazy to other people. We pluck and fax our hairs, put on makeup and fancy clothing etc. We harm our bodies a lot more than those people do with different chemicals and peals we apply to our faces not to mention all the plastic surgeries people get. It’s interesting when you try to compare us to people in undeveloped countries we are not that much different.

Tomorrow is another SGA meeting and I am very excited to bring back to the students what we learned about at the Leadership follow up. We have a lot of explanations to issues that we have brought up which will make them very happy. They will also be happy to know that we let the right people know of the issues and that they will be working to fix them in the right times.

Busy Bee!

It’s the end of the week and I have so much outstanding work that I don’t even want to think about it. It’s not that I have been lazy but I had so much other work to do this week that everything just build up. I have become part of a new company where I am training to become a Financial Educator which has been taking a decent amount of my time. On Wednesday I had a follow-up Leadership meaning with all the students of SGA which took all morning but it was a great time invested. I am covering for someone at work so I did not have all Thursday like I normally do to do my work.

On Tuesday Dr. Cortes kept his word came to our SGA meeting. He came promptly at 4:30 and was able to stay until 5pm to speak to us. The students were very happy to see him because it’s important that he stays involved with the students. When we talked about issues such as the meal plans daily budget he explained things to us where we can now understand why some things are done the way they are. What we have been trying to do is give students a daily budget for meal plans instead of a budget per meal. What was explained to us that the reason this is the way it is, is because the school has a contract with a food company and they cannot have everyone skipping breakfast and buying lunch because then they may run out of lunch. It made sense to us after we were explained this concept.

Something I never knew about Berkeley was that Berkeley now owns Dover College! When I was at school on Wednesday I saw this huge picnic festival going on at the campus and it raised my curiosity as to what was going on. Well I went to talk to the students and they told me they’re from Dover College and they got invited to this picnic as a welcoming get together. They had a dunk tank, food, a person who did portraits, volleyball and many other things. It was a very nice event and the food smelled good!

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings!

Today was a day of meetings, meetings and more meetings. This morning I got up early and attended the Leadership follow up with the different students from all the Berkeley campuses. It was really cool because we were all at our own campuses and we were all connected via videoconferences. The videos were voice activated and whenever a certain location spoke the screen would pop up to that campus. It was really awesome because I have never seen anything like that. One student said he even felt like he was at a candy store.

In this meeting we prepared for a meeting that will take place on September 5th with the president of the college and different board members to discuss the new Strategic Plan for Berkeley. Some of the issues we have touched on were transportation for evening students and between campuses, meal plan options for dorming students, more computer labs available to students, lower management levels, peer coaching, and having more than one graduating ceremony per year.

This conference was a great experience for many of us. Sometimes it is hard to work with a large group of people because everyone has something to say and sometimes people feel that their opinions are always right. We got lucky that we had a great group that was very willing to compromise and brought amazing ideas to the table. We got some good ideas going and alternatives to certain issues that will give us great choices to pick from.

We really thought that it would be important that we keep doing these conferences to stay on the same page. It seems that Berkeley students really want to connect between the campuses despite the distance. We may each be a small, personal campus but together we make a great, strong team!

Homework is Due!

I have been putting off the papers that I have due at the end of the quarter but now it’s time to face those things! I have been dreading doing those things because September seemed so far away and I didn’t want to think that I will be graduating college so soon. On one hand I can’t believe how fast it flew, how I will miss everyone and just having the responsibilities of a student but on another hand I cannot imagine having to spend another year in college!

For my Sociology class I have 2 papers due. One of them is called Sociology of Disaster and the other one is called Sociology of Film. In the Sociology of Disaster paper what we have to do is go to the Natural Hazards Center website, Familiarize ourselves with the mission of the center, go to "quick response program" and learn about how social scientists can participate in disaster research at the center, choose two reports that addresses subjects that interest you, and answer the following questions:

• What research question (or problem) did the researcher choose to study?
• What research methods (data gathering tools) did the researcher use to collect data?
• What were the findings of the research?
• How significant were the findings in contributing to our understanding of disasters?
• This assignment has to be 2-3 pages typed and submitted by September 1st.

On the second assignment we have to do things a little differently. First we have to pick 3 movies that we want to choose from and pick our number one choice of the movie we want to analyze. We then have to e-mail those choices to the professor and he lets us know if they are available or not. From there we have been given different choices of questions that we can address. Here are some choices:

• What is the central social and cultural issue that the film presents?
• Are the issues raised by the film relevant to American culture today?
• Does this movie illustrate sociological concepts, themes and ideas? Which ones and how?
• How is the world depicted in the film? Is it a world of war, love, conflict, laughter, rebellion, exploitation, hate, etc.?
• How does this movie portray the individual? Is he or she placed within the social and cultural context? How about the historical context?
• Are social roles a factor in the movie? How about gender roles?
• Is social class a factor? How about social mobility?
• What types of groups exist in the film? Are there divisions? Are there attempts to bridge differences?
• Is social integration a theme in the movie? Are individuals alienated from work, family, community and/or society?
• Other sociological themes could be about anything that we have learned in this class. Examples include family life, war, the future, growing up, growing old, romance, crime, bureaucracy, race, religion, work, social movements, etc

This assignment is due September 6th which is right before the final week for school. I hope that I have given you a good outlook of what it’s like to be a Berkeley student. As you can see the assignments are a lot of work but they are fun. You don’t have to research boring things that don’t interest you instead you get exciting topics that are actually interesting.

Meetings!

