Email Exchanges

From the Core Curriculum College and Career Component: "My Student Profile" email exchange

Ling Ling [Mentee]

Hi Cara,

How are you doing? The weather in this week is not bad, it’s almost sunny. It’s also a good time for going out with friends but I didn’t do so. I feel so agonizing in this week. I am worry about what colleges will accept me. I still don’t receive any college letters so far, so I am afraid of I will not be accepted. Last week, I called the CUNY center; the people told me that I would receive the letters in two weeks. Now, what I can do just waiting for the letters. Also, I heard that many other people didn’t receive the letters yet too. We don’t know how come, we are not sure that the CUNY center doesn’t have enough information about us or it does not the time notice the students. That makes me sad. In this week, we are planning to interview the expert who is relative to the career that we are researching for. Some of my class mates will interview one of the mentors, and if the one who is not
available to find out the expert in the mentors, they will find the expert out by themselves in the telephone book. We will make the appointment by ourselves. It’s nervous to do the interview in person. You told me that what your major was when you were in college, so could you tell me if your major help you in your current job, and how did you find the job?

Your dream works seem very contributive. What a kind person you are! You walk to home just for the students who have questions to ask you. You are a responsible person too. For real, I am so lucky that you are my mentor. Thank you for telling me your opinion about the introvert and extrovert. I agree that you said the more I talked to people and dealt with people in different situations, the more comfortable I became. I know if I don’t try to do so, I will not improve my communicationskills. Thank you for your comm ents and the Internet links, and thank you for caring about me so much. You said that you would meet your friend and her family, so you will be their tourism guide. You can travel around NYC with them. In fact, I don’t visit Washington DC so
far. I don’t know how it exactly looks like.

Different student has different school profile, let me talk about my school profile to you in this week:

I am in twelve Grade now. The subjects I have received the highest grades in Math and ESL classes. The other subjects are just so-so. The GPA that I get so far is ninety. It’s not that high. In this school, I am so lucky that I have ever won an award at the school. That’s the Student of the Month but I haven’t won an award in the community. Being prepare to enter to college, I have taken the SAT’s already. The score that I got in SAT’s was not that high. I am so ashamed to say it out. Please forgive me. On the other hand, we need to take all the Regents that we have to before we graduate. I have taken five Regents so far. They are Living Environment Regent, two Math Regents, Global History Regent, and English Regent. I have passed all of them. But I still have two Regents --- Government & U.S. History Regent and Earth Science Regent to take in this semester. I hope I can pass them before I go to the college. In last term, I participate two after school programs. One
is Ping-Pong, and the other one is video production. I had a lot of fun in these programs. In the video production class, we learned how to make a film and how to interview people. The film that we made was about the effect of 9/11. Presently, I don’t take any after school programs.

In this semester, I am taking a class that is about Ancient Greek Literature. Now, we are learning a book named the myths of Greece. The myths are about gods and goddesses, how they treated with each other and the human. The g ods and the goddesses’ marriages are incestuous. It sounds so terrible, and the book gave us an idea how the natural came from. This class is very interesting but there are so many gods and goddesses in the book. It’s hard to remember. Since I moved into here, I
have worked three jobs. One was packing. It was the first job that I worked in New York. It was also the first job that I had in my life. The second that I got was working in MacDonald, but I just worked in there for a month. The third one that I worked was making nails in last summer. Making nails is quite funny. Especially when you make design on the nails, it looks so amazing.

In my opinion, I think the biggest strength in my student profile is I can finish my works independently. I think this is my biggest strength because when I am asked to do a work, I want to try my best to finish it. I don’t want to be helped by doing nothing. I want to become independence. I think the bi ggest weakness in my student profile is I am afraid to say out loud in front of people. I think this is my biggest weakness because I scare that when I say out my opinion or idea, the other people will laugh at me and discuss me. If I could change one aspect of my student profile, I would like to change myself become more confident and talkative. That’s because I always don’t have confidence on what I do, I am often worry about the thing, which I have done is wrong or failure. Also, if I was a talkative person, then I could be easy to deal with people. That’s what I think.

Tonight, I will go to see the Broadway show with my ESL teacher. The show we will see is call The Beauty and The Beast. But I have no idea what I will do at the weekend. Hope you have a nice trip with your friend and her family. Have a nice weekend! Talk to you soon!

L.L.

