So just this Friday upon entering my internship for the daily routine and I begin to work on the book for the school called Touchstone. I made the job a WHOLE lot easier on myself by using the template as well as using paragraph style and being consistent with all the titles for each of the essays. It really took a lot out of me afterwards to see how much work had to be put into seeing that every word had the same emphasis as the word documents had. To search through 91 pages to make sure all the words were put correctly was something I had never done before. Thankfully, I was able to complete all the pages and adjust accordingly for the submission to the school’s approval. Afterwards, there was also revisions to be made to a previous video that one of the workers had done. The transitions weren’t smooth and the video had to work together as a cohesive unit, thankfully, I was able to complete the work in a timely fashion and finish all the work for that day as well as other tasks that were given to me. Definitely one of the most productive, yet, eye straining days. Due to all of this work I have to do, I find that I seek to get work done in the most efficient way possible as well as the fastest way possible without compromising design.
Over at EdTech, we are used to provide technical goodies whenever there are events within the school that need these technical goodies. So the other day, the EdTech department was in front of an event in which we brought Virtual Reality goggles to everyone attending the event as well as providing iPads for those same people. The best part about it is that we could all get free food and we were also the first ones to eat! It was great to be able to provide these services but there’s nothing better than free food. During my entire internship, if there’s anyone I can draw some inspiration from, it’s my supervisor. I’ve been the last intern to remain with EdTech for the summer and previously, I would observe how he would help other interns in order to better their skills. To see someone with a great level of authority be humble and greatly understanding of not only the interns but the rest of the employers was highly respectable.
Just this week I’ve gotten upgraded to a new task. So my supervisor calls me over today to give me a new task and included in my list of tasks has been updated their book series called Touchstone. Touchstone is a book that apparently comes out every semester and it has a good template and is pretty quick to put together, however, there is always room for improvement. Upon looking at the previous book as well as the template, I got a feel of what they expected to see but I saw areas that could be improved upon legibility and layout within the book. Putting all the provided essays brought me to somewhat new territory as I realized I could no longer cut out lines of text to have a good flowing layout but now I had to take the provided text and have it sit well within the layout I have edited. My work on this book thus far has been great as I made the job a lot easier by establishing Paragraph Styles and labeling the pages to ensure the way finding throughout the book.
On the first week of the Internship, I spent the first two days editing videos to be posted onto the new Hostos website. There were a ton of videos that had to be edited on PremierePro and it really taught me about communication and how to work with another intern, or rather, co-worker on projects. So the other intern is named Anthony. Anthony worked on the titles for each of the videos while I edited the videos and put the Photoshop made title, into the video so that it could be used in the introduction with the videos posted onto the “showcase”.
Frequently, I would communicate with Anthony who was sitting across from me to determine what videos would be worked on next and what would be the easiest route for us to maximize our labor time. Since we both connect to a server within the EdTech department called “INTERNS”, we made a folder in order to access all the files we made. One would have the images, videos, and also a folder that contained the premiere file. It was great to be able to work with an organized person and maximize our work efforts. I would determine that the projects were a success, especially due to the fact that Anthony and I communicated, not only frequently, but effectively.
One of the greatest things I’m learning about during this internship is web design. Something I’ve always wanted to learn aside from being a better designer, is how to code for web design. This is something that I’ve had basic knowledge on, unfortunately it is also an area of which I’ve been really rusty with. Our department is completely related to design. I’ve been introduced to deadlines and finding out what clients want best. I’ve experienced what it’s also like to send proposals. Recently, one of my posters for the new way to login to Blackboard was proposed to the heads of CUNY and the design will be used throughout CUNY. When George Rosa informed me of this, the reaction I gave was simply, NO WAY!
Typically, I walk into the EdTech at 9am to start the day. After saying “Good Morning” to everyone in the office, I either work on any work from the previous day or I’ll ask Wilfredo if there’s anything new to start on that day. As of recently, most of the work has gone into updating the new websites for Hostos community College and making all of them work together in a cohesive unit. Since my days are fairly short, I would typically just work on whatever tasks are given to me for that day unless it’s a full day like Friday. On Fridays, I do my work for the morning until about 1pm when I go out for lunch. I would usually take that hour break to recollect and have some time to myself until I return. Then, I work on whatever additional tasks are given until 5 pm when I head home.
Going into EdTech on the first day was completely different than the other rooms within Hostos Community College. Walking into a room to see a bunch of Mac Desktops with huge Wacom tablets was like walking into seeing open presents on Christmas day, or the feeling you get when you go into an “all you can eat” buffet. The attire within the “office” is business casual, as usual in any workplace, no shorts. As an intern, these rules don’t necessarily apply to me, however, I always go dressed somewhat business casual but you’ll never find me in shorts.
