Angela Alvarez's ePortfolio

As we reach our final weeks in the internship, many meetings are being held between us interns and our supervisor, along as an entire group. Overall, team communications have had their ups and downs, but I am glad to say that in these final weeks, everyone is on a similar page for where they are at, what they’ve learned and how they can move on once the internship is over.

We utilized multiple channels and tools for our team communications, which is what helped many of us stay on track with where everyone is at. Our main channel sources of communication were WhatsApp groups, Google emails / chat / meet, and direct phone calls / messaging. Having all of these channels allowed me to always maintain contact with my supervisor for the progress on what I was working on, and to always have the chance to ask any questions or concerns. In some working environments, it can be really difficult to contact supervisors beyond phone calls, which of course, cannot always be the main source of communication. As we are students, we are also dealing with specific class hours that limit us from always having the chance to speak on the phone. Therefore, being able to send a message to my supervisor directly on Google chat gave both of us time to come to a conclusion based on each particular matter.

As a team, we used Google meets and calendar in order to keep track of our meetings, which ran both weekly and bi-weekly. WhatsApp is a global phone friendly app that connects us all, whether we have Androids, iPhones or otherwise. When supervisors send out messages to the entire team, the interns are expected to acknowledge it, whether it is through a text or emoji response (thumbs up to agree). When it comes to working in internships, it is very important to establish these bounds of what supervisors and their interns expect when they work together, because it helps to prevent any misinterpretations. If certain boundaries and expectations are not set in time, then it can cause a domino effect and create an unhealthy working environment. Overall, because we prioritized communication tactics across the whole team, we were able to successfully work with one another throughout the weeks of the internship.

Throughout this internship, I have been working on various projects, with most of it being backend and minute front-end detailing throughout the entire website. In terms of designing content, I have successfully completed some landing pages and main website content, such as the pop-up design for Women’s History Month.

Since our business is women-owned, the supervisor wanted me to design a pop-up for new visitors to the site, with a large discount in celebration of women.

The main color scheme that the site uses is chartreuse, black and white, but in the brand guidelines document there is an allowance for the use of a light and dark gray that resembles a pastel purple appearance. These colors were perfect for the pop-up design, in order to make it stand out just a bit from the original theme. Additionally, I incorporated the naturalistic waves that appear throughout the whole website to appear in the pop-up, too. Keeping a consistent flow of designs was crucial to the supervisors, but I had some flexibility in terms of design outlining.

One of the challenges I faced was choosing the right image that created the persona that we wanted to convey. We did not want to use stock photography, so we had to work with the images that we had, which were quite a range of different environments and people. Jamie, the supervisor, is the face of the brand, so it made sense for us to use an image of her on a background that contrasted well with the gray/purple tones of the waves. Some images were cropped due to being vertical, so I had to utilize Photoshop in order to add extra bricks in the background with the clone and blending tools.

When users see this pop-up, they are met with Jamie’s signature quote, and an incentive to sign up for email newsletters in order to get a percentage off their next purchase.

From the beginning of the internship, I definitely can say that I have considered my supervisor to be a role model because of her role and everything that led her to where she is today. The company is barely two years old and she founded it and continues to do her very best, day and night, to continue building it and spreading the mission of bringing a community who appreciates wellness and lifestyle altogether. From day one we all witnessed the story and the business’s mission, and she mentions spending time on it almost every single day of the week. Owning a business is not easy, and the biggest issue is the finances, which is why I am glad that our internships with CUNY Spring Forward is being funded by the Research Foundation, so we aren’t taking away from the small businesses and leaving an important impact to help them to the next stage. Even though we are all interns, of course, our small contributions will make a long-lasting impact that I hope can bring more business and positivity to h+f.

I actually did not exactly understand or look into mentorship until now, in my final, senior year of college. While I did have my sister, brother-in-law, and mother who are all educators / work in education, I never approached a mentor who would be impartial to any family-related dynamics and I could ask for advice. Since I did not know that they existed until my final year, I wonder how the system could be changed to improve mentorship for students like me who slipped through the cracks. I understand that we have advisors, but when I transferred here I was not assigned one until end of junior year, whom I never fully communicated with either. I think if students in college could have accessible mentors, it would sharply improve the outcomes of graduation and continuing education into grad school and beyond.

In the workplace, also having a sort of role model or mentor from someone in a higher position could be really useful because they have spent so many years working in their position and learning, so it can assist you in your journey whether you choose to follow in their position or otherwise. Even if I don’t work at this business beyond the internship deadlines, I am happy to say that I can apply everything that the supervisor has shown me, and that learning experience can be applied to so many business opportunities in the future, even if I choose to start my own business up as well. Networking in general is such an important aspect of the working world, and new doors often can open up when you make the right connections.