Cara [Mentor]

Hi Ling Ling,

Sorry that I have not responded sooner.  I hope that this did not delay your class assignment at all.  It was so good to talk to you on the phone yesterday.  I'm excited about seeing you on Monday! 

What are you going to do with your day off on Friday?  This weekend I need to catch up on my school work.  I have some papers and tests coming up and I have a lot of reading and studying to do.  I'm also going to see the Broadway musical, "Wicked" with my sister on Sunday.  What did you think of Beauty and the Beast last weekend?  I haven't seen that show but have wanted to.  Did you like it?  What was it like, was the music good?

Don't worry about the response from CUNY.  I know that most application processes are usually very slow.  I'm sure that everything will work out well. Where else did you apply?

I wanted to answer the two questions you asked me about my major and if my major helped me in my job.  I was a marketing major within the business school at the University of Massachusetts.  I had always wanted to be a business major in high school and in college because I felt it would teach me hard core skills that would be applicable to every day life.  I do feel like I use many of my business skills each day. For example, as an undergraduate, I learned a lot about effective communication skills.  I use these skills each day, whether it be writing an email to a colleague or giving a presentation to a group of students.  I do get a chance to utilize some of my Marketing skills when we are called upon to publicize events or promote a new course being offered.  I think that I mentioned before that I used to work in marketing for Time magazine but I was laid off in February of 2002, shortly after 9/11 and the economy was really bad.  I k new that I wanted to go back to graduate school so I thought working for a business school, while also using my business skills would be the perfect place to be!  That's how I ended up as an academic advisor at the Stern School of Business.  When I decided to go back to graduate school, I was torn between a masters in business and a masters in public administration.  I decided to specialize in public policy and get a masters degree in public administration because I believe this builds upon core business skills as well as teaches you how to use them in a public organization.  I felt that giving back and changing things for the better was really important to me and what I wanted to do in my everyday life.

Thank you for your nice words and comments in your previous email.  I feel very lucky to have a mentee as great as you.  I think we have a lot of things in common and I always look forward to your emails each week.  I know that you will be very successful and I'm already so proud of everything you have achieved thus far in your young life!!!  I hope that we can keep in touch when you go to college next year.

I really enjoyed reading your student profile.  I admire you for getting good grades in your math class. I always struggled with Math. Which Math class have you enjoyed most?  I remember taking calculus and trignometry in high school.  Your GPA is very high, 90!  That is great,  you should be very proud of yourself.  It is really hard to earn a 90 grade point average.  I'm glad that you also enjoy your ESL class. 

How great that you won student of the month!!!  What month did you win this award?  Did the students vote to elect you as their winner.  This is very exciting, you should be so proud of yourself.  There certainly are a lot of Regents exams!  I didn't have to take the Regents exam because I grew up in NJ.  Only students that live in NY State take the Regents.  How are the tests formatted, is it all multiple choice or is it essay too?  When do you take the remaining two tests?

I didn't know that you played ping pong and were involved with video production.  I'm so impressed that your school offered these activities.  Did you like interviewing people? Did you learn to operate some of the equipment?  I'd love to see the film one day, do you have a copy of it that I could watch?

I'm so interested in your profile because I'm learning so many new things about you.  I didn't know that you had three jobs, packing, McDonald's and doing nails.  How fun! Did you like packing and what did you do at McDonald's?  I think it is great that you are good at doing nails?  I love to do my nails.  Do you do yours often?

Your class on Greek literature sounds interesting.  What other classes are you taking this semester?

I enjoyed reading your perspective on your strengths and weaknesses.  I can sympathize with you when you say that you feel one of your weaknesses is that you are afraid to speak out loud because you are afraid what people will think of you.  I think many people have this fear, however with practice you will over come this.  It is really hard to speak out loud but you will build this confidence over time.  You shouldn't worry that people will think you are a failure, you should want to share your ideas because they are great ones!  Once you start expressing yourself out loud and realize that people agree with alot of what you are saying, you will want to speak out loud more often.

Are you thinking about joining any student clubs or taking part in any additional extra curricular activities?  What student clubs do they offer at LESP?  In high school, I was involved with the volunteer service club, student newspaper and Spanish club.  Do they have opportunities like this for you to take part in?  Participating in after school activities gives you a chance to express yourself in ways outside the classroom and may help with your confidence and speaking in public.

When is your graduation from LESP?  I hope that I can attend the ceremony! 

Talk to you very soon!  Have a great day off!

C.