Upon entering Macaulay Honors College on the upper west side, I didn’t really know what to expect. In all of my previous semesters taking these classes, I was never required to make an actual presentation, so this was an exciting moment. We had done a lot of practice in class, so I was a lot less nervous than I expected myself to be. Overall, I thought the event went really smoothly, and the other presentations done by my peers were interesting as well.
Our presentation in general went very smoothly, primarily because the audience was a small receptive group of students along with the moderator. In the two-hour time span we went towards the end, and I was impressed to see the room filled with students, many of whom had already presented. We were asked intellectual questions at the end, such as has eminent domain ever been abused by the government? There was also much interest in the funding of this project, and whether or not we thought the governments funds were being allocated in the right direction.
The reason behind that particular question, was that the majority of the other groups were from the College of Staten Island, and their professor had assigned them work to do their projects on Hurricane Sandy. Many of them took the project very personally, as they focused on how Hurricane Sandy affected Staten Island and destroyed the lives of so many people. It was difficult for them to understand why the government is funding a multi-million dollar project in Times Square, rather than allocating that money to Hurricane Sandy survivors. Even though these groups all covered Hurricane Sandy, they all took different approaches, which kept my interest.
My favorite group that presented was from Queens College. These two boys went into what the life of an actor really is like, and they delved into the SAG awards and the benefits of being a SAG member. As a business student at Baruch, I never really get any exposure to the liberal arts side of school, and I really appreciated what they did. One of them was actually a SAG member himself, and it was nice to see how passionate he was about this. An interesting fact that I learned, was that if an extra even pops onto the screen for one scene he or she is automatically part of the SAG community. One major benefit is free healthcare.
The reason why I like going to these Macaulay conferences is that I get to see what my other peers are doing, and I love how everyone’s projects are so diverse. People took so many different approaches to this project, and it was great to see the enthusiasm and passion they put behind their project. All of the presenters seemed very interested in what they were telling us. In general, it would be great if Macaulay could extend this event and organize it in a manner so that Macaulay students across the CUNY system could interact and network more. Perhaps splitting people up by their appropriate schools, and having interactive activities could be a way to break the ice. All in all, this was a well-organized event, that I was glad to be a part of.
