Projects

Organizations

Junior Achievement

Two to three days of every elementary school year were dedicated to the Junior Achievement program, where representatives would come to instruct students on the principles of market economics and entrepreneurship. In high school I noticed that my school did not have a chapter of Junior Achievement, so I started one, with the help of a few students and teachers. The Junior Achievement chapter is still active at my high school and students still participate as instructors in the program and teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship to young kids at our local elementary schools.

Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) State Officer/ United States Senate National Award of Outstanding Leadership

The national organization Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a nonprofit career and technical organization for students in school through grade 12, focusing on personal growth through family and consumer sciences. I spent all four years of high school growing with this organization, starting out as a general member, and ending off as a state officer and national delegate representing the state of New Jersey. FCCLA conducts state and national leadership conferences, in which students gather and meet other students from schools around the state and country and participate in leadership workshops and competitions. I participated in many of these competitions throughout high school and later went on to host these conferences as an officer and conduct leadership workshops of my own. Having volunteered with organizations such as Hands for Hope, the Children’s Miracle Network, Ronald McDonald House and Share Our Strength, the most amount of money I fundraised was for Share Our Strength, totaling ~$10,000, the most raised for the organization out of any state in the country.  

My favorite accomplishment in my time in FCCLA was spearheading a community-wide electronic waste disposal effort in my town in Edison, New Jersey, with aid and sponsorship from the organization. Electronic waste is the most overlooked waste in the world and little efforts are done to keep it under control. This project spread like wildfire across surrounding communities and I received the coveted United States Senate Award for Outstanding Leadership for my efforts, with a chance to fly out to Washington D.C. and meet Senators Peter J. Barnes and Robert Menendez.

Alpha Kappa Psi (AKPSI)

Alpha Kappa Psi is the oldest and largest co-ed professional business fraternity in the world, and I had the pleasure of joining in my freshman year of college at Rutgers University. The leadership and professional skills I had accumulated and put into practice in FCCLA helped me immensely in the process required to become a member. In my time in Alpha Kappa Psi, I held two junior level chair positions in my earlier years of college, later went on to create a Professional Development Committee for senior fraternity members to aid junior fraternity members in the internship and job search process, and finally ended up becoming the fraternity’s Master of Rituals and keeper of the fraternal bylaws. In this position I pledged my own class of 17 students and mentored and directed them into becoming eventual members. This is where I learned how to manage, direct and help a large group of people grow, while maintaining a consistent vision in times of stress and hardship. Through AKPsi I also had the opportunity to fundraise and participate in Dance Marathon for the organization RU for Kids and raised over $1700 for the organization.  

Independent Projects

Fashion Independent Study/ Scholarships

In my freshman year of high school I took a fashion class and learned how to design, sew, and construct garments. As my skills advanced, I decided to take up an independent study of the fashion industry for further knowledge, college credits, and to build the skills and expertise to compete in nationwide fashion competitions and earn scholarships. My independent study was not only focused on fashion-related studies, but also involved a significant amount of research in history and economics. For example, in my junior year of high school I researched the 1920s, women’s rights, and the androgynous clothing women were beginning to wear to parallel their growing freedom in society. I designed my own portfolio, consisting of 6 designs related to 1920s fashion and conducted a thorough market analysis, constructed the actual garments, and entered into a national fashion design competition, winning first place and a $2000 scholarship. This was one of my many efforts in the field. Entering in up to a dozen competitions, I won 7 gold medals, a few other scholarships and even designed a shoe for Toms, which was featured in the Fall 2013 collection.

ESN-TV Videographer

Movies, filming, screen writing and the construction and composition of a story from start to finish has always been a passion of mine. In my sophomore year of high school I volunteered to help the theater department in school with creating a film about the play The Tempest. I learned how to operate a camera, adjust lighting, and film. After several months of work, my filming crew and I put together a documentary series about how the John P. Stevens High School theater department operates and focused on the play The Tempest. The movie was featured on the ESN-TV network and can be watched on YouTube as well. View Part 1 of the documentary series below!

JazzMobile, Inc.

Jazzmobile, Inc. is the first U.S. not for profit arts and cultural organization created to promote and propagate Jazz music and culture. The organization works to bring high quality Jazz performances and educational programs to people and has reached over 4,000,000 citizens and tourists worldwide.

When I was four years old I learned to play the piano and played classical piano for 9 years. In late middle school I heard about Jazzmobile and the Danny Mixon quartet and traveled to Harlem every weekend to take lessons with Mr. Mixon and learn Jazz theory and improvisation. Eventually I went on to become a backup pianist for the quartet and performed in 6 local gigs, fundraised over $4000 for the organization to keep the instruments funded and performances running, and also filmed short films and interviews for the organization. I’ve been involved with Jazzmobile for over a decade and continue to play jazz piano, practice with the quartet, and fundraise for the organization in my free time.

Professional Projects

Deloitte Case Competition

In my sophomore year of college I participated in a university-wide case competition for Deloitte to help derive a technological solution for improving the American Federal jobs website. My team and I researched MySQL, Oracle, user interface design and geodata to come up with an effective solution and we placed in the top 5.

Goldman Sachs Inspiring Women Virtual Series

In the Fall of 2016 I was selected out of hundreds of female applicants to be a part of the Goldman Sachs Inspiring Women Virtual Series, which was designed for younger girls to work with senior executive women in the firm to develop diversity strategies for the banking environment. I attended meetings every week to discuss personal/ career trajectories, culture, diversity and challenges women face in the workplace. This was a stepping stone in my leadership influence at Morgan Stanley and was a chance for me to put my minor in Women’s and Gender Studies into practice.

StreetWise Mentors

StreetWise Mentors is a program consisting of a network of over 50 companies and 1500 volunteers that help mentor and coach people from under-resourced communities. I joined StreetWise in the spring of 2019 as a mentor, and after 13 weeks of working with my mentee one on one on developing professional development skills (resume writing, interviewing, public speaking, etc.), I successfully helped him land 2 job offers and had the pleasure of seeing his confidence in himself build up. It’s amazing going full circle and helping someone else build up the same skills that I worked on and continue to work on building through the years!

Morgan Stanley Analyst Council President

Morgan Stanley has an Analyst Council to provide a body of leadership for the full-time analysts at the firm. In my first year at the firm I assumed the position of Mentoring Program Chair in the council and founded the Analyst Mentoring Program, which pairs younger analysts with older ones to help guide them in their journey in the firm. In my second year at the company I was elected President of the Analyst Council and I currently spend my time with my chairs organizing social, professional and mentoring events for the other analysts in the firm. The events we’ve hosted thus far include a Bloomberg Terminal training, an Advanced Excel training, a Financial Modeling Certification training and various social events across New York City. Having a leadership position at Morgan Stanley has helped me take all of my skills and experiences and apply them in a corporate setting to make an impact in the lives of other professionals.