Even Bad Days Are Really Great Days :)

The beginning of this week was a tough one! 

Ouch!

First and foremost, there’s my health. During the weekend, I tripped over a canoe (how dumb, I know…) and I REALLY hurt my leg. As you can see from the picture, I have a HUUUUGE bruise, and as you can tell, it hurts a lot. But I am strong, I am gonna tough it out. Sure. 

Then, on Monday morning at 5am I woke up with a very sore fingertip. You say whaaaat? Yeah, my fingertip. Left hand, fourth finger: I got an infection. The most likely reason of the infection is that I had a small cut (which could have been caused by my addiction to biting my nails…) and it got infected during my workout on Sunday night. Whatever the cause, it was very painful. I kind of ignored it on Monday, because I was very busy writing my pitch for E-Launch… 

But when I woke up on Tuesday… Ahi ahi carramba! It hurt! Too bad I had an appointment with my counselor at 8:30am, work in the Math Lab 9-11am, Art History class 11:10am-12:30pm, and then my Introduction to Philosophy class 12:45-2:05pm. After that, I had to go to the International Student Office and to visit the Philosophy tutor for a mandatory notes check. Finally, I only had about two hours to learn and refine a 6-minute pitch that I wrote the night before. I thought I had no time to go to the doctor. 

However, I realized that my finger was more important. So, around 11:45m, after finishing my Art History Slide Test, I left school and went to the doctor. 

I was told I am going to need antibiotics for a week. I was not happy. Then, the doctor exported liquid from my finger with a syringe and it was the most painful thing ever. The finger would hurt just by touching it because of the infection, and the doctor stuck a needle inside my skin and pushed it deep into the infection. AAAAAA Only the thought of it makes me shiverrrrr. So painful. After that, I bought myself a donut— which always helps— and I went back to school. I had to miss my Philosophy class but I was able to get everything else done.

I got the chocolate chip maple bar...

Overall, I was happy about my day because my E-Launch presentation was very successful, so that was a great day to end my day. Unfortunately, my partner Isaac is very busy with school and he decided to drop the class; so now I am left doing all of the work by myself. This is a big challenge, but I am up for it. 

The assignment for this Tuesday’s class was to prepare a 6-minute presentation, combining the first three 2-minute pitches for my business plan. The presentation covered Problem, Solution, Industry, Intellectual Property, Competition, Target Market, and Marketing Strategy, as well as team credibility. Having to work on all this by myself, I actually rolled up my sleeves and worked really hard. After my pitch, the professor said this was the best pitch she’s heard from my team so far. I was initially very nervous, but in the end, I was proud of myself for being able to make many improvements and to master the presentation.

A presto,

-Fede

Stressing out on them transfer app! ;)

It is true that when you're having fun time goes by so fast! It seems just the other day that I was looking for a new house in Isla Vista before the semester started, and now we’re already approaching Spring Break! I didn't even realize it, but we are at one of those semester spikes, where homework, extracurriculars, and life all happen at the same time to bring you down, but you've gotta be strong and show what you're worth! 

So this spike found me a little unprepared, and I have been busy trying to catch up.

The good (or bad?) news is that UC Berkeley Haas School of Business sent me an email yesterday inviting me to a virtual interview. Interviews are necessary for borderline candidates to add additional detail that is critical for admissions to make a final decision. On one hand, it is bad news because it means my application wasn't strong enough to get me in. But on the other hand, at least it has not been discarded! I reserved my Skype interview on Wednesday, and I am so excited. I’ll let you know how it went. 

First things first, I have been procrastinating on my college applications for transfer (ATTENTION: HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED). Throughout January and February I kept thinking “March 15 is sooo far ahead, I’ll have time.” 

Then, on February 29, I realized that three of the schools I wanted to apply to (Harvard, Yale, and Columbia) had an earlier deadline: March 1st. Without any letter of recommendation or a chance to get them in 24 hours, I had to give on applying to these schools. I thought to myself that I wouldn't have gotten in anyway, but truly it was just a way to psychologically trick my mind and hide the fact that I was actually upset and disappointed to myself. 

So I started working on getting letters of recommendation, sending transcripts, additional forms, and high school final reports (which all has to happen my mail, not online) and then I started filling out those CommonApp essays and questions. 

Juggling midterms, work, and events planning, I found myself short of time once again around March 10, so I spent all last weekend— literally, all of it— thinking about “what matters to me” and “what are my future plans…” I was able to submit my application to Cornell and Duke, but not to Stanford University, which was another disappointment. I thought I had plenty of time to work on my transfer applications, but the rigor and depth of the essay prompts found me unprepared. Although I worked on it for over 15 hours, I couldn't finish the Stanford app in time to submit it by midnight. In fact, I strongly recommend you take plenty of time to think about the prompts and write your essays. As you will realize if you apply to transfer, some prompts may be harder than you expect. In a future post, I would like to discuss some of them. 

