WEEK 1: Introductions

[Mateo Duque]

This is the thread where you will write your introductory paragraphs. I wrote mine. Yours does not need to be so long. Just tell us something about yourself that you didn't mention in class.

Mateo Duque

I was born in Colombia, South America, but I moved to the US when I was four years old--that I told you in class. What I didn’t tell you was that as a result of moving from one country to another as a child, I sometimes I feel split between two worlds. When my family came to the US my father knew basically no English. My mother, on the other hand, had grown up speaking English at a young age and so she was able to teach me. However, it was still hard for us because my father still had to take care of my mother, my younger sister, and I. We lived in Knoxville, TN. He studied English at night until he could pass the TOEFL so he could start a degree in civil engineering. Meanwhile, he worked at Burger King during the day. We lived in student housing and it was hard because we didn’t have many luxuries. We would try to get by on basics, coupons, hand-me-downs, and charity. Now, I’m making this time in my life sound pretty bad, and I can imagine that it was really stressful for my mom and my dad: my mom trying to raise two kids with little money and having left behind many of her friends and family; my dad working long, difficult hours also leaving behind his 12 brother and sisters(!) and his many friends in Colombia. However, I remember it slightly differently, I really enjoyed those times. We didn’t have a lot, but we would often go to parks and hike in the woods. I didn’t have a lot of toys but that forced me to make my own and to be creative. Without that time, I don’t think I would be the person I am today. I learned my work ethic from my dad. I think back on those times because I’m getting closer to the age when my father had me as a baby.

[monise_71]

Hi everyone,

My first name is Marie Monise, but I prefer to be called Monise. In my country, everyone has two first name, but we only use the second one.  As I told in class, this is my fourth semester at Brooklyn College. I'm majoring in accounting, and I'm planning to take the CPA exam as soon as I complete my 150 credits. I'm an ESL student, and my English is very far from perfect.  However, I'm studying hard to improve it, so please everyone be understanding , and I will also be very grateful to those who can help me in this matter. I mentioned in class that I love reading and sport in general, but I also love playing scrabble. Actually, It's my favorite hobby. I play it when I'm bored, when I'm Stress, when I can't sleep. The funny part is, when I'm stuck in an assignment, I put it aside an play scrabble for a while just to clear up my thoughts.

Currently, I'm not working. My one-year old twins is a full time job including overtime. It's very hard for me to study, I can study only overnight. Which means after they fall asleep at  1 or 2 in the morning. It's really hard, but God give enough to keep going. I Hope to have a great semester with this class.

 

Monise Sanon 

 

 

 

 

[ivandavenny]

IVAN DAVENNY

I attended Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, mainly because my father taught there which meant I went there for free.  However, despite its monetary advantages, I didn't really know what I wanted to be doing, and I really wasn't ready for college at the time.  So after a few semesters I dropped out.  It has taken a few years, but I'm back and I think in a much better state of mind.  By far the best thing I did while taking this break was driving cross country with my girlfriend of four years, Molly, and our basset hound Rufus.  If you've never done it, I highly recommend it; I'm not the overly sentimental or patriotic type, but it is a beautiful country.  I worked in my time off as a Barista at Starbucks, but I also went tornado chasing one summer with a few artists and the Weather Channel as an extra photographer.  Molly now goes to grad school at Sarah Lawrence so we have been living in Hartsdale for a while now, but we're moving into Brooklyn later this week (which is going to make my commute a whole lot easier).  My favorite authors are William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, Faulkner for his use of time and perspective, McCarthy for his antagonistic landscapes, but both use awesome fantastical language and imagery.  Recently I've been trying to get some of my own short stories published.  Oh, I'm also a terrible procrastinator, which I'm trying to work on.

