advice

Part-2 How International Students can save money while being at GCC

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Earn money and/or gift cards just by watching videos online and by taking quick surveys:

I wasted thousands of dollars during my Freshman year at college because I knew nothing about coupons or how to rack up points and free gift cards. Sign up for MyPoints accounts. You can earn points just by completing daily activities which includes taking a survey, voting on a poll, watching videos, checking out deals, printing coupons etc. Whenever, I need to shop or sign up for a subscription like Hulu, Sephora and others I usually do it through MyPoints accounts. I always keep MyPoints tab open in my browser and I rack up points all day. It is very easy to rack up thousands of points very quickly by taking advantage of deals from popular stores like Amazon, Kohl’s where you would shop for basic necessities anyway. Other great legitimate sites for taking surveys are I-psos, Inbox Dollars, Survey Junkie, YouGov and I-Polls. College textbooks are very expensive in the USA. Last semester I brought books worth $1000 for free using Amazon gift card balance. You can easily knock off a thousand dollar  bill by using these sites religiously every day. Next time, whenever you are waiting for an appointment try taking a survey or two.

Earn Amazon gift cards just by walking:

Just think how many flights of stairs do you use every day? How many miles do you walk every day when you are rushing from one classroom to another in huge college campuses?  GCC has a pretty huge campus with a college dorm. I keep Steps Cash apps always activated on my I-Phone and I rack up points for Amazon gift cards just by walking to and from one class to another and from one campus building to another building. This is a great app to make sure you exercise by walking every day and you also earn Amazon gifts just by walking. Stay fit and happy walking!

Download FreeBird to get discount Uber rides and to earn cashbacks:

You will probably have to use a lot of Uber rides if you are an International student without a car. Uber rides are very expensive. FreeBird  gives discounts and cashback for Uber rides and restaurants.

Get a secured credit card:

You better start building up your credit history if you are going to live in the USA for the next five or more years to earn a US degree. Credit score is used to analyze everything in the US. You cannot even rent your desired apartment unless you have a good credit score. I knew nothing about credit history when I came to the US.  I wasted one and a half year without building my credit history even though I was paying all my bills on time. I remember asking a bank employee how to get a credit card. The bank employee smirked at me and told me that I cannot get a credit card because I am not a US citizen. The bank employee did not even bother to suggest me to apply for a secured credit card. You do not have to be a US citizen to apply for a secured credit card. You only need a social security number or tax identification number (TIN). So, apply for a secured credit card as soon as you land in the US. Start looking for on-campus jobs as well as soon as you start your semester. It takes several months to get a social security number. You cannot work on campus without a social security number. It is extremely difficult to apply for online credit/debit card with higher cashback value without a social security number.

When I first came to the USA I did not have access to these survival tips. I hope these tips will help you to make the most of your time and money in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

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

Make Your Dreams a Reality

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

Have you ever thought about opening up your own business sometime within your lifetime, or thought about a business idea that you would love to see come to reality but not knowing what to do about it? Well, help is on the way pretty soon!

Genesee Community College will be hosting a Business Idea Pitch Competition on April 19th in the Conable Technology Building in room T102. This is the place to make your dreams a reality, and a chance to get to watch your dreams come to life. This is a real opportunity to present your business idea to people, and get help to make your dream business happen sooner than later.

If you don’t think that your business idea is good enough to be presented quite yet, there are business workshops happening up until the pitch competition to help guide you and give you more information about opening up your own business.

This pitch competition will also be judging your business ideas and if you win you may be able to win a cash prize, and let’s face it money is a pretty convincing way to get any college student to go to anything.

Attached below is a link to all the information you need to know if you’re thinking about attending the Pitch competition.

https://www.genesee.edu/home/events/businesspitch/

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.

How to Take Control of Your Busy Life

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Being a college student, working, staying involved on campus, amongst other things sounds great; and you probably came into this semester thinking it would be great. But 3 weeks in you’re probably feeling super overwhelmed, and realizing it’s easier said than done. With the millions of opportunities in and out of school, it’s actually quite normal to have a busy lifestyle. I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way that have allowed me to enjoy my crazy life a bit more, and I thought I’d share them with you!

