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1a. My duties at Giving Forward are to create headers and banners, as well create svg files from logos of well established nonprofit charities. Giving Forward provides me with the resources needed to create the files they would like to use in their advertising and websites. Resources such as, images, software (bannersnack), instructions and what copy that needs to be on the banners, and raw footage that needs editing (for those who edit videos). In order to accomplish this, they would have to seek out the rights to use said images and files for use in any and all design content. They would have to pay any fees that would warrant using said images to the photographer. They would also get into contact with the agents of the talent who’s image is being used. The three of us as a team did this in the beginning of the semester. We were given photos and info pertaining to musicians who were participating in an online zoom comedy event. My teammates and I are given these files to create this content for Giving Forward, and then Giving Forward publishes the ones that best fit their vision. Shortly after that, I was assigned to create headers for interviews that Miss Teen America Peyton May would partake in. Mr. Lee and the higher ups at Giving Forward have us using Slack as a means of communication amongst each other, the interns and Mr. Lee and his assistants. We send our files, final or not, for review. From there, they have the final say in what they want to see. From there, we send the final, ready to go files to Google Drive. I add my files in a folder labeled “Banners and Assets”, a folder created by Mr. Lee’s assistants. Any and all content I create for Giving Forward is their property. I do not own the images they provided me and teammates, nor do we own the other resources they provided us to accomplish said content. I am most positive that when we are done with our time at Giving Forward, any access to files and folders and such will be revoked.

1b. There was no Non Disclosure Agreement that I had to sign. I can speak for my other teammates as well in saying that. When doing the readings for this ethics assignment, I read about companies distributing NDAs (non disclosure agreements) to employees. Giving Forward is very lenient when it comes to certain things like that. Thats why we didn’t have to sign NDAs. Furthermore, I wouldn’t expect anyone who interns for Mr. Kevin Lee and Giving Forward to use any of information given to us for their own personal gain. My teammates and I have been attending meetings every Monday evening during the semester, and in those meetings I see other interns there as well. Discussions take place there about any updates and assignments and other company information. I guess there’s a certain level of trust that Kevin Lee had given us. We are just there to learn and experience how working in a team environment is like.

I forgot to mention this in my last posting. I got my agreement and contact forms on 2/25. I asked Luis and Gabriel if they received their as well, to which they told me yes. I’m not sure when Luis and Gabriel got theirs, but they got their agreements nonetheless. They might have gotten theirs earlier than I did, but that’s not an issue in any way. As long as we had those filled out and ready to go, that’s all that matters. As mentioned in the previous post, my teammates and I were worried after some time of not hearing back from Mr. Lee of any updates and work. So some concern started to seep in. I got into contact with my other teammates in a meeting this last week. We decided to email Mr. Lee about any updates pertaining to our internship and any pending work. One of my teammates, Gabriel, was the one who sent out the email. In it, we iterated to Mr. Lee that we are ready to work and looking forward to collaborating with him. There was a bit of confusion on both parts during the initial part of our internship. We did, however, got in contact with Mr. Lee about any updates and new work that needed to be done.

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He got back to us a few days ago as of this entry, and we are officially on our way to making out first works for him and Giving Forward. The first assignment was to create banners for a charity music zoom event Giving Forward is holding next week, 3/19. I am working on that as we speak. My teammates and I are doing our own versions and from there Mr. Lee and the higher ups of Giving Forward will pick which one works best. We are off to the races. The transition to remote communication was difficult as first. Since the pandemic happened around this time last year, we all had to adjust to remote learning and telecommunication. Some things we did on a regular basis, such as going to work or school, had become impossible to do. The shifting to zoom meetings and the like wasn’t the hard part, it was the not being able to interact with others for a while part that really put things into perspective for me. I have been thinking about how a lot of students this past year had to spend their last semesters via remote learning. I can’t speak for any of my fellow classmates, but for me, this has been an arduous time. I definitely took going to the actual school building for granted. Nonetheless, the way things are now, it’s better that remote learning is the norm now. Everyone is safer that way.

We are now in week 5 of the Spring 2021 semester. There has been no update on my status for the internship at Giving Forward. I sent out my Agreement Form on 2/18, but still no updates on that. I texted the other members of the team, and they too are waiting for a response. We were getting worried that maybe the people at Giving Forward didn’t need us after all. We had this worry but we didn’t dwell on it. A few days passed by and, since Prof. Nicolaou has been aware of our situation, called me today, 3/6, at night. This call was placed between 7:30 and 8:30 pm. I began to worry, as Prof. Nicolaou hadn’t called me so late before, and it was a Saturday, but I figured it was for a good reason. I spoke to her very briefly. She asked about the situation and status of the internship. I informed her that we sent over our documents that needed to be filled out, and that we hadn’t heard from Mr. Lee or anyone from Giving Forward for a while, but we weren’t worried because we knew we’d get a response any day now. Prof. Nicolaou insisted I get together with my team and discuss the steps needed to ensure Mr. Lee and Giving Forward of our open availability and our eagerness to get started.