Anyway I have learned my lesson and I am definitely not going to wait until last minute to apply to New York University. In fact, its deadline is a tricky one: April 1st. Considering I am leaving for Spring Break on March 24, I need to get my act together and work on it this week! 

Wish me good luck!

A presto,

- Fede

Ambassadors rock!

Ambassadors rock!!

As always, the Beach Volleyball Tournament was a success! This is the most popular event organized by the SBCC International Student Ambassadors, and every semester several students (and non-students) participate in this event as players and/or spectators. The beach volleyball tournament draws so many people’s attention because it is fun, a perfect opportunity to spend one Saturday differently, by participating in a social event with people from all over the world.

Serving pizza!

In addition, the event is right on the beach, and the warm and sunny weather makes it impossible not to go down to the beach! Ambassadors are also famous for having abundant quantities of food at all events, and this tournament wasn’t different. Around 12:30, the players had a chance to have a break and eat some Domino’s Pizza, which was left over for how much we ordered. This event was particularly successful as we had 16 teams sign up for the tournament, and there were even more who wanted to join but unfortunately we could not accommodate more than 16 teams in our tournament. 

Plenty of Ambassadors showed up to volunteer, which contributed to the fun and ease of running a successful event. We took turns and helped out as referees, score-keepers, food-servers and beach-cleaners all day long. We also had a chance to play some vball, or at least those of us who wanted to! 

Ambassadors events are also great because you get to meet awesome people every time and you can make new friends. People there are happy and having a great time so it is not hard at all to start talking to everybody around, and you can find out many interesting things, since most of the Ambassadors are international students. 

If you missed the tournament and you want an opportunity to get to know us Ambassadors and explore new cultures and meet new SBCC students— or if you didn't miss it but would still like to come have fun— you are still in time! 

Food Fair at Antioch University

The International Food Fair and Language Exchange event, originally scheduled for last Friday, was postponed to tomorrow, Friday March 18 because of the bad weather we had last week. Currently, it looks like it’s gonna be another warm sunny day tomorrow, so come say hi!

For those of you who don’t know yet, the International Food Fair and Language Exchange is an opportunity to try home-made international foods prepared by us Ambassadors and other international students at SBCC— for free! It is always a lot of fun as we are also going to have a raffle with some nice prizes, and the proceeds are going to be donated to charity. The event will take place from 3:00pm to 5:00pm at Antioch University, on the beautiful open patio on the second floor. 

You don’t wanna miss it! 

Also, Ambassadors are recruiting for next semester! Fill out an application on our Facebook page.

A presto,

-Fede

Go to the Career Center!

Shoutout for the career center! 

If you are a student at Santa Barbara City College, you probably have gotten spammed by the Career Center about their events, which have multiplied in the recent weeks. In the previous semesters I never attended their events because I had class at that time. However this semester I have a different schedule, very busy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but wide open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, a part for a class and two meetings overall. 

Usually, when I get emails from the Career Center about their events or lectures, I think it would be very interesting to attend, but most of the times I end up either being too busy or forgetting about it. 

Recently I received an email about one such event: it was a lecture on how to build an effective resume and cover letter. The event was scheduled for Wednesday from 3-4pm, a time that fit my schedule perfectly, as my PTK meetings run from 5:30 to 6:30 pm on that day. That sounded like a great opportunity to get some professional advice on how to brand myself when I apply for a job, so I decided that this time I would actually make the effort to mark the event in my calendar and set up multiple reminders for it.

The one hour event was very helpful. First, I learned that there are different types of resumes, including a chronological one (in which you list the information in anti-chronological order, from the most recent accomplishments down to the oldest ones), a functional type (based on skills and experiences rather than their chronological order, and is best used when changing careers or when having a big gap in work experience) and finally a combination type, that still uses chronological order but also focuses on skills and experiences. 

Most employers appreciate to see some chronological order because it gives structure to the resume. My resume includes my Name and contact information, my Objectives, Education, Work Experience, Community Service, and Leadership. One thing I learned is to avoid including References in my resume. In fact, federal law forbids employers to contact your past employers before hiring you, making it pointless for you to include them. In addition, it’s assumed that you will have somebody who can be your reference, therefore there is no need to put them on your resume to show that you have some. After they have given you the job, they are free to call whomever you deem appropriate, so it is generally good advice to have an additional document for your references ready to be used whenever necessary, and it would be a good idea to print it and bring it with you at a job interview. 