On Tuesdays morning I was sitting doing some work on my computer for my internship when I got an e-mail from Ms. Young. The e-mail was asking me if I can come to the school before noon because the Berkeley President Dr. Dario Cortes wants to meet with me! I got very excited because not many people get this kind of opportunity at their college or university. I got ready really fast since it was already 10:40 and I left.

When I got to the school I went to Ms. Young’s office to ask her where I have to go and she told me to go to the corporate offices. I spoke to Dr. Cortes’s secretary and I waited about 5 minutes before going in. When I went in the office I was greeted with a very friendly atmosphere and a very welcoming handshake. I sat down in his office and we chatted for about 15 minutes.

He wanted to invite me to his office to let me know that he has an open door policy for students. He may be a busy man but he feels that students are very important and he wants to make himself available for them. I remembered back when I was part of the interviewing process for the new president one of my concerns and number one questions was “How would you make yourself available to students?” Dr. Cortes answered that he feels this is very important and he would try his best to have an open door policy. I am very happy to see that he kept his word to the students. I invited Dr. Cortes to our SGA meeting next Tuesday and he was very willing to come and sit in. This will be very exciting!

Another thing that I have been working on is planning for a video conference on August 20th with different members of Berkeley staff to discuss student issues around the NJ and NY campuses. Back around May I had the Strategic Planning meeting where we talked about some of those issues already which prepared me well for this meeting. I added some things to the list and I hope the meeting goes well. Yesterday we have decided that not only should the Presidents be allowed in this meeting but other SGA members that are interested in sitting in as well. Should be a great experience!

UGH at Job Searching!

Last week I have begun job searching for a full time job and I am excited about the process already! I will be graduating mid September and I want to get something lined up for myself so that I am ready to go when I graduate. I am planning on moving to the South Jersey section primarily Burlington County because it’s a really nice area and the economy is pretty good.

I started off with putting my resume on CareerBuilder, Monster, HotJobs and of course the Berkeley CareerZone. My resume was already updated and reviewed since I have taken the Placement Seminar class before I started my internship. Before students take this class they complain that it not something their interested in but once they take it they realized how many things they have learned. I personally loved the class. I didn’t realize how many errors I had on my resume and how much better I could be at interviews. I learned basic questions that employers ask and how to answer them correctly. This is the kind of education that other colleges and universities do not offer.

So I have been e-mailing with Mr. Castro for a bit to see what kind of suggestions he has for me since I have started looking. At first he sent me an e-mail that I should come in and review my resume and interview skills. When I thought about it I thought why am I going to go there to review my resume when I already did that during Placement Seminar? Well I decided to go down there anyway because you never know what kind of tips you can get and what you may learn.

When I went there Mr. Castro welcomed me and I told him my situation and my goals. I told him that I was having issues with CareerZone and he showed me how I can get the best use of the website and these were great tips. He directed me to a website called Indeed where you can search jobs not only from search engines but from individual companies as well. At first I was confused but this is how it works. Say you are searching for a job on CareerBuilder and you find jobs. The jobs that you find are only the jobs that were posted by employers on Career Builder. Then say you have Comcast who posts their job only in the Career’s Section of their website. These jobs are obviously not going to show up on CareerBuilder because the employer did not post them there. What Indeed does is combines the two search options and when you search you get results from search engines such as CareerBuilder AND private websites. Great idea huh!

So for now I am continuing on my job search and keeping touch with Mr. Castro because he is a great help. This process can get annoying and aggravating but it is the journey of all college graduates!

Eva's Village

It’s already Friday and I am slowly finishing up all my work so that I am ready for the weekend. I wanted to mention how much Berkeley is involved with the community around us and the difference that the students make. Almost every quarter Berkeley volunteers at Eva’s Village only a few minutes from the campus in Paterson. Eva’s Village is a nonprofit agency that feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless and provides treatment to addicts. Berkeley students are very committed and every quarter we volunteer to serve at the soup kitchen.

This is not only a great experience for students but it’s rewarding and educational. When you do acts like these you feel good about yourself and you realize certain things. Seeing the people coming to the soup kitchen is very emotional for students. They get to realize how far they have come in life being in college and how bright their future looks. You get to appreciate the things you have and the things you are doing because you see that not everyone is so fortunate.

I am very happy that Berkeley does this for the community and for its students. It’s very eye opening for everyone involved. Soon they will be helping build a playground for children in Paterson as well. Here are some pictures of students doing their volunteer work!

I Bet You Didn't Know!

Last quarter SGA was discussing the library and how we can make it more convenient to students. One idea that we came up with was to have books available to students that go with the classes that are on campus. When a student comes into the library they ask for a book for a class because they were unable to buy the book. Sometimes when a professor teaching that subject puts the book on reserve it is there but if not then they do not have it.

Well on Tuesday I was sitting in the Library and I decided to speak to one of the librarians and ask her some questions about the library. Mary, who is the librarian, was very friendly and nice to talk to. She is in charge of purchasing books and running the library. Anyway, I spoke to her about the books in the library, what she felt worked well for students and what did not work for students. It was a very pleasant conversation and I found out something very interesting!

As I mentioned earlier SGA wanted to bring books into the library for classes that run on campus. Well come to find out there is an online form on the library website that allows you to order a book for any class that runs on campus! If for example you were unable to buy a book for this quarter, you can go to the library and ask for the book. You have to go to the Berkeley Website, type in library in the search box and click on the library link for your campus. Then on the left hand side link panel click on “Textbooks on Reserve”. When you click on that link you will get a list of ALL the books currently available in the library for any class that runs that quarter on campus and online.