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I texted my team and we decided to have a zoom meeting to discuss our next steps in this situation. I’d mentioned to them about the e-mail Mr. Lee sent us, the first e-mail where he introduced me to Luis. I remember reading it over the first time to myself and thinking he asked us to do work and to send it back to him. I informed my teammates and we read it over amongst ourselves. It turns out that the email was just general information. He didn’t give us assignments to do just yet. It was a rundown of what we are going to be doing for Giving Forward and how we are going to be doing it. Also, how we were to incorporate Bannersnack into our work. We saw this and decided to e-mail him right away. Looking back, it was a better choice to follow up with the higher ups at Giving Forward before making any assumptions. That way, nothing gets misinterpreted. We’ve learned from that mistake. As of this posting, we’ve sent Mr. Lee and the other higher ups of Giving Forward an e-mail essentially reminding them we are available and ready to work, as Prof. Nicolaou suggested. We now wait again to see how this goes.

I forgot to mention something in my previous post. The contents of the e-mails Kevin Lee sent us. Kevin Lee sent the three of us introductory e-mails. The first one involved Luis and I pairing up, and then the second one was him adding Gabriel to the crew. I then spoke to Luis about adding Gabriel to our messages so we can be up to date on the goings on of Giving Forward. After that, he sent us an email explaining the work we are going to be producing for Giving Forward. Some of which includes converting logos into SVG files, as well as creating IAB standard banners using a software called BannerSnack. We wait in anticipation for what is to come for us in our internship. We are now in week 4. I have joined Giving Forward for the semester, as well as my classmates, Luis and Gabriel. We have joined together as a team, and we are super eager to start. They’re both really talented designers, so I know they will do some excellent work for Giving Forward.

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It’s been a bit of a waiting game for me though. Mr. Lee has yet to get back to me with the paperwork needed to make the internship position official. I spoke to my other teammates via group chat and they are in the same boat as I am. We will see about sending Mr. Lee follow up e-mails. We’re doing this in order to let Mr. Lee we are ready to get to work and available. I already committed myself to doing 15 hours a week. I did the math and that total is well over 120 hours, the minimum needed to complete an internship for the semester. What I expected to take away from this internship is the experience that I will gain from being a part of a team. Being part of a team and working in a collaborative environment is a major key to my success for this semester, so what I also expect to take away from this internship is the ability to work in a team environment. This is what I expect from working with my other teammates and Giving Forward. If one of us succeed, we all succeed.

We are now in week 3 in the Spring 2021 semester. It’s also been a couple days since I’ve gotten a response from most of the companies I’d applied to. However, I received an email back from Kevin Lee in regards to interning for Giving Forward. Giving Forward was the third suggestion Prof. Nicolaou gave me, so all I had to do was e-mail him. Mr. Lee is the president of Giving Forward, which is a marketing and advertising company that uses cause marketing to generate revenue for non-profit causes. It took a while for Mr. Lee to get back to me. I’d sent him a follow up e-mail and he sent one stating he would look at my resume and portfolio during the Valentine’s Day weekend because Giving Forward was having a comedy charity zoom event. Again, a few days passed and didn’t hear anything back. I spoke to Prof. Nicolaou about my progress. Needless to say anxiousness kicked in. The worry of not finding a spot getting to me. It wasn’t for long however, as Mr. Lee e-mailed me back.

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He accepted me right away. Honestly, this caught me off guard, as I was anticipating doing an interview before joining a company, but I guess it wasn’t required. I was debating on joining Giving Forward based on this, but nonetheless I accepted the position. I was eager to secure a position and I felt that Giving Forward was a right fit. I wasn’t the only one from my class to secure a position with Giving Forward. This was all detailed in a e-mail I received on 2/15. In this e-mail, Mr. Lee added Luis Ramon to the crew. I got into contact with Luis that night and we agreed to work together for the semester. A day later, Mr. Lee added Gabriel Morales to the mix. I got into contact with both Luis and Gabriel in regards to working together for the semester. The three of us accepted and have joined Giving Forward. I am excited to say the least. Not only do I secure a spot, so did two other people in my class. This is really a blessing. On 2/18, I sent Mr. Lee the necessary paperwork to fill out. I filled out my info and let him now what he has to fill out as well. So I’m waiting for him to get back to me with that. For now, I am using my time now to complete my classwork for class and brush up on my design skills.

