Author: Kathy Wilson

Since my internship is 100% remote, I don’t have to worry about attire. The organization I work with operate weekdays only from 9am to 5pm. I had explained to my supervisor that since I work full-time during the day I would have to carry out my assignments in the evening and on the weekends. She had no problem with this as she knows many students also work during the day. Our concern was about making sure we communicate with each via email or phone. We worked out a solution in where she would only contact me during the day during lunchtime. However, I did inform her that I can talk after work if necessary and on the weekends. Since she is the Director she had no problem with this. The majority of the communication will be via email.

When I visited their site I saw that she had a small staff and she connected me to one of her staff who will be assisting me with my tasks. Everyone seems very friendly and helpful which fits in with their mission of helping people. The atmosphere was casual and informal yet you can see the staff busy working.

Besides my full-time job, I also work part-time with the School of Professional Studies at City Tech. My supervisor there had sent out a group email to some areas she communicates with asking them if they were in need of a graphic design student intern. Most had responded yes but only a few actually reached out to me. However, after the initial contact, I didn’t get anymore responses. There was one area I was really interested in working with because of their mission of helping undeserved communities. After a couple of weeks of no response, I then took it upon myself to reach out again and got a response. Shermira Busby, the Director of Business & Industry Training Center was delighted to hear from me again and informed me she was interested. She had apologized about not contacting me earlier due to a proposal she was working on. She briefly asked me what I can offer as a graphic designer and about my scheduling. That was basically it for an interview.

My role within the internship will be helping them redo their current website and update all of their social media pages. I will be working with the web programmer to go over all of the design details needed to create their new site such as color, layout, images, forms and scripts. For their social media pages I will be designing them to reflect the new look of their website. Their goal is to market their online presence to attract more clients for their services.

The Business & Industry Workforce Training Center (BIWTC) is a part of New York City College of Technology’s Continuing Education Center. They are located at 25 Chapel Street, a couple of blocks down from City Tech. BIWTC currently has 6 staff members and 2 Instructors.

BIWTC has 4 programs: building maintenance, construction, direct care training to work with developmentally disabled adults and children and family development training. Their main mission is to provide vocational and educational training to unemployed, underemployed and low income residents of New York City. They also provide counseling, referrals, workshops and workforce preparation.

I couldn’t find any news articles about BIWTC, however, I did find success stories about their programs. They were interested to read because they provided real stories on how people were helped by attending their programs. One story was about a Brooklyn resident of a NYCHA in seek of work. He was referred to BIWTC where he finished their building maintenance program and became a painter’s apprentice with NYCHA. It was enlightening to read that NYCHA hires trained residents to maintain their buildings.