This list is pretty long, but if you do not see the book that you need you can click on the “Request” link and fill out the request form for a book. When this happens the librarian gets the request and they right away go to the book store and purchase the book for you! You can literally wait in the library until they come back and give you the book! Now I bet you that’s something you never knew about!

Help is Always Around the Corner!

One important thing that you learn in some of your business classes is that no company, business, or organization is perfect. You learn in textbooks from other people’s mistakes and try to analyze different solutions to a problem a company may have made. Many times it is not the problem that was the problem but how people handled the problem and communicated with each other to come up with a solution.

Berkeley is just like a company, organization, or a business. They do a great job at educating students and being there when a student needs their help but just like anything else they also need a tweak here and there. If I told you this was a perfect school where nothing went wrong and everyone was perfect you would KNOW I’m lying! The great thing at Berkeley though is that people will listen when you have a problem.

Berkeley listens to its students and the problems that we are having. Many students don’t speak up for what they want or what they believe should be done so I take it into my hands to express their ideas for them. Some students were having issues with Career Services and as soon as I mentioned something help came to us! I wish I could say that for all schools and universities.

Yesterday I met with the Vice President of Berkeley to discuss some issues that Berkeley had. They were not major issues but just small adjustments students feel that should be done. He listened to our suggestions and even asked questions about what students thought. Some things we talked about were when students should have Placement Seminar. Students have to take Placement Seminar before they can take an internship and since its right before your internship quarter it can sometimes be hard to find an internship that you want in the 3 weeks that you have left. Another thing we discussed was if Career Counselors should follow up with you about your internship. It was great that someone of that power and rank was willing to talk to me about what students felt and what were some things that they wanted.

Later on that day we had our SGA meeting. Mr. Sabin who is the Director of Career Services came to our meeting to listen to student’s ideas and suggestions as well. Almost every student had a suggestions and it was great that he listened and gave us feedback. One issue we discussed was when we should hold the Career Fair. Some students suggested a Saturday and some said middle of the week or in the evenings. Mr. Sabin explained to us that unfortunately we will never be able to satisfy everyone and it is your responsibility as a student to make certain sacrifices to advance your networking skills and build your career knowledge.

I am in totally agreement with this especially since Career Fair will no longer be called Career Day. The difference will be that you are not there necessarily to find a job but to network, learn interviewing skills, how to behave around an employer, have resume help and talk to employers about what they look for. I thought that this was a great idea and definitely worth going to for any student who is a freshmen or a sophomore. You can never be too early in your Berkeley career to learn about employment.

So to conclude this long blog, it’s important that wherever you go whether its work, school, class, or just talking to a friend, that people listen to you. They may not always have a solution right away but at least they care to listen to your problems. Mr. Sabin said that whenever you have any problem don’t hesitate to just go straight to him. Most Berkeley staff members have an open door policy where you can just go in without having to go through 10 people first. That’s how all schools should be!

Testing, Testing!

Week 5 has come upon us and midterm reviews are coming in. In my Global and Social Change class we had our first test given to us last week but it’s a take home test. A lot of the information is in the book so even though it’s a take home test you still have to read the book in order to answer the questions. I like this form of studying.

Many professors give in class test so see how well you know the material. Many times students will cram all the information in at once and then a week later forget everything that they memorized on a crunch. At Berkeley many professors give either take home or open book tests. Even though they are usually harder, I still learn more from this form of testing than cramming information all in one night.

The reason I believe this is much more effective is because when I read and study the material I am actually enjoying it. I’m at home in a quiet comfortable environment, I’m not rushed and I get to read with pleasure knowing I don’t have to hurry. It is stressful being in a class and being timed on the test that you are taking. You cram everything in the night before, review a bit in the morning and a week later forget everything that you have learned.

I see more and more professors turn to this method of testing. When the test is open book many students have a very false impression of the test. They think that they can get away without reading the material and just come in and answer the questions as they look up the answer. The truth is that the questions are not just basic questions such as rewriting vocabulary terms or finding the answer by the topic. They are very detailed questions from the book that unless you have read the materials you will have no idea where to find the answers. My tip is, read the material! If the professor tells you that the test is open book don’t get excited too soon. You still have to do the usual work and reading otherwise you will fail.

Community Service

Recent Berkeley College became very big in donating money that we raise to charities and local organizations. Remember when I wrote about the Bloomingdale Animal Shelter and how we donated toys, dog bowls, food and cleaning products? Well we made little packages and I brought it to them so they can use it. Come to find out they raffled off the items that we gave them and made $22,300 for the animals helter!!!That number is NOT a mistake! I am so proud and happy about this because we wanted to do this event for a long time.

With Nicole R. as our new Community/Volunteer Chair we are doing more and more fundraising. Yesterday was our “Design your Own Flip Flop” day. Students got to buy flip flops for $2, and decorate them as they pleased. With the money that we collected we will be donating it to the JDRF walk. This is wonderful opportunity for Berkeley especially since they walked last year as well. Check out the pictures!

Issues and Accomplishments

At SGA we are finally starting to work on rules and guidelines for SGA. Since I am graduating I really want to leave something behind that future students can follow and have as a guideline to the club. The way we did this is that we went around the table of all members and everyone had a chance to speak of what they thought should be a rule. I am a strong believer that everyone should be involved in this because we are one team that needs to work together to get things accomplished.

