I have always talked about living in New York City. I wanted to experience it all; the lights, the fashion, the chaos. This is particularly due to my everlasting passion for fashion, and the fashion industry, but also because I’ve always felt like that’s where I belong.
Let me give you guys a little background:
The first mistake I made was not going to school in the city, and this will probably always be a regret of mine. I try not to focus on what could have been, but this is often on my mind. Instead, I made the bold decision to go to SCAD in Savannah, GA. Immediate regret. I’m telling you, the second I stepped off that plane, I wish I could’ve hopped back on and flown back home. Long story short, I left SCAD and transferred to Endicott College. Hands-down the internship program is what sold me on EC. I knew this would be my opportunity to make it to NYC during my college years. I started my first semester at Endicott, and everything was great. As time went on, I’d set up countless meetings with my advisor to discuss my schedule, graduation timeline, and overall goals for my time at EC. I soon realized my dream of interning in New York was becoming almost impossible, and when I decided to study abroad in Italy my junior year, I worried it ruined any chance of making it happen.
Towards the end of my semester abroad, I sent an email to the operations manager at Alison Brod Marketing and Communications. It was a long shot, I knew, but I figured since I had her email, and my search had just begun, there’d be no harm in reaching out.
Things moved quickly from there. She responded and scheduled an in-person interview for later that month.
I traveled to NYC for the day, interviewed, and explored the city. I’d allowed my life to turn into something between Gossip Girl and Sex and the City for the day.
A week or so later, I received an email offering me the internship. I couldn’t believe it, really. Before officially accepting, I knew I needed to do two things: find somewhere to live and talk with my Dean. EC is great because you can spend a semester interning and preparing for the “real world,” but it’s not so great for requiring you to do thesis simultaneously. It would be impossible for me to travel to MA every Friday in order to take thesis and my internship seminar, so I knew I needed to find an alternative. We emailed back and forth, and I could tell the Dean wasn’t happy. She explained to me that if she let me do this, she’d have to let everyone curate their own program. We discussed this for a while, and in a way, it seemed as though she didn’t want a student on a distance internship in the city. I understand this to a certain point; however, EC promotes its internship program and many would argue it’s the school’s number one selling point, so why would anyone want to limit this? My case was unique, I know. I was a transfer, who’d studied abroad and was already behind in my requirements to graduate on time. I tried my best to communicate NYC had been a dream of mine, and we eventually came to a compromise. I would travel to campus to meet with my thesis professor before I left for NYC, and I would complete the course online for the duration of the semester.
This was a challenge, for sure, but I did it. I successfully wrote a twenty-page literature review on my thesis topic while working five days a week. I killed my internship, and I loved every minute of it. Those four months I spent living at the bottom of thirty-fourth street was arguably the best of my life (so far). I know NYC is where I’m meant to be, and I can’t wait to go back.