Humans Of City Tech

“I have been wanting to do a research project with the department of Construction Management since the start of my sophomore year back in Fall of 2015, but with work, school and family the amount of time I had would not allow me to be fully dedicated to my research. This year the opportunity to work with Professor Anne Marie Sowder head of the construction manager presented itself, and I took it. The most interesting part about conducting my research was putting together my results after finalizing the review of literature phase for my research project. This took a lot of brainstorming and work from me and my mentors part. We finally came up with the creation of calendars that would project number of days available to pour concrete for the future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the City University of Technology and its CUNY Research Scholars Program, and Professor Anne Marie Sowder for the time and dedication that was put into giving me this opportunity and allowing me to execute it.”

a young man with dark hair and glasses in front of an academic posterKevin Saquicela

Humans Of City Tech

Who would have thought a girl from Brooklyn, NY will grow to be a woman who is on her way to become a hospital CEO at twenty-three years old. Being successful in this world has always been imprinted in my head by my parents. If it was one thing I learned from my parents I would have to say it was never give up on what you believe is yours, learn from failures, use it and build it to what you want to achieve in life. With my family’s support and encouragement of never giving up I managed to transfer colleges and receive two degrees from New York City College of Technology. My Bachelors in Health Service Administration will be completed this fall 2016 term. During my two years at City Tech I was able to be a part of a wonderful team called Student Government Association, the Ohana Slate. I joined because as a student first I always enjoy great leadership and being a voice for my colleagues for any thought, issues, or feelings they may experience. It feels great to give students the opportunity to approach me and ask me questions where I can help direct them to what they would need to do. The most interesting part of being the voice for City Tech students I would have to say is hosting events or students to become a unity and giving them the opportunity to learn from each other and also hearing opinions or ideas they may have to help us as their student body. Being in SGA has helped me in many ways, dealing with now 18 members with 18 different personalities helps me grow even more as a person in my professional field of working. We really are a family and we encourage each other to do things we never thought we could do. The last thing I will say is that I am ready for my future and gods plan because I see great things coming my way in healthcare.”

a smiling woman in jeans and a white T-shirtAshley Frazier

Humans of City Tech

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself” My name is Robin Koiner, I am majoring in Chemical Technology at NYCCT. I love to create, I like art, doing makeup, and learning new aspects related to sciences. School has allowed many great opportunities for me to grow as a whole, and for that I am grateful. I believe self-discipline and self-management are the essence of hard work, and essential when expanding the mind’s capacity. I want to always be able to express myself and preserve my discoveries while understanding the optimal circumstances for knowledge production and creation. In my quest for mastery over oneself, the ability to recognize, understand and manage the different aspects of my personality, will allow me to create a higher quality of life experience. Keep mastery in mind, always.”

a young woman with long dreadlocks, in a fur-trimmed coatRobin Koiner

Humans Of City Tech

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent” I am Victor O. Adedara, majoring in Biomedical Informatics. I love to play soccer, basketball, spend time on researching medical related ideas and so on. One my greatest achievements is leading a successful Chemistry club for the past two years of my college career to its peak and also currently leading the Biomedical Informatics Club. My biggest Challenge is procrastination. Procrastination has always tried to play a vital role in my education and also in my daily activities. But, one thing I always say to myself every time to counterfeit procrastination is when I remember my Dad saying is “do the right thing at the right time so as to get a positive result”. Schooling at City Tech brought great opportunities towards my long-term goal and future. I am always grateful every time I think about the school. I believe there’s more success coming my way because I strive hard everyday to become a better person tomorrow on this land of opportunities. Remember! Persistence and determination would lead you a long way if the attributes are kept vital as part of you.”

a young man in a jacketVictor O. Adedara

Humans of City Tech

“Don’t make a permanent decision for your temporary emotion.”  Sometimes, you overact in innocent situations without realizing what you’re hurting someone.  It’s when things settle, as you finally understand the mess your have created and the miserable feeling inside of you.  When it comes to my family, there are always something that is disagreed upon which leads to arguments and eventually fights.  In the end, there the ones who’s there for you at your prime, as well as your low point.  Recently, towards the end of my spring semester, I had loss someone very special to me.  This person is always the first to leave my house, yet the last to finally come home, after working so hard but still showing so much love to us.  This person would always bother me trying to wake up every Sunday to go to church.  On May 5th, 2016, around 4pm, I was beside his bed in the hospital trying to wake him up.  I don’t know why, but all I could think throughout that night was all the foolish things I have said or done that hurt him throughout my life.  I know this person has already forgiven me, but sometimes I just want to go back to these moments and undo my regretful actions.  I definitely have learned a lot throughout the couple of months.  One of the more important ones is to keep your chin up and maintain a positive state of mind. ”

a young man in a jacket wearing a backpack, and a baseball capMichael Lumentut

Humans of City Tech

“I was born in the US but, I was raised in Haiti. I came back to the United States after the earthquake of January 12, 2010 that ravaged Haiti. My biggest challenge was to adapt to a new way of living. I had to learn the language and the culture and be aware of everything that was happening around. I am now attending the New York City College Of Technology pursuing a bachelor of technology in Computer Systems focusing on IT Operation in pursuit of my  long term goal which is obtaining my own IT company. I will be the first one in my family to graduate college and now, I am now ready to catch the American Dream.”