One thing we discussed is trying to implement more shuttle times for Berkeley. Right now the morning students get the shuttle to take them to the train station but there are no shuttles in the evening. This causes some problems for many students because they have no way of getting to the train station in the evening if they take night classes. Some people feel that it’s unfair that morning students get the shuttle but the evening students don’t. I agree that we definitely need to do something about this issue.

The great thing about Berkeley is that people listen to you. If students have an issue you can tell the problem straight to the Dean, Director of Student Development, and even the President of the college! I have been to many events where I have been invited to speak about the student problems. One important thing you need to remember about reporting problems to staff is that you have to have things in order. You don’t want to sound like your ranting, or complaining because nobody wants to listen to that. Express concerns and ideas instead.

I noticed that I have had over 1,000 viewers on my blog and I am very excited about that. This has been a great experience that I have been very proud of. If you read this blog and you have any questions about the blog or Berkeley feel free to leave a comment. I will address your question or comment in the following blog.

New Assignments

It is week three at Berkeley and papers are starting to pile up. In my Sociology class we were given a written assignment that is due at the end of the quarter. In my Internship class we also got a writing assignment. I really enjoyed this writing assignment because we had to take an Emotional IQ test and then see what it tells us. After we find out our results we have to discuss our results and how accurate we feel they are. The reason we had to take this test was because our professor feels that your emotional IQ is just as important in the workplace as regular IQ.

My results told me that I am average. I got a score of 101 and I got some interesting tips. I was told that I can handle my problems well but I could also use some work in the emotional department. The survey feels I could be more emotional and express more feeling because I am not getting all I can from my experiences. I don’t fully agree with that but that’s what I was told.

Today is our meeting with SGA and I have to make notes for the event. We thought that in the summer time we would not have a good outcome when it comes to new members but it has been great! Every meeting we have about 10 or more students which was not the case in the spring. Our Facebook page is blooming with 63 members and we are still growing. This makes me very happy since I will be leaving soon and I have to leave the SGA behind.

Six Flags: The Dangerous Money Pit

Six Flags has come and gone and now my muscles are all sore from the rides. It was nice spending time with friends and reconnecting since we don’t always have time to talk about things other than school. The trip was nice, but I have to say I am most likely never going back to Six Flags.

I have always liked Six Flags until now. Now when you go there not only do you have to pay for your ticket, but then for each cool ride you have to pay an additional $1 for a locker! They no longer allow you to leave your things on the side, you have to buy a locker and then they allow you to get in line. This really made me angry because a ticket without any discounts is about $60, and then on top of it all you have to pay for their overpriced food and these lockers at each ride.

Then Ms. Young, Ale, other members from SGA and I were standing on line these two guys broke out into fight! One man was over 45 and the other guy was in his early 20’s. The man that was 45 thought that the other guy cut in line when he was only waiting for his friends. The 45 year old man got into the 20 year olds face and pushed him onto other people in line. We called the ride operator over and they didn’t care much about the situation and walked away saying that they called the security.

As you know, lines at Six Flags go back and forth in a zig zag so the two guys were going to be next to each other AGAIN. Ms. Young called the ride operator over and told him to stand here because she has students here and she doesn’t want another issue to arise. When the security guard finally arrived he didn’t do anything about the situation either. Apparently at Six Flags you can get kicked out of the park for cutting in line but if you try to push/punch someone on the line you won’t even get kicked out the ride line.

The security guard didn’t care to do anything because he said the guys are ok with each other now. We tried to explain to him that we don’t feel safe if he snaps again and they don’t do anything about it. He said that there are over a hundred people here and anyone could start a fight. We thought that it was a very stupid statement because this guy actually did start a fight.

Besides the issues that Six Flags has given us the trip was very good. I loved spending time with friends and catching up on things. I have lost all my respect for Six Flags and I will most likely never return there. I will make sure to pass on the word of my experience as well so others don’t run into my situations.

Internship Work

It is one day away from Six Flags, and I am very excited. I wish that we were leaving earlier than 10am, but at the same time I am glad that I am able to sleep in and enjoy my day. I took off from work so I don’t have to worry about that and most of my homework is done for my classes.

I had a lot of internship work piled up this week because I was very busy with other homework at the beginning of the week. I had to do more statistical work on our website as well as on our newsletters but it was fun and something that I definitely got to learn from. I am definitely in charge of more this quarter and it’s hard to determine what decisions I can make on my own and what I still need to ask for.
For example I had to make commercials last quarter for our new service and they were not launched yet on our website. Well, Joelle had asked me to send information to our web developer and tell him where to put what and pick images that will look best as a picture link on the website. It’s great knowing that I have such flexibility with my opinion and I can really express my creativity.

Last week Joelle tested me to see how comfortable I was about decision making. Every month we launch a newsletter that I crate and others edit. Well last week at the time of the launch Joelle was away and asked others to send me the input about the newsletter. When I got my input Joelle was not responding to my questions and I was confused as to what to do. I knew that the newsletter had to go out that night so instead of waiting for a response, I made my own edits based on others opinions and launched the newsletter myself.

I wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing, but I knew the edits were fine and the newsletter looked good. The next day Joelle told me that she was proud of me for taking that step on my own and launching the newsletter despite the fact that I was not getting feedback. I guess this was a lesson that you cannot always be a follower but sometimes you have to step up and do something on your own. I must say that it was a lesson learned!

Six Flags is Right Around the Corner!

I am so excited that it is only 3 days away from the Six Flags trip. I e-mailed Ms. Young and Dean Hughes about the leaving time but we still have no news on that. Ms. Young said we should leave at 10am but I think that is WAY too late since we won’t be there until at least noon. After noon many people start coming out and things become very crowded. I enjoy Six Flags but waiting 2 hours to be on a ride for one minute isn’t really my thing. It will be fun to be with friends and people from other campuses.

