Networking Event: Direct Innovation Challenge
The first networking event I attended was the Direct Effect Innovation Challenge. I networked with representatives from Microsoft and the host USPS. This event was based on creating campaigns for USPS and the other participating companies. It was really fun seeing schools like SVA and Parsons come to City Tech and participate in the event. We are getting a lot of attention in the Design community and that counts for a lot. I was also there with the Moving Pixels club helping out with getting some footage of the students at work.
Week 1 Internship at the PDC (Professional Development Center) at CityTech:
I am a first generation American. My parents immigrated from Mexico in order to find a better life for themselves and eventually for my two older brothers and I. Working 40 to 50 hours a week in order to keep food on the table and the bill paid. Working at places where they were mentally abused as they did not understand english. But knowing that one day their children will be able to live a better life than they did. My older brothers began working at the age of 14, my father had an accident at his construction job that left him semi-paralyzed for a couple of months. They too had to work long hours after school in order to keep the lights on and food on the table. I was the privileged one and began to work at the age of 16 working along my father as he taught me how to use my hands for physical labor, sometimes it was construction but we settled in a restaurant (Brooklyn Bridge Cafe) across the street from City Tech. I worked there for about two years learning the Hospitality business. I began as a dishwasher/porter. I would come in at closing times to sweep and mop the whole establishment. Soon after I was moved up to a server, since it was a small place with little employees I had to run the food, make drinks, and do deliveries, in some rare occasions I also washed dishes and cooked. Soon after I left as the management did not take my work and my commitment seriously and began working at a deli station in a supermarket on Flatbush Ave by the chase building near City Tech. There I learned how to make sandwiches and prep the kitchen for the week. A couples months passed by and I landed a spot as a food runner where I currently work, Quality Meats. While this restaurant is an amazing place to work, I know that it would be a great disservice to my parents. Coming to a country not knowing the language, leaving family behind they they wouldn’t see for over 20 years if not ever. My mother not being able to travel back to Mexico to burry her own mother because of her illegal status at the time. I know that my destiny is for my parents see me in a professional setting working doing what I enjoy, and that is design. So coming into this internship opportunity at the Professional Development Center here at the New York City College of Technology, I had one goal, to learn everything I can. I am the first in my family to work somewhere where you are not running around like a crazy person. The Professional Development Center’s main goal is to connect students and alumni to opportunities they wouldn’t have heard of if it wasn’t for this department.
The PDC has clients such as Infor, a company that not only sponsors the Brooklyn Nets. Infor is ” a global leader in business cloud software products for companies in industry specific markets. Infor builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first, leverages data science, and integrates easily into existing systems.” My first day was a shock to my brain and body. For years, my body and mind was use to running around for a living and doing things at a blazing speed and doing it right. Here at the PDC things are more civilized, and as an intern I am expected to make mistakes but to learn from them as well. My boss Mr. Bradley Burford has given me projects to get working on and I am ready to take these challenges head on.
Week 2 Internship at the PDC:
I am a design intern at the PDC. I am in charge of making fliers and working with the team of interns to edit and take pictures of events. I unfortunately and fortunately did not have the luxury of time to pick and choose internships. Everything was kind of last minute. My classmates Crystal and Noel told me that there might be an open spot at the PDC and they gave me my boss, Bradley’s email. I sent him an email with my resume and intentions to join the team and got an email the next day with an interview request. I dressed casually to the interview and when I arrived, on time, I interviewed with Bradley. The interview went as good as anyone can hope for, Bradley spent more time describing the PDC and what was expected from me and how past interns have been able to find jobs in the design field after their internship at the PDC. Basically, I was hired on the spot. I had the interview Wednesday, Oct 2nd and my first day was Friday the 4th.
Week 3 Internship at the PDC:
The attire at the PDC is business casual. You are not required to come in a suit but you are not allowed to wear jeans, sweat pants. When I attended the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, I was required to wear uniform. You had the choice of wearing a light blue polo or dressing shirt and I almost always went with the dressing shirt and black slacks. Now four years after highschool, wow time flies, I have kept a uniform style in my closet just in case. Going to the PDC I usually wear black dressing pants with a wide variety of dressing shirts that I have. The PDC interns are a bit split in terms of working stations. Most of the interns work in the first floor in the main entrance of the PDC where students come and ask for help. On the other hand, I work upstairs on the third floor in the same office where Bradley (my boss) works. A typical day for me is I come in at 10am and leave around 5pm. I usually go to lunch at 1pm with my fellow co-interns Noel and Krystal.
