Recently, I went through a very difficult decision process to sort out my summer plans. For context, I am a junior soon to be heading into my senior year, and I am originally from Washington state. I have been working as a production intern at Tory Burch since the Fall semester and was offered an opportunity to stay with them as a product development intern over the summer. I have yet to stay in NY over the summer, and I always miss home this time of year since I’ve been away for so long. There were many things to consider when debating to accept this offer from Tory Burch. I wouldn’t be able to see my friends and family from back home over the entire summer, I wouldn’t be back in the PNW during one of my favorite seasons, and I wouldn’t be saving money from not paying rent. It is also my last summer as a student and I wanted to be very careful with how I used this fleeting freedom. On the other hand, if I stayed with Tory Burch, I would be building my resume and developing more skills and experience to further my career and eventually achieve my long term goal; I eventually want to move back to the West coast and work for iconic outdoor apparel and lifestyle brands, with one of my top picks located in Seattle, WA. If I stayed in NY over the summer, I would be helping my future job search when applying for positions back home, but was this worth not seeing my friends and family? In the end, I chose to take the internship with Tory Burch with hopes that working towards my long term goal would be best for me. There was really no right or wrong decision in this situation for me because I could see myself being both thankful and regretful at the same time for making either decision. Sometimes, you just have to push aside your critical analysis and just make a decision when one is needed. It made me realize that I’m at a point in my life where my choices are going to have direct consequences on aspects of my life, and that real planning needs to be put in place if I don’t want to lose control of my life. One thing I did to sort out my decision was I put together a 5 year and a 10 year life plan for myself, mapping out different aspects of my life, including career, health, and relational. These things are important to think about and develop an understanding of what you want. It’s never too early to start planning.
Tag Archives: College
Production Management Semester 4 Review
Alright everyone, now this is a pretty big deal. When you finish your 4th semester, you will be graduating with your AAS. This went by extremely fast for me and shows just how much you have to pay attention and savor the moment, because time really does fly by.
MG 252 – Product Data Management
This class is focuses on identifying all the different types of information in a business environment, where this information comes from, and where it then is directed. Students familiarize themselves with key business documents such as NDAs, project workflows, and 26 other documents, and create samples for their personal use. Final project is breaking down all the data for a sample product and presenting this information.
IC 297 – AAS Internship C: Career Exploration
This course is taken at the same time that you are placed in your Spring credited internship. The main goal of this course is to help students identify their desired career path and to start working towards it through their current internship. Students share personal experiences with their internships to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the opportunities in the industry.
EN 321 – Strategies of Business Communication
Students learn proper business communication etiquette and use this to create job search documents, reports, memos, and customer service documents.
MA 213 – Quantitative Methods
This is a required math class that is fairly basic. Linear algebra is the main focus of this class, with some focus on interest, used to calculate things such as loans. Students create a report using this interest math to calculate what their financial situations would be if they took out loans.
A Trip To Turin!
HELLO EVERYONE!
Today I’m going to share with all of you the experience of our weekend trip to Turin, Italy!
During our study abroad program we have a couple of academic trips, one of them for this semester was going to Turin. Turin is located a couple of hours by train from Florence.
As we arrived and walked the French-styles streets of Turin, from almost every spot, my eye was always caught by the most iconic symbol of this city, the Mole Antonelliana. Originally designed to be a synagogue, now hosts the Museo Nazionale Del Cinema. It is considered to be the tallest building in the world without steel reinforcement!
We visited the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and being guided by our art history professor we experienced the evolution of film. With a maze-like and multi-level exhibition you are for sure not going to be bored. From pre-cinematographic optical devices, earlier and current film technologies, stage items from early Italian movies and interactive displays! After the tour we took an elevator that ran through the heart of the building all the way to the top. A breathtaking view of 360 degrees of the city was awaiting. This was definitely a highlight of the trip, with a view to the Italian Alps in the distance!
The next day, we visited The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, a Baroque-style Roman Catholic chapel connected to the Palazzo Royale. The chapel was constructed to house the Shroud of Turin, a religious relic
that many believe to be the burial shroud of Jesus. It’s history and architecture are beautiful and very inspiring!
This trip was culturally rich and if you ever have the chance to study in Italy, I definitely suggest you add this lovely city to your travel itinerary!
Ciao, Maria
Florence, Italy at Your Hands!
HELLO FELLOW TIGERS!!
My name is Maria, I have started my 4th semester in FIT. However, I started classes a little far away from campus. Where? In Florence, Italy! Now you may ask “what is she doing over there?” Well let me explain….
At FIT there are many options for studying abroad, it all depends on the major you are studying. As a fashion design student one of my options was to study in the “the cradle of the renaissance”, that is Florence, Italy. And so I chose this option for my second year of AAS.
You cannot imagine how excited I was to start my journey abroad. In the month of August (2018) I had my bags all packed and ready for what was coming. I heard great stories about my classmates’ experiences abroad and was ready to start my own.
Our host in Florence is Polimoda fashion institute right in the historic center. The main campus itself is a gem, with frescoed ceilings and walls, it sure takes you back in time. The design lab in Scandicci has everything you need for the realization of projects. Since the program admits a certain number of students, professors are by your side to assist you.
In the following blogs I will be going in deeper into my experiences during the last and this upcoming semester.
Ciao, Maria
Club trip to Precision Custom Coatings
This month, the Production Management club took a trip to the Precision Custom Coatings headquarters in New Jersey, which consists of the Precision Textiles division, focused on non-woven fabrics, coatings, and laminations. PCC services a wide variety of industries, including apparel, automotive, footwear, filtration, bedding + mattress, and home goods. We took a guided tour through their non-woven production facility and got to see the different processes of creating non-wovens and coating them.
First, their fiber comes in bulk orders shipped in big bundles. These fibers are densely packed and need to be separated in order to be turned into a fiber. To do this, the fibers are sent through a machine called a “carding machine”. While they are separated in the machine, the quantities of mixed fabrics are determined at this stage, such as a 20/80 (20% one fiber, 80% another fiber).
Once the fibers are separated and somewhat layered together, they must be bonded together. This is where the variety of machinery and fabric types comes in. We were lucky to see several methods that PCC uses to bind their fibers. One method is with repetitive exposure to pressure and heat. With the fibers evenly exposed to heat, they loosen up and latch onto each other.
Another method, the “Needle Plunge” method, involves running the fibers through a machine where a bed of needles repeatedly poke the fibers from both above and below. This condenses the fibers and locks them in place.
The other method we saw was the “Saturate” method. This involves a fusible resin application to the fibers, where, exposed to heat, they will bond together. The resin is funneled into a tube with tiny holes all on the outside where the resin can be dispersed onto the fabric, the white residue in the above-left photo is residual resin.
Once the fabrics are finished, they undergo inspection by the workers. Here they are looking for any inconsistencies in the bonds of the fabric, tears or snags, uneven thicknesses or color, and any other imperfections.
It was an amazing opportunity to visit Precision Custom Coatings. The staff were all extremely friendly and gave us so much information. A lot of what we saw is talked about in classes at FIT, but seeing it first-hand really puts it in a different perspective. It made me think a lot more about the mechanics and engineering involved in the production of fabrics.
So if you ever hear of a club taking a trip, don’t just shrug them off. They are definitely worthwhile and can lead to some awesome discoveries!