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Alyssa Ortega ’20 is a Childhood Education major and enthusiastic teacher-to-be on the Pleasantville Campus. She lent her talents to Bedford Road School just last year as a student teacher, dedicating her time outside of the ���ҹ����� classroom to instruct in another classroom. And that’s in addition to her duties as the Student Director of Programming for the Student Government Association, as well as her membership to the Black Student Union and ���ҹ����� FIRE. Ortega juggles an incredible amount of responsibilities, and yet, she still found time to maintain a 3.71 GPA.

So what drew this high achiever to ���ҹ�����? “In all honesty, it was mostly to follow what my friends were doing,” she explained. “The reason I stayed was the feeling of actually coming into my own and forming relationships with those who later became my family.” It was that sense of comradery that started to become obvious in every aspect of the University the more time went on. “There are a number of clubs and organizations [available] where one can feel at home and make connections with others,” she told us.

With dedicated faculty and strong academic program on her side, Ortega felt fully prepared when she started working as a student teacher at Bedford Road School. However, she quickly discovered that there was one aspect of teaching she couldn’t have anticipated. “Children say the most unexpected and insightful things at the most random times,” Ortega told us. It must make the job well worthwhile!

One student in particular—Jonn, a second grader who wanted to be called Batman—made a big impact on her. “I had been working with him one-on-one for a couple of weeks, and he was slowly improving,” Ortega explained. One day, he came into class and pulled her aside to show off his achievement: a 91% on his math test. “It was the highest score he had ever gotten,” she told us. While Batman’s success was thanks, in part, to her dedication, Ortega was still humbled by the experience. “My students teach me, and I teach them.”

She’s mentored not only second graders, but her peers at ���ҹ����� as well. Ortega focuses her efforts on assisting “[anyone] seeking a little bit of guidance,” particularly first-year students. When running for the SGA position, she opened up about her own experiences during her first year at ���ҹ�����. “My freshman year was nothing but staying in my residence hall and running back home every other weekend. Without someone [encouraging] me to come with them to an event, I would still be closed-off on campus.” That’s why it’s so important to her to give back.

We’re so excited to hear about Ortega’s next teaching position, and all the wonderful, interesting, and surprising experiences she’s bound to have.

Danielle Graziano ’18 seriously rocked her time at ���ҹ�����. She’s just graduated as an arts and entertainment management major at Lubin with a marketing minor, and her heart is set on the music industry. With internships at the likes of Atlantic Records and Live Nation, working gigs for OneRepublic and Ed Sheeran, it’s pretty safe to say that Graziano has already broken into this big-time business. At ���ҹ�����, she’s been heading up P.A.C.E. Board as co-president, overseeing many events on the NYC Campus: Setter Jam, Amateur Night, and The Voice auditions, just to name a few.

We got to pick her brain about all things music, interning, and life advice.

Why did you end up choosing ���ҹ�����? What set ���ҹ����� apart from other universities?
The first reason why I chose ���ҹ����� was the world of opportunity. I’ve always had an interest in the music industry, so I wanted to come to New York for that. I’m from a small town in Massachusetts, so obviously the music industry was in NYC. The second reason was the actual major. There’s no other school that offers an arts and entertainment major, or really had something like that. I came here on the ���ҹ����� preview tour and absolutely fell in love with it. I was like, “Yes, this is it.” Everyone seemed awesome and I just got really great vibes compared to all the other schools I looked at.

How did you hear about Career Services?
I went to a few employee spotlights with Career Services before I heard about their general meetings. I thought, “I need to get going on my internships and I need help with my resume!” So I went in and booked an appointment with Maria Pesantez, who was absolutely incredible. I also went to workshops and they really helped me get my resume ready, honed my interview skills—everything. They were so accommodating, and really wanted us to succeed.

What internships have you had?
They’re all primarily in the music industry, but the first one I worked at was a publishing company called Water Music Publishing. I was a branding and social media intern, and I got to work with an artist who’s actually one of my good friends. Then I had a gig at Warner Music Group in promotion, and that was an incredible experience. I still talk to and work with some of the supervisors from there. After, I moved over to radio promotion and marketing for Atlantic Records, and that was also within Warner Music Group. They have an amazing group of interns—they’re all so awesome!