The search for an internship continues on. Most of the internships I applied to where from internships.com. I found internships.com more helpful when looking for available positions than any other website. I spoke to some fellow students and some friends that have since graduated and a majority of them preferred using indeed.com. I tried indeed.com but didn’t find any luck in securing a position from there. I found internships.com more helpful as a found a plethora of positions and caught my interests. The first one was from “Real Art Daily (RAD) Productions”. Since the last posting, I have found positions that are of interest to me. One of them being from “Real Art Daily (RAD) Productions”. RAD productions is a video production and post-production company based in Los Angeles. They specialize in representing the stories of those often neglected by mainstream media. A position for a Graphic Design/Social Media Content Creation intern is what I applied for. I informed Prof. Nicolaou of the position and she said to go for it.

She also provided me with resources and links to companies that were seeking interns. I emailed all of them. Some of them said no thank you but wished me luck in my search. Others, however, took a while to respond. One of the first ones to respond back was Jordan Gelber. She is the CEO of StarBaby Enterprises, LLC. They are a marketing and production firm specializing in content creation, with an extensive network in the realms of entertainment, tech, and lifestyle industries. Jordan e-mailed me with saying they are always looking for new interns. I was excited when I got this e-mail because this was the first one I got with an agency showing interest in having me join. This was a real confidence booster to say the least. I e-mailed her back, making sure to show my excitement. We discussed about availability as she wanted to schedule a meeting ASAP. I sent out the e-mail to her, all I had to do now was wait for her response.

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The second response I received was from Marla Gotay. She is the president of Calling All Graphics, Inc. It is a printing, marketing, and graphic design business, that’s based in Brooklyn. She e-mailed me and thanked me for my interest in applying to her internship but she had already found two interns for the semester. She gave me words of encouragement and wished me luck. She did also say to apply again if I were in need of an internship for next semester. I was thankful for her words of encouragement. Also, Michael Riddle e-mailed me back an update on my application. He thanked me as well, but informed me no spots were available at the time. The door on that application is closed. Time to move on. I am eager to hear back from the other companies I applied for. I am confident I will find a spot. I am ready.

Before the start of the Spring 2021 semester, we were to obtain an internship position. It wasn’t mandatory but ideal, as having an internship before the start of the semester leaves ample time to develop experiences and clock internship hours in an efficient manner. When the semester started, I hadn’t obtained a position. I was anxious going into COMD 4900, as I thought I was the only one who didn’t get a position in time. I did make sure to revise my resume and assemble my portfolio before applying to positions and before COMD 4900 kicked off. After the first class meeting for Week #1, my nerves were at ease. Most of the class had obtain positions, and a few others didn’t. Prof. Nicolaou assured us that there was still time to obtain a position for the semester, but we had to act posthaste. She had informed us that we had until Week 3 to successfully obtain a position. Hearing that was a relief but the pressure was on. When looking for an internship, I looked far and wide. I checked indeed.com, internships.com, authenticjobs.com, glassdoor.com, and ziprecruiter.com. I tried those websites, as well as suggestions that Prof. Nicolaou gave me. Since it was the first class, she asked for my resume and a link to my portfolio website. I sent those to her and from there, she said she would give me suggested places to apply to. That was the first day of class in COMD 4900.

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After class, I continued my search for a spot. Again, I checked the previously mentioned websites and found some positions that sparked my interests. Later that day, Prof. Nicolaou e-mailed me about applying to a company called “SmartSource”. I emailed Michael Riddle, who is the regional sales manager of SmartSource LLC. They specialize in printed products, promotional marketing, and business process outsourcing. I sent that email, as well as looked into other positions across the web. I made sure to email him with the subject line “TIME SENSITIVE – Internship Course in Progress”. I used this subject line for all my e-mails going forward. It was essential to my internship search because it showed that I was looking and eager for work, but that time wasn’t on my side. I was anxious as this wasn’t my first time taking COMD 4900. I tried to take this class in the Fall 2020 semester, but was unable to secure an internship. It was very humbling to saw the least. However, I continued on forward in my academic career at City Tech. I applied again for the Spring 2021 semester, which is right now. I definitely felt the pressure from last semester seeping in, but was hopeful that a position would present itself, and that it would be mine for the taking.