Pebbles Calungsod 
Denise Claire “Pebbles” Calungsod is a 19-year-old Sophomore at City Tech. She has been breathing Brooklyn air for the past 13 years since she first moved to New York City from the Philippines. Although the path of least resistance seems to point towards wedding a billionaire, Pebbles has, instead, decided to study Construction Management and Civil Engineering Technology. Her first love, however, has always been the arts and illustration and she continues to create comics and pieces to keep from getting rusty. She aspires to one day publish her own webcomic from the pile of imaginary worlds she has created and put away for a rainy day.Aside from doodling and imagining a world of buildings erected under her watch, Pebbles spends her free time watching dog videos and exchanging bad pickup lines and dad jokes with her four siblings. She is the proud owner of a 3.6 GB’s worth of meme screenshots. Her mission is to use her artwork to create content that shines a light on the struggle of not only women in the STEM/STEAM fields, but all women as well.

Cherishe Cumma 
My name is Cherishe Antoinette Cumma and I currently reside in Brooklyn, New York. I come from a mixed background of Southern and Caribbean roots. My father’s side of the family is from the little island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. My family in St. Vincent are farmers who spent the majority of their lives cultivating crops, and selling them in their own shop, along with other goods such as cakes and pastries. My father’s family provided agriculturally for the people in their village/ surrounding neighborhood. My mother’s side of the family has roots in the south specifically Florida.  My mother’s side of the family were musically inclined, and one of my relatives performed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Both sides of my family were, and still are strong willed people, who worked hard to achieve their goals and aspirations. I feel their drive running through my veins any time I think about my passion for my academia and my field of study.

As a student at New York City College of Technology, I am currently pursuing a career in English, specifically Professional and Technical Writing. Throughout my coursework I have opted to take a few classes in African studies and these classes helped me realize my passion for writing, specifically writing about issues that impact the African American community. In the past year I became even more obsessed with African history, and I decided that I would like to pursue a degree in English/ Journalism with a minor in African studies. I made the decision that I wanted to apply for Graduate school so that I could further my education, and also achieve the highest degree possible and feel accomplished as a student. Throughout the years that I have spent in college I’ve encountered many obstacles that could have hindered my success if I choose to let them. However, with every adversity that I have faced, I gained a new piece of knowledge that taught me how make it through each semester. This knowledge that I have acquired has been so helpful to me that I would like to share it with the readers of my blog. In doing so, I hope by sharing my personal experiences with others I can empower them to work through issues they are having in life whether they be personal or academic. My main purpose for blogging is to help other by encouraging them to see the hidden potential with themselves so that they can have a prosperous semester, and ultimately a successful life.

Nefertiti Francis 
Hi familia, my name is Nefertiti (yes like the Egyptian queen). Returning back to school after 6 years, I am now a Junior and a Human Services major. Currently working as a Career Advancement Coach at The Door Organization mentoring young adults aged 16-24 years old, I knew as early as I can remember that this was the field I wanted to dedicate my career to. Eventually, my long term goal is to have my own nonprofit mentoring program. There is no better humbling feeling than giving back to our communities and feeding into the next generations.

My goal and theme for my blog here on the buzz, Love, Neffi, is to be able to help my peers empower themselves and others around them. Lifestyle empowerment is a passion of mine because I feel we are our happiest and our best selves when we’re achieving our goals, overcoming obstacles, surprising ourselves, or simply letting it all go and taking a break from life. Only good can come from taking some “me time” or helping others do the same. We also claim to be our “biggest critics” but we need to be our biggest supporters. I believe we all have this future life we want to attain which includes things such as more time for ourselves, self sufficiency, peace of mind, happiness, confidence, a degree, dream job, less stress and all else. As students, school alone is its own beast when it comes to stress.

So in the midst of it all, my desire is to be able to provide you with the tools to help you become your best self. I still am not my best self, there’s always work to do, but I’m magnifying the best in me right now. I work towards it daily so we can do this thing together. Help right? That’s what it’s all about.

This blog is aimed to share everything from free concerts, activities and events happening around the city to short meditations you can do to center yourself. Our happiness can never be measured by material things, it is measured by feeling and emotion. The blog will promote putting yourself first, and loving yourself most in all aspects of your lives. It’s not as selfish as it sounds; the better you are, the better you can be for others.

My biggest hope is for this blog to be identifiable and relatable to everyone so please, do join me this semester for a DrakeBaduYoncéGandhiMarley vibe!

Putting you on to things you’ll love, people and places you’ll love, music you’ll love and of course what we all love most: free stuff.

Love Neffi!

Robine Jean-Pierre  
Robine is an aspiring artist, musician and writer, majoring in Entertainment Technology here at City Tech. Music is her primary passion; she has been playing the piano for most of her life and the guitar for the past five years.

Writing is another creative outlet that has always sparked her interest. Whether through narratives, poetry, academic essays, or song lyrics, she loves being able to express her ideas through carefully selected words. She is a strong advocate for the power of effective communication.