I also worked Live Nation this summer as the special events intern, and pretty much worked a lot of private shows for actual tourists. For example, we threw a pre-party with OneRepublic, and handled a lot of the event planning and execution. That was actually in their Hartford office, so it was close for me since I didn’t live on-campus over the summer.

Look at your market when you’re searching for internships. If you’re home over the summer, ���ҹ����� gives you opportunities to do internships wherever—even outside New York. Last fall, I worked at a marketing agency handling lot of production, some magazine launches, a lot of marketing, and social influencer work. Right now I’m at Superfly’s event operations team. They produce music festivals!

What was the preparation process like?
First, I had to figure out exactly what I wanted to do and with who. I did lots of research into different companies before making an appointment with Career Services. I attended cover letter workshops and got myself ready, applied to Warner Music. I also got a recruitment email from Professor Chris Ramos, who runs the arts and entertainment management program. Then I used Handshake for reference and resource stuff.

As for prepping for interviews: I did more research and identified key terms about each company pertaining to the position, like what to wear. In-person interviews are different—you have to be more prepared in terms of your appearance, direct eye contact, good handshakes, etc. Personally, I like phone interviews better, but either way, you have to show them your personality and how confident you are through the phone. You have to be bubbly and nice and treat it like a real conversation—treat them like a real person.

Of all your employment positions, which did you like the best?
Warner Music Group was definitely one of my favorites. I really got a full company wide experience, and everyone was really helpful. I got to talk with different departments and work for a lot of artists, like helping with Ed Sheeran’s release party—crazy things like that. Obviously, there was more to it than the fun stuff, but I really liked my supervisor there.

Live Nation was also an absolutely incredible experience for me, too. I got a lot of hands-on work and my bosses really let me take the reign on things. Being the co-president of P.A.C.E. Board, along with my friend Rachel Andrade ’18, is fun, too. We run all the NYC Campus entertainment events like the Setter Jam concert, Amateur Night, and The Voiceauditions that happened with SDACA.

Is that more stressful for you or do you have a lot of fun?
It’s so fun! It’s a lot of work, but I absolutely couldn’t imagine my years at ���ҹ����� without doing it. I’ve met so many people from being in that club. From booking agents to artists to talent—everything. We’ve worked with musicians DNCE to all their managers, and it’s really a lot of hands-on work like handling people over the phone and coordinating with DJs.

What was a defining moment for you while working at that position?
One of the best moments was when Ed Sheeran’s album, Divide, released. We threw a big party and I got to meet him and his executives. It was really awesome. Also, I loved to track the numbers of the rating department with them, so like tracking all the hit tracks through numbers and social media and charting and radio. I have a weird passion for that. Also, really any event I got to work was definitely a highlight. Some of them were working a show for OneRepublic, or Sam Hunt, or John Mayer, to an FX launch for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

How did you decide on your major? What is it about media management that draws you?
When I visited for a tour at ���ҹ�����, I already knew I wanted to do music, but also business, so I wondered what the best fit would be. At one of those tours, I got to meet Professor Ramos, who recommended arts and entertainment management. It was important for me to have that business side of it. That was the reason why I chose it, and I’m minoring in marketing because marketing and promotion go hand-in-hand. It’s important to have backgrounds in both when you’re working in the music industry.

What motivates you?
Getting the chance to influence people and help them succeed in the industry. I also love being surrounded by my classmates who are all doing really cool things. I think being in a leadership position on P.A.C.E. Board also motivated me because I want the club to succeed, and I want to build my personal brand. I’m a highly motivated person and a very big go-getter. I like to try new things, but when I started working at Warner Music Group, I was definitely motivated to do even bigger things, and became a well-rounded student because of it.

Were there any performers that inspired you as a kid?
I’ve always loved live performances and radio. My first concert was Hillary Duff. I kept begging my parents to let me go to concerts all the time. Ever since I was young, I always wanted to be involved with music. What influenced me were a few radio personality people, and I also loved Demi Lovato. With everything that she’s gone through, she inspired me to work hard and want to be in the industry even more.

