Angela Alvarez's ePortfolio

This is my first week of the internship with the company. It is a small team that works within a co-working office space building. Our supervisor is the one who assigns us tasks through a task and content management platform called Asana, along with Google Drive. So our company takes up a small office in a large co-working building, so we check in with the supervisor in her tiny office and do the rest of the work either remotely from home, or floating around the co-working space. There are other businesses that work in adjacent offices in the building, and so far on my second day, I realized how positive and collaborative everyone is with one another. Conversations happen between people working on their own business, and it is such a great way of networking with those outside of your workspace.

Since this is a co-working space, there seems to be no formal dress code, but obviously just be casual or business casual to respect the space we’re in. On the first day all of us interns accidentally wore all-black as an unofficial uniform, which was funny. There is a lot of flexibility on the job when it comes to hours and working locations, as all of our tasks are individually assigned, as long as we accomplish them we are free to choose our working preferences. Throughout this, due to the internship requirements, we are limited to 15 working hours per week, so I’m sticking with three 5-hour shifts per day. The area that the workspace is in has quite a good amount of food options close by, so lunch can be picked up or ordered when necessary.

Overall so far, the internship is taking place in a really positive atmosphere surrounded by working professionals from other organizations that we can collaborate and network with. I feel no pressure to dress entirely formal, but I will choose to dress business casual or casual to put my best foot forward. To promote a positive working atmosphere, I am pleased with the multiple options throughout the building, from independent meeting booths, to tables/desks, to even a spacious rooftop when the weather gets a bit better. As a person who works best like this, I am looking forward to meeting all of the assignments that will take place.

As my internship approaches the starting date of employment, I am excited to work with the team as a Marketing & Advertising intern. Due to my background in creative graphics, communication design and social media, my interview with supervisor Jamie led to the understanding of what my role as an intern will entail. I will be taking on a handful of tasks of both the creative and backend aspect of the company, such as working on social media posts and webpage search engine optimization, which is my specialization with a web and graphics focus from my classes here at City Tech.

My internship process was pretty straightforward upon acceptance by CUNY Spring Forward. The supervisors in charge of Spring Forward had us go through several rounds before our “acceptance”, where we then had to continue onto interviewing with the participating businesses. The spring forward pre-acceptance interviews were actually group-based, and then the final business selection interviews were individual 1-on-1’s. In the final business interviews I met with a small handful, 7-8 different companies. In all of the short 15-30 minute interviews, they were with single interviewers from the respective businesses. They were all essentially self-pitches on what I can bring to their company, and their questions related to the positions they had posted. Some positions were social media, marketing, communications, and a lot of them involved creative aspects that met my design requirements for internship. Some questions included:

• Introduce yourself and your experience.
• Did you have any work or internship experience prior to this?
• What are some of your skills and strengths?
• Do you work well in team-based environments?
• Are you okay working remotely or in-office?

After my handful of direct interviews with the companies, I had to rank them all in order of interest. My interview with the business was a success, though it was a close tie with NoMad Flatiron Partnership. I was assigned my first ranked choice less than a week after the interviews. Though that was my first choice, I still sent out thank you emails to the other employers that took the time to interview with me. In this time, the employers are getting onboarding by CUNY Spring Forward in terms of work hour allotments and other information. I begin on February 27, 2023. I am looking forward to the starting date.

Software produced audio and translation formats

For this semester’s internship, I began my explorations in Fall 2022. I applied to many internships, and was successfully accepted into CUNY’s Spring Forward program, taking place between the end of February and May. The internship is paid, and hundreds of students had the chance to interview with the participating companies and businesses in collaboration with CUNY. I interviewed with about 8 companies, and when choosing my rankings, I listed an interview with my company as my first choice. After waiting anxiously for several days, I was successfully accepted to my first choice. The business is a latina and women-owned company who primarily focuses on creating a community of people’s wellness in mental health through events, partnerships and cbd plant products. The company is quite small as it is a private, local, growing business (it was founded under 2 years ago), but I will be working alongside other interns for the next couple of weeks. My department will be focused on Marketing, which will involve on building the brand’s advertising, website and event goals.
Since it is a new, small business, there are not too many news articles on the company yet, for the exception of one by “Budega”. For the secondary slot, I will discuss a blog post from the website.

“Budega NYC” is a lifestyle blog that has a focus on the celebration of the cannabis plant and is based in New York City. The blog focuses on the topics of mental health outreach, restorative justice, and overall health and wellness, plus, its NYC focus allows for the celebration of entrepreneurs and community here in the city. Hustle + Flo is the topic of discussion in Budega’s September 12th, 2022 post: “HED: How A First-Generation Latina Grew Her Name In The Cannabis Industry” In this blog is an engaging conversation with H+F’s founder, Jamie Galvis, where she discusses the journey she took to the foundation of her business, what it’s like being a first-generation business owner, and the impact of CBD for mental health awareness.

The foundation of H+F’s journey took place many years ago when Galvis discovered the benefits in using CBD rather than prescribed medications that caused extremely harmful side effects. In H+F’s blog post “CBD & Sleep“, Cristina Iraheta discusses the natural benefits in using CBD as a sleep aid for those who suffer from conditions such as insomnia, anxiety, and pain. There are a number of ways that it can be consumed, which allows for its versatility and acceptance. Especially when used as a sleeping aid, its forms can come in tinctures, gel capsules, inhalants, balms, and even teas that you can drink.

The biggest challenge that H+F has faced has been running the business and hitting financial roadblocks. With perserverence, clarity and the building of community, the vision will continue to come true for Hustle + Flo.