[Soon M. Seo]

All interesting above. Thank you for sharing.
 Hi, I’m Soon M. Seo. I’m from South Korea. When I came to U.S. 2005, I got to here New York city for the first time. Then I traveled about eight states in the west, and I’ve moved around and lived nine states on east cost. The last place I was in before I came back to New York was Florida. Yes. I like traveling and living different places. That’s one of big reasons I decided to be a film maker. I guessed film makers travel along places where the story brings them. I’m currently writing a script and it’s about to be shoot in February. I found out that the two types of syllogisms helps story telling. Isn’t it interesting? In films, we create our own truth. I thank you, professor, and both philosophy camps-Anglo and continental guys. Upon their achievements they’ve done or been doing, I can just exploit those.
I’ve changed my majors twice; from Psychology to Theatre Art Studio to Film Production. Will Filmmaking end of my journey? I don’t know. Yeah, I like traveling like I said.
Monday is my toughest day of a week like everyone else. I get up 4:40 in the morning and stay up until 11p. Yeah, my hell gate has just opened. Even if I do not talk much or do look sleepy in the class, I will tend to deeply appreciate the brilliant ideas. Or not. We’ll see, but there’s no doubt that I’m in the class with cool people.
I think I’ve talked or written too much. I’ll shut my fingers here. Wish you all the best.

[Elvira Toporova]

Elvira Toporova

Hi I am Elvira. I came to America in 2003 from Moldova. When I came to US I did not have any English, no relatives or friends.  First five years in this country I  worked as a waiter, home attendant, medical assistants, and studied  English. Even I live here almost 10 years my English is faaar from perfect, because I only  speak english in college, at home we speak russian,all my friends speak russian, before I worked only with russians. Now I dont work, got married in 2009 to a wonderful man , have 15 months old baby boy. I graduated from Kingsborough College in 2011 in Accounting major. This is my second semester in Brooklyn college , senior student and continuing in accounting major. I love watching news, movies, read newspapers, books, go out sometimes. Dont have any talents. Good luck in class. 

[felixjonanthony]

Hello everyone, I'm Felix. I am currently majoring in TV and Radio and minoring in Film. Ideally, I'd like to become a television show/film director and producer. I currently work as a visual associate for Aeropostale and as an intern for Magilla Entertainment, a reality tv production company. Although stressful at times, I enjoy my fast paced life of working, interning, attending school, and traveling. I'm also currently writing the second book for a trilogy I've been working on the past two years and plan to hopefully get the first book published by 2015. I enjoy drawing and love tattoos (getting them, drawing them, seeing pieces). I once heard that writers don't always choose the safest path or the one that makes the most sense, but rather the path that would make the best story. I think my career choice would suit me perfectly since I've been making those decisions since I was a little kid. However, writing is all about learning and telling a story of all aspects of life. I look forward to learning more about philosophical views and may even be inspired to write something based on our lessons.

[beccatheblue17]

My name is Rebecca Sutton. I moved here about a year a half ago from Portland, OR. I am a junior at Brooklyn College, majoring in Art, specifically, printmaking. I work as a bartender in my restaurant and it is a ton of fun. I live with my two best friends who also moved here from Portland. We all went to the same high school and I have known them for a long time. I like to travel a lot. Last summer I went to Mexico and had a mini tour of the US--I went to Portland to visit home, then Seattle, New Orleans, and Austin. This summer I am planning on going to Cuba with my roommates/best friends. Two years ago I spent a month in South America, traveling from Montevideo, Uruguay to Lima, Peru, I speak Spanish OK, enough to get me around while traveling. Last term I had no free time whatsoever; I was both working and attending school full time. This term though, I have two days off a week and I am very excited to be able to have leisure time again. I'm mostly excited to work on art again, since I didn't really have any time to do that during the fall. I have a blog with photographs of my art on it, but there's some PG13 stuff in there so if anyone wants to see it they should ask me. 

[solrivera821]

Hello, my name is Sol, this is my second semester at Brooklyn College as a transfer student. I recently moved out to the Bronx from Long Island where I have lived for most of my life. I did spend my childhood in the Bronx and now I have returned to my neighborhood. I am currently working full time and attending school full time. This is the first semester I have to do this so I am hoping I can get through it. I have worked for the same law firm for almost nine years now. When I was working 60+ hours a week three years ago I realized that this wasn't something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My job was slowly sucking the life and creativity I had out of me, so I decided to head back to school to change my career and pursue my passions. I thought I was crazy to come back to school as an adult and completely change course in my career but I am enjoying every minute of it. I love to learn new things and meet new people. Currently I am an Art History major with the hopes of pursuing a career in curating and to travel the world experiencing art and culture. I love the creative arts, in all forms. I do some writing myself, mostly poetry and I am hoping to start performing at some open mics this year.