a young man wearing a black T-shirt, in a librarySamuel Stanley Laloi 

Welcome “Humans of City Tech”

a young man in a jacket in front of colorfully-lit signs

Jean-Luc Marcel Antoine, is a native of Haiti and has been living in New York City since a major earthquake damaged a huge part of his beloved homeland in 2010. He has found NYC to be a wonderful second home and he wants to make the most out of the opportunities the city has to offer. Because of his love, appreciation, interest and passion for science, biomedical sciences, he is currently pursuing a bachelor degree in Bioinformatics at New York City College of Technology. He enjoys participating in clubs and other fun extracurricular activities at City Tech and other places to broaden his horizons and meet new people along the way. Jean-Luc has many passions and one which is photography. Through photography he loves to document about the New York experience by looking at it from an inside perspective. By exploring NYC’s interesting places and events, he has found to be a passion to show his discoveries by portraying New York’s uniqueness, diversity, people and culture. Thus he is a photo blogger at the City Tech OpenLab’s  “The Buzz” which is a great platform for him to share his art with the City Tech community and the world. Not just for entertainment, Jean-Luc is a football (soccer) fanatics that loves and is a very die hard supporter of the beautiful game especially for his beloved team New York City FC for which he has traveled in many parts of the country to see play. Apart from that Jean-Luc is someone that likes taking part in adventures to travel to influence and help others by volunteering and in any other ways possible in order to make the world a better place.

 

a young man looking into a large camera

This semester, my blogging of interest and what going to focus about is a project that I call “Humans of City Tech”. It is an idea inspired by Brandon Stanton whom is the creator of the fantastic New York’s blog “Humans of New York”. My goal is to create a movement in order to humanize the community of New York City College of Technology by featuring the humans that study, work, freqent affiliated in some ways and frequent this institution. Thus basically the idea is to go around City Tech and to interview students, faculty and staff and tell their stories in the most unique ways from their own perspective and find what makes them apart from everyone else. I plan to have conversations with people from the City tech community in which they tell me about a particular question that I asked or anything they want to share. One huge aspect of the project is to connect the students, faculties and staff stories with their portrait or a photo that can best represent them.   The reason why I’m so interested to take on this new project and to do “Humans of City Tech” (HOCT) is because I want to humanize City Tech. Some people may have a lot of interesting things to share or is looking to be heard but do not have the audience to listen to them, thus by sharing their stories or any particular thing about them, I’m hopeful that they will have the chance to get noticed by all City Tech community. It is a good way for students and others from the City Tech community to make friends, connection and find people that have similar interests as them.

The Hooli Wedding

A lot of people fantasize on having a fairytalelike, fantastic and unique wedding. However, actually having it is one of the best moments someone can experience in life. Perfection is subjective of course, and many may argue that it is not attainable, however Tirzah walking down the aisle being accompanied by Spiderman (NYCFC_Spiderman) and Patrick being in a crowd full of cheering NYCFC fans, was perfect in their eyes. Everyone in the crowd made the couple feel special and they absolutely loved it. The fans’ hands held high up in the sky, were chanting their names and jumping in joy with the newlyweds. They were also celebrating in the most beautiful, colorful and expressive ways with smoke bombs, balloons, banners and scarves held up high to show their love and passion for NYCFC

If you were not there to see this beautiful ceremony unfolding and be part of that lovely and great atmosphere, you definitely missed a unique experience, but don’t worry you can always releive the moment here https://vsco.co/zeusnycfc/grid/1 but being there in person was a whole other experience.

a bride and groom in a crowd

men in a crowd

Apparently, if you and your spouse are die-hard and passionate New York City Football Club fans, having a NYCFC theme wedding is the perfect way to celebrate your special day. And rightly so, that was the dream wedding that Tirzah and Patrick Rivera made a reality on  a beautiful day of March 13th, 2016 at The Bronx under the 4 train tracks next to the Yankee Stadium. They specifically chose that particular day and location to celebrate their union, due to the fact it was NYCFC’s 2016 season home opener.

 

men in a crowd

the bride and groom holding up T-shirts and laughing

bride and groom on a crowded sidewalk

At the beginning when Tirzah and Patrick announced that they wanted to have a NYCFC hooligan theme wedding, they knew they were going to have the time of their lives , but they definitely were not expecting it to be so thrilling. It will take something 10 times as marvelous to even attempt to top this glorious weeding.

