Hi guys! I’m Rafal, or Raf for short. I was born and raised in Greenpoint Brooklyn, currently living out in Kew Gardens, and I’m currently studying Graphic arts and Advertisement. I hope to one day be working for a company that designs logos and graphics, preferably for clothing or video games. I’m a huge nerd at heart and have just recently began really embracing that side of me. I love to read, mostly sci-fi and fantasy books. I’m taking this course because it is required, but I do hope to learn a few things as I am trying to write a video game based web series as a fun little hobby and any information I can gain about how writers approach certain things will surely only help in the process. I’m very open to people so if you have any questions feel free to ask. I hope everyone enjoys and has a wonderful semester!

– Rafal Napierala

Hi everyone, my name is Antonio Griffith and i am a upper junior at New York City College of Technology. My major is Graphic Design and fell in love with photography my first semester of college because of my photography class. In photography class we were required to buy a camera but it did not have to be expensive since their weren’t enough school cameras. Another reason we had to buy a camera was that we can be able to do homework because we can not carry school cameras off campus. I ended up buying a expensive camera and didn’t just use it for class but for personal usage as well. The first subject matter I focused on when I first got my camera were buildings then I moved onto random objects and then people. I was born and raised in Guyana then moved to New York City in April, 2003 at the age of 11. After coming to New York I stayed in a apartment building with my aunts and cousins until i got settle to move into a rented house with my mother and step father. I like to play basketball, eat a lot, make people laugh, take photographs, and go out on my spare time etc. I have one older brother who lives in Minnesota with his family and works as a coast guard in the military. Me and brother have different father and i so wish he lived in New York right now so i could see him more often.

Something that really interest me is photography and graphic design. My hobby in photography made me see art in a different way that i would have never see by creating graphics. I used to photograph buildings only then one day i got invited by my friend chris to an fashion event and from there on I started to photograph people who are dressed fashionable. My top two desires are for me to be a very well know graphic designer or well know photography that pays all his bills with what he love doing. During the summer of 2013 I did street style fashion photography focusing mostly in Soho, New York by simply asking random people in the street if i can photograph them because of their nice outfits I adore. I first started taking pictures of people more seriously in 2012 as well with the street style photographs. The way I approach someone to snap a photo is by saying “hey do u mind If i photograph you for my street style fashion blog”.

My weakness as a reader is that i cant comprehend articles that are too descriptive because i tend to focus so much on what they are describing and then forget what i read earlier in the passage. My strength as a reader i would say is that i can understand what the text is about unless it is not jumping back and forth to a different setting. My weakness as a writer is that I am not too good with switching up the beginning of a sentences because I tend to use the same words to start a sentence. I enjoying reading text I can understand what the story is about. If the story has difficult text I tend not to like the reading and is force to read it because I don’t understand a thing that is going on. My favorite type of reading will be something on sports, art, love stories, and comedy etc. What I enjoy about writing is when I do something I know by experience and I can explain to someone what happened but when i am writing an essay on a topic I am not interested or i have to research it then it is hard. My background with using technology is not perfect because I don’t know how to work every program in the world that is out but i can do the basics. I am not sure why I am taking this course but there are only two options, one is probably I need it or the other is if I sign up because I need the credits to be a full time student.

Hi guys, Im Brittany, you can call me Britt for short.  I’m an upper sophomore at City Tech.  My major is Law & Paralegal studies.  Eventually, I plan on going away to Law School and becoming a Lawyer, but for now i’m content with getting my Bachelors Degree and settling down as a Paralegal.  I’m in no rush.  Before I go to Law School, I hope to travel the world. Some of the places I would like to travel to are Spain, Japan, India and Italy.  I’m fascinated with the Japanese culture, as well as Italian culture.  I love the food!  I’m a Netflix addict and I am obsessed with my sorority (Alpha Sigma Sorority Inc.)  I joined my sorority my first semester of my Freshman year of college at St. Francis college.  I would have to say that joining a sorority helped me to better understand myself and my capabilities.  Also it helped me to understand others.  My goal in City Tech is to teach others about the benefits of joining a Greek Organization, and open the eyes of students who believe that Greek Life is all fun and games, or what they see on television in movies and shows.