So far in my internship, I am beginning to move at a really fast pace, which brings me to reminiscence of my time spent at my job at the Apollo Theater in high school. I was on a small team of 10 students divided into different categories, where it was very fast paced and we were responsible for our divisions in performances such as Amateur Night and Final Production. In my current internship at h+f, I feel like I am applying my past experiences in fast-paced environments in order to move along with my tasks. There are so many different parts of the brand to work on, from the website, integrations for email marketing and other visuals that are displayed to consumers and users. I am getting along great with the team, especially because of the fact that it is hybrid, so everyone can have their combination of independent and collaborative work, which I think is a successful tactic to utilize. Even though the schedule is flexible on the days that I am available, I keep a consistent account of hours and time spent working, both in person and remotely. The workplace feels really inviting and comfortable, so I am able to go to my supervisor and/or coworkers if I am in need of any assistance or need some clarity on an assignment or task at hand.

Having an inviting workplace like this helps with those like me who may be more on the introverted side who can get overwhelmed. Since the team is small and there is lots of flexibility on where to work, I feel more motivated while working, which boosts efficiency.

Lastly, going back to some of the beginning days of the internship, all of the interns were tasked with discovering their personality types on 16 Personalities, which was very fun and informative. Not only did I discover my personality type (Advocate), but also everyone else’s on the team, which helps me to understand my strengths and weaknesses and how I can better understand everyone else on the team without making subconscious assumptions. Some of us are on the introverted side and others on the extraverted side, but we all have qualities that link us in one way or another.

In my very second assigned task week in the internship, I was responsible for redesigning a pop-up for the website. Though this assignment was solely tasked to me, I utilized the importance of communication and collaboration in order to get the best results. The original pop-up was a form that encouraged consumers to sign up and get a percentage off of their purchase, along with signing up for newsletter emails.

Communication was really important in this task so I can truly understand what the brand stands for and wants to represent in their marketing through elements such as pop-up boxes on the landing page. The main person that I collaborated with was my supervisor, who is the leading face of the company. I walked through the entire process with her, where we both contributed to the task at hand. She showed me the platforms that the forms are on, and details such as a timer set for the pop-up to appear on certain devices. On my end, I came up with 12 different designs that ranged in two color schemes that the brand guidelines follow. This task meant that I had to show her my sketches that I came up with, and from her expertise, which ones she thought would best represent the company. From there on, I produced more designs and walked through the displayed copy to make sure that her voice in the message felt authentic and welcoming for incoming consumers. Communicating in person really worked for this task, because I was able to conduct her vision in live-time and show it to her, where she had suggested minor changes by simply pointing to the screen.

Overall during the end of week meeting, I had boiled the design down to 2-3 options, where I felt like it was necessary to have the rest of the team chime in for their best opinion. This was really helpful to be able to get insight from other minds who were seeing the design for the first time, rather than me since I was working on the project the entire week. What ended up happening was that the images of her did not feel quite right, and that is why it is so important to be a fast thinker and worker. The leaders pulled up some additional photographs from an external source, where I then imported it into the design for a final appearance.

I learned a lot in this past week, from the importance of communication and collaboration, to the importance of iterations and working through designs. It helped me so much to be able to hear feedback from fellow teammates who were seeing the design for the first time and could output their first thoughts. But additionally, it was so important for me to come up with different iterations of the design to allow for options to be had. Sometimes seeing two completely designs that may not feel right could lead to a third design that has all of the necessary elements to effectively solve the problem at hand and create the best vision for the company.

This collaborative project was very successful, and now, first-time consumers who are interested in a wellness and lifestyle journey will be greeted by an introductory pop-up that highlights women’s history month and a promotion for users who input their name and email address.

At my internship, we are working on building the wellness and lifestyle aspect of the business, which also has a focus on CBD products. In my position that focuses on Marketing and Analytics in Advertising, I am taking responsibility for utilizing my web, UX and UI skills. In my second day I was able to apply what I’ve learned from taking web courses in Communication Design, such as conducting website, desktop and mobile audits and analyzing visual web elements. For now, the tasks I am assigned are entirely focused on that aspect, but I have mentioned availability for any other necessary tasks. I am learning a lot about the business and the products, a lot of which I was unfamiliar with and may have held unconscious bias on.

A note that was mentioned during the interview stage of my internship was that this place of employment is intent on helping the interns/students grow in their respective fields. As a result, I will be getting to learn more about web, UX and UI and understanding the consumer audience from a creative business perspective. Over time, there will also be campaigns that will be taken through social media and visual platforms. There are 5 of us interns and all of us have our respective assigned roles, but I foresee collaboration occurring since, like I mentioned before, it is a very small business environment where all of our individual contributions work towards the desired end goal.

Lastly to note, though all five interns have our own respective title roles, we won’t necessarily be committing to one type of task throughout the entire internship. Week by week, the days may appear differently and we won’t be stagnant on one thing the entire time. There are plenty of opportunities for flexibility with work, whether it is in scheduling, collaboration, or task-based, as long as we stick to the overarching goals that are projected in the entire 10 week internship timeline, 15 hours per week. It is a good testament to building on our time management and communication skills in order to proceed with an uplifting, positive atmosphere and place of work.