#syep2015

                                           Best Summer Experience  

This was my second summer participating in Ladders For Leaders, a program that changed my life like no other professional development opportunity. I never had a clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life, so I have been searching for opportunities to explore my options and learn about as many different industries as possible. Last summer I interned at IB operations at JPMorgan Chase. I understood that finance is not my calling and that my interests and talents fit a more creative sphere. I applied to L4L again and received the best summer experience thus far.         

This summer, I was fortunate to intern at Shark Branding, a top branding firm founded by Shark Tank's star entrepreneur Daymond John. Shark Branding's headquarters are located on the 66th floor of the Empire State Building. When I saw the breathtaking Manhattan panorama from full length conference room windows during the interview, I thought that if I got the chance, I would work there for free!          

 I loved the corporate environment: it was upbeat, fast paced, and results driven--I finally felt like I belonged in that team. Without any prior knowledge of the entertainment industry, I got exposed to the world of entrepreneurship and media. I got to work on several projects that my manager, the Director of Business Developing, was responsible for, so I enhanced my research and critical thinking skills while working on interesting and important assignments. I felt happy to be trusted with assignments that my manager was working on because I felt challenged to do my best and think of solutions that have not been proposed yet.         

  My favorite assignments dealt with creating a branding campaign for Daymond John's latest book, which will be released this January. I read the manuscript six times and felt like I had an important role in ensuring that the public will receive the book well, since I did so much to create the media branding content that everyone will see as the book is released. During the last day of the internship, I joked with everyone at the office that I will be closely following the campaign once the book is released because I feel personally responsible and attached to that extensive project.        

 Shooting a Public Service Announcement (PSA) for SYEP with Daymond John at The Intrepid Museum was an unforgettable highlight of my summer. On July 30th, the day when the clouds poured the heaviest rainstorm since Hurricane Sandy, Daymond John filmed a PSA about the life-changing role of SYEP with several of The Intrepid SYEP interns and me. I am a fortunate participant of L4L who got to intern at Shark Branding, so I was interviewed about my experience with the program. I was super excited for this opportunity, and I was surprised to find myself totally relaxed during the interview. Two bright camera lights were shinning right in my eyes, but I felt that this was my time to encourage other youth to take advantage of this life-changing program, so I was excited to share my story and motivate others to apply for SYEP and L4L. Once the interview started, I felt like I was just talking about my experience to a friend or someone I knew well. I guess I had so much practice with interviews (all the mock interviews and real interviews for numerous opportunities paid off!) that another interview in front of a camera felt like a natural event. The professionals on set were impressed that I behaved in such natural, poised manner and that they did not have to take multiple shots to get good content. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience and felt such rush of adrenaline and excitement afterwards that I understood why people like being in the spotlight so much.       

Like I said during the PSA interview, I am very grateful for an opportunity to explore my options, intern, and develop as a professional because no other program provides all those opportunities. I wish and hope for more youth to learn and apply for SYEP and L4L because these programs leave a lasting impact and change lives. 

                           Discovering Passions in the Workplace 

Prior to the summer of 2014, I never had the experience of working a long-term or stable job. However, as college and adulthood were approaching, I knew that a transition towards maturity was inevitable. I eventually discovered Ladders for Leaders, a professional internship program for high school and college students. I spent many weeks learning a multitude of professional tips including proper attire, etiquette, and networking abilities. After the completion of my training, I was eventually employed and met my new boss - Tahir Hemphill. Mr. Hemphill showed my group his Rap Research Project - a plan to track the lyrical changes in Hip Hop music since the genre’s inception.

Using Mr. Hemphill’s lyrical database, Excel, CSS, and a passion for statistics as my resources, I was able to pinpoint the time and location of every strain of cannabis mentioned in rap music between 1987-2010. Additionally, I applied my knowledge of mathematics to operationalize a rapper's fame based on statistics such as YouTube views, Twitter followers, IMDB soundtrack credits, etc into a web module titled “The Rapper Popularity Calculator”. Since I had zero experience in coding and website development, I spent countless hours researching and teaching myself how to create a Joomla PHP site using an Apache web server, a MySQL database, and a webhosting service - all of which I’ve never heard of before. In doing so, this experience allowed me to discover a technology-based passion that I would have otherwise neglected.

My professional and social experiences only continued to grow during my internship at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam the following summer. Stepping into a completely unfamiliar environment, I was so glad to see that my mentors had very similar career goals as me; we all enjoyed producing (as well as directing) television content. I loved being able to shoot so many fantastic commercials with my team. I loved having clamps and lighting gear in my desk. I loved waking up in the morning knowing that my internship to-do list had post-production notes on it. I learned so many interesting things about advertising and collaborated with an amazing, diverse group of people in developing a New Business campaign. I will never forget the fun and education I experienced at Y&R that summer, and I am incredibly happy to continue creating these memories as I intern there this fall.