The photo I included is a picture of some of my sisters who attend Brooklyn College, Hunter College, John Jay College, St. Francis College and City Tech.

My strengths as a writer would have to be the fact that I can write easily.  If I am given a topic to write about I can sit down and come up with a piece of writing almost instantly.  If I write down my thoughts I can easily display them on paper.  Most of the time I know what i’m going to write as soon as I get a topic.  My weakness in writing would have to be the fact that I don’t like free writing.  If I’m not given a topic to write about, my brain becomes stuck.

My weakness as a reader is poetry.  If I read a poem, I never understand anything.  For the most part, I can piece things together and try to understand what I am reading.

It was nice to meet you all in class but right now I would like to take a moment and talk a little bit about me. My name is George, I’m currently a junior at City Tech, and majoring in Computer Information Systems (Bachelor’s degree). I’m a big sports fan and love to root for the Yankees, NY Giants, and the Knicks, also the Rangers and Redbulls but I’m not too familiar with hockey or American soccer. I love playing video games. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed having as a hobby since I was a little kid. My first ever system that I can remember having was the Sega Genesis that my brother had and playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and absolutely falling in love with the countless hours we’d spend playing on that thing. But my biggest interests has been technology and computers in general. I’ve always loved being on the computer and learning about the internal and external sides of it.

Technology!!!

When I was little, before I had a computer, I would draw a sketch while I was in elementary class of my dream computer. It was nuts! Now that I’ve grown up, I’ve built two computers from the ground up all by myself, and I’m majoring in CIS so that I can make a living of being knowledgeable with computers on the external sides of it. Every college student thrives on making the most of their academic years and find a job in their fields. That’s the main goal. I want to get hired by a business and not only show my knowledge but also learn and become experienced in my field. You can’t learn everything in college until you go out there and experience the field first hand. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead!

One of my strengths as a reader is the ability to pick out a book that interests me. I’m not the biggest reader in the world so when it comes to picking out a book to read, I just go straight to the ones that pertains to my interests. If there’s a sports history book about the Yankees, or a book about the making of a certain video game — I’m there! One of my strength as a writer is having a somewhat good grammar and punctuation. I say somewhat because I don’t like to say I’m the greatest because I tend to make mistakes a lot, but I like to say that you won’t find many run-on sentences in my writing. One of my weakness as a reader is not having the greatest attention span with readings. Often, if I’m not very interested or have to sit down and read a text in a short amount of time, I become disinterested in it and sit there and just stare into the text. I’m usually not that good reading a lot of pages. But it’s something I want to work on this semester. One of my weakness as a writer is trying to start a page. A very common problem but I feel like it takes me a lot longer than anyone to start a paragraph or know when to end one. Something I enjoy about reading/writing is creating something, whether it’s creating a story or becoming so intrigued with what I’m reading that I want to read more of it. Something that I dislike about reading/writing is wasting so much time reading a few pages and making sure I understand what I’ve read, and writing something that has mistakes and doesn’t make sense.

I have a very deep background with technology. I’ve built my very first home computer when I was 16 years old. I’ve done HTML in the past and during my college years and also learned a bit of CSS and XML. I’ve spent countless hours on the computer using various programs like Photoshop, Microsoft Word, and video editing programs. I can say I become quite familiar with video editing and compression. I’ve also become familiar with database, networking, and a little bit of system administration. I’m not too fond of programming because it’s so formula heavy but it’s very interesting creating something out of nothing. I’m looking forward to learning programming in my spare time.