Do you have any advice you’d like to give other ���ҹ����� students?
Be yourself no matter what—for anything that you do in life. I have a crazy personality, but I’m also kind of shy, too, and I’ve never changed myself for anything. Also: try to be personable with everyone. It will bring you a long way and help other people out. Basically? Follow what you want in life, don’t think anything is a stupid idea, and never, ever doubt yourself.

Zakiya Sims ’18 is a computer science major on the NYC Campus and vice president of the ���ҹ����� Computing Society (PCS), which has seen an increase in membership by a whopping 50 percent since she took the helm. This was a personal goal of hers that began all the way back in her first year. At the time, Sims spearheaded efforts to  to the club’s weekly meetings. Representatives from BuzzFeed, WeWork, General Assembly, UNICEF, IBM, and many others responded, beginning a storied academic career for Sims that would continue throughout her time at ���ҹ�����.

“I did a lot of promoting [for PCS],” Sims explained to us. “I created flyers and posted them around the school. Starting out, we went to all of the orientations with a huge display board, put a bunch of questions on there, and gave out swag—t-shirts and stickers. People love free stuff. It also helped that we told them there’s free pizza. That’s how we really got out name out there and promoted the club.”

Since then, she’s interned for Bank of America and Harris Corporation, worked with Black Girls Code, and volunteered extensively for Tech Kids Unlimited. But at first? “When I was little, I wanted to be a writer,” Sims explained. “I really liked writing and coming up with stories. It was in high school that I got into technology and coding—I had a Myspace account, and I liked altering the backgrounds, and all that customization was done in HTML and CSS. I thought that was really cool and tangible—altering different stuff in a webpage and seeing it change in front of your eyes.”

Last year, Sims interned for Bank of America as a technology intern, and this year, she’s interned at Harris Corporation—two very different companies. “The financial industry is really fast-paced and it’s stricter when it comes to guidelines and what’s expected of you,” Sims told us. “Working at the defense company was more laid-back, but still really cool because I was working on products that the Armed Forces are actually using.”

All of that began with a trip to Career Services. “I went to them and sought out help on how to make my resume better and how to write a good essay,” Sims said. Not long after, she landed her second internship by attending one of the many career fairs offered on both campuses. “I met an organization there called INROADS. They pretty much help students get jobs in any field they want, and they guide you through the whole process. I followed up and eventually got matched with Harris, interviewed with them, and that’s how I got the job.”

For such a large company like Harris, which has multiple locations around the country, one might assume it would be easy to get lost in the shuffle. Not so for Sims! Recently, she was given an opportunity to pitch an original idea directly to her supervisor. “He allowed me to create my own independent project—something that he wanted to implement at the company. That was a great experience; it made me feel valued, that they actually take your ideas and listen to you and care about what you think.”

Sims also volunteers her time with Black Girls Code, a nonprofit organization working to provide education in the STEM fields to young black girls all over the US. “I helped the girls when they needed help with any lines of code and gave them motivation when they thought they couldn’t do it,” Sims explained, having participated in the nonprofit’s hackathons before becoming a mentor. “It was definitely really fun—seeing the girls learn code and come up with their website all from starch. It’s really impressive.”

As a mentor and a tech wiz herself, Sims had a few words of wisdom for any would-be coders out there: “I would say definitely explore the different options out there and be open. Grasp everything with an open mind, and if you’re into something, don’t be afraid to try it. Don’t think that this is way too hard for you—just go out there, explore opportunities, and do it. That’s really the main thing: thinking about something you want to do and just doing it.”

What motivates someone like Sims? “I would say knowing that I’m going to be making an impact on someone. Knowing that I’ll be making a positive impact and really contributing to something that’s bigger than me is what motivates me.” Wise words!

She recently accepted a job at the Walt Disney Company as a software engineer, and we couldn’t be happier to hear the news.