Robine’s blog is inspired by a sociolinguistics class she took during her freshman year at NYU. She plans to explore the intersectionality there is between language and other subjects like race/ethnicity, class, and profession. Her goal is to make her future readers more aware of the power of words and how they use them.

She is proud of her Brooklyn upbringing, Haitian heritage, and Christian faith; she is happily engaged to her best friend Angel Jackson; and she hopes to inspire a positive change, even if only a small one, in the lives of all her readers through her blog.

Gennessy Palma
Hiya CIty Tech! My name is Gennessy Palma from the Communication Design Department, I was born here In New York, the state of opportunity is what they say, raised in Queens. Living In New York you learn a lot of things like street smarts and that building connections is everything. I love bringing smiles to everyone’s day and helping out anyone who is in need. During my first year in college I participated In CUNY LINCT and became an ambassador, I helped students with questions in regards to college and gave them advice about my current college experience. I love speaking openly to crowds, being an ambassador, my coworkers and I gave college tours. After my first year of college, I became what’s known as a Bridge Coach and here I basically helped incoming college students with Admissions and other important things such as FAFSA and TAP.   My point in all this is that I always love to provide people with a sense of comfort and provide solutions, and my purpose here is to relieve you from stress / negativity. How am I going to do that you ask? Simple! By bringing positivity and  enthusiasm into the picture. The way I create a positive environment is through the world of photography, things such as nature and food is something that grabs my attention and brings me comfort so it’s what I mainly photograph, I mean who doesn’t get excited seeing food?? But with photography everything’s different! I was inspired and a new passion came into light after taking my first photography class. Instantly,I knew then and there that this is how I’d bring radiance and positivity to the everyone, I say this because media, nowadays,  brings us the negatives; violence and racism for instance. So why not take a break and see the bright side of the world??

 

Hey City Tech, my name is Amanda Marmol and I am here to inform you all on things to do across the city at a low cost and even for free! Often times I catch people saying “I’m tired of the city. There’s nothing to do but to go to the park, movies and bowling,” but there is so much more to the city than just that! In my blog I am also going to be  incorporating events/workshops for students to attend at City Tech that you may not be aware of.  As a student majoring in Law and Paralegal Studies  I am aware of how easy it is for college students to get lost in their studies. I myself fell in this category my first two years of college. I found myself having the same routine and also being ‘stagnant’ in my college career. Ever since I got involved in school activities along with going out, exploring and taking time to do something outside of my major I noticed that not only my experiences have increased but most importantly my network has expanded. There’s more to college than just a degree and even a 4.0 GPA! Go out and explore things across the city and even within City Tech.   

_________________________

Greetings! My name is Evans Alexandre, I’m a twenty-two year old senior at City Tech majoring in Communication Design. I was born and raised in the vast lands of Queens, New York, and over time, I’ve developed a fiery passion for photography, film, art, and production, and a mild obsession with hip-hop instrumentals and anything that has to do with science fiction. My short term goals are to eventually work at a media/production company to help make videos, movies and TV, and in the long term I want to make a TV show and publish a novel and photography book. The world is a massive place, and since I’m an explorer at heart, this year at The Buzz
I’ll be photoblogging about the various places, events, and hidden gems that New York and its neighboring states have to offer.

My desired blog theme is to share my travels and exploration around New York, Philly and Maryland through photography. I love going to places to experience and learn new things, and my goal is for the readers of this blog to learn through my experiences. I want to give readers a chance to live vicariously through an adventurer. Everything and everyone has a story, and through photography, it is my hope that you learn something new or expand on knowledge you already have.

 _________________________

_________________________

Born in the capital of Haiti and raised in Brooklyn since age four, Emmanuela Michel was taught to seek occupations that made money instead of having jobs that fit creativity and passion. It is because of this that she tries to explore all her interests in the hope of settling on a satisfying career. A career that will allow her to make a difference in people’s lives. Have you ever felt indecisive about your career choice or that you don’t even know what you want it to be? Emmanuela believes that everyone should take the time to figure out what career path they wish to have versus what they feel obligated to do. She hopes that through her writing she can spread this message and influence more people to find occupations they are passionate about.

_________________________

Greetings! My name is Pamela and I am a working mother, a full-time student, and a writer. My passion for reading and writing has led me to a career path in Professional & Technical Writing. I believe that we all have something to share and capturing it in words and images is a powerful way to do so. Life struggles have led me to persevere and motivate and that’s a motto I live by today.

If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, you know that I believe success comes from education and that we can learn from each other.  People love connecting with people who have interesting stories and something to talk about. That’s why this semester; I will be interviewing fellow students and staff of the College, capturing their voice, attitudes, and passions. Our Stories: An Intimate Connect, will be refreshing and new and bring a different perspective each week. So join me on this journey as we share what keeps us going and makes us more determined than ever.

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________