Author Archives: Sadie

How to Get Away with Finals

Hi Everyone,

Today is first day of the rest of my life (post-college). What I’m trying to say is, I’M DONE WITH FINALS! I just realised this means, no more homework, no more all-nighters, no more finals EVER (well at least until I do my Masters lol). What am I going to do with my life? (uhm I can think of a million things honestly). For starters I already signed a lease (wow growing up real quick) and went on one job interview (please keep your toes crossed). Seems like im settling down, right? I shall keep you guys updated with this breaking story (haha).

In the meanwhile for those of you, who still have some finals to go or have just started the first round of finals in your FIT lifecycle I have some words of wisdom I’d like to share. This post is mostly about how FIT helped me survive this week and how I myself nailed it.

1. Need some stress relief? Go to PET Therapy! Yes, you heard right puppies that will play with you and help you forget about everything (I just love FIT). Little fluff balls pouncing around waiting for a treat greeted you at the library. It was seriously a very popular event (I mean the line was 45 mins long) but completely worth it.

2. Treat yourself after completing that ridiculously long exam. What better than retail therapy, with a purpose? This year for the second time we launched the holiday pop-up shop made by VPED 3rd semester students in collaboration with The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s thrift shop. Last year we raised $35K in just five days, this year we MUST break the record.

3. Just add water, literally haha. This week marks the special care package week where we students receive love from our parents and family in the form of food. The perfect survival kit in a box, for those moments when you just need to study. If you are loved you got one of those blue boxes, if you didn’t don’t fret there is always canned tuna salad in the vending machines (yeah, NO judgments allowed here).

4. Holiday Lights will remind you it is ALMOST Christmas. That moment when you feel your head is about to explode, just walk out and get lost in the lights. There is something about these blue twinkly lights that promises there is light at the end of the tunnel.

5. And my personal favorite is, study hard but be real. Whatever you didn’t learn in the past 4 months will not come magically to you overnight. Do study, but don’t die in the process. Sleeping is equally as important, because if you miss the alarm because you were too tired all that studying was just time lost.

Good luck with what’s left. And remember above all, have fun:

Carpe Diem,

Sadie

Nothing Left to Do but Network

Hi guys,

Can’t believe this semester flew buy SO fast. I mean I’ve got only three more weeks to go before finishing forever (wow, right?) but I know it in my heart these are going to be the three longest, most intense weeks in my college career. With that in mind, I have been non-stop applying to jobs. Wherever, whenever I can I send in a resume. Technically I can’t start working until Jan.6 (because of OPT permit, F-1 student problems) so I shouldn’t start looking until one month before. Personally, I do not care at all about technically and already started the hunt. What I have encountered after a great amount of emailing is that knowing someone from the company you are applying to is your first step inside the door.

For this reason I have been secretly stalking the companies I intend to apply too and see if there are any events coming up. My friend EventBrite has really come in handy. Sometimes you just have to get out there and live to learn. At one point you just have to stop depending on books and start depending on life. To prove that this is not some gibberish (even though it might sound like it haha) here are two events I have attended lately, which have made me realize that every networking opportunity is a potential job opportunity.

A Night of Empowering Conversations hosted by PureWow New York and Fidelity Investments. To say this event blew my mind is an UNDERstatement. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Where are the Sustainability Jobs? Panel presented at Columbia University by SUMASA. The insiders tips and the snacks were equally amazing. Remember to always carry business cards with you and add people on LinkedIn.

Oh and the cherry to my ice cream week was being featured in the ANN INC Facebook page. How many times shall I say it? HARD work, PAYS off.

Carpe Diem,

Sadie

Spa to my Soul

Hi there,

This past weekend could NOT have been better! Thanks to Cosmo’s Fun Fearless Life Conference I’m psyched about graduation and starting my own journey (as opposed to s*i*t*i*n* my pants, pardon mon francais). My friend the CEO of Streben Marketing got us press passes to cover the event as Dominican Press (say what?! and thats why you need entrepreneur friends). Little did I know, this was going to be quite frankly MIND BLOWING. I could proceed to write about the entire event, but it is one of those things you have to live to believe (sorry, NOT so sorry lol).