Prior to entering ENG 2000, I wasn’t too familiar with Utopias, Dystopias but I have heard about them before. I knew about science fiction because of movies and reading texts about science fiction. I did know that Utopia had something to do with fantasy and creating a place that is based on fiction and from your imagination. I’m currently taking ENG 2000 because it’s one of my required courses that I need to take to next to Advance writing. I haven’t taken a reading/writing course in a few semesters, and I wanted to become familiar with it again before I take advance writing next semester. My expectations for this course is to become a strong reader/writer again, I’m hoping to learn more about utopias, dystopias, and science fiction. I’ve had a few classes to read some interesting texts so far so I’m looking forward to reading a lot more interesting texts as well as free writing a lot more about my feelings on certain things. I hope you guys are as well and I’m looking forward to catching up and having a great semester!

Hi there! My name is Allen Rong and I’m 19 years old. I been here at city tech for 2 years now and I’m hoping to transfer out after this semester. I feel like there is nothing for me to do here at city tech and I’m hoping there will be more opportunities for me in Brooklyn College, well only if i get accepted that is. I’m in the liberal arts major for now but I’m still undecided on what I really want to do in life and I really do envy you guys that know what you want to do in life. I really love tennis, some say I’m a bit obsessed with the sport really.. I love to watch it and I love korean pop music. Music is everything to me. Whenever I’m feeling down, music would always help me relax and calm myself down. This summer break I went to poconos with a group of friends and it was such a great experience. Living with my friends, no parents to nag at you, but I love them anyways.

Last day I get to see my friend Jacque before he goes to the army

I think my strengths as a writer is starting off with a great topic sentence. Getting straight to point and letting readers know what they will be reading in that particular part. For weaknesses as a reader, I tend to get side tracked easily. I sometimes end up reading a whole sentence three times because I didn’t understand the meaning to it. What I love about reading is that it allows my mind to experience new things such as learning about other people’s stories and lives, to relating their stories to those of my life. I hate writing to be honest because I’m not that great at it. I love to read fiction because it’s my way of an escape of the real world. My background on technology is really basic. I’ve heard the word utopia many times in my life and it’s mostly used in the context of a ideal world where people can co-exist peacefully. I don’t know why but I think of an deserted island when I hear the word utopia. To be honest I’m taking this class because i needed one more class to be taking 12 credits this semester, and it fit into my schedule. I hope I don’t sound like a jerk. I hope i learn more about the different elements of literature and for this class more about utopias. Other than that I have no idea what will be expected in this class.

Hello everyone! My name is Alejandro Reyes I am 21 years old and living in Elmhurst NY. Currently I am a junior; majoring in Computer Engineering Technology at City tech. I am currently doing an internship with CUNY Citizenship NOW! I got this internship by joining the CUNY Service Corp. Sadly my internship isn’t too involved with my major but I do enjoy learning new things and more than anything gaining some work experience. As a future goal I would like to have a job which revolves around my major, live a comfortable life and most important have a job which I can enjoy. Hopefully to be able to work with a team and create new things like projects which solve daily issues, robots, etc. would be great.

   (Taken at Central Park)

Overall it has been pretty good lately, but doing school (especially all the projects involved with my CET classes) and work do take a small toll on my free time. Whenever I have a chance I hang out with friends, play soccer, relax or spend time with family.

 I spent most of my last summer break here in New York, I love to travel but sadly I was unable to. I did get to go paint balling for the first time which was really fun. Play soccer and be able to catch up with friends which I had not seen in a really long time.

A weakness as a writer would definitely be my grammar and spelling. I would say that a strength as a reader would be finding a book that I’ll enjoy reading, I literally find it hard to stop. Although sadly I haven’t found a good book or better said the time to sit down and enjoy one. I love technology and anything that is involved with its aspect, and studying computer engineering helps. In regards to having knowledge of utopia, dystopia and science fiction I don’t really have much, although when I hear of the word utopia I do think of a world in which everything is perfect and standardized. I am currently taking this course since it is a requirement, yet I am looking forward to this class.   

My name is Jessica but I prefer to be called Jess for short 🙂 My parents are from El Salvador but I was born and raised in New York City. My major is Communication Design and will strive to open up my design-related business in the near future. I have three major goals for the semester: 1) practice drawing any chance I get (I am a horrible illustrator at the moment haha!) 2) manage my time wisely (I HATE it when I am unorganized with my time) and 3) learn to breathe more haha! (seriously, to not stress over everything as far as assignments, work, relationships etc. Just overall, enjoy life at the moment and just breathe in and out 🙂 ) Sometimes at night, I like to walk around my neighborhood and reflect. It helps me appreciate all things around me and helps me become less stressed. 

