An Interview with Ms. Carol Covino, A.V.P. of Enrollment

Hello everyone and welcome back to school for the Fall Semester. I hope every one's first week of classes went well, and I hope textbook costs are not hurting your pocket. My first week went well and it looks like I am going to have my hands full with the work load so I may have to rethink my scheduling breakdown for homework and assignments. Fundamentals of IT this past week gave me some new lingo to throw around at my job especially with our new building coming along. In marketing i learned some basic ideas of marketing which is going to help me with my business as well as my partners. I already came up with some marketing ideas for them and I hope that some of them will work.

Accounting 104 was a class that I was expecting to breeze through and it now seems that this may be a challenge. This version of Accounting 2 is a lot different than the one I took in LaGuardia. Just this week I learned something new that I didn't learn in LaGuardia. We never did the Cost Volume approach to accounting. That method is not seen by the public and is only used for managerial decisions. It takes into account Fixed costs and Break points in both dollars and units. The break point is the minimum needed to be sold in order to have a profit of zero. World Cultures looks like it will be a mixture of anthropology and philosophy. That will probably the class where I will be getting most of my questions to ask you guys.

Now for the first time ever is the beginning of my Interview with Faculty and Professors. What better way to start than by interviewing Ms. Carol Covino who is the boss of the Berkeley Bloggers.

Isaac Salles- Good afternoon Ms. Covino, I would like to start off by asking, "what is your official title and what does that entail?"

Carol Covino- I am the Associate Vice President of Enrollment and I oversee the Admissions Offices for the Paramus and Woodbridge Campuses. I am also oversee the Berkeley Bloggers.

I.S.-What is your educational background?

C.C.-I originally graduated from Berkeley College in 1980 and I am currently an Online Student at Berkeley.

I.S.-How long have you been with Berkeley College?

C.C.- I have been with Berkeley College for 17 years.

I.S.-Do you have any advice for new students, current students or prospective students?

C.C.-4. For current of new students there is no reason why anyone should fail at Berkeley. There are so many support systems in place whether it is personal counseling, Academic Support Center and so many people to reach out to. To prospective students I urge you to visit the campus and make sure you feel comfortable at the campuses. Students tend to pick colleges by name instead of trying to see what type of services that really fit them. Berkeley college provides the atmosphere of a small school and offers the best services.

I.S.-Do you enjoy running the Berkeley Bloggers?

C.C.-I love all my Bloggers. We are actually still looking for bloggers especially from Newark, Westchester and Woodbridge Campuses. All you have to do is submit and email with a sample blog. Students don't realize that the college does actively read the blogs. If a complaint is posted the college reacts almost instantaneously to rectify the problem. We are one of the few schools that move when the student body speaks.

I.S.-I have to agree with that and I am sure the hiring of our new Athletic Director came from us wanting more athletics through out the campuses. Why did you pick your current profession?

C.C.-I started out by presenting to schools for Berkeley since I loved Berkeley so much as a student. I started out as a High School representative for Berkeley and then moved up into the position.

I.S.-What would you like to see improve at Berkeley to make it more attractive to prospective students?

C.C.-A semester system could be a change since many people don’t quite understand the quarter system. As we attract more traditional students a semester system may be more beneficial in the long run.

I.S.-Any other closing remarks?

C.C.-One of the things we worry about at Berkeley is that when students have issues they don’t necessarily get led to the right people. Some colleges are not very proactive, but we are and an example is when the college reacts to a blog. If a student needs assistance be vocal and ask around, you will be led to the right person.

I would like to thank Ms. Covino for her time. If you would like to be a Berkeley Blogger just email a sample blog to cja@BerkeleyCollege.edu. It is a paid position and it is a great way to voice your opinions and thoughts, and if i can do it with my busy schedule so can you!

Now it is time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. They both continue to grow into individuals. Jose is very talkative especially on topics such as economics and politics. He is an Obama fan and somewhat approves of the $700 billion dollar bailout. Rebecca continues to expand her vocabulary, and now says hot,ouch and hi. She is beginning to learn social cues and continues to love and protect her baby brother. That's all for now and stay tuned as I explore the new revamped bookstore and other topics.