Wise words from the incredible speakers of this event (they are too much to list but click here for the entire schedule and click on their names for more info and inspiring videos).

Joanna Coles, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine:

When we don’t see the opportunities, we must create them.

Sara Blakely, CEO Spanx

The best revenge is your own success.

Jason Silva, Futurist Filmmaker

The future of us, is ours to dream of.

Some other ideas I jotted down without speaker credits (bravo Sadé), but which I must share with you nonetheless:

Play your own game, be the best you can be.
Who you know, is what you know.
The downside to sameness is that we limit ourselves.
Own your own ambition.
Never settle.
Great things are happening now.
Find your inner mentor.
Commit to pursuing your passion.
Vaginas don’t come with an owners manual, get informed.
We talk about everything, sex, drugs, stretch marks, WHY not money?
Get noticed for the right reasons.
Happiness is from within, not from without.
Projection is perception.
My presence is my power.

Amy Cuddy, Social Psychologist

Don’t fake it until you make it; fake it until you become it.

This is what 2,000 people look like when they Power Pose.

Jillian Michaels, Personal Trainer

We are living the life we think we should, not the life we think we want.

Kelly Osbourne, TV Personality

Wake up and learn to love yourself, because you are not going to wake up and be someone else. Fucking love yourself.

Carpe Diem,

Sadie

Museums and Fashion

Hello there,

People tend to think studying fashion is such an unimportant career or associated to a vain life. But then again, have you realized you wear clothes EVERY SINGLE DAY? (go ahead, really think about it peeps)

Did you also know that:

if every man, woman, and child in China bought two pair of wool socks, there would be no more wool left in the world.

It’s ok if by now you are already convinced as to the importance of the fashion industry. Lets face it, in all the movies about the future things always change, some things disappear, other things are new but the one constant is that people are STILL wearing clothes. (and I don’t see that changing anytime soon) Rest assured, I will be employed for the rest of my life.

So if you want to further your education about fashion and its relation to art, culture, history, architecture, politics and science here are the exhibits you HAVE to check out while in NYC:

The Museum at FIT (free entrance)

–Exposed: A History of Lingerie (up and running until Nov. 15)

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–Dance and Fashion (up and running until Jan. 3)

2. Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe at the Brooklyn Museum (up and running until Feb. 15)

3. Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Recommended entrance fee 10$ students, broke students like me $2, up and running until Feb. 1)

I had an amazing time with my mom and friends this past week at the different museums. We learned so much from these four exhibitions, so I highly recommend them.

Enjoy, im off to my free massage at the FIT Health Center.

Carpe Diem,

Sadie

Love Your Library: Disruptive Luxury

Hi Everyone,

Love Your Library is a series of events hosted by the FIT Gladys Marcus Library focusing on different aspects of the fashion industry. This year marks their 7th year of consecutive success and I was really impressed by the quality of their guest speakers. Last Wednesday I assisted Disruptive Luxury: 3D Printing for Fashion and Luxury Goods with the Designer Francis Bitonti who is known for the world’s first fully articulated 3-D Printed Gown for Dita Von Teese.

He covered everything from a brief history of his design studio, the future of the industry, and changes to both as a result of technologies like 3D printing. (His studio also offers free courses, check them out here)

Some of the things I took away:

3D printing is so much more than rapid prototyping.
There is a shift on how content is created, language makes things and that language today is code.
Mathematical Models drive innovation.
We have to embrace computation as a creative media.
We should stop trying to reproduce what we already have.
3D printing can be a Zero Waste Process.
We have a level and control of precision like never before seen in humankind.
There is a trend on making smaller printers not bigger.
In approximately 10 years the patents will die which will make the technology more widely available and less expensive.
The future is in our hands.

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Carpe Diem,

Sadie