Avoiding the chaos..

I thought that the decision making activity was crazy. I personally felt that a lot of students were not heard while a few took over the process. After I saw the direction the chaos was heading, I definitely took on the avoidance role. I really just sat back and shook my head the whole time because my approach to things is much more laid back than my peers. I did ask one question but it took forever for me to get a word in, and I felt like people were just rushing through it. Obviously time was a factor and our grades were horrible but I must say, that chaos was interesting to watch. There was also a handful of students who were competing to win.Personally, I don't think that I could have swayed the class or made it run any better had I chosen any other role.

I do think we had a very good leader who was fair and organized the voting very well. His efficiency was the reason we got anything done at all, especially debating the essay.

I think we could have gotten things done faster if we separated into smaller groups for 15mins, decided what we hated about the test and then report back to the larger group and vote. I think this would have worked better because each person would be heard essentially and sometimes people feel more comfortable speaking in smaller groups. I also think that given the fact that the majority of the class failed the test, some were not as willing to speak up.

Overall I do like the package that we came up with and I think that if we tried this activity again it would run smoothly.

Baruch is a major Culture Shock..

My first semester here at Baruch was very interesting. I had come straight from graduating high school two months earlier and had no idea what to expect. My high school was in Brooklyn, small campus about 1000 kids, not very diverse and I was very used to just fitting in. Flash forward to my first week at Baruch and I was sort of blown away. In the elevators there were people speaking all of these languages I'd never heard before, which turned out to be Russian, German, Korean, Chinese,etc. Even with class introductions, looking around the room and hearing each student's story about their background was fascinating. It made me want to know more and get to know everyone.

One day my professor decided for us to work in groups on a hefty project. One of my group members, a Korean girl, never really spoke up or gave her input she would just agree with what everyone else said. Finally I asked her privately why she never really gave her opinion on things. She told me that she'd just come from Korea and its different there from America. In most Asian countries its better to go with the group than to be an individual - it promotes harmony. So instead of ruffling feathers she was following what her culture taught her which was to promote harmony. It was a very interesting conversation, but I learned alot about her and about a culture I knew nothing about prior.

Yes, I felt a bit culture shocked coming to this school but now after four years, I feel so diverse and worldy. Worldy may be a stretch but you get the jist. Baruch is definitely a mind opener.

Hello...

I'm Valerie, 23 year old junior majoring in busniss communications. Currently I work in retail and hope to take my talents and knowledge into the marketing and/or PR industries after grad.

I have a very laid back approach to most things, in this case business. For instance, my dream company to work for would have to be Google. That should give you a sense of my work style. For me, working in retail is one of the few jobs where you can have such flexibility in your work style. Working in an office setting is wonderful as long as I dont have to adhere to rigid dress codes and I can use my creativity to enhance the job - hence why finding an internship is so hard!

With this blog I plan to respond to articles or topics based on how I feel modern business should be run... from a less Zicklin approach. :)