Week 4 Internship at the PDC:
What I have been learning so far at the internship here at the PDC is working in an office setting. Ever since I began working, the only thing I associated it with was physical labor. As a food runner in a steakhouse, that does an average of 400 reservations daily, and has three flights of stairs you have to run up and down from. During my first week at my internship my body had a shock. I had been so used to running around like a chicken without a head that when I sat down and began my design work, my body would shut down on me and get very sleepy quick. To power through this challenge, I asked Bradley if it was okay to get up and walk from time to time during my work hours. He gladly agreed. Now I feel a lot better and have seen my work improved as my mind and body get used to working in an office setting.
Week 5 App Review: iMovie for iPad Pro
So this was my problem. I had two days to edit and produce a video for the MAIP Internship program. The good thing was that I had all the footage I needed and created a storyboard of how I wanted the flow of my video to go. The bad in this situation was my machine, for some reason it was NOT cooperating with me and the Premier Pro kept crashing. With little time left to meet the application deadline, I turned to my iPad Pro. I had purchased this tablet in the summer with the apple pencil in hopes that one day I can justify spending a small fortune on it. To my luck, I launched iMovie and got to work. The integration of the apple pencil to act like a curser and do things like specifically such as, cut and move clips around. The fact that my iPad and the iMovie app worked flawlessly together gave me a huge relief. After three hours of getting used to iMovie and importing footage and cutting and importing music, I finished and exported the two minute video in seconds and is now available on youtube. Here’s the link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQOQHDCXBME&t=34s. How did I do? It’s crazy to think that a tablet is capable of editing video at such a degree that my own Macbook Air couldn’t handle.
Week 5 Internship at the PDC:
A collaborative project I had to do with Bradley and the person in charge of coding the PDC website, Peter, was re-touching the current photos the PDC had and edit all photos from the events PDC had in the spring semester and going on now in the fall semester. It was challenging in the beginning as I had a little experience with Adobe Lightroom and I did not know if the editing I was doing on the pictures were pleasing to the eye. In my eyes they were but I worried if Bradley didn’t like them as he would have the final say. Fortunately, after getting the hang of Lightroom and going with a style I liked, I was able to get nice pictures up and change the overall experience that a viewer has when they enter the PDC website. 
Week 6 Internship at the PDC:
So far I have been doing design work for Bradley. It’s funny when I thought about what an intern does, it meant going out for coffee, getting lunch, running errands for superiors and doing everything else in between. I had a conversation with Bradley about this and he told me how, one, I am an unpaid intern so he was only allowed to give me design work and that’s it. The other reason he gave me was that he also doesn’t like to ask for things like that even if I was paid.
Week 7 Internship at the PDC:
I believe I have done a pretty good job here at the Professional Development Center. In the beginning I was scared as this was my first time working in an office setting and I had to get adjusted to that. Now I have gotten into a routine in order to get what I need done. I come to work ready to push through the day and do the work Bradley gives me that day. There is always room for improvement though. I think for my next internship I should focus more on what I can do to help my boss out without him/her asking me. Find things that need a solution and have a solution ready for my superior.
Dinning etiquette event at the PDC:
Every semester at the PDC there is an event called the dinning etiquette. This event takes place on the second floor in the culinary major’s dinning hall. It’s basically a mockup restaurant where the waiters and the cooks are students who are working on their culinary education and are in class with the “manager” being the professor. I learned a lot from this event, things such as the manners you are suppose to have at a table in a fancy restaurant. Working in a high end steakhouse myself, I did not know some of these procedures. This is very beneficial for students who come from a diverse background and perhaps never knew what it was to eat in a fancy, much wealthier setting.
Lunch with a Leader at the PDC Networking event:
Another event that the PDC holds every semester is the Lunch with a leader event. A prominent New Yorker who has a diverse background and had to work his or her way up to become who they are now, comes to city tech and talks about their struggle and the success they’ve had because of that struggle. This semester we had an entertainment attorney, Fernando Ramirez. He grew up and fought for what he wanted. He told us that its important to have a mentor figure to look up to in any career we are pursuing.
Week 7 App Review: Adobe Lightroom for iPad:
This app works basically how the desktop version of the app. Lightroom is an app that I have been using more especially during my internship for the PDC. Usually I am on the desktop at work editing pictures. There was a time where I had too many pictures and not enough time during my shift to finish them. I asked Bradley if I can work on them from home and have those hours counted as work. He agreed and on the way home, I took a chance and downloaded Lightroom on my iPad. Now, I have an MacBook Air, but I wanted something lighter and portable so I can take anywhere without feeling the weight. In comes my iPad Pro and Lightroom. Both seemed to have been made for each-other. The app works great on the tablet and lets me edit pictures on the go.