Today is our second meeting for SGA and tomorrow is the first meeting for the International Business Club. Ale, the vice president is doing a great job at organizing everything and keeping things running for the International Business Club. Last week Ale and I went over some information for the International Business club. We want to also make a rule book for the club so that after we graduate future students will have something to go off of. Over time the club has gotten smaller and eventually it slowly faded away. I got very occupied with SGA and I could not make the time to dedicate to the club. Ale was wonderful at stepping in and helping me out in this process. That’s how presidents and vice presidents should always be like.

Last week was the Passaic County Fair, which was a walking distance from Berkeley. Ale and I decided to go on Thursday night after her class and it was a lot of fun. We went on rides, played some games and had great food. When we were going there we totally missed the turn and somehow ended up on Route 46! Later on we called Nicole and she gave us directions since she was there before we were. After we finally found the place we realized how close we were this whole time but did not see any signs. We felt pretty dumb!

Career Services

Career Services at Berkeley needs to work extra hard these days! The economy is slowing down and not many jobs are open but many students just graduated Berkeley. I never had an insight into career services because I never really needed to use them for anything. Now that some of my friends are graduating I get a feel for what to expect when I graduate.

Some people are having luck but some are not. I have a friend who just recently graduated Berkeley in April and he is still searching for a job. He contacted career services after he graduated but he is still waiting for a response back. They may be very busy with everything else going on but I hope he gets some help soon. Job searching can be a very agonizing annoying process.

Today was a very slow day for me. I worked on my internship in the morning and then went to work. It was extremely hot and I am ready for the fall to come. For my internship I got to analyze data today. Our Verify-ED website collects data about the people who visit the website which gives us some important information. For example I can find out how often someone goes to a certain page, how long they stay there or what pages do people view most. Its really cool and it leaves it for your interpretation to see what data means. I really enjoyed working with data today.

Word 2003 or Word 2007?

It is 30 minutes before our first SGA meeting this quarter and I am relaxing in a nice cool computer lab. It is extremely hot outside and this is the best place to be right now. I am very curious to find out as to how many new students we will get. We tried to spread the word during orientation last week as much as we could. We have some new ideas and agendas that we want to approach. First of all, I want everyone in the group to become familiar with the new Strategic Plan for the Garret Mountain SGA. Last quarter when I did the Strategic Plan review for Berkeley, I got inspired to do one for SGA. We will discuss it this meeting.

One thing I noticed in my classes is that you have to ask your professor what type of Microsoft Word they want you to use. In one of my classes I got an e-mail form the professor asking me to use the 2003 version instead of the 2007 one. For me this was strange because most professors have switched over and the school system is also switched over to 2007. I remember at the beginning the Berkeley website didn’t want to take the 2007 version but now it takes it fine. It can be confusing so just check with your professor what they want you to use.

Six Flags is only 2 weeks away! I am so excited because I have not been there is a long time. I am even more excited that we are going on a Friday instead of a weekend so the place will not be so crowded. If you attended 6 of more SGA meetings you are qualified to go for free. This is great motivation for you to get involved. I wonder how many people will end up going. Well, I have to get going and go to the SGA meeting. Hope to see many people there!

Meetings and Classes

It is Saturday morning, it’s hot and it looks like it’s going to be a nice day. This morning I hopped on the computer to check my internship e-mail and see what my tasks for the following week will be. Yesterday Joelle, who is my internship supervisor, along with other internship members had a meeting with us about the new upcoming quarter. We met at the Six Brothers Diner on route 46 which is only about 5 min from the school. We talked about deliverables, what is to be expected and what our goals are.

It’s nice that we were all able to meet. We found out that the goal for this quarter was to make money! We have been trying to get investors for Verify-ED for a while now with not so good results. We are trying to come up with a new approach of making money such as advertising on our website and doing more things with statistics from our website. I am looking forward to working with statistics data. I enjoy putting things together in charts, organizing information and presenting it.

This week was my first week of doing class assignments for my online classes. For my internship I realized it’s all the same stuff! Every topic that we touched on last quarter we are touching up on again. It’s a repeat of last quarter. It can be good because you can use the same information from last quarter but at the same time you are not exposed to different information and critical thinking. For my Sociology class we have a test every single week. We have to read lecture notes, read the chapter and then the power point presentation which was 68 slides! After we do all that we have to take an online test. It’s a lot of work. After taking my first test I realized how hard the test was even thought I read ALL the material.

Another thing that has changed is how you can view your grades on Blackboard. You can no longer view the class average on the grades link. I used to like that link because it showed me how well I did in the class compared to other students. I’m not sure if the professor will tell us what the class average was or if we just don’t get that information anymore. I hope we get to see it so that I can compare my results.

New E-mail!

What’s new in the summer quarter? The new Berkeley e-mail! Everyone has been talking about the new e-mail and discussing the advantages and the disadvantages. From listening to peoples conversations it has really been a love it or hate it program.

Some people say they love it for its new look, the convenience and reliability. It’s from Outlook so many people have been using a similar or the same program for many years. Blackboard did not use Outlook before but now students can get used to it. This is a good deal because many companies use Outlook. Students will have experience on Outlook and when they start work for a company they will already have the experience.

