Campus Life

There are a variety of things going on at GCC for all students to get involved in!

Student Blogger Intro – Zerin Firoze

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I am a sophomore International student at GCC from Bangladesh. I am a scientifically literate individual and I am very passionate about science and secular activism. I love to advocate for science and secularism during my free time. I love the United States of America because of its advancement in science and technology, gender equality, secularism, democracy, freedom of speech, LGBTQ rights and diversity. I hope to be a US citizen someday.

I am an introvert. I have always loved reading and writing. So, the position of being a blogger and news assistant at MarCom is perfect for me. I am honored to be a GCC blogger.

I’m really passionate about the science clubs, but also plan to explore all kinds of campus activities closely so that I can make great and accurate blog posts.

My Time Working For Marcom

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By: Mike Adamczak

For the past couple of weeks, I have had the privilege of being able to work with the wonderful people at the Marketing Communications (MarCom) Department of Genesee Community College, thanks to the Upward Bound Program. In these past few weeks I’ve learned some useful skills that could be used in a future career such as how to create the most professional portrait picture possible, create and collect data from a survey, as well as my most favorite of all, how to fly and take video with a drone. Check out this Awesome Video of the drone following me up the spine at GCC!

The drone was most valuable to me because it allowed me time to talk with Tim Lawton, Online Communications Specialist for GCC and Upward Bound Alumni. While assisting him as the Visual Observer, as well as helping teach three classes on how useful a drone is in advertising; we discussed the importance of why going to GCC would be a great choice to start off when going for a bachelor’s degree and what to look for the most when figuring out which college is the best fit for you.
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As well as assisting in drone flying, I was also given the task of performing a survey of my fellow Upward Bounders. Along with my work study partner Fermina Sanchez, we worked to present original questions on what social platforms are most used today by high school students and which would be best for GCC to advertise on. Our findings are blow!

As part of our work study duties, the Marketing Communications Department at Genesee Community College had us survey 51 of our fellow peers in the TRIO Upward Bound program. The purpose of this survey was to determine which social media platform would be most beneficial for marketing advertisements.

  • The average age demographic of our data set was 15 year olds, with a majority of the answers coming from female students (n=35) as opposed to the male students (n=16). When asked what social media platform was most often used for social interaction, we found the majority of students preferred snapchat (n=32).
  • We found that when browsing the internet, most people do not notice or pay attention to the online ads (n=20).
  • The data showed that the SUNY Website and College Board website were most commonly used for college research (n=19/19).
  • Something interesting that we noticed about the data would be that although a majority of students found themselves spending most of their time on snapchat, colleges would have the most success catering to students personally through emails (n=14).
  • Most students found that the cost of tuition is information that they would most want to be made readily available on a college’s social media profile (n=13).
  • When asked their opinion on whether or not there was a general stigma that community colleges are less rigorous and professional than four year colleges, most students said they agreed or strongly agreed (n=26) or remained neutral (n=22).
  • As expected, most students found that the greatest influence in their life when considering colleges would be their family (n=21), but to our surprise there was also a large amount of students who felt that they had no outside influence and they formed their opinions independently (n=20).
  • Finally, when asked what students found most important to have at a college when making their final decision, the majority said that the college would need a wide variety of academic programs (n=14) and that they would need to have quality instructors and professors (n=14).

For their participation in our survey, each participate was put into a raffle for a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. During free time, we pulled a winner. Congratulations Karley Greenman and thank you everyone for helping us with our market research!

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Trace George

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

The annual business idea pitch competition is fast approaching us now, and will be here in about two weeks! By this time, all participants should have already signed up for the competition, and should have at least attended one workshop to be able to participate. If you still haven’t attended a workshop, there is only one more left and it will be happening on April 12th during the common hour in T122, and will be about pitch prep.

This competition would be a great first step to making your dreams come true. One of our very own alum, Trace George, opened up his own business after graduating and has had a lot of success ever since. Trace George opened up the VSP Graphing Group Company in 1995, and his business went from a small sign shop in his garage to the successful business it is today.

According to Business First’s Fast Track 50, George’s business is the 10th fastest growing business here in western New York which is a real achievement. George’s company is also the official graphic provider for the Buffalo Bills, and the Sabres which are both amazing achievements.

