AndieLessaInternship

As my internship comes to a closure, I have a lot of reasons to be grateful. I had the chance to work with great minds that helped me grow both as a person and professional. My time at Faculty Commons was not very long — something like 5 months — but it was enough to provide me with amazing experiences.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a lot for which to thank Prof. Jordan. She was a key person that made sure this experience was the best for me. My coworkers were also very welcoming and sweet to me. Many of them have been working together for a long time, so it would be understandable if they kind of had their thing going on, but that’s not what happened. They were extremely friendly.

Another aspect of interning at Faculty Commons that made me grow a lot as a professional was the fact that I became a photographer. I still have a lot to learn, but have improved my skills significantly. Now I absolutely feel comfortable to add that skill to my resume and pursue something related to photography as a career.

I hope I was able to perform well and that my coworkers and faculty have appreciated my work. Thank you, Faculty Commons team and everyone involved in this program.

On Monday, I had the honor of photographing an event at the Hospitality Department that gave away awards to selected students. Professor Jordan asked me if I could be a part of it a few weeks back and I had to get back to her, since I have evening classes on Monday. Thankfully, I was able to work around my schedule and be a part of the event.

The ceremony only started at 5:30pm, but I was asked to come in at 4pm to take pictures of the graduates. It was a group of around 20 people, and we went to the Atrium area on the 2nd floor to figure out the best angle and light. Prof Garcelon, from the Hospitality Department, was there to help me art direct the photoshoot. We tried two different angles: one with the students in front and on the staircase, and another one of me shooting them from up there. The photos came out great!

After that, I headed down to the Atrium amphitheater, where the award ceremony was going to take place. The organizers of the event were taking care of the last details, and it was nice to be there and plan my positioning in order to get the best shots. That venue tends to be very dark, but thankfully most lights were on during the event. The ceremony was very beautiful, and it was a pleasure to be a part of it. It went on for a couple hours, then we headed up to the department’s Dining Room, where an amazing buffet was being served. I took some more candid pictures for about 20 mins, then was able to dig in and try some of that incredible food that was made by the students.

Last week was a mild one at the internship. I was in charge of creating the center piece spread for Nucleus magazine, in addition to a page with the name of the PSC CUNY awardees of 2015. The spreads (they were actually two) featured the pictures I took at the Architecture department at the Vorhees building. I did several tries until I was able to get the final version approved. Marlon, my coworker, is in charge of the rest of the magazine’s design and served as a resourceful help. Prof. Jordan, as always, was also an important for this project.

The awardees page was more of a physical labor than a mental one. I had to get all 25 names divided in columns, and also organize them with each department they were part of and title they were given. All information barely fit in one page, but it did, so that’s all that matters. That kind of page in a magazine doesn’t really bring beauty to it, it’s just there to deliver some important information.

Now, the Architecture spreads were a blast to work on. My job was to fit in photos of student work, of the professor featured in the story and copy of something around 500 words. Dorian was in charge of the last edition of Nucleus, and he created a visual guideline book for it that helped me a lot. I was no hassle to follow the guidelines, and at the same time I was able to give it a feel of my own. Prof Jordan was very happy with the results, and so was I.

This post is dedicated to Prof. Julia Jordan, the director of Faculty Commons. It is a true pleasure to have her as a boss, but most of all, as a mentor. It is beautiful to see how admired and respected she is by per peers, faculty and students. She conducts her work with so much love, attention and care — it is impossible not to feel inspired by it.

I met her briefly before starting interning at Faculty Commons while doing school work with Raciel and Dorian, who got me the job there. We were hanging out on the first floor of the Atrium building at school and Prof. Jordan stopped by to tell them something quick. The two quickly let me know about how great she was and how happy they were for working with her. When I officially met her at the job interview, I could also see she was great. She sounded very passionate about the work accomplished at Faculty Commons and it made me want to work there even more.

From the moment I started my internship program, I could see Prof. Jordan had a lot on her plate. She is always running around taking care of various affairs simultaneously, but effectively. She always touches base with us to make sure we’re on the right path or if we need anything. Even though she is not a graphic designer, she has a very critical eye to layouts and always has good inputs to give us.

I am very grateful to have had this experience as an intern. Thank you, Prof. Jordan, for being an amazing mentor.

I’m an intern at Faculty Commons at City Tech with other 6 students. I get along with them well and they are all very resourceful. Sometimes, we have to ask each other to proofread our work, or to brainstorm new ideas with us. Prof Jordan will usually assign a certain person to go help out the other, but it’s also common to jus see us volunteering to give each other feedback.

One thing that is very important in this group is team work. That is especially true  Since we all share the same area and computers, we have to respect each other’s space. Sometimes, someone has to use one specific desktop, for example, so we have to ask whoever is there the moment if they can let us use it, we can’t just assume that it’s ours. That creates a sense of respect that is essential to this kind of work setup.  Sometimes we use our own computers, which comes in handy, since the office only has two desktops and two laptops for the interns.

