cambridge connectmiami lakes educational centersummer 2020

Interview by Gaby Nunez

advert is ingadventure

How is MAIP and how did you hearof it?

MAIP stands for Multicultural Advertising Internship Program. It’s an amazing fellowship opportunity for students of color who are passionate about advertising and want to get their foot in the door. I heard of it through Florida State’s Advertising Club, where a MAIP ambassador (someone who had recently finished the program) came to talk to us about it.

What were some of the experiences you had in the program?

I interned at MullenLowe New York as a Project Management (PM) intern. It was my first time at an agency and in a PM role. I learned a lot about building a collaborative team and agency life. After work, there was always something going on. The program was made up of 230+ students and there were over 100 in New York alone. We were all housed together at a NYU dorm. Every day I connected with someone different and got really close to a few. The program hosted “MAIP Labs” where we visited different agencies and met industry professionals who shared their experiences with us.

What was hard (or maybe hard to transition) about it?

For the most part, MAIP takes care of a lot of things for its fellows– housing, travel, & events throughout the summer. The scariest part was the fact that I got chosen to go to New York. It was very much outside of my comfort zone and I didn’t know what to expect. It took me a while to adjust to New York City life. It’s fast-paced and can be a bit angry and disconnected. I didn’t love

the lifestyle you had to maintain to live up there but looking back, I am so happy I went and experienced it. It taught me a lot about myself.

How do you think you’ve gained from the program?

Not only did I gain an immense amount of professional growth through my internship experience and the MAIP labs but I also grew a lot on a personal level. Moving to a new city is a challenge on its own and the fact that I moved to New York from little old Tallahassee (and previously little old Hialeah) was a big deal to me. It forced me to grow in ways I didn’t think I needed to. I’m confident about the skills I can bring to the table, about my sense of self, and about my future within the advertising industry. MAIP is a giant network where alumni really look out for one another.

What do you want to do in the realm of advertising? What are your career goals?

My main strengths lie in social strategy. Since my time at The Harbinger, I’ve continued to do social media/marketing work for different organizations and businesses. Creating content makes me happy so I’d like to continue within that realm but I am open to other disciplines within the industry, especially because of my experience in a PM role this past summer.

Since her interview, Maria has accepted a position as an Associate Project Manager for Energy BBDO, a well-known & award-winning agency with locations all over the world. She will be working at their Chicago office.

Maria Vasquez, class of 2016

always onthe moveCrystal Smith, class of 2013

Crystal is currently the head of advocacy programs for Monday.com in NYC. Monday.com “is the Work OS that powers teams to run processes, projects and everyday work their way.” Over 100,000 organizations worldwide rely on Monday.com – including Apple, Adobe, Costco, and Hulu. Crystal works with cyber security, sales, customer success, and relationship and project management.

She works as cross teams with many internal teams on customer assets and experiences. In her “spare time,” Crystal is also working on her own catering business and is planning to open a cafe in the near future.

Last summer, Anthony interned for The Boeing Company in Southern California and “had the time of [his] life.” He worked on the Aircraft Maintenance Engineering team, tackling post production issues. This summer he accepted an offer to return to The Boeing Company to work with the Weather Radar Systems Design team.

In his new role as a Systems Design Engineering Intern, his tasks are to support the Weather Radar team to verify that sensors, software and systems are fully integrated with each other, as well ensuring

that they comply with aviation standards made by organizations such as the FAA. “Ensuring that we are putting safety and reliability as the absolute top priority when checking for sensor reliability,” said Anthony.

Although the COVID pandemic prevented him from working and living in Seattle this summer, Anthony is happy to have the opportunity to work and learn from home in this engineering position. He is already setting my sights on pursuing new, more diverse, opportunities for the next one.

tak ing fl ightAnthony Cruz, class of 2017

work ing in financeMirella Martinez, class of 2017

Mirella completed an internship with the State Board of Administration of Florida for their Florida Prepaid College Board Internship Program, where she gained some professional experience this semester and put her expected finance degree to good use.

She also serves as a Consultant for FSU’s Consulting Group, where she collaborates with a team to advise local businesses in the Tallahassee area. This semester her team worked closely with a non-profit organization that is dedicated to wildlife conservation through public education and propagation of rare and endangered species.