Other people hate it. They say it’s inconvenient, hard to use, complicated and annoying that you have to constantly sign in. You can set it so it remembers your e-mail on your computer but every time you’re on a different computer you have to type out the whole e-mail for example Aleksandra-kopec@mymail.berkeleycollege.edu. It just so happens that my name is long, but you get the picture. It can get agitating. Another reason students don’t like it is because if you use another program from the same company you have to keep switching log in’s.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I neither like it nor dislike it. I was having some issues with it because I couldn’t figure out how to forward my mail to another e-mail account. Because I like to avoid steps I forward all my mail to one e-mail so I only have to check one e-mail address. I have to admit it was complicated but I got some help.

Berkeley offers live online help which was great at helping me figure out how to forward my mail. It’s like instant messenger where you talk to a REAL person and they tell you step by step how to do something. At first I asked the librarian if she could help me and she was having the same issues as me. She tried very hard to figure it out but when I got the solution I printed out the steps for her. I’m sure other students will have similar questions. I like the features and options that it offers. To me it’s really not that complicated to use.

First Day of Classes

Vacation time is over, and we’re back in full swing. Yesterday was orientation which was really nice. I came to school at 9am and had to wait around a bit for Ms. Young. When we came into her office I noticed the lovely little thank you gifts she made for us. We each got a free t-shirt, planner, pen and Starbursts! It pays to get involved. There were about 100 new students starting in the summer which was a surprise to me. I didn’t think that many students wanted to go to school in the summer time!

We educated them about what Berkeley is about, what to expect from professors and explain some rules around the campus. The volunteers then played some games with the students. We played the name game and questions game where they got to ask me random questions they had about the school. It was fun answering them because I was able to be honest and give them a good view from a student’s perspective.

Today was such a hot day that I was so happy to be in an AC room for my class. It was my first day of class and I got to meet a new professor. She was very nice, funny and creative. We went over the syllabus and class requirements. We got a great deal that if we attend all classes with a perfect attendance we will not have to do one paper! I was so happy to hear this because the paper that is being dropped is a 15 page paper. I really did not want to write a 15 page paper at the end of my last quarter.

With new classes comes buying new books. For this class, Global Change, the book in the school bookstore was selling for $37 new, but I was told that book was being sold at Barnes and Noble for only $19.99! That’s almost 50% inflation! I thought that it was ridicules so I drove down to Barnes and Noble after class and got the book. You really have to do your book research for classes. It can save you a lot of money.

My Last Orientation

The school quarter hasn’t started yet but we are already starting so many preparations! Orientation is only a few days away and many things need to be done. The students and the volunteers and getting a free breakfast and lunch on Monday! How great is that? It’s worth getting involved at Berkeley! In addition to free food, we also get a free t-shirt. Ms. Young called me yesterday to ask me my shirt size.

Getting to orientation is going to be a nightmare. This Thursday I’m going to North Carolina (driving), and coming back on Sunday. After being in a car for 9 hours I will then have to drive 2 more hours’ home from my boyfriend’s house. I was thinking of possibly driving home on Monday morning but I really don’t want to run into morning commute so I think I will just stick with Sunday. I will be so tired of being in a car by then!

Ale, Travis and I have decided to make the SGA meetings this quarter on Tuesday at 4:30. It was very hard for Ale to get to the meetings at 4pm because she had to work. It was much more convenient for her to do it at 4:30. I have class on Tuesday so it makes it convenient for me that I don’t have to take additional time away from my internship and I don’t have to use up more gas having to come on campus. Travis is only on campus for one day this quarter which is Wednesday. Sadly that didn’t work out with anyone’s schedule but he said he does not mind being conferenced in. Hopefully we have a great quarter!

Vacation!

Vacation time is great! I just got back from Lake George, NY and I had a wonderful time camping. We went for a whole week which was slowly getting to be too much but it was just about perfect timing when it was time to come home. I love camping because you really get to relax and rest. When you go to places where you explore a lot you don’t really get to relax because you end up doing more walking and work than any other day. It’s still fun but not relaxing.

We were able to do quite a lot while camping. We visited Fort William Henry where we learned how to shoot a cannon and how to make lead bullets. Every night we went out for ice cream and dinner which was really nice. We got a great deal when we went on a dinner cruise because it was the boats 100th birthday. For a trip AND a buffet meal we paid $10! The resort that I stayed at was very nice and I even ran into another Berkeley student! It was really fun.

In my last blog I wrote about my grade being 89.36 which made me wonder if it would be rounded off. Well I e-mailed the professor and she told me no. She said that there has to be a cut off line somewhere and my grade will not be rounded. It made me sad that I was so close but I got all A’s in my other classes so it still made my GPA pretty high. Many times students try to be argumentative with professors but I like to see the point of view from both sides. I understand what she means and I understand her view.

Hope for Understanding

Its only 3:30 and I am patiently awaiting my last final exam today. Most of the class took their final yesterday but because I was unable to make it that day the professor and I made special arrangements to meet today. The professor was very nice and understanding. Since what I was doing was very important he didn’t have a problem with me moving the final. I spoke to him after class and we made the arrangement to meet today.

Berkeley College professors are usually very understanding. This is great because I’m having an issue with my Changing Families class. Our professor has posted our grades and I saw that my final grade came out to being 89.36! I sent her an e-mail if she knows if the grade will get rounded up to an A or if it will stay a B. I also asked her if it was to stay a B if I could do some type of extra credit to bring the grade up .64 points. I will feel so ridicules if I was so close to an A but it’s unable to be rounded. If this happens I will have all A’s in my classes. It’s a great accomplishment. She has not responded to me yet, but I am waiting patiently.

