Category: Personal Introductions (Page 1 of 2)

Hey everyone!

-Michelle

Hi everyone! I’m Chynelle and I will learn all your names… eventually. I’m from New Jersey, those cute quiet little suburbs with lots of greenery and squirrels. My (so far) favorite part of the city is Central Park. It encapsulates me in this vibrant green oasis with lakes like my hometown, but I can still see the tall towers of the city in the background so I never forget that the entire world is just within reach.

It’s rather poetic and I love words, literature, and language. That type of art captivates me in a way I can’t really explain. I’m taking a literature course which means you might catch me reading thick philosophical or historical novels in a thrilling torture of my own design.

I mentioned in class that I did gymnastics in high school. It’s a small world because the sport is intense so very few stick with it long. But it offered me a new perspective on everything. If you can’t do a skill, you train your muscles to be able to exert enough force to do it. You get used to being judged and getting points deducted from a perfect score because of something you can’t fix or change. You always have to work harder and aim higher because perfection may be a fantasy but you see yourself improving every step of the way.

I hope to take that mindset into college with a willingness to try new things and always put in that extra effort to get closer to being the person I want to be. I’m not sure what that person is doing (aka I don’t know what I want to do yet), but I know that person will have no regrets of being passive when she should have acted. So if you’re going to a museum or taking a walk around the city, invite me to join you because I probably won’t say no. It might also help me learn your name. 🙂

Hello everyone! My name is Jana Abumusallam and I’m from South Setauket, Long Island. My parents are immigrants from a Middle Eastern country called Jordan. Below is a picture of Jordan’s most famous landmark, Petra.

Arabic was my first language (my parents didn’t know much english until we started going to school). I am trilingual–fluent in Arabic and English and conversational in French. I have two siblings: an older sister named Jenine (21), and a younger brother named Omar (15). Both are extremely annoying, but I love them anyway.

I played piano as a child, but sadly have forgotten everything about the instrument. When I started school, I was dying to get into the orchestra. I signed up for violin in third grade, and because I thought I was so good, I switched to cello the year after. I was terrible at both and quit by the end of fourth grade. I realized a few months later that my true calling was singing. I have been in choral and chamber choirs since fifth grade, and stuck with it all the way through senior year.

Although I do love to sing, I love to read and write even more. Fortunately, almost everything interests me, so I have a hard time finding books I don’t enjoy. I frequently read five and six hundred page books in one or two sittings. I’m also a very fast reader, especially when I’m enthralled with a really good story. 

My favorite food is sushi. I could eat it day in and day out without ever getting tired of it. I consider myself a sushi connoisseur because of how often I consume it. I can tell when it’s poorly prepared and doesn’t taste as fresh as it should–wonderful skill to have, I know.

I’m not entirely sure what I want to major in, but I know that I want to do something with medicine. I love neurology and the study of the mind, so psychology or psychiatry might be my calling. All I know is that I’m beyond excited to begin my college career and a new chapter of my life.

It’s been great meeting you all and reading your introductions! Best of luck to you all in the next four years. 🙂

Hey guys, my name is Borys as the title indicated and we are going to be classmates for a couple months or so, or maybe for a while depending on if we keep our blocks. Anyways, a little about myself, I commute here daily from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and currently reside with my parents, but hopefully that’ll change sometime in the near future.

Originally I’m from Uman, a little town located near the capital of Ukraine. I visit my family there every summer and always stay up to date with Ukrainian news incase any of you are interested. Not only do i travel to Ukraine every summer, over the years from there i have visited France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Israel. I personally really enjoy traveling across Europe and viewing the different but beautiful landscapes and cultures.

Hi everyone! I am Vincent C. Gangemi. I go by Vincent, Vin, Vinny, Vince , or whatever nickname you can think of that is remotely similar to Vincent. I am not going to lie, it is a bit nerve-racking to attempt to post something interesting after reading everyone’s interesting posts.

I graduated from Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, New York. I have lived in Staten Island my entire life. However, I love Manhattan. This, along with the price point, is the main reason I decide to attend Baruch.

I have extensive work experience with political associations. I was an Ignizio for City Council Youth Volunteer Lawn Sign Coordinator during the summer of 2013 and an intern for Congress member Dan Donovan in the summer of 2015.

Further, I have done a broad range of volunteer work. Notably, I was a teacher of Religious Studies at Our Lady Star of the Sea, an elementary school, and a member of the volunteer organizations, the Holy Name Society and Baby Food Pantry.

