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!