There’s a mixture of the environment of our work areas. The interns are normally working in an open area with two rows of 3 iMacs. However, there are several desks of which, have their own Mac Desktops. I’ve recently been moved from the open area to having my own desk within the workroom. Most of the days for interns are part time but the staff however, is full time. You can find them working on different request sent in by others within the school. I’ve noticed that Wilfredo always takes his lunch at about 12:30 for an hour and then returns to work until 5pm. Pretty typical work day but when you’re working and enjoying it, time just flies right by!
In the department of EdTech, I’m doing all things as a designer, one minute I could be working on helping out one of the interns with a video, the next, moving onto creating a flyer for CUNY, furthermore, fixing some code on the websites used for Hostos Community College. I’m currently working under, but hand in hand with the coordinator of the department, Wilfredo Rodriguez.
Before applying for the internship class, I was on a search of where I could possibly find an internship as I had never done one before. I had inquired with my aunt who is the director of one of the departments within Hostos Community College to see if there were any design internship positions available within the school. The convenience abided, not only within the location, but that it was also down the hall from where I currently work within the school. I had sent an e-mail to the coordinator of the department asking about the availability within the department, he responded promptly. After the submission of my resume, he asked for my availability, commencing the start of my internship on May 4th this year. Everything occurred fairly quickly, Wilfredo had offered me to begin as soon as possible. Thankfully, I am still interning over in the EdTech department for the duration of the summer, my only question was when could I start and where should I begin.
The department that I am currently an intern for is at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, known as EdTech. There are just a few people that I work with, the staff combines to a total of 5 people, not including the other interns with me. We are located in the C-Building of the Hostos Community College Campus. For the most part, EdTech is public within the CUNY community as they partner up with several CUNY schools to bring forth conferences to the students of these schools to educate and help them in their academic lives. The primary goal of the department is to help the students with their technological, academic needs and help them out by means of technology. We get a whole bunch of requests from people all over the school, it can range from renting out a room to have the lecture recorded, to fixing one of the websites, to creating flyers for an events going on within the school, etc.
There was only one recent article from last year, this article described EdTech at Hostos Community College to be extremely helpful towards the students needs in making their academic lives easier by means of technology. This is exactly what we aim for, we do our best to unite the schools and provide the greatest experience possible towards all the Students of Hostos Community College.
Hello and Welcome!
My name is Freddy Reyes, and I am a 20 year old student at City Tech. I am currently majoring in Graphic Design. I didn’t start out in this major, I originally began my school career in Architectural Technology which I didn’t really like. I discovered my passion for graphic design and I do not regret my decision in switching majors. I am a Christian and I thank God for the academic success that I have established. I hope you enjoy the work for my courses as you search my page.
This semester in the class for Graphic Communications Workshop, there has been two trips. The first being a trip to Wall Street and the second was traveling to Lexington Avenue 63rd Street to the Society of Illustrators. This old and compact building was gorgeous, treasuring about 2,000 works of art.
To start off, the class was informed that the building was established in 1875 as the carriage house. We were introduced to the great history of the establishment as it had undergone some pretty crazy events. The building was once a dwelling to nude artists who would perform to audiences as a form of entertainment for people who had purchased tickets for these events. When law enforcement found out, they attempted to jail the personnel, this action was feeble as it had only helped to add publicity to such a place to later be bought out by a great company. Their first association began right there in 1901 and they have remained in the location ever since.
In addition to finding out the intriguing history of the Society of Illustrators, the class was pleased to hear that there is a yearly student competition in March and April and were encouraged to participate. Our tour guide not only encouraged our participation in the competition but to also submit our work to their establishment for publicity because art directors attend their viewings. Along with many other interesting fact, the tour guide mentioned, the original art in the establishment has been held for 35 years.
To move onto the events taking place in this town house, the tour guide mentioned that there had been a ghost dwelling. Aside from the ghost talk, the rooms are all full of beautiful artwork. On the third floor you may find comic drawings all over the walls, even in the bathroom! As you walk up the steps you’ll encounter illustrations of all sorts including artistic portraits. The floor above has a beautifully designed, spacious, well-lit dining area. Every Tuesday and Thursday, figure drawings are held with both nude and clothed models.
New York City is home to the great building housing the Society of Illustrators. On this trip, we had gained so much information, half of it wouldn’t even fit into this essay. Overall, the trip was absolutely a pleasure from the interior design of the building, to the historical pieces of art residing within. Society of Illustrators is definitely a place I would love to revisit as there is much to do. Who knows, maybe I will get to see all 2,000 works of art.
