Kristie Dash
Kristie Dash
Sophomore Honors Student, Presidential Scholarship
Communications Major at NYC Campus
I grew up in a suburb thirty minutes north of Pittsburgh and thirty minutes south of Amish farmland, so how did I end up at Pace? I came to Pace because I have always known I wanted to be in New York due to the endless number of opportunities for young, hard-working individuals like myself. Pace seemed to be the perfect fit for me because of its amazing Career Services program and its overall atmosphere, Manhattan being its campus. In the first semester of my freshman year, a lot of amazing experiences came my way, so I started a blog to share with all my friends back at home in Pittsburgh. Some highlights include dancing in Times Square with Ne-Yo for the launch of Xbox Kinect, being an extra on Gossip Girl (my favorite television show), and meeting role models like Giuliana Rancic and Kelly Cutrone. All the while...getting an education and meeting amazing people and professors! In my second semester, I got an amazing internship with Harper’s Bazaar working with the fashion editors (an absolute dream of mine). None of this would have been possible anywhere else in the world and thanks to Pace and their scholarship for me, I achieved more in my freshman year than many students do during their entire college careers.
I went home over the summer to take a break from my crazy schedule (hours were very long at Bazaar). Of course, I got very bored so I really focused on preparing an amazing schedule for my sophomore fall semester. First off, I won a competition sponsored by FIJI Water that gave me an internship at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. It started off as a writing competition, but then narrowed down to eight finalists after reviewing resumes. I am sure my time at Harper’s Bazaar definitely helped me stand out. Then the final process was based on online voting on videos we made. That was one of the most exciting weeks of my life. My main duty was to hand out water bottles to the VIP celebrities and fashion insiders, but once everyone was inside the show, I was allowed to go in and watch myself! I even sat front row at Monique Lhuillier! To say I was thrilled would be an understatement.
Over the rest of my fall semester, I completed two internships. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I worked at NBC’s Peacock Productions with the Development/Production team at perhaps one of the most famous buildings in America, 30 Rockefeller Center. Wednesdays and Fridays I worked at Celebuzz, an entertainment news website, as a news writing intern. With that, I had opportunities to interview many celebrities at red carpet events and premieres (too many to name), and then write articles for them as well. I had classes Mondays and Wednesdays in the late evenings as well as two online classes, and I also worked as a Desk Attendant in Maria’s Tower during the late night shift (after class). I needed some way to make money since both internships were unpaid! Also, I have maintained a 3.9 GPA throughout my time at Pace.
This spring semester I am at my dream internship, Teen Vogue. I work with the beauty editors and get to do so many fun things, it is truly a blessing. After my experience with FIJI Water I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get to go to Fashion Week again for a long time, but I was wrong. I got to go to over 20 fashion shows this past fashion week to cover hair and makeup backstage, and at every show I went to, I knew at least two people from my past internship experiences. I am already making connections! Every week, I go to numerous beauty events (some even giving me free manicures and pedicures!), I write up to five posts a week for TeenVogue.com, and I get an endless supply of free beauty products, many of which are still unreleased, to test out for possible use in the magazine. Talk about a dream! Conde Nast’s new internship regulations are prohibiting students from working more than a semester in the building, so I will have to leave at the end of May. While it is really sad to leave, I have made a ton of valuable contacts I know I will be able to go back to when looking for a job at the end of senior year.
When I moved to New York, I always jokingly said my two dream places to work would be Teen Vogue and E!. Well through all of my experiences with fashion, entertainment, and writing, I got to Teen Vogue and I am so happy and honored to say I will be at E! News this summer in NYC! To be honest, my life is a complete dream right now and it is all because of Pace University. I wouldn’t be in New York if it wasn’t for the Presidential and Honors Scholarships they gave me and I would not have any of these opportunities without the perfect location of the school. Every once in a while I post on my Facebook about what is going on in my life, and I have friends who are actually thinking about transferring to Pace because of the positive impact it has had on every part of me. I came from a small town and my parents have no connections here in New York, but I have already accomplished so much because I am a really hard worker (maybe an over-achiever, but that can’t necessarily be a bad thing, right?!). Pace has nurtured this in me and has supported me in my dreams. This summer while at E! News, I will be working as an Office Assistant for the Housing department which will allow me to get free housing. If I did not have this opportunity, I may not have been able to accept the position at E!. I am so grateful for everything Pace has done.
I am not sure what I want to do career-wise yet because I am interested in a lot of things. I am obsessed with anything relating to pop-culture and fashion, so I figure that as I intern, I will be able to realize what I truly love. My future is slowly but surely becoming clearer and clearer, and I am very confident that my huge number of contacts within the industries I love will be able to help me secure a job when the time comes.
