Hi everyone my name is Ashley and I’m in my third year at City Tech and my first semester in the PTW major. I currently work at Sesame Flyers International, which is a non-profit that provides year round activities for youth throughout Brooklyn and a mas band during the summer. When I tell people my job they automatically assume I want to work with young kids but that couldn’t be further from the truth. My goal is to teach in a high school for at least 10 years and to write several books that have a positive impact on the younger generation. Since I was about 10 years old I’ve always been drawn to helping younger kids with homework or with whatever problems they were having. Something about knowing that I made a difference, if only for a day, has always been my ultimate goal when working with anyone. Over the summer I had the opportunity to supervise 15 SYEP(summer youth employment) workers. All of the participants were freshman and sophomores in high school and by the end of the summer they all became more siblings to me. The most exciting part of the summer is the last two weeks before Labor Day when nobody at my job sleeps and we put all our effort into to making beautiful costumes for the parkway.

I’m comfortable with myself as a writer, however, I’ve noticed that procrastination is too much of my friend in my assignments. It is both my strength and weakness because when I procrastinate I produce my best work while severely depriving myself of sleep. The one positive thing I can attribute to my writing is the ability to connect with a topic and bring a sense of familiarity to any piece. I’ve actually taken a classes that required weekly posts on OpenLab, so I am very familiar and comfortable with posting my thoughts and observations on a variety of topics.

If I’m being honest, I know nothing about science fiction. The only thing I can think of is “The Twilight Zone” and the Sci-Fi channel.

Throughout my life I’ve switched career choices about fifty times. It went from chef, to president, to actress, to writer, to singer, to lawyer and finally an educator. The only connection that stuck between all of these changes is a need to communicate efficiently and write to the best of my ability. From the time I heard about the major, PTW seemed to be my best fit. As the semester progresses, my greatest hope is that the course aids in my progression as a writer and critical thinker.