Internships

Professional Work Study, internships & Contract experience I had during and/or post college

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First Work study position:
I worked part time at MATC's JOBshop as an Administrative Assistant while working towards my Associates degree at MATC, where I provided administrative support including document production, promoting employment services and assisted teaching students with updating/critiquing resumes and showed them how to use electronic resources as needed. I also was in charge of posting and monitoring relevant content brand awareness.

The Second Work Study/Internship:
While I was still attending online classes at Milwaukee Area Technical College, I worked at United Way as a "Social Media Strategist Intern", which was part of the work study program. My job was research, I manage, and create new relevant social media content as well as designing images/exposes and flyers and keeping the campaign website updated as needed for United Way and Milwaukee County's annual 
                                      "Workplace Combined Giving Campaign".

Second internship:

- I worked at Milwaukee County Department of Human Services as a"Budgeted Web Designer Intern". It was a 6 month internship, where  I reviewed and evaluated the existing Human Resources portion of County website Design and then updated it to make it more user friendly.

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First Contract position 

- I worked at Redefined Realty as a "Marketing Graphic Designer". This job gave me a lot of great experience with marketing and graphic design as well as amazing insight for the Real estate industry. My job was to design print materials including flyers, brochures, and postcards for the real estate agents as needed, create and edit artwork for magazine publications. I was also was in charge of assisting the web designer by helping to create/design web materials as needed and managing all Social Media accounts, including creating content and maintaining social media posting schedule calendar.

Second Contract position:

- I worked at Kohl's Corporation as a contracted "Graphic Design Consultant". I was responsible for editing/adjusting the current floor plan. I printed, organized and sorted 1000+ clearance floor plans and matched similar plans to specific numbers or marked as unique. Once that was complete I then used Adobe Illustrator to digitally update the existing floor plans that were previously marked up by the Merchandise Presentation Department planners and then submitted all floor plans in for review and made any necessary updates and printed final copies of each floor plan.

School to Career Transitioning Phase

In December of 2014 I graduated with my A.A.S in Advertising Media.

Post graduation, I went on to complete both internships I was hired at shortly after graduation.
(Web Developer at Milwaukee County & Social Media Strategist at United Way). 

While working at both internships in 2015, I also took online classes towards a Technical Diploma.
- In December of 2015 I graduated with my Technical Diploma in Social Media Strategies.

When I completed these internships at the end of December 2015; before jumping into job searching right away, I took that next month to focus on myself, update my resume and then I worked on creating my design portfolio website to show employees my past work experience as well as show them my web design and development skills.

I was excited and scared to start applying for positions that I was qualified for because I felt like I was finally ready(for the most part) to start job/career searching once again; however I had felt as though I was at that mid point between graduating college and having not having quite enough professional experience to be able to land the type of career that I want. (Even though you have to start somewhere)

Why I became a student at MATC?

--I saw my own potential

I moved to Milwaukee 5 years ago from my home town because I wanted to push myself to get more out of life; being a single mother of two kids, working at low paying jobs living pay check to pay check was not for me, so I decided to go back to college so that I could start working towards the career path of my dreams and one day be able to give my kids the life they deserve. 

-- Self Discovery:

I started my journey attending MATC Spring of 2013 in the Music Occupations Program; in hopes to work towards a goal of becoming a Music Therapist one day.

Check out my:“Music Therapy Blog”

 However, I was still in the process of finding myself and ended up changing my mind a few times; luckily one of my favorite teachers told me about the Individualized Program Plan; this plan allowed me to choose my own path instead of just following a Pre-Planned program plan. I really liked the idea of the flexibility of this plan because of my Entrepreneurial way of thinking and plus college is not cheap so definitely wanted to make sure that whichever direction I chose would not be a waste of time and money. I wanted to make sure that I graduated in a program that would help me build a career that I could see myself doing the rest of my life. 

-- Creating my Dream Career Path:

When I took my first Graphic Design (Adobe Illustrator) I figured out what I was passionate about doing, but I still wasn't quite sure what about Graphic Design I enjoyed doing the most and would want to put my main focus on.  I also became interested in Web Design/Development and Social Media as well because I believe that Social Media is going to be a huge part of everything within this next decade, and obtaining these skills will lead me in the right direction with my career path. 

-- Dedication Lead to Graduation:

Once I figured out the main career direction I wanted to work towards, I stayed focus and dedicated studying Graphic/Web Design and Social Media practices; and named my Individualized Program Plan that I created, "Advertising Media". In December 2014, my hard work paid off when I graduated with my A.A.S in Advertising Media in just under 2 years; with an overall GPA of 3.6.

-- Starting my New Life Chapters:

MATC definitely gave me the skills I needed to succeed and move forward with reaching my professional goals. After graduating I was able to land two amazing internships that were very closely related to the degree I earned. I am currently working as a Web Designer/Developer Intern at Milwaukee County- Department of Human Resources and I am also a Social Media Strategist Intern at United Way GMWC. 

I plan to finish the "Social Media Strategist" Program that I am currently working on by Fall 2016 and go on to eventually obtain my Bachelors of Computer Sciences or Web Design/Development.

-- MATC in ACTION Feature Story: (September 2015) 

This month MATC in Action did a feature story about me and another MATC Work Study Student that works alongside me at United Way; if you would like to read my featured story.     

Click this link: "Federal Work Study Student and United Way"