Important tips included to be consistent throughout the document (fonts, format), to quantify your results whenever possible, and to describe the projects you have been involved in using action verbs (created, managed, coordinated), with a major focus on your accomplishments rather than on the duties. Further recommendations included to emphasize your name on the resume, to leave a 1-inch margin all around the document, and to keep the resume neat and possibly unfolded, even if you mail it.

The experts in the Career Center also recommended that people writing their resume should not use the word “I” because it is obvious that everything will be about themselves. They should also avoid fluff phrases such as “responsible for…, duties include…” and keep clear of using colors or photos; bold and italics are good, however underlining text is not recommended. 

Among the big DON’TS there is also mentioning salaries or wages or the reasons for leaving the previous job position, and the most important of all DO NOTS is, as always, DO NOT make grammar spelling mistakes or typos. Always double or triple check carefully for typos, because a single simple mistake could make the difference between getting your resume to the interview table or straight to the recycling bin.

After the 1-hour event, I stayed for an additional hour and received person help to make changes to my resume. The result was great! We got rid of excessive punctuation, underlining, and colors. We also got rid of my references section and separated different sections with more space. Finally, we moved all the dates to be in the same column on the right, and we changed the wording of a few sentences. Overall, it was a very helpful meeting and I am so glad I attended. 

I recommend the Career Center’s services to anyone interested in his or her future. Go check it out!

A presto, 

- Fede

Rain Rain Rain...

As the rain keeps pouring down from the sky, California becomes more healthy and hydrated, and I get moody. I didn't sign up for this! I want the sun back! Haha

Today is Friday, March 11th, the day when the International Food Fair and Language Exchange was supposed to take place. As I hope you know by now, I am part of the International Student Ambassadors program at SBCC, and one of our main hallmarks is promoting fellowship among our students by organizing events that are enjoyable and give to the students an opportunity to make new friends. 

The International Food Fair was scheduled for today at 3:00pm at Antioch University, but unfortunately we had to postpone the event to next week due to the high possibility of rain. And in all honesty, although I am sad we couldn't have the event today, I am glad that we did postpone it, because today it was pouring showers! 

My day started at 10am, when I woke up sore after last night’s late workout (12:00am - 1:00am) and I had some breakfast, which really was more like biting on anything I could find around the house, since I didn't get a chance to go grocery shopping in a while! 

Right before I left to the bus stop, my housemate Luke asked me if I needed a ride to school, so that made me very happy. Today I had scheduled an appointment at 11:30am with my Entrepreneurship professor / E-Launch mentor Julie Samson to work on the Initial Value Proposition (the first 10 seconds of the pitch, when you state what problem your product or service solves and how it is better than anything else) for my 2-minute pitch. As I explained before, E-launch is a fast paced class that provides the support to launch a business within one semester, and it includes 5 competitive pitches in front of judges for a chance to win $200. Julie helped me so much this morning and in about 45 minutes we made more progress than I could have achieved in 3 hours of work on it. I really love when I receive help that is ACTUALLY really productive, so that also made me very happy. 

After killing time in the library for about an hour, at 1:00pm I attended the weekly meeting with my fellow Ambassadors. We figured that since we were not having the Food Fair, we should have come together in a regular meeting instead. During our meeting, we discussed two main things. 

First, the Food Fair is officially postponed to Friday, March 18th at 3:00pm at Antioch University patio (2nd floor). 

And secondly we went over the rules and the details regarding the semi-annual Beach Volleyball Tournament event, which is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, March 12th, at 9:00am at West Beach. The leaders for that event are going to make an executive decision tomorrow morning at 6:30-7:00 whether to confirm or postpone the event, based on the eventual presence of rain, but the weather forecast seems to be in our favor. Fingers crossed!

Finally, before coming home at 4:30pm and collapsing on my bed for about an hour, I went grocery shopping with my friend Johan! It was pretty fun, because since I moved to Isla Vista, I never shop at Ralph’s anymore (a supermarket downtown). However, I have been buying my groceries there for a whole year while living downtown SB and I like shopping at Ralph's because there is variety, good products, and frankly great deals! [recommended].

So that called for another happy moment.

After all, though it rained most of the time, today was another great day full of enjoyable moments; I can even recall being hit by a light beam from the sun— which probably made my whole day by itself. 

Hope to see you at the Beach Volleyball Tournament tomorrow. It’s gonna be a lot of fun! Please note this is a school event organized by the SBCC Ambassadors— and this always means no alcohol, no drugs, free pizza, and many smiling people. 

A presto,

- Fede 

Entrepreneurs: Know Thyself!

Last week I went to an event on the theme of Entrepreneurship, which is of great interest to me. Jacques Habra was the special guest for the event, and he was both inspiring and informative. A past Philosophy student, he is now an entrepreneur who started three successful businesses, and he is also a part-time Marketing professor at Santa Barbara City College.