Mirella is also the Vice President of Financial Development for the Gamma Lambda chapter of Delta Sigma Pi. She organizes and executes fundraising events for her chapter so that they may use these funds to host professional development events and workshops.

And finally, what she is most excited to share is that was recently selected as a Forbes Under 30 Scholar and attended the Forbes: 30 Under 30 Summit in Detroit, MI in October. During the 4-day event, she heard from and networked with founders, entrepreneurs, and creators from all over.This summer, she is working Middle Market Banking and Specialized Industries Summer Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Like everyone, the COVID pandemic affected Laura’s plan. She was studying abroad in Italy when the disease began spreading through the country and she had to return home as schools closed down and American citizens returned home.

Professionally, she has remained busy. After completing internships at Telemundo and CNN Espanol, Laura is now working with ABC News, her first role in English language media. She has been hired as a desk assistant for ABC News. There, she pitches and reports her own stories as well as collaborates with others on other project.

report ing day & nightLaura Romero, class of 2017

(Laura Romero, reporting from Washington, DC on the day that the Articles of Impeachment were announced).

Crystal graduated from The University of Florida Levin College of Law in May and is currently preparing to take the Florida Bar exam. In the coming weeks, Crystal will move to Tampa, where she accepted a position at Cole, Scott & Kissane as an Associate Attorney working on general liability law.

moving aheadCrystal Serrano, class of 2013

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2020

The Coronavirus pandemic changed the world. The Class of 2020 faced the challenges and made the best of their senior year – even though more than a quarter of it was a socially distant, virtual experience. There were Zoom classes, at-home AP exams, and a graduation parade. However, the story of this school year should not focus on the chaos, but on its success.

This year we have two Posse Scholars and one Questbridge Scholar. Our newest alumni are heading to: Cornell, Vanderbilt, the University of Chicago, the University of Miami, Florida International University, Middlebury College, Hamilton College, Syracuse University, Carnegie Mellon, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the University of Central Florida

Bayona, Paola Betancourt, Andres Casanueva, Roxana

Huey, Malique Irraboule, Melanie

Mezawi, Yasmine Mila, Luis

Castro, Abigail

Lewis, Malique Licona, Gabriela

Mourad, Gabriel Reboredo, Natalia

Dubon, Devin Gonzalez, Melanie

Marenco, Jael Marquez, Monica

Rosales, Abigail Saenz, Edelma

clas

s of

Alverio, Krystal Cheung, Elizabeth

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Guitterrez, Gabriella

a new top jaguarMiami Lakes Educational Center

Lourdes Diaz, who joined the Jaguar family after James Parker’s retirement in the fall of 2015, left our Teal & Black halls in January. She was promoted to Region Administrative Director, where she works to support schools in the Miami-Dade County Public School’s North Region.

MLEC’s new principal is Yaset Fernandez, who is very familiar with our region having grown up in the Hialeah-Miami Lakes area and graduated from Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School.

Andres was hired at Lutron Electronics to work as a mechanical engineering intern in their Boynton Beach location over the summer. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the internship had to be moved online. Lutron

bui ld ing the futureAndres Orta, class of 2017

Herman is currently half-way through a summer internship with Verizon. He is working on the Emerging Technologies team, leading an engineering project for the company’s Data Assisted Home Living initiative. His project aims to use various sensor technologies to save lives!

The University of Florida plans to reopen in the fall, so he plans to return to Gainesville for his sophomore year. At UF he has remained very involved with SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers), where he has made many new friends and associates which have helped him on his current career path. In the Spring, Herman will head to Folsom, CA to intern with Intel on their SSD Applications engineering team (pandemic-pending).

emerg ing technologyHerman Gonzalez, class of 2019

is “a leading manufacturer of energy-saving light, shade, and temperature controls for new and existing homes and offices.”

The primary focus of his team is to analyze the power consumption within a home or building and provide an overview of where they believe the best locations are to install Lutron products in order to better reduce power consumption and energy costs. At the end of July they will be presenting a cost analysis to their current client.

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