[Yolanda Challenger]

Hi classmates, my name is Yolanda Challenger. I am from the tropical island of Dominica. It's a tiny island in the Eastern Caribbean,about twenty-nine miles by forth-nine miles. The population, is just over seventy thousand people, where everyone seems to be related. I grew up as a child in my homeland, and migrated to Brooklyn, New York twenty-five years ago where I still reside. The first fifteen years that I spend in New York I was an illegal immigrant and did odds and ends like babysitting to survive, which over the years gave me a passion for children. They are a breath of fresh air.
I am the third of five children, and the first to go further than high school or an associates. As an adult, it was a big challenge for me to decide to change my career as Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and go back to school. I am a transfer student from BMCC, and my second semester here, and I am majoring in Accounting.
My greatest challenge at school have been the core classes, which seem to be very difficult and time consuming, and this one seems no different than any of the others, but I think for the next four months we will all have a good time and make it through.

[Ellie]

Hey everyone, I’m Ellie. I grew up in an extremely religious and sheltered community in Brooklyn. In the home I grew up in, there was no TV, computer games,  movies, library books, magazines, newspapers or anything else that would in any way “taint” our minds. Some people find it shocking when I tell them that even without all that, my childhood was not boring. It's really not so shocking though, because there are 10 of us kids so there was always something going on. Philosophy is something that really interests me because I’m absolutely fascinated, yet completely stumped by, life, the world, people; even the idea of existence is just one huge unanswered question to me. Now that I left that community, and philosophy is no longer something that’s forbidden, I decided to take this class (regardless of the fact that I transferred with enough credits to be exempt from all the lower tier cores) so I can hopefully learn different ideas, gain clarity, and become more aware of the different perspectives that are out there. And I’m really looking forward to it.

[g.dlegister]

HI everyone!

  My name is Glenmore D Legister, you can call me Glen. I'm currently majoring in Tv and Radio and minoring in film at Brooklyn College. I love music, film, art and traveling. My cultural back round is Jamaican and Panamanian, This makes me the first genration kid under my immigrate parents. I love to take still images on my DSLR and my 35 mm SLR film camera when I have the extra time. I also draw and play some of my string instruments as part of my hobbies. In the future I will become cinematographer on films, and drama tv shows. I know thats a pretty strong statement  but I believe with  a positive state of mind, almost anyone can get what they want. I would love the idea of being a gaffer, for me its so much fun playing around with lighting. Well at the moment, I really don't have much to say. I hope I learn some interesting ideas from this class!

Best!

 Glenmore D Legister

[imusicea92]

Hello,

My name is Elizabeth Adler and I really, really have no idea what I will wind up doing in the future. I love music and writing and I love my job ( I work at a special needs preschool) but I've learned that there is a lot you can't plan for in life and sometimes the best thing to do is just go with it. This past summer I used most of my savings account and a lot of my paychecks to go backpacking through Europe with my sister (and my mom joined us for a little bit). We were lucky enough to see about eight countries, many cities, and experience the joys and pitfalls of traveling with just one other person and a backpack for a month. I think seeing different parts of the world, even just different states, changes your views and ideas about what's going on. I am looking forward to this class and believe it will help shape my insights. All the best.

[andrewaalvarez10]

My name is Andrew Alvarez. I am from Rochester, NY. I transferred here from Monroe Community College last semester. I came to Brooklyn because the school was cheap and had a decent Film program. I really don't know what I want to do yet but I know that film is the direction that I want to go in. Along with movies, I am also very passionate about music. I have been in a couple of bands since I was 11 years old. This is actually the first year I haven't been in a band since started playing. I go to a lot of shows as well. I have lost count awhile ago but roughly I have been to 400+ shows. It's the only other thing that keeps me busy besides work and school. This past year I also did some traveling. One of my bigger trips was last January I went to London for a couple of weeks for a media studies class at my school. Another one of the larger trips I took was I drove cross country with my friends. We went from Rochester to Cheyenne, WY, San Francisco, Sequoia National Park, San Diego, Las Vegas, Denver then back to Rochester. It took us a couple weeks and was one of the greatest experiences I have had. With my experiences, I hope that this semester I can put in some useful inputs in class discussion. 