For SGA next quarter we are having some issues making a time for a meeting. Everyone has such a different schedule and nobody can just drop their jobs or other responsibilities. This is mine and Ale’s last quarter and our schedules are more packed than ever. We all need to work to support ourselves with the HIGH gas prices on top of our other expenses. We have not decided on a time or place yet but I hope we come to a decision soon.

Survey's

With the end of the quarter comes a bunch of surveys. You have your class surveys to see how well the professor did teaching the class and then when you’re doing your internship you have your internship and Career Services survey. In this internship surveys you are asked what you think of Career Services and how they helped you in your journey through finding and participating in an internship as well as how they helped you in job search.

I liked that the survey was done to see our opinions but some questions don’t really apply with no option to say Not Applicable. My problem was that some questions asked how well Career Services assisted in helping me find a job. I have not searched for a job yet so I cannot really judge as to how well they did. I didn’t have an option to pick that it did not apply so I just chose the middle answer to be neutral. I know if I was having an issue with it other students did as well. Since many people answered differently with no experience I’m sure that somewhat altered the true results of how well Career Services has done its job. Sometimes things that are so simple are so easy to overlook.

Next quarter I am going to push for Student Development having a mandatory survey for students so that we can see their opinions on Student Development and different activities. College is no longer only about the education, but also about the experience and the people you get to meet. We want to provide the best experience to students but without knowing what they want it’s very hard to aim. We already know what students want that attend our events but there are still hundreds of students who do not. If we don’t hear what they have to say it’s very hard to know what to do in order to satisfy them. We can play around with ideas and see what works and doesn’t work but if an event is unsuccessful it’s a waste of money for Student Development. I will have to talk to the Dean about my idea and see how he feels about the idea.

Finals Are Here!

Finals have been taking up so much of time I have not had a chance to write. Today is already Friday and we only have until the end of tomorrow to submit all our work. Lucky for me I was able to get everything done and today I finished my last online test for my Changing Family class. I submitted one of my written paper finals on Tuesday and I had my grade back already the next day for my Race, Gender and Sex class. Luck for me I got a 90 on that final!

I still have a final to take for my advanced spreadsheets class but that’s not until next Thursday. Most of the class took the final yesterday but I was taking my US citizenship test so I wasn’t able to make it to class. The professor and I made special arrangements to take my test because this was very important to me. Lucky for me I passed my test with flying colors and now I am officially a US citizen. Yayyy!!!

This Thursday we had Chillax Day during the activity period like we did last quarter but this time it was a flop. The masseuse that normally comes never got back to us, we had no music, no mocktails (fake cocktails), and not that many people showed up. I’m not really sure why we were so unprepared, but we did serve ice cream for that hour. That was our last activity period for this quarter. We never have anything going on for the last week because its finals week and most people are studying. We also didn’t have a meeting this Thursday because I was unable to make it due to my test. We all hope to have a wonderful break and hope to see many new faces in the summer time!

No Resume Skills :-(

I need a break! Not only is it 100 degrees outside (literally), but I have two 5-6 page papers due this week! This is the last week of classes so everyone is cramming last minute homework in. I have just finished one of my papers for my internship class. Our last assignment was to write at least 5 pages on the strategic analysis of our internship company. This included the internal and external analysis of the company. It took me about 3 hours but I finally got it done. It’s not yet edited but it’s done! I had to go take a pool break because I was dying from the heat!

So on another note, you will not believe this. I have a friend who recently graduated Rutgers University in the Criminal Justice major. He was never too fond of the school because it’s was big, crowded and no personal attention. There was no surprise to me there since it’s a big university but get this, he has NO IDEA on how to make a resume. I was appalled! How can you graduate college and not know how to make a resume?!?!

Berkeley offers so much help in this department that you cannot go wrong. You take a Microsoft Word class when you enter college that teaches you about resume’s, then you take your placement seminar before your internship that teaches you how to make a resume, cover letter, thank you letter etc, and if you still failed to pay attention to class you can always go to the Career Center and they will help you make one with you. I decided to help my friend write his resume and he was able to submit it today. I felt proud of myself and the knowledge that I have thanks to Berkeley but it’s scary students are graduating college and don’t know how to write a resume.

Strategic Planning Meeting

Today was the Strategic Planning Meeting at the GMT campus. The meeting started at 12:15 with a lovely lunch. We then moved on to discussing the current plan and then talked about suggestions for the new plan. I was amazed at how detailed everything was and how interesting the plan was. Everyone was very professional and suggested great ideas on how to make the students happy.

One of the great suggestions I was really impressed by is how their planning on having classes where it will be held half on campus and half online. This is a great solution to a large increase in students wanting to take online classes because of the rise in gas prices. With these classes you can have the freedom to do class work at your own time but also have the attention of a in class professor. I love the idea!

Another thing I tried to accomplish today was to get packages for the summer. There were a lot of lines around 5pm when I went there and I knew it would take a while. I came back closer to six but the line was still pretty long. I waited around for a bit and then had to go to class and I wasn’t able to make it. My class ended at 8pm since it’s only a 2 hour class so I figured why not go get it done now since it’s still early.

I got to the financial aid but Mr. Perez, S is a Financial Aid Administrator told me that they weren’t taking anymore students today. I mentioned to him that I will not be on campus until next Wednesday and I really need to pay my bill. Mr. Perez, S then told me to call tomorrow and they can do it over the phone. This was very relieving knowing I don’t have to wait until the last minute to pay my bill. When you have something outstanding with Student Accounts or Financial Aid you get a pop up on Blackboard every time you log in that remind you of it. It’s a great reminder but I was getting quite tired of it! I will call tomorrow and get packaged asap!