My schedule is Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10:30am-2/3pm, depending on the day and on what I have to get done on that day. If I get there early for some reason, I am able to also stay for less time, even though I am free to take advantage of the space, stay and get other stuff done. Usually, not all of us are at the office at the same time, since our internship program is really flexible and adapts to our class schedule.

As I have mentioned before, one thing I wasn’t expecting when I started the internship was that I was going to be the official photographer here. That was one rewarding surprise, since I was able to improve my photo-taking skills. I own a DSLR camera and used to take informal pictures here and there, but that was about it. I felt insecure at first when I was assigned to photograph an event, especially because it was an important one (GenEd Day). Luckily, I was able to perform well and take good pictures.

Sometimes, at the internship, I devote all my time to editing pictures I took at events. Sometimes, our clients need the pictures posted to a Flickr account. Other times, they just need them sent via email, and other times they need Powerpoint presentations made with the photographs. The pictures I took at the Brooklyn Museum will require one, for example. I already edited and curated the pictures I took, and now I have to create the presentation.

I got another photograph assignment for next week, on Monday. I’ll be in charge of documenting the Baccalaureate Celebration event of the Department of Hospitality Management. It’s going to take place both at the Atrium amphitheater and then at the Janet Lefler Dining Room. I’ve photographed at that amphitheater before and I know it’s a dark and tricky place to take pictures, but nothing that isn’t manageable. The Dining Room must be much easier, though. I’m looking forward to that event because it looks like it’s going to be an exciting one, and there will be amazing food, and that’s always the way into my heart.

Last week I had a very exciting task: to take pictures that will be featured on Nucleus, which is a quarterly magazine that portrays the work done by the Faculty Commons at City Tech. This edition of the magazine is going to feature, among other stories, the accomplishments by the Architecture department, in the Voorhees building. I went over there to photograph faculty and a few classrooms. The structure they have was impressive to me, I had no idea about all the 3D printing machines they have out there. The only class I’ve taken in the Voorhees building took place on the first floor.

Prof Jordan instructed me to take abstract pictures and have one of those be the cover of the magazine. There were so many interesting objects that the students were able to create with those machines. Most of those objects were made of paper using the laser cut machine, but there were also a few that were 3D printed.

I tried getting a broad range of photos, so I went around taking pictures from different angles, and exploring the bright sunlight that was coming in through the window. It was 1pm and sunny outside, so a lot of light was hitting the objects, thankfully.

I showed the pictures to Prof Jordan and she was very happy with the results. Now, we have to decide which ones we’re going to use. Some past editions of Nucleus feature one image as a spread for cover and back cover. Other editions have one photograph for each of those pages. This week, we should get a final decision on which ones to go with.

Last week at the internship I had to keep working on a project I started a few weeks back. My first task in this project was to create a web invite for the Women in STEM Luncheon. I had the chance to just make a few changes to the piece that someone else had created for the same event last year, but I preferred to try something new and came up with a design from scratch. I sent the two designs to the client, and she chose my original creation — that felt really rewarding.

Now, this new project was to take the same visual elements from that web invite, and create a printed program to be given to each participant of the event. I was given only a few hours to finish this, but with the help from Prof. Jordan and the quick feedback from the client, I was able to get everything done in time. The client was really happy with the final results, and so was I.

On Friday, I had to take pictures at another faculty event that took place here at City Tech, on the sixth floor. I enjoy taking pictures at these faculty events because it’s nice to see professors in kind of a student set up. At this event, they were encouraged to share their opinions on ways to improve teaching. It’s always interesting to see some of them acting shy and not wanting to raise their hands when prompted to — that makes them more relatable to me as a student.

Last week was a very busy one. After photographing at the Brooklyn Museum, and the Borough Hall event, I got to take pictures at the Literary Arts Festival at City Tech. The festival took place in the Vorhees building and it featured students and faculty with various set of skills. There were poetry being read, alongside essays, and there was even a dance presentation by two students. The latter, in special, required a lot of concentration of my part. Since I wasn’t using a tripod, it was a challenge to get shots that weren’t blurry, because of the fact that the dancers where constantly moving (as they should). Luckily, I was able to achieve good results.

Prof Jordan asked me to arrive early so that I could take pictures of the backstage, and I did. It was great to see the last minute rehearsal taking place, and important for me to have an idea of which angles worked best.

The amphitheater where the festival was being held was, as expected, very dark and that was a challenge with which I had to deal. I had to be careful to make sure enough light was hitting the camera, but in a way that the parts of the stage that were well lit didn’t come out overexposed. Of course, post-production is fundamental, and Adobe Lightroom came in handy when it was time to fix those little details.

The event lasted around a total of two hours and I was pretty tired afterwards. During the entire time, I was going up and down the stairs on the side of the amphitheater to get diverse and exciting shots. I got a total of 350 shots, so I had a lot of curating to do.