[nadiahamidi7]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Nadia Hamidi. I'm a Creative Writing major with a concentration in fiction. I am also a Religion minor. I was born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York. I am so happy to be a native New Yorker but really it's the diversity that makes our city so wonderful. I moved to Mill Basin with my family in November and currently live in the basement apartment in my parent's house. I am the middle child and suffer from middle child syndrome! I love reading, writing, watching movies, reading reviews, and researching interesting things daily. My mother came to America when she was 15 from Lebanon and finished high school and college here. She is currently a DOE math teacher. My father came to America from Iran when he was 26 and worked every job from fast food to eventually owning his own business. He practically killed himself to pay for his tuition and graduated from Jersey City State College although I'm pretty sure the college is now called something else. He is now retired. I am truly blessed to have the privilege of going to school worry-free. I am a professional makeup artist but only work part time since I go to BC full time. Education is the most important thing in my life right now and my plan for the future is to get accepted into a dual Master/Phd program in English literature. I am a crazy cat lady! I have two cats who mean the world to me. As for more super human abilities, I know it sounds weird, but I can detect pregnancy in a lady sometimes even before she knows she's pregnant! It has happened so many times--a female will walk in the room and somehow I feel she is pregnant way before she starts showing. I'm really not sure what it is! Perhaps my body can sense the hormones--I guess I'll never know! I'm a very open-minded individual and never judge anyone. If I did not want to pursue a prestigious degree, I would probably be a makeup artist forever because I love it so much. I am a die-hard Britney Spears fan. I just love her so much! I am now realizing that this post has become extremely random and somewhat incoherent. I hope that my short bio/interests helps everyone understand me a bit more. I look forward to a wonderful semester! 

[pesantezkevin]

Hello my name is Kevin Pesantez.  As I said in class I am an 18 year old student who is at Brooklyn College for a second semester.  I currently have a part time job that fits perfectly into my schedule because it allows me to do both during the week.  I work in an after school program in my neighborhood.  The program I work for is a free program that offers services to studetns from Kindergarten to eighth grade.  I work with twenty fourth graders; in which i help them with homework; I conduct other activites with them also such as Math which to us is called Sum It Up, and English which is known as Alpha.  I used to enjoy playing a sport name handball very often but once school started and when I began working I little by little stopped playing to the point where now i don't play anymore.  I am a MATH person, I would rather do a math problem than to have to sit and write an essay.  I am looking foward to this class, and for it to open my eyes to other career fields because I have yet to decide what I want to major in. 

[kingholee28]

Hi everyone, my name is King Ho Lee, people just call me King, American think the second part of Chinese name is our first name, and our last name is actually the first part of our name, never mind, I don't want you to get confused, it just name, a lot people don't use their real name anyway, I use my real name because I like to make thing simple, I am originally from a city called Hong Kong, I am the third generation in my family born there, so unlike most Chinese people you may meet in New York who are from mainland China, I am not a communist, even I consider Chinese is my race or ethnicity. I came to New York from my home city when I was 15, I first lived in my uncle house in Queens for a little while, then I moved out, my uncle and Queens suck, I started living by myself when I turned 17, so I kind of having a multi-personality in some way, for instance, I am kind of more mature than other guys in my age, because I started living by myself and learned how to be independent when I was young, at the same time, I am kind of childish and immature in some ways, because my parents cannot control my behavior after I gain my freedom by moving out of my family even I was still a teenager, people always confused by my multi-personality, I sometimes confused by myself too, freedom is the most important thing to me, I don't like to bother other people, and I don't like other people bothering me even more, even my girlfriend, I kicked my ex off my bed when I was sleeping, so I really hate people get in my way me even in my subconscious, of course I did apologize to her when I realized when I did.

I am an International Business Major, that's not what I really really like, that's just something what I am good at, so it's kind of easy for me. I got to do business anyway in the future anyway, because I can't work for someone, my boss always hate me because he know I am smarter than him. like I said in the class, my interest change all the time, my current interest is cooking and driving, I used to just buy take out food, because I was lazy to cook, few years ago I started caring about my health, it become a lot of fun and save a lot money, 7,8 dollars for garbage take out food with a lot of msg, I can cook seafood, fish or steak at same cost, and I created my own recipe by mixing different kind of sauce, cooking oil and seasoning like mixing liquor for cocktail, I don't like to learn cooking from other people, or following the traditional recipe, cooking can be creative, and unlimited variety, I don't like stereotype things and stereotype people. I don't have my own car, but I at least drive 5 times or a month, I like to drive fast, very fast, sometimes I hit 140 mph on BQE or LIE, I just break my own record last week, from exit 24 of  BQE in Brooklyn to the exit of LIE at flushing Queens for only 9 minutes, I know I can do even faster in the future. I know it's crazy, but I still try to be safe most of the time, I like the feeling of the speed, it stimulate my mind and my body, killing my stress, I can stop thinking of anything else when I just focus on the road.

