A Real Morning Person
Dec 13th
Weekday mornings, Arwa Gunja is up at 2:45 a.m. She jumps in the shower, gets dressed and by 2:55 a.m., she’s out the door. A short car ride later, she’s at the WNYC studios in downtown Manhattan — most days, she’s the first one there.
Gunja, a 2007 NYU graduate, is the line producer for WNYC’s early morning radio program “The Takeaway.” And though she thought her prospects for a journalism job after college were bleak, with hard work, dedication and a little bit of luck, Gunja is now running a nationally syndicated news show with an audience approaching one million. She readily admits it’s further than she imagined being just four short years ago. And though the hours are taxing on the young producer, she knows that news never sleeps. Read the rest of this entry »
From Prep School to Fighting Poverty
Dec 13th
As a child, Nick Melvoin came home from school, opened his books and taught a class of imaginary students. Born into a family full of educators, Melvoin, now a 26-year-old law student at New York University, had an interest in teaching from a young age, and as he grew older, he developed a passion for social justice. After graduating from Harvard three years ago with a degree in English and Government, Melvoin began working for Teach For America, a non-profit teaching program that matches young graduates with low-income schools. After teaching English for two years at a middle school in South Los Angeles, he became assistant to the executive director at TFA and worked in the organization’s office for a year. Now, in his first year at NYU law school, Melvoin hopes to use his legal training to improve the education system. Read the rest of this entry »
Going Beyond the Box Score
Nov 22nd
Although a law student at NYU, Tommy Bennett is as happy discussing homeruns and strikeouts as torts and contracts. A lifelong Phillies fan, Bennett recently turned his fascination with baseball statistics into a full-time job, netting a position as a columnist at the prestigious Baseball Prospectus, a web-based publication that also publishes an annual book of player profiles and analytic articles. Bennett, 26, lives in Prospect Heights with his girlfriend, as he tries to balance full-time law school and work.
Growing up with the box score: I moved around a lot, as a kid. I lived in a lot of places, where there was no baseball. I’d get the newspapers in the morning—I didn’t know how to read the rest of the newspaper—so I learned pretty quickly to check league leaders. And I had lots of baseball cards. So it was a lot about numbers for me, when I was really getting into it.
From Job To Job: Dreams of Teaching in A World of Fashion
Nov 22nd
Gwendolyn Limbach, 26, braves the stuffy Condé Nast elevators everyday in order to afford to live in New York City. After work, she goes home to her West Village apartment to grade papers, as she is also an Adjunct professor at her Alma matter, Pace University. Similar to many of her Gen-Y contemporaries, Limbach has had more than one job after graduating from college. Teeter-tottering between the worlds of fashion and academia, Limbach hopes to get a PhD in order to achieve her dream of becoming a college professor.
The Working Girl: A Comedy
Nov 22nd
With an internship on MTV’s “TRL” during her senior year of college, Lauren Bennett had her foot in the door before she’d even graduated from SUNY Plattsburg. After the show ended in 2008, Bennett free-lanced for networks like HBO, Showtime, VH1 and TLC. Finding her way back to MTV earlier this year, Bennett, now 24, works as of travel coordinator for several popular reality shows. When she’s not working at her day job, Bennett collaborates with New York City comedians and produces live comedy shows throughout the city, putting her witty sense of humor to use. On infrequent evenings off, Bennett retires to her Astoria, Queens apartment where she lives with her boyfriend of two years – far away from the stress of Manhattan.
Up close and personal: The guys in the audio department at “TRL” had me help them out miking people up, and I’m glad I was thrown into that but it’s very personal. You have to be like “Excuse me, I’m going to put this right down your shirt into your cleavage – don’t mind me – and this big uncomfortable mic pack, I’m just going to stick it right down your pants – hope you don’t mind.” Some of the celebrities are just pros but others are kind of terrifying, like Kimora Lee Simmons, just because she’s so tall and intimidating. You just have to get into this weird intimate space with them. Read the rest of this entry »
Speech Pathologist Finds Future in Fashion
Nov 22nd
Strutting out of her dorm room, NYU senior Amanda Ferrara is never without a pair of heels whether she is off to class or to her midtown office at Amerimade Coat. She works as a general assistant for her family-owned coat manufacturing company, which specializes in fashions for clients like New York & Company, Express, and Kmart. Upon graduation, Ferrara plans on eventually becoming CEO of her family’s business.
When the 21-year-old is not sporting Amerimade Coat’s latest fashions — from leopard print trenches to Chanel inspired glitter tweed blazers — she is dealing with the repercussions of an impulse decision in selecting a college major. She struggles to find the time and motivation to finish a degree in a subject she has lost interest in long ago, speech pathology.
