Management in Floetry.

There once was a teacher named Kurpis

Who brought toys and food to class with a purpose

He let us drop eggs and taste Jell-O

Teamed up to play Lego

And chose the faith of the curve through consensus

Communication Via Blog

The blog assignment is a great addition to the course. I feel as if many college classes lack a portal in which classmates can get to know and contact each other. The blogs allowed me to reach out to the many faces I see during lecture. I also got to voice my opinion which is often lost when dealing with such a large class.  In return I received a lot of supportive comments and helpful suggestions such as the ones from the "vision blog".

At times, the blogs got a little irritating because of the deadlines and I didn't find each topic particularly stimulating. But then again, not every assignment in college is interesting.

The blog should definitely remain a component of the class because it is an easy way to gain that extra 20% (especially if people are shy in raising their hands during lecture). It's a reasonable assignment considering the majority of students are connected to the web via smartphone, laptop, ipad, etc. It's almost like a step into the future and ditching the traditional ways of boring paper assignments (not to mention it's super eco-friendly!).

My Future in 20/20 Vision.

If we lived in a perfect world, my vision for the future would be to find a sugar daddy & spend my days shopping. Since this path in life is extremely impractical, I need to think of better alternatives.

From the film we watched in class, "the Power of Vision", the outlook I most agreed with is that of Viktor Frankl. He believed that the survivors of the Holocaust lived because there was something more they needed to accomplish, some type of responsibility, something more to do. This hope for the future provides inspiration for what is yet to come.

Right now, I am working at a commercial real estate insurance office by Rockefeller Center. I absolutely love the company and the people I work with. One plan for my future is to continue working with the company because I've already become familiar with their mission.  The problem is, I work for the Operations department & occasionally help in Accounting.  You see, my major is Graphic Communications which has absolutely nothing to do with my tasks within my work department.  If I continue to build my loyalties with my boss and the other managers, I would ideally like to switch over to the marketing department and help in developing the company website.

Another vision I have for myself, post-grad, would be to start up some type of website with a few of my friends.  Currently, I also work on the Lexicon (the school yearbook) as a Layout Editor. I am lucky to work with a talented team that knows the ins-and-outs of graphics, photography, websites, etc. We always talk about possibly starting an website that would provide a service to up & coming business owners who are looking to branch to the online world.  The need for internet knowledge will only keep growing as the years progress & I'm confident that myself and my friends would be able to keep up with the game.

I've always been interested in traveling the world and seeing other cultures. In high school, I went to Korea for a youth ambassador program where I met a lot different people in all types of professions. One person I spoke to was an American who has been living in Korea for the past two years as an English teacher. If I were to do the same, it would be a great way to make money, have some type of job experience/life experience, and I would be able to fulfill my dreams of living somewhere else other than New York for a bit.

My final vision for myself would be to go to graduate school in the Philippines.  I've looked into various schools but the one that caught my attention was De La Salle University in Manila where all of my family lives. I would want to continue learning arts and graphics, and if I enjoyed life there, I could possibly find a job in marketing or advertising.

These are all of the visions I have for life after Baruch. Though they seem like perfect ideas for me, they do require a lot of work and dedication. So until then, I'll keep my visions open and see how things play out...

Decisions, Decisions...

The decision making activity was nothing short of frustrating. With such a large class & so many voices trying to be heard, I took the "avoidance" route. It wasn't that I was uninterested in what was being discussed, but it was because the whole process was so chaotic and I wasn't sure if I wanted to waste my breath.  I sat back and listened to the stubborn arguments being made.  The people that wanted their way and their way only were the ones screaming and shutting out any other possible alternative. Raising my voice & joining in wouldn't have benefited the situation. Instead I listened, and if I heard an idea that I agreed with then I would occasionally chime in with the "yeah!". My side of the classroom seemed to follow the same path of avoidance. It was probably because we were all the way to the far left of the room and felt that our voices wouldn't be as loud as the others sitting in the center of the room.

The "compete to win" behavior was what I noticed more because those were the louder people in the class. If people disagreed with them then they would get angry and try even harder to force their ideas down our throats. The biggest argument started over the question of whether we should have an essay portion to the next exam. The people who didn't want the essay were more of the "compete to win" people. The people who wanted the essay took the "collaborating" approach by explaining how we would never get a unanimous vote on no essay so the best idea would be to agree on the formatting of a possible essay. The leader of the decision making process followed the "compromise" behavior because she tried to mediate the whole process and it seemed like she had no underlying agenda.

If we were to do the whole process over again I wouldn't know what approach to take. The only thing I can suggest is getting the goals written down on the board faster so that the group can physically see the options. We started doing this far too late and so instead people felt they needed to scream their ideas. If their opinions were presented on the board then they probably would have been quieter haha.

Eggs-cellent Planning

During the whole egg planning process, my team remained very calm. We were never pressed for time and we didn't speak over each other. While the other teams frantically tried to get their ideas across we each drew out what we thought would be the best structure for protecting the egg. We knew that the goal was to keep the egg intact with the few supplies we were allotted.  Evaluating our resources wasn't very difficult. The structure that we came up with didn't need that many straws and it was a very big plus that a member on our team had a scissor. We didn't have to worry about the competition for the communal scissor. Most of our time was spent in developing premises and alternate strategies. We all had a vision but we voiced out, in turn, why we thought certain ways wouldn't work out. Steps 4 and 5 of the planning process wasn't as thought out but it worked out anyways. It was as if we were surgeons except instead of saying "scalpel" we were saying "tape" or "scissors". In the end we were able to get to our desired structure, but even with our confident and collected planning, our egg still broke :(

Culture Shock

Nowadays, you can find a tanning salon within a five block radius of New York. The media tells us that tan is beautiful. I personally look forward to the summers when I can soak in the sun & get a little color. With my experiences in the Philippines, it is the complete opposite outlook. Filipinos all want to be porcelain white.  In fact, if you have a light complexion you are assumed to be rich or they may ask you if you are an actor or actress.

Whenever I visit the Philippines, I always hear it from my grandma and family that I am too dark. From their standards I'm dark but in America, I am completely average. In the Philippines, they even sell products that bleach your skin. They are constantly shipping over the latest soaps and lotions that will whiten my skin. Personally, I think this mindset is so ancient. Having fair skin doesnt make you prettier and having dark skin shouldn't mean you are poor or ugly.

it all starts with a hello.

I've never been great at blogs, diaries, planners, or anything that required constant up-keep. Like any other New Yorker, I feel like I'm on the constant move between work & school. Public transportation has become somewhat of a second home to me.

My name is Catherine, and I'm a junior majoring in Graphic Communications. When I'm not on the run, you can usually find me behind a computer working on a graphic for the Ticker or fulfilling my duties as Layout Designer of the Lexicon (Baruch yearbook -- you should all purchase one, by the way). When I feel like taking a break from being a slave to technology, I like to play volleyball and strum on my ukulele. I get a maximum of 4 hours of sleep a night because my daily routine comprises of work, school, commuting, making graphics, netflixing "the Office", and chowing down on hallal (preferably the one on 53rd & 6th). There's so much more I could tell you about myself, but let's save that for a later date :)