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.