Hopefully hearing about all the great things Trace George has accomplished for his business since graduating here inspired you, and made you more motivated to do this pitch competition coming up on April 19th! We hope to see you all there, and can’t wait to hear your business ideas! If you have any questions or concerns regarding the pitch competition, you may contact Lina LaMattina at lmlamattina@genesee.edu.

Student Entrepreneurs

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

The annual pitch competition is coming up quickly, and there is only one workshop left for you to attend if you haven’t gone to one of the workshops already, the last workshop will be on April 12th during the common hour in T121 and this workshop will be an Idea Pitch Preparation.

If you are still unsure about whether your business idea is good or not, I’m here to tell you that there is no idea that is stupid, all businesses are creative in its own way, and there are many entrepreneurs out there that are students also just like we are.

There are student entrepreneurs out there that you could research into and learn many great things about. There are student entrepreneurs who have created a fashion company with clothing designed from wet-felting and shibori. There is also a student entrepreneur out there who provides restaurants with computer tablets for guests to pay right from the table. The point is you can make any business that you want to, no idea is stupid or too small.

If you do your research, you will find out many of the things that keep these fellow student entrepreneurs motivated to start a business, and keep it going. Some of these things being students researching founders who are also in the startup phase as well, and being motivated because they want to create a legacy that means something to someone.

If you are interested in looking up more information about what being a student entrepreneur can do for you, or if you are interested in attending the annual pitch competition then come attend the last workshop on April 12th, and come out to the pitch competition on April 19th and get a chance to win a cash prize. Hope to see you all there!

Contact Lina LaMattina for the application form, or any questions.

LMLamattina@genesee.edu

An Interview with Erica Swiatek of Innovate Faster

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

I interviewed our keynote speaker for this year’s Creativity Conference that is coming up on Febraury 28th, 2018. If you are looking to learn more about becoming an entrepreneur, and tips and tricks to help you get there, come to the Creativity Conference!

1) What made you want to open up your own business?

Swiatek says that she actually fell into business, she was working for a consulting business in learning and development and creative studies, and she wanted more than that. Swiatek was approached about doing the Escape Room, and she wanted to do assessments, playing and teaching personality problem solving, and taking over just fell into place.

2) What are your responsibilities as a business owner?

Swiatek says that her responsibilities are pretty much all over the place. There is lots of stuff to do every day involving marketing, paying the rent, creating the Escape Room classes, and usual day to day stuff.

3) What is one piece of advice you would give to someone wanting to become an entrepreneur?

Swiatek says that you should always make sure that you are really passionate about it, because it involves a lot of day to day stuff that you are not going to love, and you will feel like this is not what you wanted, her piece of advice is to always be realistic.

4) How do you exhibit your creativity?

Swiatek says that she exhibits her creativity through playfulness. She tries to be an ambassador at play, she likes to play first learn second. She says it gives her such a different experience, and that she still plays with a slinky toy, always has fun colored nail polish, and likes to showcase her playfulness.

 

On campus housing vs off campus housing

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Hello everyone,

This time we want to talk about our experience with housing in Batavia. We experienced two types of housing here in Batavia and we want to share this experience with GCC readers.

Living on campus means that you live in College Village. For our first semester at GCC we decided to live in College Village. First time we came to College Village the staff was friendly, met us and showed us how everything works. It was not difficult to get it. Me and my sister lived together in one room and shared an apartment of B building with other two girls. The room was clean and also comfortable for two people.  While living in College Village we became a part of this little world, because every day we were surrounded by other students like us and it was a lot of fun. Every week we went to events, not every event though, because we were new and only started to become familiar to this world. We didn’t need transportation to get to GCC, every day we walked from dorms to GCC, it took us 5 minutes to get there. We could easily go to sport events or to root events (main building of CV) on weekends and it was something new for us.  College Village is safe and entertaining place to stay while studying at GCC.

Living off-campus we had some not enjoyable experience. When we came back to Batavia from summer break we decided to live in the house, so we found a room for rent on Rochester craigslist site. From this experience we had problems with raising rent, transportation to school and other things. We do not have a car so we get to college by bus or ask other students for ride. Another minus is that when we moved to new place we didn’t have furniture so we had to furnish our new room and buy new stuff for it. For now we live in another house and this is our third place, we like the place where we live now.

