Guest Speakers From Verizon Wireless

It’s Friday morning, September 27th, in Mr. Dudkowski’s 8am Professional Sales class. We went through the usual routine of reviewing homework and forgetting each other’s names (current students–you understand; Future students for BUS 201–learn your peers’ names…you will understand) has been disrupted. Who are we to thank for our rescue from Mr. D’s much-too-early-in-the-morning name game? Guest speakers Cindy Carpenter and Jon Spencer, who have come to share with us their experiences in business with Verizon Wireless; experiences which, between the two of them, are undoubtedly abundant.

For over 15 years, Ms. Carpenter has worked in various business positions in Rochester and has been the recruiter for the Verizon Calls Center since 2006. Mr. Spencer, a former GCC student himself, has held positions in Verizon in numerous facets including customer service, billing, tech support, inventory, and sales, and currently holds the title of “Device Expert.”

In his talk, Spencer highlighted how fortunate he is to work in a business that is so connected with technology. He emphasized the incredible world we live in today where technology is growing and expanding more than ever before. Spencer’s career in business with Verizon gives him the opportunity every day to be right at the hub of this age of technology and help others connect with our increasingly tech-driven society. Aside from the obvious application and knowledge of the latest gadgets, the business aspects of working for Verizon allows for human connections through customer relations. As Spencer stated, customer interactions make his job worthwhile; the ability to introduce customers to devices which allow them to speak with loved ones over long distances, recover priceless photos, and could even change their lives, creates visible gratitude which is “Worth more than all the money in the world,” said Spencer.

A Friday morning class–usually merely the last hurdle before a long weekend–proved to be an enriching and worthwhile experience for the students in my class. Not only did we get to hear firsthand experiences from two Verizon Wireless Employees, we were also given some advice; though we’ve heard it many times before it still rings true, as Spencer said: “At the end of the day, the paycheck and the benefits don’t mean a whole lot if you spend 40+ hours a week doing something that makes you miserable.”

Meet Jerry Greenfield

Many GCC faculty and students got to do this on Wednesday Sept. 25! Jerry Greenfield is the “Jerry” of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.

What a joy attending the annual Wolcott J. Humphrey III Symposium. The guest speaker, Jerry Greenfield was incredibly inspirational. Prior to the main event Mr. Greenfield met with a few staff members and business students to answer questions they had for him. He is very down to earth, and I felt very comfortable and was drawn in by his demeanor and enthusiasm. Nearing the end of our allotted time he turned to the students and wanted to know more about us, asking what we were pursuing as careers. Before he left to speak at the Symposium, all of us were given the opportunity to take a pictures.

I’m not sure if it could get any better than meeting him in person, but to my surprise it did! During his talk, Mr. Greenfield took us on a journey down memory lane. He started his speech by telling the story of how he met Ben. They met as young men in school while on the track. They were required to run a 7 minute mile, and the two of them shared the “bringing up the rear” position in the race, which he joked about. Throughout his speech he spoke of many problems they faced in business together and how they got through them. Many of the memories he shared were told humorously, and the situations Ben and Jerry found themselves in were very funny. All of the stories were told with the undeniable respect and appreciation he has for his partner. He described how they almost quit because the job was no longer fun, and they were becoming the type of business they didn’t want to become. A friend told them not to quit and if they didn’t like it, change it. This was the start of the Ben and Jerry’s that cared and wasn’t afraid to show it.

Although there were plenty of laughs, I can’t forget the sadness as he spoke about selling Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Company. Mr. Greenfield’s voice became softer, and his eyes lost their sparkle and for a brief second his grief had returned. It was only for a second and then back to business! The business of Ice cream! JERRY BROUGHT ICE CREAM! Everyone that attended the symposium got to enjoy it after he had finished speaking.

The evening was wonderful and I would like to thank the Humphrey family, GCC and my motivational teacher, Mr. Dudkowski, for giving me the opportunity to meet Mr. Jerry Greenfield. It was an honor and pleasure.

Blog post contributed by: Ellen Kirkpatrick

Fashion Students’ Color Analysis Seminar

Professor Donna J Ehrhart tried example of color analysis.

On Wednesday, September 18th the Fashion Students conducted a Color Analysis seminar. They were discussing the concepts from the popular book written by Carole Jackson, Color Me Beautiful. The concept looks at the 4 seasons, winter, summer, autumn and spring. The students learned that there are 2 cool seasons and 2 warm seasons. The sophomores draped each student and explained why certain colors were better suited for them, as opposed to other colors. Each of the 75 students who attended were given a chart of the colors that work best for them. Students learned that the colors they wear compliment the appearance of their complexion, hair, and eyes. These monthly seminars are co-sponsored by the DECA Club and the fashion students.

