Yamile Bonifacio
09/11/2017
COMD4900
My course throughout this internship journey has been a lengthy one. I have been looking since March 2016. Although I was a junior at the time, the way I decided to organize my classes was for my senior year to be as least stressful as possible. So with that being said I was in the search for an internship and eventually stumbled upon CUNY service corps. I completed my requirements and interview in March 2016. I was registered to take internship course for the fall semester, however I was told that the graphic design positions available was 4 and there were 300 applicants in the open interview positions. I doubted getting the positions I applied for and ended up dropping the internship class from my schedule. Unfortunatley, I got accepted the graphic design internship and it ended up not counting academically.
So I decided to register for the class once again and not drop it in hopes that the same thing wouldn’t happen once more. I began looking in May of 2017 since my previous graphic design internship ended in August. I applied to Cultural corps as an alumni of service corps. I was denied the position and was devastated. I ended up searching on my days off from work online for open positions and applied to a couple through internship.com brooklyntechtriangle.com simplicity website we used to find internships for service corps. I stumbled upon changing the present and YALDA US which was the only ones with no deadline for the application. I sent my portfolio link along with resume and cover letter through the email and got landed an interview.
The company is a non-profit organization called Changing the Present. This company is located inside Hotel Pennsylvania in 34th street across from Madison Square Garden. This company takes donations in the form of gifts and gives the finances to the charity of the merchants choosing. For example, instead of getting my friend a gift for her birthday, I instead send money in her name to her favorite charity for example Saint Jude’s children’s hospital. This is a unique way to send money to a charity, also do something generous for your loved ones. The New York Times calls it, ” The amazon.com of the non-profit world.” During the summer there were usually around 100 employees and volunteers. However, during the fall most interns return to school and few stay for academic credit since it is an unpaid volunteer work. Workers range from 51-200 at a time. Changing the present works with such non-profit organizations such as UNICEF, Save the children, Lance Armstrong foundation and many more.
The interviews was very brief and concise.YALDA US is a remote internship so the interview was through skype. The internship for Changing the present was in person. For both interviews, I was asked about what programs I used to do most of my work while reviewing my behance portfolio site by a woman that is head of the design department there named Alyssa Ettinger and Robert. I was also asked what experience previously I had and fortunately I just finished my graphic design internship through CUNY service corps which gave me credibility. I was told the type of work I would be doing which is banners and flyers, incorporating infographics to make their website more appealing for more people to donate to this organization. I was told to start immediately, however I wanted an approval for both along with guidance on which one to choose from the professor before proceeding.