The usual path I walk to reflect 🙂

My strengths and weaknesses as a reader and writer varies.

I personally believe that my strengths as a reader is identifying the elements within a story and analyzing the concept of each piece. As a writer, I feel confident writing in first, second and third person. I can express myself well through writing and can gather all my thoughts on paper. The only weakness I feel that I have as a reader is when I encounter a piece of literature that does not capture my attention at all. When I am challenged to read anything that does not interest me, my mind wanders to different places and no matter how many times I read it, I could not grasp the main idea of the story. Because of this weakness, I have practiced to overcome it; I now visualize the stories as I read them, and try my best to visualize them as if it were a movie. I am a visual artist after all. My two major weakness in writing are grammar use and correct use of punctuation marks. I try to overcome this weakness by reading more, but it takes a day at a time.

I feel comfortable with technology. I can alternate between a PC and MAC computer and am proficient in illustrator, photoshop, dreamweaver and indesign.

I have very little knowledge on the topic of utopias and dystopias. As I grew older I perceived “Utopia” as a place where perfection is located. Of course, I do not believe in anything being perfect so the idea of Utopia never developed pasted that. I am taking this course (ENG 2000) because it is a required course but although that is the main reason why I enrolled, I am pleased to learn more on Utopias and Dystopias 🙂 I hope to learn the history of Utopia and how Dystopia was developed, what was the perceptions on both topics at the beginning and now in history? Also, I am very pleased that we will be writing a lot in this course as it will help my writing skill to develop more.

Best, Jess 🙂

My name is Nicole Valencia, I’m FINALLY 21 years old (as of yesterday). I was born and raised in Elmhurst, Queens but come from Colombian parents.

iI LOVE TRAVELING!

The picture I posted above is of my parents and I before leaving on a trip to Mexico last summer. I have an older brother which is 27 years old, he’s a firefighter.  My main interest consists of salsa music in general, either listening to it or dancing it. Ever since I could I remember dancing has been my thing. It’s the one thing I can actually find a passion for. I would’ve loved to have joined a professional academy but 1. they’re extremely expensive, specially when you have to perform shows 2. the practices take too much of your time. As of now I just dance for fun, I like to learn new moves, watch videos of professionals that dance in Cali, which is the city in Colombia that specializes in salsa dancing.

This is my second year in City Tech and I’m currently finishing my pre-requisites for my Nursing major. Ever since I was a little girl, I always dreamt of a career in the medical field. Originally I wanted to be a doctor but as time passed by I realized nursing was more the career for me. I love helping others, whether it’s being able to physically help someone feel better or emotionally. Other than doing something that would make me feel happy and useful, I also found it to be a more economically stable job. I love that the medical field is a rare field where you’ll find yourself without a job, so that’s one of the main reasons why I went down this path. Dancing is my passion but I realized it wasn’t the smartest choice to make over Nursing, since it’s not a stable career. I hope to one day be able to dance professionally, even if it’s a second job or just a hobby.

My strength is mostly as a writer, I’m great at grammar and spelling. Writing essays also tends to be one of the things I do best. As a reader my main weakness is that I tend to skim through what I have to read and rarely get an understanding of what I just read. I mostly enjoy reading non-fictional books, I usually go for biographies of young adults who have gone through tragedies in their lives. I dislike having to read about ancient history, I personally find it boring. My background with using technology is pretty good, I tend to do everything from shopping to paying my bills through either my phone, laptop or IPad. I didn’t know anything about utopias, dystopias, or science fiction before our last class meeting. I’m taking this course because it is one of the pre-requisites for the Nursing program I plan on transferring to in another school. I hope to gain better reading and writing skills through this course. Mainly reader since it is one of my weaknesses. It has been a while since I last read a real book!