NYC: Live, Learn, Intern

At colleges across America, an internship is the prize goal of students to bridge the gap between their final two years of school, or even during their final semester. Many students aren't lucky enough to get an internship and are thrown into the "real world" after graduation. This isn't the case at Fordham, in fact it's quite the opposite. With over 93% of students completing an internship, Fordham is a leader in job placement and giving students "real world" experience in and outside of the classroom. After all, it's New York City, why not take advantage of it?

The view from my desk at my internship

This semester, I started my 3rd internship of my college career at a startup called The Vanity Project (TVP). Co-founded by a Fordham Law student, TVP specializes in creating high-quality clothing and merchandise for non-profit organizations, most of which are sponsored by headlining celebrities. Even with my heavy course-load this semester, I'm able to juggle working one full day a week (Wednesday, my day off from class) at our incredible office space in Chelsea, just a 25-30 minute ride on the D express subway train from Fordham's Rose Hill Campus. TVP is a great fit for me because it combines my past experience in retail with my studies of finance here at Gabelli, and it's also a place I feel proud working for because so much of our work goes to supporting nonprofit groups and charities like NoMore, Global Citizen, EQIL, and many more.

Coming into college, I was skeptical of Fordham's career services program, but I've been nothing but amazed with the office ever since I've been here. Going through the college search, all 20 (yes, 20) schools I visited claimed they had the best, but Fordham's landed me two internships in my three semesters here. Career services does everything from helping with résumé building, polishing up LinkedIn profiles, giving mock interviews, career fairs, and everything in between. Landing two internships before my Sophomore year did nothing but shock most of my friends from home, but then again, they don't all have the world's greatest city right at their fingertips.

A collage from the Global Citizen festival in central park.
Global Citizen is one of the many charities TVP makes merchandise for

A NYC Fall Weekend

After a few busy weeks at school, I knew it was time for a fun-filled, NYC weekend! Although late September weather in New York can often be cool and fall-like, the forecast for this weekend was beautiful, with temperatures in the 80s and sunshine predicted all weekend. I knew it was the perfect time to take advantage of the nice weather and experience a few of NYC's outdoor offerings.

I spent Friday night at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park for a Broken Bells concert. This is one of my favorite places to see concerts, because I am always in awe of how amazing it is to be able to see live music in Central Park, where you can turn around and see the bustling city through the trees behind you. The 4 train from Fordham and the 6 train to 68th street left us near the entrance, while Fordham's intercampus RamVan gave us an easy way to get home after a short walk to the Lincoln Center campus!

Broken Bells at Rumsey Playfield

Saturday afternoon, I made my way back to Central Park for the Global Citizen Festival, which was a free event featuring performances by No Doubt, Jay-Z, The Roots, fun., Carrie Underwood, and Tiesto. Created in order to urge people to take action against extreme poverty and other issues, the festival included statements by world leaders and other individuals in support of these positive changes. The all-day event was extremely cool and seeing so many people gathered in the middle of New York City to take action was even cooler.

The Roots performing at Global Citizen Festival

Sunday morning, my friends and I took the MetroNorth train (right off campus!) to Grand Central and hopped on a subway downtown so that we could walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.  Afterwards, I stayed in the city to enjoy the beautiful weather, finding a spot in a park downtown where I could do my homework before heading back to the Bronx.

A perfect day for walking the Brooklyn Bridge!

By the end of the weekend, I had fallen in love with New York City all over again and was grateful for the easy access I had to such cool activities from Fordham's campus!