Prioritize

act now.png

 

At this point in my life, I never thought I’d have such a massive list of to-do’s every single day, but the reality is that I do. And the even bigger reality is that most likely half of it won’t get done in 1 day. The key is to figure out what is most important, for example homework and work, then go from there. Do whatever must be done first, and try to figure out what can wait.

 

Note: I love writing assignment due dates in my agenda and highlighting it, so I can take a quick glance and see what’s coming up and what can wait.

 

Plan Your Day

 

You most likely read this tip and thought “well, duh”, but I don’t mean just write a long list of everything going on throughout your day, I mean sit down and thoroughly plan it out. What you have going on, and when you’re going to do. It’s like a class schedule but instead of times blocked off for classes, it’s blocked off for your tasks. It doesn’t have to be exact, just a guess-timate in order to formulate some sort of plan.

 

Take a Break

 

Learn when to relax. Yes it is important to take care of your homework, go to work, and do your daily tasks; however, you and your sanity should come first. Know when you’ve reached your limit, and take some time to relax or do something you enjoy.

 

alarm block

Another tip is to use the site Tomato Timer, which sets a 25 minute timer in which you work on your homework or a task, when time is up you get 5-10 minutes to relax and do whatever you want. Then back to 25 minutes of your task, and so on. You repeat the loop until you’re done!

 

I also like that Tomato Timer gives you the option of a short (5 minutes) or long break (10 minutes).

 

Most Importantly: Take Care of Yourself

 

When life gets crazy, we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves, and begin to skip out on basic necessities. Unhealthy eating and a lack of sleep will sooner than later, catch up to you. A night or two of staying up late is normal in college, but it is important to not let it become a habit. Unhealthy eating is another thing that can easily become a habit, but you have to fight the urge. It can be easy to pick up fast food at first, but you’ll regret it when you tack on the ‘freshman 15’, which will take much longer to lose than it would have for you to make a home cooked meal.

 

Your mental and physical health conquers everything else. Take care of yourself, love yourself, and never let anything distract you either of those tasks.

 

If you take these tips and use them, I know you’ll rock out this semester, and hopefully with a little less stress.

 

“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time.”

-Joe Girard

-Danielle

Professional Sales Students Host Guest Speaker

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By: Harry O. Rodriguez – Professional Sales Student

Mr. Leandro de Andrade Pereira, a full time employee at Genesee Community College, visited the professional sales class taught by Professor Rick Dudkowski.

Leo is a success coach for the nursing program and he’s also a baseball coach at GCC. Pereira was an international student. He is from Curaçao. Pereira shared a little bit about his background and his selling experience with the students in class. He completed a degree in DC, and then he transferred to Florida International University and earned his bachelor’s degree in early childhood. He worked six months at Home Depot selling doors and windows. He said “you have to be assertive but not too pushy that the customers walk away”. He also worked at Verizon.

He said in order to sell you need to understand your customers. For example you would use a different approach with a homeowner than a professional contractor. There is a 75% higher chance that a customer will buy if you relate the product or service back to what they were saying or satisfying their needs.

At GCC Pereira is trying to sell the nursing program. He recently hosted tours for area high school students. Pereira also stressed that the more practice you have selling the easier it gets. After his presentation, students were given the opportunity to ask Pereira questions. At the end of the class, Pereira was given a GCC Plaid Tie as a token of appreciation for coming to class and sharing his experiences with the students.

On behalf of the class, I would like thank Mr. Pereira for his time and advice. We learned a lot from him, sincerely, Harry O. Rodriguez.

CEO Trip To The Business Incubator: Harvester Building

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By: Christi Lotempio

mancusoThe CEO club took a trip to the world’s first business incubator. Dr.LaMattina was able to schedule the tour of the facility guided by owner, Mr.Mancuso. The tour was started with beverage at the Moon Java Café. They serve delicious coffee, teas and other beverages and have a selection of lunch items. Mr.Mancuso gave some background information on the Harvester Center explaining that a true business incubator offers more than just space. A true incubator should offer services such as the use of forklifts, or other larger equipment that start up companies may not be able to afford, as well as secretarial services, fax machines, and mail services. One of the most important parts of starting a business is networking and flexibility. Mr.Mancuso believes that talking to people and always re-evaluation of your business plan are a must.