It is your choice where you want to live here in Batavia, but we would recommend College Village for those who like being surrounded by other students and like participating in events that College Village organize. However if you want to get distracted from College Life you should pick off-campus housing.

New Year Celebration in Kazakhstan

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Hi GCC blog readers, in this blog we want to talk about Christmas and New Year’s celebration in Kazakhstan. Holidays like New Year and orthodox Christmas are the most favorite holidays in Kazakhstan. We have two dates of Celebration New Year and one date to celebrate Christmas. The first date is 31 December to 1 January and the second date of New Year’s celebration is 22 March.

The main attributes of these holidays in our country are Christmas tree and Santa Claus like in the US Also another aspects are food and beverages, especially Champagne. In Kazakhstan people call Santa Clause differently. Santa Klaus in Kazakhstan knocks the door and come in with a lot of gifts for the kids.

Orthodox Christmas is celebrated by Christians that is not the majority of population. They spend a night on Christmas day in church and celebrate it at home on the next day.

Also we have New Year celebration on March 22. This date is celebrated only by Muslims. 22 March is a day of Vernal Equinox. The tradition to celebrate New Year on Vernal Equinox is common for many eastern countries. Many Muslim countries celebrate this date similarly. They cook a lot of traditional food. And spend this day at home with all members of family.

So about how people prepare for New Year. They buy a lot of things include food. First of all, people buy gifts for family and friends. Food is principal for New Year’s days. People cook a lot and also buy food in markets. Right before New Year people go outside to make fireworks. After celebrating New Year people spend a lot of time at home, they watch movies or TV and eat a lot.

Celebrating those holidays is so important part of the year for people of our country, and especially it is important to celebrate it with friends and family.

– Zarina & Sabina

 

Our College Experience

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Hello readers of the GCC Blog,

Our names are Zarina and Sabina, we are two international students from Kazakhstan studying Digital Art at GCC.   We are not good in writing stories about ourselves. Thus we decided to write about GCC and Digital art major.

About GCC. We found this college on Internet while searching colleges with appropriate tuition, fees and location. In GCC we love that we can learn new things that we can apply in the future job. This college gives many opportunities to international students. There are many international events and many clubs that you can join.

About Digital Art. We like going to Digital Art classes, because we love creating new projects that we have never tried to do before. We can express our ideas and share them with other students. There are not many students who study Digital Art major here in GCC. The students help each other. We can practice and develop our skills while attending digital art classes.

About MarCom. We decided to work here because we would like to get new experience. I hope MarCom will give us good experience. We want to know the many sides of Marketing, how it works and decide in what field of future work we would love to work.

We are supposed to graduate in fall 2018. After graduation we hope that we will get a good job.

My Time at Genesee Community College

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Hello everyone, I am Helmsley a current sophomore student here in GCC. I am a native of Ghana West Africa but currently live in New York City with my Dad. I lived and played Soccer in Lyon France for one year were my mom currently reside and later moved to the united states in 2011 to pursue a career as a sports agent because back home in Ghana, the ability to play soccer is a big part of the culture.

Ever Since I moved to America, I have been able to stay focused academically which ranked me as one of the top students in my grade and also my college life at Genesee Community College. My time here in GCC has also been great. I have been able to meet outstanding roommates who set an great example In the college community.

The Professors also play a big role because their able to answer any questions I might have on my project and encourage me to stay focused academically. In GCC, I have been able to collaborate with individuals from different parts of the world. Some activities we have participated in, include training with the soccer team, having fun at the student union, playing video games etc.

As I enter my second year at the college, more and more great things have been occurring, including some hours at WGCC (the college’s radio station) as a sports caster and working in the MarCom (Marketing & Communications) Office. After GCC, I plan on transferring to Indiana State University in order to gain a scholarship to Edge Hill University in England and pursue my degree in Sport Management.

Come one, come all! Housing Survey!

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housing batavia

Hey y’all! It’s time to participate in something. Let your voice be heard in this online survey. Basically, it’s a survey given by Genesee County and they’re trying to decide what type of housing and additions to add to Batavia!

If you or someone you know would like to participate in helping the town of Batavia develop and grow, please fill out this short 11 answer questionnaire given in the link below. It has to be in by the 17th of November.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XZBVSXP

Thanks and have a great day!