Our presence was required on campus only when a specific task or event called for it, such as in-person student outreach, during which we would go around campus and interact with students to introduce them to NYPIRG in the hopes of inciting engagement through volunteer work. Being an introvert, this was particularly difficult for me because of my sore social ineptitude, and I found myself falling short of completing the task with success. For my shortcomings with in-person outreach, I fared better at phone banking, which were student outreach via phone to students to let them know about NYPIRG related events such as rallies and our most recent Eco Fest event for climate change. For phone banking outreach, we would be given a call list database of students’ phone numbers and a script which let us know what to say, which I found easier to perform because I did not have to deal with stares and glares and just recited my script.
Of course, other events called for more collaborative efforts between I and my colleagues, Adrian McChurchin, Teandra Adonis, and Billy Shi. An example would be the second of two tabling events we did for our Spring Menstrual Product Drive at Target where we worked together to encourage ongoing shoppers to donate women’s menstrual products such as sanitary pads and tampons that will then donated to the Women’s Resource Center. At first, our shared apprehension for approaching strangers was to our intimidation but that was quickly dispelled when we started giving each other tips on how to operate after one of us found success in performing. This resulted to a successful turnout and we usually collected more donations than we had initially expected. This teamwork was not only exclusive to NYPIRG City Tech as our first menstrual drive tabling was done in partnership with our colleagues at the BMCC campus where we had actually seen greater success. Other team efforts events we held was a rally at City Hall where we called upon Mayor Eric Adams to improve public transportation access so that students can be able to go to school with better ease. These displays of teamwork helped me understand the importance of community and how when a group of people who share the same goal and equally invest their hard work, they are more likely to succeed in the goal they are trying to achieve as I witnessed with our tabling events.
Throughout my internship, I always found myself to be asking to perform assignments within my discipline and thankfully, Jenna was receptive to my demands. She consequently began to assign me graphic design work such as designing Instagram posts for our weekly chapter meetings and screening events, the latter for a watch party for “Pandora’s Box” a documentary addressing the plight of menstruation faced by women around the world. Also, I equally got to design flyers we used to promote our Spring Menstrual Product Drive campaign. These creative projects allowed me to implement the teachings I received over the 4 years of my academic journey at City Tech, starting out with research, then sketching, then testing, trials and errors until I finally came up with the best final version of each project. Furthermore, it also strengthened my sense of comprehension in regards to following rules as I was handed the NYPIRG design guide which stipulated the organization’s visual identity rules I had to adhere to in my design, such as the colors and type to use etc. Jenna was very appreciative of my work to my utmost pleasure as it was a solid indication that I was doing my job well, therefore, proudly positioning these projects in my portfolio.