The freshman are hopeful to have their designs featured in the 33rd annual fashion show.

In addition to color draping, the freshman took the floor and showed the sophomores some of the design they have been working on. The freshman are hopeful to have their designs featured in the 33rd annual fashion show. The upcoming t-shirt design contest that is being organized by the fashion design sophomores was also discussed at the seminar. Many freshman have submitted unique designs that will go on the t-shirts to represent the fashion program.

T shirt contest presentation by fashion design sophomores

New Year, New Job, New View

As I begin my second year of the Fashion Design program at GCC, I also began a new job. As required by the Fashion program, each student needs experience working in the area of fashion, either over the summer or throughout the school year. For me, my recent new job was something completely new to me: men’s wear.

My job experience throughout this school year will be at Charles Men’s Shop. It is located at 200 E Main Street right in Batavia. While at the Men’s Shop, I will be setting the window displays. Showing the all of the amazing merchandise the store has to offer, while creating a theme and telling a story, keeping in mind the latest trends for fall was a challenge at first. I haven’t taken the Visual Display class with Ms. Ehrhart (the fashion design professor at GCC) because it begins in October, so trying to accomplish that goal made my first few window attempts difficult. I had a hard time finding inspiration and translating it through men’s wear. Until that time, I had only acquired experience with women’s retail. I had received some advice from the Men’s Shop’s helpful staff, Kristen, Don, and Dave. I also asked both of my professors, Mr. Dudkowski (the fashion merchandising professor at GCC) and Ms. Ehrhart for some advice. I’m very glad i decided to ask for some much-needed tips. After getting a better understanding of the window displays and finding my inspiration, I created a window that i was truly proud of. My vision for the window was the New York City pop up sales, since I, along with all other fashion students, will be attending a field trip to the Big Apple next month. Don Brown (Charles Men’s Shop VP) was recently showing me some pictures from the past trips to the city. He told me of the pop up retail stores that would be selling men’s wear, which made me think of trunk shows. I combined the two ideas with my inspiration of the city and created my window.

Business Wear

I really have enjoyed my time so far at the Men’s Shop. If i hadn’t attended GCC I wouldn’t receive an opportunity like this, nor would I have the always available professors ready to guide me with expert advice. Getting hands on training from such an accomplished and well-known store is great experience. Just as Don Brown had said, along with having fun, learning is the most important part of working at the Men’s Shop. After I have had more experience completing some windows and in-store displays, I could move on to learning new sewing techniques along with more planning and customer service skills.

As I look at window displays, men’s magazines and online articles, I see more now than I would have before this job. I wonder about what the message is that they are sending, what story they are telling, why they made certain choices. This ongoing experience will always make me think more about the way a display is shown than I would have ever thought. There is always room to grow and enhance skills with GCC and job opportunities.

Come down to Charles Men’s Shop and join me on the Wine Walk, October 5, 2013!

Internship at WWD JAPAN

My name is on a Japanese fashion magazine “FASHION NEWS” !

What happened to me? The answer is what I did during the summer vacation.

KONNICHIWA (hello)! I am Asahi, an international student from Japan.

My major is fashion merchandising, and I interned at INFAS publications for two and a half months. The company publishes WWD JAPAN, which is a weekly paper, although WWD is a daily paper in the United States, and FASHION NEWS, a collection magazine published soon after each season collection ended. I belonged to the editor division and worked for both magazines. My office hours were about seven hours a day, five days a week.

WWD1

My daily routine:

Cleaning a room for the editorial department when other employees go to a different meeting room.
Answering telephones and connecting editors. Most phone calls were from the PRs of companies including Prada Japan, Chloe Japan, Dior Japan or sometimes from designers.
Opening the mail (About 200 envelopes a day!) and distributing them to each employee.
Making a schedule sheet with Excel for the upcoming events and exhibitions.
Picking garments that will be used in a shooting or returning them to each brand.
Putting the back numbers of WWD JAPAN in order.

They may seem to be chores, but I could be in the office with editors who write articles for WWD JAPAN (which I love reading!) and I was excited about doing my tasks that could help them.

Men’s fashion week in Paris, Milan, London and Florence was held from end of June to first of July. Kaname Murakami, the editor in chief of FASHION NEWS, came back to the office from his business trip for the fashion shows and asked me to help to make the 2014 S/S menswear issue.