In High School, I was Captain of my school’s Speech and Debate Team, as well as Editor-in-Chief of my school’s Newspaper. I am undecided as to whether or not I wish to continue pursuing similar activities in college.

I inserted a picture I took last summer in Washington D.C. of the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln is my favorite President, and I was super excited to see the memorial in person. Since I was little, I always wanted to visit Washington D.C. However, my parents aren’t history nerds like I am, so I had to wait for what seemed like forever for my uncle to take me.

Finally, I decide to inserted the Rolling Stone’s song “Tumbling Dice.” I can play guitar and electric bass. I would consider myself an intermediate at them because I’ve been playing since I was little but I cannot read notation. I cannot play “Tumbling Dice” on guitar or bass, I just decided to include it because the Rolling Stones is one of my favorite band and I listened to it on the ferry this morning.

Hey! As you may or may not know, my name is Irene. I was born and raised in New York. Throughout my life I have bounced back and forth from the boroughs of Queens and Staten Island. I attended to school in Queens from grades PreK-K, 3-5, and in Staten Island from grades 1-3, 8-12. In a few days I’m officially moving back to Queens.

This may be just my personal thoughts, but it feels like people often mistake me as being Korean. I don’t find much offense to that because I enjoy and find Korean culture to be amusing. But, I am a Chinese-American. I can fluently speak 2 languages, English and Mandarin. As a child I was sent back to China and lived with my grandparents until the age of 3. Although I don’t remember much at that age, I believe that is where the origin of my Chinese comes from. I have a brother who is 5 years younger than me, and unlike me he is horrible at Chinese.

I like to play sports, but I never pursue it. In my life I have played many different types of sports such as volleyball, pingpong, tennis, handball,…etc. I can’t swim despite my somewhat athletic abilities. When I was in 5th grade my parents sent me to take swim lessons and on my final exam I managed to get a passing grade despite my inability to float and swim more than 5feet away. I do not have a certain genre of music that I prefer, I pretty much listen to everything. As I child I wanted to play the piano more than anything else,I know, what a typical asian right, but soon came to realize that I was not a musical person. I dreaded the hours of practice, sitting, playing chords, so eventually I quit. I may not like to play the piano but I do enjoy the melody that it creates.

I love dogs. I can’t pick a favorite but my top favorite breeds would probably be shiba inu, corgi, pug, and husky. Right now every time I ask my parents if we could get a dog they tell me that I can get one when I move out. So, when I get my own apartment I hope to adopt dogs from shelters as well as foster dogs. I feel that even though I may not be able to get a certain breed that I want, adopting is something that I would like to do rather than buying one. Also just because I am a dog person does not mean that I don’t like cats!

I’m really looking forward to having an amazing college experience! I hope I get to know you all better and utilize all the opportunities that are given to me.

Hi everyone, I’m John!

I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades. In high school, I was the president of my graduating class, captain of my cross country, winter track, and spring track teams, Chief Squire of the Columbian Squires, and head sacristan at my church. Some of my favorite memories include breaking the school record in the weight throw during winter track, playing at Carnegie Hall twice with my wind ensemble, and giving a speech during graduation.

I have a couple of hobbies in which I tend to be a bit obsessive. My favorite sport is tennis and I plan on trying out for the team at Baruch. I’ve gone to the US Open a couple of times and my favorite player of all time is Roger Federer. My other hobby (more of a guilty pleasure) is reality TV; I absolutely love it, especially competition and strategy based games. Whenever the new season of Survivor or Big Brother begins, you can find me desperately searching for someone who wants to discuss the previously aired episode.

I am super excited for the next four years and to get to know you all better! The Macaulay Honors College is such a prestigious program and I feel so humbled to join such a diverse and awesome community. This is the just the beginning of a wonderful journey. 🙂

I am from a town about an hour outside of Manhattan, in Bedford NY, and I’ve always been in awe of the life in the city. I love its excitement and rush and for the longest time I have made it my goal to move here one day… Imagine how lucky I feel now! I am ready to take advantage of anything and everything that NYC has to offer, and I couldn’t have thought of a better place for me to spend my next four years. It is filled with vast opportunity and experience and it is a great learning environment in itself.

I have a variety of interests, some of which include nutrition, fashion, animal rights, and the ins and outs of business – all fields in which I would like to participate somehow in order to help me figure out my path for the future. So for right now, I am undecided on my major, and I’m open to anything. One thing, though, that I am absolutely sure of that I would like to do throughout my life is travel. I never want to stop exploring.