I admitted that I think a lot, I can't help it, my brain just keep thinking all the time, I like to think why and why not on almost everything, I don't like people say "don't think too much", because I never think I think too much, I only think a lot, stupid people think too much, smart people think a lot, and dumb people don't think at all, when someone think a lot of thing which all make sense, that"s not thinking too much. In the first, I kept thinking why professor not asking us what our major is, this was not the first time I am being to introduced in college, almost every professors ask us about our major when they ask us to introduce ourselves, in stead of asking our major, our professor in this class more concern which semester we are in now, so why, did he not care about our major? or he think it's not really important to philosophy class?  or he just didn't want to ask a question which every other professor would ask for introducing ourselves? or he did that on purpose and want to see if anyone like me noticed that? or I really think too much, he don't think about that at all, he knows we are going to talk about our major here anyway? since I think a lot when I am awake, I also sleep a lot too. Unlike some people say they like to sleep, I actually don't like to sleep a lot, I just need to, and I am sure I sleep way more than those people claim they like to sleep.

King

[carroyo600]

My name is Christina Arroyo and I am a transfer student from Hunter College. Before attending Hunter College I graduated from City Tech with an associates degree in Marketing Management and Sales. I am now working on my bachelor's degree in Business Marketing. I am attending Brooklyn College part time so I would be here for quite some time. I work as a Social Worker at a Preventive Agency and would continue to work there until I graduate from Brooklyn College.

[krystalgonzalez.28]

My name is Krystal Gonzalez,  I major in childhood education (grades 1-6).  This is my second semester in Brooklyn college, but I attended 1 semester 4 years ago at Berkeley College in the city for Fashion, then I changed my major to education when I started working at a daycare.  I graduated this past summer from Kingsborough with my associates in childhood education.  My moms Salavdorian and my dads Puerto Rican,  I was born in New York.  I live in Queens but I'm a Brooklyn girl at heart.  I've been working at a daycare in Brooklyn for 4 years now, and I babysit as well.  I'm pretty adventurous.   I love trying new things, and traveling, going to new places. I mentioned I like art and my talent is drawing, one thing I didn't mention is I am pretty good at face painting and balloon animals.  I am working on doing that as a side job at birthday parties.  I guess I'm sort of like a clown. I also love to bake things from scratch.  I'm always teaching my self something new.  I also enjoy reading and writing,  I always have.  I am thinking about changing my major to secondary education so I can teach English in a Junior High School, but I love kids so I'm still not t sure.  Torn between my favorite subject and children.

[sremac.sara]

Hello everyone!

My name is Sara Sremac, I was born in Subotica, Serbia, a country in Eastern Europe below Hungary. When I was five my dad won an illegal green card lottery which allowed my family to secretly immigrate to the United States. The only person we knew in America was a man named "Bamboo" who lived in a tree house in Arizona and repaired motorcycles for a living. We lived with him for two years and then my dad got a job as a professor in Amherst, Massachusetts, and that's where I went through most of my schooling. When I graduated high school I was accepted to Pitzer College, in Claremont, CA, but decided to take a year off and further pursue organic farming, which I've been doing since I was 10. I farmed all around the country and ended up in Brooklyn to visit my boyfriend who had moved here and to check out some of the urban farming scene. I fell in love with Brooklyn and the people and communities and found this incredible program through CUNY. The program I'm in is called the CUNY Interdisciplinary BA Program, and it lets you take classes at any of the CUNY schools and create your own major. I am majoring in Sustainability Education and hope to graduate and work with inner city schools in NYC to provide affordable healthy food and health education. 