My job for the FASHION NEWS was…

1) Making phone calls to about 150 brands’ PRs to ask whether they would cooperate with us and answer some questions about the shows or not.

2) Mailing surveys to each PR, including some brands’ PRs whose companies are located in London.

3) Collecting the surveys from PRs by the due date.

4) Putting the survey answers on a server as well as printing them, so all the editors in the office could see them.

5) Calling some PRs who had not sent back the surveys. I called them several days before the due date to urge them to mail to me as soon as possible because their brands could not be in the magazine if they missed the date.

6) Making the content pages below. In this task, I needed to be careful that I spelled everything right!

7) Making the reference pages, including the brands’ names and telephone numbers of the customer centers and PRs.

During these jobs, I continued working for WWD JAPAN.

Finally, I finished all my jobs for FASHION NEWS, and my name is on it! I was so surprised! My favorite part about the internship was meeting the editors who work for WWD, and being able to keep in touch with them. If you are interested in an industry, I recommend you try to intern with people working in the real world. You will have a lot of good opportunities! I am very proud of my experience.

If you want to read these magazines, WWD japan or Fashion News, let me know!

“Haute Dogs In High Heels” Genesee Community College DECA CLUB

Genesee Community College’s DECA Club is an associated national organization for students who are interested and have the passion for going out and taking on the world pursuing careers in marketing, business, and or fashion retailing. This club gives the opportunity to expose students to a lot of different career skills through activities like field trips , public speakers luncheons, and the annual College Fashion Show. Such programs included in the DECA club are

Accounting
Business Adminstration
Supply Chain Management
Enterpernurship
E-Commerce
Fashion Business: Event Planning
Fashion Design
Fashion Merchandising Management
Sales and Customer Service
Tourism and Hospitality Management

“Shenique’ Johnson (Right) & Candice Cooper (Left) The Haute Dogs In High Heels Servers”

Every year, GCC has a Club Fair, and gives students the opportunity to learn about clubs on campus and what they’re all about.

This year’s Club Fair theme was “Hot Dogs” for National Hot Dog Day, and all the clubs had to come up with something for their table surrounding the theme’s title. This year’s project managers and representatives for this table were myself as well as DECA members Candace and Alaina. Coming up with the theme for our table was hard, but it was fun deciding the final title especially using fashion words we learned throughout the business and fashion classes we’ve taken. As the preparation came into play, our light bulbs began to shine bright to an idea so the DECA club could stand out from the rest. The night before, we made five packs of hot dog wieners, designed a poster, and added a few touches of some flyers respresenting last springs fashion show “Fashion Foward” and what it was about.

“A Student Trying on the shoe bar heels, getting lessons on how to walk in heels “

Lastly, we had the idea to display various styles, shapes, colors, and designs of high heels, because as a fashion student everything can be fashionable; even a hot dog! The students and faculty loved the table, and were very inspired by the theme too. Everyone who passed was offered free hot dog wieners with condiments for the apperication of stopping by the table and finding out what the club has to offer. As a added bonus, we let some students pick out a pair of shoes to wear and get lessons from the DECA club project managers on how to properly walk in heels, and to have the appropriate attitude! At the end of it all, it was a very fun experience that I will remember for the rest of my life, and a great opportunity for the new students to know about the DECA club and what we offer as well as the different programs and majors involved in the club. We explained to students that the DECA club members help out the annual fashion show, as well as what goes on into the making of the fashion show, its history, and how successful last year’s event was.

Who says Hot Dogs can’t have style?

A Student and her children attending the Club Fair Posing next to Candice Cooper (Left)
Alaina (Upper Right Hand Corner) Our High Heel Specialist. & Candice Cooper (lower Right) Posing with our “Haute Dog Wieners””

Assignment Number One

This fall I began my first semester at GCC; after what felt like the blink of an eye, summer came to an end and I found myself searching out an open seat in class. One of my most anticipated classes–Fashion, Trends and Design–proved itself deserving of my high hopes. Within the first week I already felt immersed in the world of fashion: we explored color trends, discussed the ever-ambiguous definition of “Sportswear,” and were exposed to the high-paced thrill of design.

For our first assignment, each student created an original T-Shirt design; the only boundaries being our target market and our imaginations. Immediately my mind began to take off in many directions, seeking possibly inspiration for my design. In the end I found myself enthralled with an unlikely candidate—burlap. I couldn’t get out of my mind an image I’d recently seen at a wedding: coarse, unyielding burlap wrapped around the stems of elegant, soft Roses. The beauty behind the juxtaposition of the primitive burlap material with the natural grace of the roses spoke to me and truly inspired my design.