Salil Ahuja ’19 is an Economics major on the New York City Campus and the second in his family to attend ���ҹ�����. “I initially came to visit my sister here, who just graduated,” Ahuja said. “I stayed over with her in the residence halls for a few days, and I really liked the area.” For many prospective students, the NYC Campus is a bustling hub of energy and opportunity. For Ahuja, it reminded him of home. “Before moving to a small town in New Jersey, I grew up in Mumbai, which is a pretty big city in India. It was natural that I was [drawn] to NYC.”

He was also drawn to one major in particular, although his path toward that decision came as a surprise. “I actually decided to major in Economics after [taking] ECO 105, Introduction to Macroeconomics, with Professor Weinstock,” Ahuja told us. “I interacted with him quite frequently after class, and learned more about the department from him and the other professors, and I figured I might as well go for it.” That decision would set him on the path of an incredible journey—one that would champion over the likes of students from NYU and Harvard.

You might have heard about it. The big news was celebrated all throughout the ���ҹ����� Community last year when the Federal Reserve Challenge Team (often shortened to “Fed Team”) won first place at the 14th annual national College Federal Reserve Challenge. That’s a big deal for any college student, but for our Setters? It practically makes them economics rock stars.

“The Fed Team was definitely the experience that changed me the most in college,” he said. Ahuja went on to describe an intense preparation process where he and his teammates worked “almost daily” leading up to the competition—a challenge in and of itself when you’re a college student trying to balance other coursework at the same time. And that’s not all.

Ahuja added that, “A lot of it [depends on] team-building and becoming closer with the people you’re seeing every day. I mean, personally, the people I’ve met through the Fed Team have become some of my closest friends, and that includes the professors. I credit a lot my development—academic and personal—to the Fed Team.” For a behind-the-scenes look, catch the latest issue of ���ҹ����� Magazine.

Never one to slow down, Ahuja recently completed an internship at Credit Suisse, too. He worked in their Investment Banking division, specifically Corporate Lending, which was “a hell of an experience.” (Ahuja’s words, and very apt indeed.)

“The learning curve is so steep that you’re really thrown in there,” he continued, explaining that there was so much for him to learn and tackle head-on. “What I took away from it was being able to perform under pressure and deliver, especially since we’d be getting documents sometimes at 8:00 p.m., and would have to have the summaries by the next morning.” It was demanding job, he said, but one that he absolutely loved.

Something else he loves? Coaching soccer. Ahuja has been playing the sport his whole life, and he started refereeing as early as age 16. He even coached in high school—a deeply rewarding experience that he attributes to his professional skills today. He said that the sport “definitely contributed to my leadership skills and my ability to work in and take initiative in teams, which is all transferable to business.”

He’s also learning how to salsa. “I’m not very good at it,” Ahuja admits, “but I practice quite frequently with a friend I met through an economics class.” One thing’s for sure: he never stops moving!

Amoreena Crispino ’19 is a communication studies major on the NYC Campus who has seriously honed her media know-how: she’s a Resident Assistant (RA), a campus tour guide, the co-executive editor for The ���ҹ����� Press, social chair for Kappa Delta, and she even finds time to perform standup with the ���ҹ����� Sketch Comedy Group. Crispino also interned for Nickelodeon recently, and this fall? She’ll be working with the production team on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Of all her positions, though, Crispino told us that being chosen as an RA for the 182 Broadway residence halls last year was a truly transformative experience. “It proved to be a lot of hard work, but so worth it in the end,” she said. “I had the most incredible staff working with me and I learned a lot about myself along the way. I know more people on campus than I did before (which I did not think was possible) and have so many connections for the future!” You might see her hanging around 33 Beekman, her next spot as an RA, sometime this year.

But what brought her to ���ҹ����� in the first place?

Crispino narrowed her college search to two major cities: Boston and New York. “After going on a tour and learning more about ���ҹ�����, I fell in love with it,” she explained, describing how living in Maria’s Tower in her first year only solidified that decision thanks to all the lasting friendships she made. And when it came time to pick a major, Crispino simply combined her three main interests: writing, creating, and media.