Your wedding day is for you to shine and to celebrate love with your significant other. It is the perfect opportunity to say “I do”, and to passionately kiss your lover while having tears sliding down your eyes. Thus, what is better than celebrating your special day with people that you love and in a way that make you and your lover the most happy? It did not matter if the people attending were family,  or even strangers, they all celebrated together for Tirzah and Patrick as one big family and made them feel special and have a hell of a wedding.

a bride with her bouquet in a crowd

men in a crowd

bride and groom kissing

One thing for sure, if you live in New York City or you are an NYCFC fan into carnavalesque, festive and public celebrations, NYCFC supporters are an interesting group of people to invite to your events such as weddings, parties, birthdays etc. NYCFC supporters are passionate, lively, and an expressive group of people.

The reason for that is simply because NYCFC fans and football/soccer fans in general are one of, if not the most  prideful people about their team and city.When they get together as one to showcase this pride, it is a very powerful phenomena to see or experience. Thus, when Tirzah and Patrick experienced the grandeur of NYCFC fans, they wish they could do it over and over again.

bride and groom in a crowd

a crowd with blue smoke

NYCFC fans from all walk of life gathered to celebrate with the couple in order to make their wedding everything that they wanted it to be. But how amazed were Tirzah and Patrick when they realized that the wedding ceremony amazingly exceeded their expectations! It was the kind of scenes you usually see in movies, however this was reality and that day, reality was more than extraordinary! It was the first NYCFC’s fans wedding and one the most stunning and beautiful that I have ever attended.

Everything was wonderful as people were celebrating with the couple, but being officially married was all Tirzah and Patrick were waiting for. Thus when the moment finally arrived for the ceremony to take a more romantic tone, that’s when the couple started to be really excited and emotional. Tirzah was not feeling anything other then extreme happiness and likewise for Patrick who eagerly wanted to take her in his arms and to kiss her. So when their great friend who was their wedding officiant  said “By the power vested in me by the state of New York, I know pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.” Patrick jumped and did not hesitate to make the moment he was waiting for the most count.

bride and groom

bride and groom kissing

bride and groom walking away

The couple could not wait to tie the knot and for those two lovebirds, sharing their special day with NYCFC was the ideal way to truly feel happy. And indeed what a beautiful wedding it was. Everyone was in good spirit and celebrating with the lovers and  NYCFC friends to make their wedding a success and once a life time experience for them.

Congratulations to Patrick Rivera and Tirzah Rivera for this astounding showcase of love and passion for themselves and New York City Football Club.

NYCFC Supporters

In football/soccer the supporters are the best thing that teams are the most grateful for. The teams and players know nothing is more powerful, motivating and a morale booster than having passionate supporters singing, chanting and cheering for them during the all 90 minutes of the game. Thus by no means do football/soccer teams take their supporters for granted.

Teams have many loyal fans that love them unconditionally. As a result, players make playing and winning not only about a paycheck and a personal satisfaction,  but instead it becomes a collective effort to play with their hearts, to give it all they got, and playing well in order to show to the fans that they truly appreciate their support. Players would not only show the same love and passion to the fans, they will also fight for them as best as they can on the field to win in a convincing manner. However one thing that is truly remarkable about football/soccer fans, no matter how bad their team is doing, they will be there every single games encouraging and cheering on the team at their lowest in order to bring back to better days. Thus you could not imagine the joy that supporters get when their team respond back and are showing that same love back to their fans by winning but most importantly giving all their best out there on the field.

Therefore, the only way to really witness or be part of this phenomenon, is to experience it for yourself. Luckily you won’t have to go too far to see or experience this, there is New York City Football Club (NYCFC) right here in New York that play at Yankee Stadium where supporters at the supporters sections, get really passionate about their team and show that passion at every game.


people in a crowdPhoto taken at Yankee Stadium

 

a crowd with a topless manPhoto taken at Yankee Stadium

 

a blue Yankees flagPhoto taken at Yankee Stadium

 

a green playing field with a stadium crowdPhoto taken at Yankee Stadium

Driving In The City

Driving in New York City, is obviously different than driving on a highway, urban, or rural areas.. Surely, everyone has different driving skills, but for many it is a challenge to drive in the city. Have you ever been stuck in traffic in New York City? That could be one of the worst situation to be but, also the most interesting. Well, we know the nature of New Yorkers; some aren’t really nice thus one can imagine what type of situations that can arise.

But New York City’s streets are unlike other cities, thus being stuck in traffic can be very interesting.  Especially in the city where it can be a great challenge to move around. Many even say if you can drive in the city, it is possible that you can drive anywhere else. Some streets in Manhattan are intimidating because they are narrow and pedestrians a lot of the times disregard the lights making dangerous for drivers to deal with. This makes a lot of people want to avoid driving in the city because of the fear of striking someone. However, at least for the most part New Yorker’s respect the laws of the street and the signs, imagine the chaos that it could have been if everyone was going crazy on the streets.


 cars lined up at dusk, with headlights onPhoto taken in Manhattan

the freeway entrance to a tunnelPhoto taken in Manhattan

cars on a city streetPhoto taken in Manhattan

cars on a side street at nightPhoto taken in Manhattan

a city street at nightPhoto taken in Manhattan

the Empire State building from several blocks awayPhoto taken in Manhattan

the Empire State Building, partially hiddenPhoto taken in Manhattan