I already read that book, but I am glad I went.

The first thing he told his audience was to not be afraid to make bold statements, and I would like to pass this message along to my readers. Do not worry about what other people may think about your opinions. You should not hurt anybody, but you should also not be afraid to believe in something that others may see as crazy: that is a defining characteristic of entrepreneurs! Entrepreneurs are visionary, and they make happen what other people see as impossible or pointless. If you are looking for examples, take the telephone, take the Internet, take the iPod and Smartphones, or take electricity itself. They all seemed to be just fads, but through the passion and belief of some courageous entrepreneurs, we now enjoy the benefits of these technological advances. 

Jacques Habra

Secondly, he mentioned something that I have already heard before. “Know Thyself.” This is the main quote from Socrates, and Professor Joe White has made sure all of his Intro to Philosophy students know this. 

Jacques claimed that elevating your consciousness— as suggested by the quote “Know Thyself—is the single most important characteristic of an entrepreneur. 

Most people follow the steps of other people, without really thinking about it. They therefore go through life without knowing their capacity in terms of weaknesses, available time, will and determination. 

That’s why it is so important not to let our jobs, studies, chores, and private life distract us from the very fact that we are living, and to always be 100% present in the moment. In other words, it is important to trust your senses. What you see, what you hear, and feel while you assist to a lecture, what you taste, smell, feel, see, and hear while you're having lunch, what you experience in one given moment… should be all you focus on in that moment. Leave the rest for later, be present where you are, and live each moment 100%. This will allow you to practice Synchronicity, a difficult word to describe when your thoughts, words, and actions are aligned. To do that, you will let people know what you really feel, you will be genuine, and you will always do what you say you are going to do. These characteristics are often ignored or overseen, but they are so critical. 

One other very important issue to keep in mind is pacing, and that is also part of knowing yourself. As you might have noticed, people have different paces. When you speak about technology to your grandma, what does she say? Slow down son! When you (Californian) walk right by your old friend from New York City, what does he tell you? Speed up bro, why do you walk so slow? Or when your professor spends to much time on something obvious… GET TO THE POINT SIR! We all have different paces, and understanding your own pace and how that compares to the pace of other people is extremely important. Why? Well, in order to communicate effectively! For example, if you want somebody to get something done for you, you have to make sure the people you are talking to understand and pay attention to what you are saying. If you speak at pace 10 but they listen at pace 80, they might get bored and zone out and miss important information. On the other hand, if you speak at pace 70 and they are at pace 40, they might get only a fraction of your instructions. I think Jacque's advice is precious and it is an important reminder to always be aware of the mark you leave on the world and on other people. I am definitely going to take Jacque's advice to heart and so should you!

Finally, I would like to highly recommend attending the events from the Career Center, they are useful and inspiring!

A presto,

- Fede

Miraculous!

Miraculous! My laptop healed itself!!! I am so happy.

As I mentioned before, two weeks ago on Friday I accidentally put my water bottle inside my backpack without closing it completely, and my laptop was sitting inside one or two inches of water for a good half hour. When I opened it up, my laptop was still on, but I watched it turning off a free minutes later. The next day I brought it to the Apple Store; surprisingly it was still charging, although the battery icon on my screen said “connected but not in charge” even when not connected, so I thought the battery broke. A part of the screen was completely ruined, and the USB port from the damaged side kept sending pop-up notification of it being disabled. The Apple technician gave my laptop an estimated 2 days before it would not turn on anymore. He said water damage is the worst thing that can happen to a laptop, other than it being thrown out the window… He also added that at least that would break it immediately, instead I have to see my water-damaged device still alive but slowly dying. 

His humor was not funny to me. 

When I went back a week later, the left part of the screen had stopped doing weird psychedelic stuff, instead it was just all plain green. The new technician told me there was nothing he could do to fix it, and said that if I didn't send it to the factory to fix it, it would eventually get worse or stop working once the water had completely damaged the logic board. I decided to take some time to think. Later that weekend, my laptop started healing itself! I could not believe it. First, it went back at doing weird psychedelic things like moving all the colors around. Then, it started having horizontal lines everywhere. One day, when I opened it, it looked perfect, but eventually it would get bad again. Now my MacBook Air is as good as new, without me spending a dime to fix it. I really hope it keeps it up and doesn't stop turning on as the technician warned me. At least I have it back now! I also bought an external hard drive so as long as I keep backing up my data from time to time, I shouldn't have to worry too much! 

That proves that sometimes luck is really all you need. I guess it also teaches that even the experts may not know the whole picture, so always take people’s advice with a grain of salt!

A presto,

- Fede