[factiond]

Hey, I'm Lauren. I mentioned in class that I'm from Tampa, Florida. I was originally born in Brooklyn, but my mom and I moved to Florida when I was six and I moved back by myself about six or seven years ago. I hatehatehate Winter as much as you would imagine someone from Florida hates Winter, so I mainly hibernate and hang out with my roommate who is (luckily enough) also my best friend from Florida. I knit, I read, I draw comics, and I like to think I'm a pretty righteous cook. During the Summer I do a lot more, I love to go to the beach and spend my weekend days in McCarren Park playing kickball. I love exploring different ethnic enclaves in New York, Queens Chinatown is my favorite and I love Jackson Heights and Brighton Beach. I like to have projects and my main project this Winter is Operation Don't Get Sick, so I've been double fisting green tea and eating oranges by the dozen. I got a gym membership and I have been washing my hands like someone with OCD. 

See you tonight! 

[gregorydny]

Hello my name is Gregory. I live in Brooklyn. I enjoy reading and anything to do with real estate from development to day to day operations. My special talent is portrait photography. This is my junior year ... That is all 

[dahlia4808]

Hello my name is Dahlia Cunningham. I am from Jamaica West Indies. I came here from I was six years old. So you can say that I am a Jamerican. I am a transfer student from queens college. I am a mother of two beautiful children and a manager ,for a big company. My schedule is very hectic but I manage to accomplish both to the best of my ability. I am a part time student and I need to finish school like yesterday. I am very lovable person and enjoying helping others. I volunteer when I can, and will put out a full 100% to help others. I love science and hope to teach it in my near future. I have never taken philosophy and is very instrested in the learning style it puts out. I am optimistic about life and look forward to this class. Thank you

[yuliyazhivotenko]

My name is Yuliya Zhivotenko. I was born in Moscow, Russia. I moved to America when I was 3 and since then live in Rockaway Beach. The last couple of months have been the hardest for me due to Hurricane Sandy, considering my house is the first one off the beach. I am a sophomore,19 years old. I work part-time in the city at a Realty company. I am a transfer student from Long Island University - Brooklyn Campus. This is my first semester in Brooklyn College. My major is pre-med and hopefully I pursue my goal of becoming a doctor.  

[stephane1]

Hello everyone, This introduction was a a long time coming. My name is Stephane Michael Esthe, no one has actually called me by my full name unless they are mad at me, but most people call me Stephane  I'm a senior here at the college majoring in computer information systems, like many other students i'm one of the luckiest to already have a job within my field of study and i am very grateful for that. My hobbies are playing guitar, piano not that i'm any good at them and watching Netflix  that i'm very good at. This is the second philosophy class i have taken here at Brooklyn college, i have taken ethics in information technology as philosophy course related to computerized systems. what i want to get out of this class is to help me develop appreciation for philosophy but i do not want to get in to deep into it because i believe you have to be born and destined to be into philosophy and on many occasion i have found out that i am not that person. i'm a very friendly and civil person, i get along with everyone, yes even with the difficult ones. and that is pretty much me in a nutshell. see you guys in class.

[Kateryna Panasyuk]

 Hi everyone, my name is Kateryna Panasyuk and I am from Ukraine (it is separate country, not the part of Russia). In the US everybody calling me Katrina, because nobody can pronounce my name right;) I am no major student and this is my 3rd semester in BC, I am planing to get my Bachelors in Marketing and continue my education in Parsons for Fashion Marketing. I love to read Russian classical literature, psychology and alternative literature. I attended Musical and Dance school in my country. So I love to play and hear piano and dance and see ballet. I think that strictness of my Musical and Dance school made me the way I am, and I appreciate it a lot. Also I love soccer, climbing, biking and club night life sometimes. Thanks for reading :)

[joyash22]

Talking about myself was never easy for me. I mentioned in class that I work in a daycare facility. I enjoy it tremendously. The children are 2-3 years old. Everyday is new and exciting. Two year olds are an interesting bunch. They never cease to amaze me.
I came back to school to finish what I started 26 years ago. I haven’t picked a major yet. I enjoy learning in a classroom setting. I am doing it very slowly so I hope dementia doesn’t set in before I am able to complete my degree. Maybe I’ll set a record for Brooklyn College’s oldest graduate!
               When I have free time I am a docent at the Museum of Jewish Heritage a Living Memorial to the Holocaust. I usually give tours to school groups. The mission of the museum is to teach tolerance and understanding to prevent such an event from occurring again. When I finish a tour with a good group of children I feel fulfilled and that maybe I made a difference in someones life. I usually get more from them than they get from me.
               It seems that tennis is the popular sport of our class. Well, its the sport of my choice as well! There’s nothing like chasing a little green ball to help you forget your problems for awhile. Smashing a ball also does wonders for releasing pent up anger and stress!
            
