The Decision of Our Semester

Monday's class was one of the more interesting and extraordinary experiences of my two years in Baruch. As a class we were given the authority to decide on the professor would handle our grades from the first test. What made this decision so difficult, was the fact that as a class of 60 students we had to make a unanimous decision. So the student who got the highest mark and the student that got the lowest mark had to agree on what the professor should do with this test. There are various decision making techniques that we could have used to make an unanimous decision.

Chaos was certainly an issue as the decision making process began in the class. Once someone took charge and began asking everyone of their opinions, there was order in the class. Personally, I believe without the pressure of having to make a unanimous decision affected everyones ability to make a decision. Many of the students gave up the best possible method to improve their grade in order to have one method that would help the entire class at the same time. This can be considered the compromise method and it worked very well to make a unanimous decision for the entire class.

The accommodation method is another method that could have easily worked well with our situation. The class saw everyones needs and made a decision in which other's needs were more important then their own needs. This can be very similar to the compromise method and I believe both would help if we were to make a future unanimous decision as a class.

Planning

Planning is something we all have to take into account before taking part in any activity. Planning a has many steps to it, and through the egg drop activity, I think our group did go through some of the steps of planning but missed out on some crucial steps that led to our egg breaking on the drop. The first two steps of setting goals and determining our status we did go through. From the outset we knew our timing of planning, that we had 20 minutes to finish all planning and be ready to receive the materials. We also asked if anyone had any experience in engineering and/or architecture because we believed that would significantly help our group construct something that would protect the egg. We came up with an initial design and with the remaining time we developed a few alternative designs. We then had to make the decision as a group to which design we were going to use. The fourth step I believe was our mistake and the reason for our failure in the task. As a group we did not delegate to what action each group member was to perform when receiving the materials. One we got the materials everyone was trying to do everything and therefore our structure did not come as we designed in the planning period. All steps must be met in order to successfully put your plan into action and success.

Culturally Different

All teenagers encounter other culturally different teens throughout their lives. A culture is something that one could recognize by only spending a few minutes with a person. Over the years I have witnessed many cultures that are recognizably different than mine, however, one such culture was of particular interest to me. Being a Jewish American I have met other young Jewish teenagers living in America, and have realized that our cultures are very much similar. Although, on some recent trips to Israel, I encountered Israeli teenagers with very different cultural attitudes. At first glance many of these teens did not have the sense of religion in which I have grown up with and in which I experienced early in my life. Religion, was not the only cultural difference, dress was also a noticeable difference. While in Israel I got the sense that there was a constant informal attire. Most men in America attending weddings, bar mitzvahs's, or any other occasions, dress in suits or formal wear. However in Israel, I noticed, it is out of the ordinary to dress in a suit for a friends wedding. Israeli food is something that has become increasingly popular in the states particular in New York. Jews in New York have to begun to live and die by deeply fried Israeli bred food. Stores like Shnitzi Bar (Fried Chicken) and Burgers Bar gave origins in Israel, but have had great success with American Jews living in New York. In reality the cultural differences involving food, have meshed together. Jews all over the world, I believe have many more similarities than differences, but those differences can teach one culture lessons to another.

About Me

I am currently in my second year in Baruch. I recently decided to major in Real Estate Investment and have begun taking courses towards my major. This semester I also began a part-time internship with the real estate company Africa Israel, USA. There I am assisting them to manage several of their properties and gaining a great experiance in the field. I named my blog BlackBerries because I believe a major part of managing a company today revolves around blackberries. People have begun to micromanage everything in their company using the technology of the blackberry.