So what is the future CEO of a fashion coat company doing studying neuroanatomy and physiology of communication? Read the rest of this entry »
Photo Intern to Full-Time Employment
Nov 22nd
Christine Waters, 21, is a senior at NYU in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study
While most college seniors are stressing about getting a job by graduation, Christine Waters is enjoying the perks of job security, with a full-time job she loves. Waters, a part-time senior in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study works Monday to Friday from 9 to 5:30, and earns a salary that pays for her apartment in midtown.
The tall and thin blonde has been working at Quadriga, a Paris-based agency that represents fashion photographers, since the spring of 2010. She started off as an intern and she is now working as a full-time Junior Agent at the agency. Quadriga opened up N.Y. headquarters in April 2010, and Waters began working for them in May 2010.
Getting the Job
Karine, [the owner of Quadriga], sent an email out over the NYU fashion listserv. She got about 100 responses and she barely even had time to read all of the resumes. I think [Karine] liked my previous work experience and interest in fashion, which is why I was chosen. Read the rest of this entry »
Jamie Weitzen: An Exception to Today’s Unemployment
Nov 22nd
When Jamie Weitzen, 22, graduated from Wesleyan University with a psychology degree last spring, she had her mind set on starting her career in New York City. Weitzen unlike the majority of recent college graduates, had a job offer, at Aflac insurance company. However after 3 months, she realized that not only wasn’t Aflac a good match, but a commission-based income selling insurance wasn’t going to earn her a enough to live on in the Big Apple. She decided to venture elsewhere. After much stress, chaos, and uncertainty Jamie took a chance with a paid internship at bitly, Inc., a URL shortening service, with a guaranteed full-time position in the near future.
Aflac: I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t overjoyed when I found a job right after graduating, and I really think that it’s a great company and I learned a lot of valuable assets. It strengthened my interpersonal skills and I don’t regret working there for the time that I did. For a first job’s income to be solely commission based was not the best scenario for me. It was discouraging and hard to motivate myself to follow through with tasks without seeing results immediately. Selling insurance isn’t easy itself, but add a struggling economy and that didn’t make it any easier. I wasn’t positive that I would leave, but when I was offered my position at bitly I knew it was the right decision.
bitly, Inc.: As an account manager at bitly, I have already taken greater responsibility than I had at Aflac. I couldn’t be happier with my decision. I think that this is the place for me to really excel in a way that I want to with a job and it also allows me to continue living in the city. At first I was nervous about the title of a paid internship, but I already know that a full Read the rest of this entry »
From Working “On The House” To Inside The Fashion House
Nov 22nd
Just last summer, Corey Moran spent his days slogging as an unpaid fashion sales intern in Manhattan and his nights catching winks on a shabby sofa in his brother’s New Jersey apartment. Two years ago, the Buffalo native could be found cramming for entrepreneurship and marketing exams at Northeastern University and assisting, without pay, the behind-the-scenes operations at a trendy Boston boutique. Today, the 24-year-old boasts a more debonair lifestyle. As one of two North American corporate wholesale managers for Acne, a Swedish fashion house famous for its denim, Moran has worked exclusively with big-name clients like Bergdorf Goodman, travelled internationally, and collected his fair share of free skinny jeans. With a little bit of elbow grease, some staunchness and a willingness to work gratis, Moran snared himself a job that any true fashionisto would likely kill for. No murder necessary, Moran’s offbeat resume speaks for itself.
If There’s a Wilk, There’s a Way
Nov 22nd
Keri Wilk holds up his underwater camera
As a child growing up in Canada, Keri Wilk had a rather unconventional pastime: underwater photography. The son of a rocket scientist and mechanical engineer, Wilk spent his childhood vacations not in blustery Toronto, but hopping around Caribbean Islands with his family to go SCUBA diving, an activity he began before he could even swim.
Now at age 26, Wilk has accumulated more underwater photography awards and acclaim than most divers will ever earn in a lifetime, with photos in publications like National Geographic and in the Smithsonian Museum. Although still based in his childhood home in Toronto, Wilk spends much of the year traversing the globe in search for the rarest of ocean jewels to photograph.
Above water, Wilk is a stern figure with a deep voice, spouting facts about the physics of light underwater. Under the waves however, he is far more relaxed—donning board shorts while hunting through mountains of tropical coral reefs for some for some unnamed, infinitesimal fish. He knows he has to shoot quickly: the fish might be gone in the “click” of a shutter.