I have been to many states across the United States but am hoping to drive cross country in the near future. National parks in particular really intrigue me, and I am planning on seeing Yosemite or Bryce [not] soon enough. Outside of the US, I have been to Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, St. Maarten, Spain, and Greece. The list is to be continued…

Fun fact:  A hobby I hope to take up more seriously soon, especially now that I’m in NYC, is photography. I think its a perfect place to start, and, why not! I would love as well to keep a blog or record of the places I visit (even if only for my own personal enjoyment).

I look forward to this class and a world of learning ahead!

Here’s some insight as to why I love traveling:

(The top of a stadium in Greece)

Hey everyone, my name is Chris Angelidis and I am from Great Neck and I’m Greek. Most people assume I worship the ancient gods when they hear my ethnicity and to that I respond: I wasn’t actually born. Instead I was found on the top of Mount Olympus as a baby, destined for greatness.

As I’m sure is the case with everyone else in this class, I’m a pretty multitalented person. In highschool I swam, ran, pole vaulted, played basketball, and fenced. Sports were great and all, but my main passion is music. I’ve been playing an instrument for 11 years now. I started playing the recorder in third grade with everyone else in my class and then picked up the oboe in fourth grade. To be honest I wanted to learn the saxophone, but so did everyone else in my grade. So instead of learning to play the trending Pink Panther theme song, I was stuck learning how to play hot crossed buns. I hated it at first. The messages behind the notes of classical music were so distant from me at the time that practicing just felt like a chore. My parents made me keep playing the oboe for a couple of years until I realized I actually enjoyed the instrument. Having matured a little bit I found that playing any composition was a journey through the notes. I joined an orchestra run by Yo-Yo Ma’s sister and performed a ton of pieces by Dvorak, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms. I played traditional concerts in Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, ballet pits, musical pits and  even an opera pit for a world renowned tenor Placido Domingo. Despite all of these great opportunities, I felt I wasn’t experiencing all that music had to offer and so I began to search for more.

I decided to dive into modern music when I picked up my first guitar in eighth grade. I didn’t really know what I was doing since 6 strings are a lot different from the keys of a woodwind instrument. After watching youtube relentlessly for a couple of weeks, I picked up how to play chords and began playing some songs with friends. They’d usually sing and I’d accompany them. I settled for this basic level of guitar playing for about a year until I put the guitar down to learn the mandolin. Mumford and Sons had inspired me and so I learned a lot of their songs. After about a year of playing mandolin, I switched back to the acoustic guitar and began to learn more difficult songs. I decided to buy an electric guitar during the summer of my Junior year and formed a band called Lost by the Lighthouse (you can find us on facebook) with my two closest friends. The more we practiced together, the more serious I got about playing guitar. During my senior year I played guitar for my schools productions of Highschool Musical and Rent with the drummer who played in the actual broadway performance of it. Nowadays, I like to record my own songs in garage band and play as much music as I can. Any song requests?

Hm. I wonder how I should start my introduction for my introduction post. Well that’s a way to start it I suppose. You’re either reading this either because you’re a teacher and you have to or because you are interested in knowing more about me. Either way, I’ll try my best to not put you to sleep.

As you can probably tell, I’m a very humorous person. I like to take on life with a sense of humor. Because after all, why should life be taken so seriously? Sure there may be time in your life when you need to be serious, but if you take everything so seriously you might drive yourself insane. I know, because I used to take everything people say and do to heart. Actually, let me reword that, I only take criticisms to heart. I appreciate compliments though! However, as I grew older, I came to a realization that what people say about you really doesn’t matter. Just because someone says I’m dumb doesn’t make me dumb. Just like if someone said you were good looking doesn’t make you good looking. Humans aren’t that magical yet. I wish they were though. Then I wish for a brain as big as Bill Gate’s. If only…

Anyways onto a more serious note, I love basketball, bowling, hanging out with people. And sometimes, I even enjoy work. I’m not just saying that because I want a high grade in this class, even though I would not turn down such a offer. But I’m saying it because I truly feel that work is a very important aspect of life. Sure, sitting in front of the computer and playing Runescape or Mario Kart may be fun, but they don’t fulfill my life, not that I’ve played Runescape before…  I haven’t… Really… Working gives a chance of fulfillment when I accomplish a task just like feeling you get when you finally understand a math problem. Yes, that feeling. That feeling when you brain finally clicks and solves the puzzle. That feeling of joy and a sense of self esteem. That, is what makes work enjoying.

Thanks for reading!