The main features of my design are the burlap bows affixed to the shoulders and the princess seam-style trim. In each feature I attempted, respectively, to translate my inspiration by using a stiff material to create a soft, gentle bow, and by adding structure to what would otherwise by a soft, flowing garment.

After completing week 1, I feel confident that the rest of the semesters’ classes will continue to challenge me creatively and help assimilate us fashion students into the cutthroat industry that we all love. I can’t wait to see what is in store for the next weeks!

Bridal Scene – Eternal Inspiration

Eternal Inspiration featured brides, groomsmen, bridesmaids, and a junior bridesmaid in Fashion Forward on April 27th. The gowns that were donated to this scene were completely transformed into new designs that any fashion forward bride would be inspired by. The tuxes by tuxedo junction gave our men a sharp classic look, with an edgy twist. Our first design was a peacock inspired gown by Karen Sessonna, Karen designed this gown to act as a peacock and transform itself on the runway.

Designed By Karen Sessanna Model Lindsey Visser & Sean Allen

This next gown was created by Jill Kowalczewski to look like the sketch featured on our tickets and posters.

Designed by Jill Kowalczewski Model: Taylor Lauricella

“The Queen” was dyed by Samantha Vogt and designed by Jill Kowalczewski. This ombre gown features the classic costume imagery of a queen.

Designed By Jill Kowalczewski Models: Megan Fowler & Christian Hoffmann

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Special Thanks to everyone who contributed to my scene, I couldn’t have done it without you!!!

Fashion Forward – Model Photos and Fashion Show DVD Info

Keep hold of the wonderful memories from Genesee Community College’s 32nd annual fashion show, Fashion Forward by purchasing photographs and the DVD………

Digital copies of the show photos can be purchase for $1 a photograph.

Click to view photos

These photos are royalty free, personal use and high definition.

http://glaserphotography.zenfolio.com/f830219185

A full length DVD of the entire show, including behind the scenes interviews, can be purchased for $29 including tax and shipping from Leighthouse Productions:

Click to order your DVD copy of Fashion Forward

http://leighthouse.biz/?page_id=148

Fashion Forward is Eternally Greatful

The fashion show on Saturday was a total success, we heard nothing but compliments and positive feedback! I am incredibly relieved that the show is over however, it feels like a bitter sweet ending. I am excited to begin a new chapter in my life, but it saddens me that routine hard work is now over. The challenges that we faced were difficult, but they made life exciting and gave a sense of pride when those challenges were overcome.
On behalf of the entire fashion show production class, I must thank everyone who participated in the fashion show. This production required so many helping hands and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support from our school and community. I myself would like to thank Mike Perry, for devoting so much time into editing our pre scene and preshow videos; Marc Tillery, for editing our music and making our show sound spectacular; Barry Chow, for returning to us with just enough time to organize the video recording of our show; Amy Slusser, for guiding her class to make a ugly space beautiful, making our design theme carry through to our after party, and refueling our guests with refreshments and hor’dourves; Al Leight for creating our Behind the Scenes and DVD; Tim Landers and his maintenance team, for putting up with our preciseness and setting up our stage decorations; Ashley Ricketts, for filming, directing, and editing our preshow video ; Security, for protecting our merchandise; Gary Glaser, for photographing our show; Todd Sloat, for lighting up our stage and adding dramatic effects to the scenes; all of our designers, interns, hair/make up stylists, models, parents, and everyone else!

The most important person I would like to thank would be Mr. Rick Dudkowski, our fashion show production professor who led our class to obtaining a impactful reinvented show. Without his guidance we would’ve ran into many more issues and wouldn’t have been able to produce the quality show we had. I recommend to all upcoming fashion show production students to LISTEN TO MR. D!!!
Honestly, this show came together because of a group effort and no one individual would have been able to do this alone. Each and every person that participated in this show played a key role and we cannot thank you enough.
The lessons I have learned in this fashion show production class are priceless, I will take them with me throughout my lifetime and will always remember that teamwork can achieve greatness.

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Genesee Community College Blog

1st hand experiences from GCC students!

Academics

Guest Speakers From Verizon Wireless

Meet Jerry Greenfield

Fashion Students’ Color Analysis Seminar

New Year, New Job, New View

Internship at WWD JAPAN

“Haute Dogs In High Heels” Genesee Community College DECA CLUB

Assignment Number One

Bridal Scene – Eternal Inspiration

Fashion Forward – Model Photos and Fashion Show DVD Info

Fashion Forward is Eternally Greatful

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