          

[mahbob.ali]

Hello, 

My name is Ali Mahbob, and I'm a biology major. This is my first semester at Brooklyn College, and my first semester of of college in 3 years. I took a break from school after my father was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2009. At first it seemed everything was going well, my Dad was responding to treatments well, went into remission and returned to work. Life seemed to go back to normal. However his cancer relapsed and that's when things took a turn for the worse. After a 2 and a half year bout with cancer my dad passed away due to complications of his stem cell transplant. I was lost for a long time. Even though he was at death's bed a few times, the thought of actually losing him didn't seem to be a possibility. I wasn't prepared for a life without him. 

I struggled with the decision to continue my education. I had so many more responsibilities now and I didn't even know where to begin. How would I help my mom financially and be able to go to school at the same time? After thinking about it for a long time, I finally decided to go back to school and obtain my Bachelors. I remembered my dad telling me that education is an investment. After seeing him work hard his entire life in the restaurant industry, I understood that finishing my degree was the best option. 

I feel like I am in a much better place now. I've made my peace with losing my dad, and I feel as I have grown as a person. I appreciate things I've taken for granted before, and am thankful for each day. I look forward to my stay at Brooklyn College and hope to make the most of it.  

[Mateo Duque]

Everyone who posted here in this thread got full credit.

[rbrutusjr]

Hello everyone. My name is Roosevelt Brutus. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I'm a freshman student in my second semester. I am an exercise science major. After college i plan on going to physical therapy school. I want to be a sports physical therapist. I have always had a passion for sports. My favorite sports are basketball and soccer. Obviously, my dream would be to be a professional athlete but I know that at this point its very unlikely. I played soccer for my high school's team and I also ran track. Someday, I want to work with athletes whether as a trainer or therapists. I would really love to be on a medical staff of a professional team in the NBA or maybe even abroad in a foreign country. Besides sports, I also have a passion for traveling. I like experiencing new cultures and seeing new people. So far I've been to Spain,France,Italy,Monaco,and Gibraltar. All of those are beautiful places however, there are many other countries I am eager to visit like Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, and Australia. 

[AYGUL KULA]

Hi, my name is Aygul. I was born in Bulgaria. When I was 11 years old we moved to Istanbul, Turkey, like many others. It was mandatory moving because of the political regime and suppression to Turkish people in Bulgaria. It was difficult times for my family and myself. Even though I was a child I could see and understand the hardness. My mom and older sister were working in two jobs. My father had hard time to find a job because of his age. My younger sister was married and they moved to different city in Turkey. It was very hard for me because I couldn’t see her often as used to be. It took me like five years to get used to live in different country. I missed everything a lot. I am married for almost ten years. When we were engaged, my husband won green card and we moved to New York. And similar story began again. I feel split between these countries.

I have two associate degree diploma, finally I am happy to pursue mybachelors degree.

[herring.chantell]

Hello everyone, my name is Chantell Herring and I am a Brooklyn native. This is my first semester at Brooklyn College, but I am considered a lower junior. I am an accounting major and I am really excited to be on my pathway to obtaining my Bachelors. I enjoy dancing, fashion, exploring, learning and meeting new people. I'm sure it would be a pleasures to meet you all. This is my first philosophy class and I am really intrigued about the subject.

[teejay323]

Hey everyone! Sorry, this intro has been long over due, but of course all the usual computer problems prevented me from posting. My name is Temima Jaroslawicz, I live in Far Rockaway (the border of NYC and Nassau County). I am currently a second semester freshman, and I am majoring in Nutrition, with either a double major or minor in something in the business field. I hope to eventually concentrate on childhood nutrition, and showing them how eating right doesn't have to be boring, it can be fun too! Currently, I have a full time job working in a real estate management office, and I'm in school full time as well. Besides for the usual typical hobbies of reading, writing poems and short stories, and puzzle solving, I enjoy doodling as well as analyzing other peoples doodles. I know that sounds crazy, but you would be surprised how much you can figure out based on someone doodles, because it tends to be coming from their subconscious, sometimes they don't even realize how they felt until they look at their own doodles.