Fashion Merchandising students pose with Dr. Eklou Amendah in NYC during the New York City Fashion Industry Exploration trip. (image credit: Elizabeth Keaton)

Fashion Merchandising students from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) hit the streets of New York City (NYC) to connect with success­ful working alumni. On Oct. 20 through Oct. 21, Dr. Eklou Amendah and representatives from the Career and Professional Development Center accompa­nied a group of 11 students in N.Y.

Career Development collab­orated with the Office of Alum­ni Engagement to find SNHU alumni who work in NYC in cor­porate positions.

The group met alumni Corinna DaCruz, Erica Solo­mon, Patricia Gorski, Emily Ly­man, and Amanda Mayberry. The latter three alumni were met at an alumni dinner held at the Bread & Tulips restaurant. At the dinner, students were free to talk to the alumni in a casual setting. The students asked questions about their journeys from stu­dents to business professionals.

Sophomore Ella DiPietro said, “[Talking to successful alumni] makes me so much more motivated to get out there.” She continued, “Especially as a sophomore that hasn’t done an internship yet, it was good to get a glimpse of [what to expect].”

On the second day of the trip, Corinna DaCruz was first on the list to visit. She works as the Se­nior Manager of Integrated Mar­keting at SpinMedia.

Lastly, the group stopped by GLOSSYBOX to see campaign manager Erica Solomon.

At each of these meetings, the students got a fill of what life is like beyond SNHU. The alum­ni gave tips on how current stu­dents can establish plans to get the careers they desire. Topics of discussion included internships, campus involvement, and utiliz­ing services from Career Devel­opment.

Career Development’s Spe­cial Projects Coordinator, Eliza­beth Keaton, said, “The New York City Fashion Industry Ex­ploration trip was an outstanding opportunity for students to not only meet Alumni within their fields, but also practice their pro­fessional networking abilities. All of us at the Career & Professional Development Center couldn’t be more excited to offer these op­portunities, both large and small, to students of any major and in­terest across campus.”

Fashion merchandising and marketing professor Dr. Eklou Amendah said, “What was great about [this trip] from my stand­point was that it was really in­formative… The visualization in terms of our students thinking, ‘I can be that person two years or a year from now,’ was very very interesting.”

He went on to emphasize that passion is the crux of land­ing and maintaining a job after college. While passion cannot be taught, it can be stimulated by testing the waters of different areas within a field. “SNHU gave [these alumni] the basic knowl­edge to adapt to their job envi­ronment, but the passion aspect is something that they use SNHU as a tool to develop,” he said.

Career Development will continue to offer students oppor­tunities within various areas of interest. These opportunities will come in the form of on-campus events or off-campus trips.

 

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