“Initially, I looked into journalism programs as I was entering college,” she said, before settling on something broader. She decided to take on a marketing minor after interning at Nickelodeon last year, though—a dream job for any ’90s fan, but for Crispino? It was incredibly special. “I expressed to my supervisor my love of SpongeBob SquarePants multiple times,” she admitted, which landed her a spot on the brainstorm team for an upcoming project to celebrate SpongeBob’s 20th anniversary. “I was asked to make a powerpoint presentation of just SpongeBob memes, aka the best day of my life. We came up with some ideas and I felt super important, having been asked [for] my opinions.”

That decision to minor in marketing helped to expose her to media history, not just modern media, and ultimately led Crispino to her favorite class to date. It was on a whim that she signed up for it, since she needed something to fill an AOK requirement. Taught by Professor Jason Whitesel, PhD, Crispino was at first apprehensive about taking it. The course? Gay Male Experiences. “It ended up being my favorite class! I learned so much, and being able to empathize and understand the LGBTQA+ community a little better, and it has given me so much joy and respect for others.”

This fall semester, she’ll be working for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Her interview tips? “Bring a few copies of your resume because you never know how many people might be interviewing you, and just be yourself! Employers don’t want to hire people who seem like the perfect candidate—they want people who are willing to learn and can grow from the experience.”

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Dyson Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Studies and Science E. Melanie Dupuis, PhD, is one of the tri-state area’s foremost experts on environmental politics and policy. We had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about the Dyson Institute of Sustainability and the Environment’s Resilience Summit, which will bring together leaders, academics, and activists to discuss and debate the complicated issues surrounding meat consumption.

Why was The Future of Meat? chosen as a topic for this year’s Resilience Summit, and why should it matter to people?

Dyson has been holding Resilience Summits every few years. It began with Hurricane Sandy and the two summits about coastal resilience and sea level rise. But the last summit, on the water crisis, expanded the idea of resilience and now we are looking at food for this summit.

The idea of the Resilience Summit is to highlight a resilience topic that is currently under discussion and to bring together people who can address the various perspectives on that issue. Needless to say, with the current rise of plant-based meat, new ways of livestock production and how both address climate change, it was important to bring people together to talk about these different paths to the future of protein consumption: should we continue to eat meat as a protein? Or should be go with plants? Or with lab-created products like the Impossible Burger?

How has public perception of meat eating changed in the 21st century? How do you anticipate it will continue to change?

It depends on who you are talking to. For my Environmental Studies and Science students, the question is always: should I go vegan? Many of my students became vegan after watching Cowspiracy. One of my jobs as a professor in this department is to make sure they understand the information that is presented to them, offer them various different points of view, and give them the tools to sift through that information. A few years ago, one of my policy students came to me and said, “I watched Cowspiracy but my dad is never going to stop eating meat. How do I think about policy that takes everyone into account, including my dad?”

That became her thesis topic. We interviewed scientists on the various sides of the issue. , which was one of the first discussions of that topic.

Since then, the question of “the how not the cow” has been discussed constantly in the media. But the answer remains that we don’t know the answer.

What are some of the downsides of meat consumption as it relates to environmental sustainability?

I just showed my students in my food course The Right to Harm. It shows how confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—meat and milk—are super-sizing quickly and bringing huge environmental and health impacts to the communities where they are located. So even if we aren’t talking methane and climate change, we have a huge behemoth of environmental impacts happening now at the local level with these large farms. Consumers see this and decide that meat and milk are bad. As a result, milk prices go down and the smaller family farms—that are already impacted by the lower prices caused by the mega-dairies and animal operations—are hit by dropping consumption rates, a move to almond milk (with is actually a livestock-based food in my opinion, but the livestock in that case are bees), or to other drinks and forms of protein.

Carbon, on the other hand, is more complicated. There is a group of livestock production innovators who are working with biogeochemical cycles to lower the environmental footprint of meat production. This type of production will never allow Americans to eat as much meat as we do now, but with other forms of protein may be the right choice for future meat production. Should we be eating lab and plant meat or should we move to better kinds of meat production? Or both? The answer may not be either/or, but either way farmers need to be able to make a living—not the “farms” that are just industrial operations but the ones that work with their land.