Fatty Day of Ice Cream!

Wow, talk about today being a fatty day! Today we had our “Get the SCOOP from SGA Day”. It wasn’t a nice weather inside but we made the best of it inside. We had students show up as well some professors. In total we had about 50 people sign up. This is a pretty good amounting considering we also have about 45 people signed up for the SGA Facebook. We have really grown this quarter!

So I got to school at about 10:30 and helped prepare things. We had so many things to offer to students. We had Galati ice cream, cookie dough, chocolate mint, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, cherries, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, pretzels, cones, and the list goes on. Every SGA member got to keep an ice cream scoop and a bowl. It was such a nice gesture of Ms. Young to do for all the SGA members. Students were having such a good time that some of them even started making ice cream faces. This is by far my favorite one made my Danni



So as usual, check out the pictures of our fatty day!

Survey Time!

As I have been mentioning the end of the quarter is coming and everyone is trying to get everything done. Today I had some time so I took all my course surveys. At the end of each quarter Berkeley asks students questions about their course and the professor. Not only do we get a grade but so does the professor! This ensures students that they are getting the best professors and that they are getting a good education. These are some of the survey questions that we rate for the professor:

How was the timeliness of a professor’s response?
Was the course was at an appropriate level?
Did the professor listen to student’s questions and opinions?
How well did this course fit into the requirement?
Was this course challenging enough?
Was the grading explained effectively?
Were the class requirement explained effectively?
Free window to write any suggestions and opinions

I really love that Berkeley does this. I did not have any complaints about any of my courses just some suggestions. I suggested that for the internship course maybe we should be allowed to upload our weekly journal entrees once a week instead of saving them all for the end. It would be much more efficient and make it less of a burden at the end when everyone has many other finals to worry about. Listening to students is very important because the school exists for them. In a big college your voice barely gets heard.

Its Monday!

It’s Monday night and I’m already feeling extra tired! Every Monday night I have a routine of posting all my first discussion board posts. The rule is that you have to make your initial post by Wednesday and then you need 2 more to your classmate’s responses by the end of the week. I really like this system. It helps many students communicate and speak their mind.

The time crush is slowing beginning. There are only 2 weeks of school left and final papers are rolling in. I already have 2 new assignment assigned on top of other things I have to do for my internship. I have so many things going on this week too. On Thursday I have a meeting with the Strategic Planning Committee to discuss Berkeley Strategic Plan. I have several things I would like to discuss with them. I like that I have a voice as to what is going on around the school. The meeting was originally going to take place at one of the New York Campus. It got moved about a week ago to the Garret Mountain campus which is much more convenient for me. I was definitely not going to make it to the NY campus, but now I can be right in the action. We even get lunch!

SGA has been doing better than ever. As I mentioned before we will soon be launching an online Berkeley Blackboard version of SGA and we already got 30 people to sign up! We got them to sign up by telling them that if they print out the welcome page they will get free ice cream on Wednesday. What better way to bribe people than with ice cream! Facebook SGA has been going great as well. We have over 45 members which was very challenging. It’s growing, getting strong and more fun than ever. I hope it continues to do so after I graduate.

Windows 2007

I just got back from my class and it’s time to eat some dinner before bed time. I have been on a serious salad fix lately with this warm weather. A salad is nice cool and really refreshing. I think what really tops it off is the Melting Pot House dressing that use. It’s tangy and sweet and it’s a perfect touch.

I cannot believe we only have two more SGA meetings until the spring quarter is over. We have a few more events going on but their small and simple. Next week we were going to have field day but unfortunately it got canceled. Because of that we have decided to have an ice cream social and call it “Get the SCOOP from SGA!” How great is that saying that Ms. Young came up with???

As I mentioned in my last blog we had a girl interested in giving SGA an event idea regarding lost and missing children. We did not really know what she wanted to do so we invited her to our meeting but she did not show up today. I think that she wasn’t able to get off from work because it was a sudden thing. If she really cares about the cause I’m sure she will try to make one of our other meetings.

One thing I must address to students who have been at Berkeley for a while is the new Microsoft Office program. If you have already taken your core Office classes, I would strongly recommend taking some of the other advanced classes. The reason I am recommending this is because as everyone knows everyone has switched to the 2007 version. It is totally different than from the old one that we learned back in 2005! I am currently taking Advanced Spreadsheets and Database and it is a great class. I have found out a lot about Excel that I know I will use for the future. It’s a very good class to take as an elective!

Winners of Our Contest!

I keep thinking today is Monday since we had Monday off. I normally work on Mondays and today the whole time I was at my other job I was thinking I had to go to my other job. We have the results of the Berkeley College Pet Picture Contest! In first place comes Yazmin Vazquez, second place is Lissette Gines and the third place was taken by me with my Siberian husky named Blue. It was a great event that we need to consider doing again.

It’s already week 9 of this quarter and professors are slowly trying to close things off. For my internship my professor asked me my supervisors e-mail address so that they can evaluate our performance. It’s a nerve wracking process because I want to do know my grade now, but I have to wait until grades are posted. Just like anyone else I’m curious as to what my final grade will be. I hope it’s an A!

Today I got an e-mail from Ms. Young that a student is interested in using our bulletin board to post lost and missing children. We thought that it would be a good idea to do so but we want to get the student involved. I feel that if she’s interested in using our bulletin board for a cause that she really cares about she should join SGA and see what we are about as well. We all want to work with students in creating events they are interested in, but we also need their support in supporting us.