He brought us to the Hodgins Printing Company that has been in the Harvester Building since it started, they actually made the sign that is still hanging. Hodgins Printing Company talked to us about the fact that their company has been in business for two generations. She stated that being able to look into the future and keep updating your business was really important to their success.

ceoOur next stop was OATKA Glass Studio. Mr.Lance Taylor, the owner of OATKA GLASS, was the tour guide. The OATKA GLASS offers many services such as making your own piece, taking classes and they sell artwork. Mr.Taylor expressed the importance of knowing how finances working and the importance of Networking. You need to be able to get out there and meet people and know who you are, to know what your goals are. He has a lot of experience with entrepreneurship, and expressed that it is important to have one person you trust to talk your business plans through.  At this stop we were able to make our own glass creation.

Back to the Moon Java Café for lunch. It was delicious! All of the students were discussing what they learned and how it can be applied in their own circumstances.

The last stop was One World Project.  We discussed their business goals, how they procure products from local artisans in developing countries, and their inventory management processes.  We also had a chance to shop in their gift shop.

If anyone is interested in joining the CEO club please contact Amy Conley.

Student Support Services Visit Local Business

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By: Christi Lotempio

Celina and Erin from Student Support Services arranged a tour of T-Shirts Ect in Batavia. This is a T-Shirt company located at 37 Center Street in Batavia, or mytshirtsect.com. The company offers screen printing, canvas prints, wall graphics, embroidery, Decals, Banner and so much more. The owner, Brian Kemp, was a graduate of SUNY GCC.

Our group was able to walk through the entire business to view the printing and the embroidery being completed at the time of our tour. We learned about everything from taking a customer’s order, how the T-Shirt is printed or embroidered, and their checks and balance system. Mr.Kemp was very informative and gave us many tips on running an effective business. Some of the most important things he noted were networking, providing great customer service and being honest (The Golden Rule). He was able to share with us some of his marketing ideas, such as the wooden coin (if you find one and you return it to T-Shirt Ect – you get a free T-shirt!) and the logo printed on the sleeve of the left arm of a shirt. He was able to give us a complete outline of being an entrepreneur, and encouraged to think outside of the box to make your company stand out.

Not only was the tour fun but we all got our own shirts. Thanks for the T-Shirts Mr.Kemp!!

College Stress

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If I had to give an incoming student advice about GCC, I would tell them that it is much different than high school and is your time to turn your life around. It’s not a time to goof off and just relax all the time like you may have in high school. You have to buckle down and get your work done and done on time.

Not all the teachers worry about you like they do in high school. You are on your own now, and how you plan your time is up to you. If you don’t get work done in time it is your own fault. Also you need to learn how to plan your time wisely. Study, study, study and review your notes that you took in class that night or sometime that week to keep the information fresh in your head.  Make sure you get to know your professors and make sure they know who you are.

Make sure you come to class prepared every single day with a pen, notebook, textbook, and a folder. It is the little things that matter the most to the professors. The more you participate in class activates and show that you care the better chance you will have to grow a relationship with that professor and better opportunities. You may even have a better chance than the other students to get the extra help that you may need quicker than someone else would because that professor knows that you care and want to pass the class.

Take good notes while in class, and make sure you are listening to the teacher talk at all times during the period. To me organization is one of the most important things. If you are not organized it is much harder to find things you need in your notes that day in class or if you are not organized you can lose notes, homework, or other important papers that are needed to help you pass the class.

The most important thing to remember is to never give up even when you feel like it is impossible to get by. Don’t be afraid to ask for the extra help. Use the tutors that the school gives you if you are having a lot of trouble in a class or don’t be afraid to just ask the professor. There is always people that want to help you along the way.

-Joshua Lathan