What role do local, federal, and international government organizations play in relation to some of the major issues surrounding this topic?

At the local level, livestock is sneaking into the suburbs through chicken coops and small-scale goat and cow operations. I live five minutes from a Metro-North station but also across the street from a goat farm. Different municipalities are allowing more backyard chickens.

At the state level, some states are looking seriously at legislation, like California’s, that allows farmers who farm regeneratively to claim carbon credits. This is the sort of thing that European agricultural policy has been doing for decades: paying farmers for their environmental services. But we have to be clear what those services are, how much carbon, how much methane, how much water pollution? We don’t have those answers at the moment but that’s the question of the hour for many agroecologists.

At the national level, I very much like the legislation proposed by Senator Cory Booker. I’ve been trying to get farmers and [agriculture] policy folks to weigh in on that legislation, and they all just tell me that no one is going to pay attention to legislation to restructure the livestock industry proposed by a vegan. But it’s a terrific bill and I believe the way we should go. It meets the needs and interests of small ranchers who are currently held hostage by the meat processing monopolies, the animal welfare folks who want to see animals treated well even if they have to have “one bad day,” and the environmental folks fighting against the super-polluter CAFOs.

Jessica Jiménez ’19 knew about ���ҹ����� well before she enrolled. “My father learned English as a second language [on the] New York City Campus when he came here from Mexico,” she told us. Her mother and older sister graduated from ���ҹ�����, too, and were supportive of Jiménez’s decision to apply. “They always talked about ���ҹ����� with such pride,” she said, a legacy she would easily live up to when pursuing her BA in Psychology. Jiménez was named one of ���ҹ�����’s Top 100 Scholars in 2016, received Dean’s List First Honors four times, won first place in the English Department’s Writing Contest for poetry, and also won for an experimental psychology research paper in the Writing Enhanced Course Contest, which was presented at the Annual ���ҹ����� Psychology Conference. Talk about work ethic!

She cited her professors as just one of the many reasons why she ultimately decided to pursue a master’s degree at ���ҹ����� as well, saying that, “I believed that ���ҹ�����’s graduate professors would be just as good—if not better.” Her new focus? The recently launched Physician Assistant (PA) program on the Pleasantville Campus. “I had to take numerous science prerequisites,” Jiménez explained, who also worked as a physical therapy aide all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

“The biological and pathological components of medicine have always fascinated me,” she said, but it was the team aspect of the work that also sparked her interest in pursuing the career. That and their dizzying breadth of knowledge across a variety of medical specialties. “There are many callings in life,” Jiménez told us, “but for me, they all pale in comparison to the skilled care and healing touch that a PA can provide to so many people.”

It was that level of dedication and a desire to lend her skills for the greater good that she took up the mantle of Historian and NYS Chapter Representative of the PA program on the Pleasantville Campus, becoming a leader for her peers. “I wanted to be a part of that impact to set an example for future students,” she explained. “Everything we do reflects on our program, and since we are the first class, first impressions are crucial to succeed.”

Currently, Jiménez is in the clinical phase of the rigorous 27-month PA program. In general surgery alone, she faced a challenging schedule beginning in the early morning hours and working well into the evening, covering “trauma, acute care, minimally invasive, and vascular surgeries (including a 24-hour shift), as well as completing projects at night for my surgeons, creating a presentation for my class, and studying every day for my end of surgery exam.” Whew!

During one of those many surgery rotations, Jiménez encountered a patient and his wife who were both extremely nervous about his upcoming procedure. “I volunteered to wait with [them] until a medical transporter came to take him to the operating room,” she said, explaining that she listened carefully to the couple’s concerns. “I reassured them that they [were] in good hands, [and] mentioned how I saw a lot of people who maintained a good quality of life after,” as Jiménez was very familiar with this particular procedure. “I went with him down to pre op and the couple said they felt better knowing that I was going to be there surgically assisting in the operating room.”

We know Jiménez will go on to help countless others in her medical career, and we’re excited to hear more about what will undoubtedly be a bright future for her.