Cutting

This past week most of my work at Prisma has consisted of cutting out the proofs and helping with the plate making. In the picture above I am using a large T-ruler and a sharp blade to cut straight lines. The proofs are printed in low resolution (most of the time) just to show the clients how the final product will look. Print Proofs are also helpful because sometimes a client may want to make some changes to the image or the font. Once the client approves the printed proof the project is sent off to production and that is where they will print thousands of copies of the clients request.

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The Printing Process (PrePress)

This is my fourth week at my internship with Prisma and I have learned many things that I had no clue about. When we all see a flyer, magazine, or brochure; most of us think of it as a piece of paper that will usually end up in the trash or the recycling bin. However, I believe that the majority doesn't think about the process that is involved when producing that magazine or brochure. The process that takes place before the final printed product is produced is known as pre-press. The pre-press process can involve designing the images that are to be printed (graphic design). It also involves printing multiple proofs; some in low resolution and others in high resolution. This week I have been working on learning another area of the pre-press processes, this area involves printing the plates that will be used to print thousands of flyers, brochures, or magazines. In the photo you see that I am waiting for the plate to finish printing. These plates are thin sheets of aluminum that are placed inside a massive thermal printer. When these plates are done printing we need to be very careful when handling them because a single scratch can ruin the entire image. 














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HUGE Rolls!

This week I started my first day at my new internship at Prisma Graphics. I was eager, nervous, but excited to start. My first day was this past Tuesday (10/1/19), I really like that this company allows college students to intern with them and I am grateful for that. The department I am working in is in the Prepress. For those who don't know what Prisma does here is a little bit of background; Prisma does the printing work for multiple businesses who they refer to as their "clients". They print magazines, brochures, mailers, books, etc. they also bind books, emboss, and die cut. They have two buildings and there are different departments in each building. Today, during my internship I was taken on a tour around the magazine printing department and I was amazed to see the amount of paper and the size of the paper that is required to complete the printing task. The rolls used in the printing process are HUGE! They take up so much space they have a warehouse just to store all of the paper. Here are a couple photos of the rolls. 

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The Beginning to a New Journey!! #StemW1SMCCF19

This week marks the first week of the STEM Program. I am very excited to begin my new paid internship! As part of the requirements our group has chosen to read the book (pictured above), The Power Of Habit. Our homework was to read Chapters 1 and 2 by Oct 4th which is when our next group meeting will be held. As soon as I got my hands on the book I began reading it, (thanks to Niall who was kind enough to gift this book to our group). I will share a very brief summary of what I read on Chapters 1 and 2. The book starts off by sharing a story of man named Eugene who had lost his memory due to viral encephalitis. Although he had lost his memory and couldn't retain new information researches were amazed that Eugene was able to complete certain tasks by himself without any help. How could he complete such tasks without memorizing anything? When a scientist named Larry Squire started to work with Eugene, he soon realized that Eugene was able to complete multiple tasks without any help thanks to the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia are a set of brain structures located below the cerebral cortex. The basal ganglia is responsible for habit formation and what Eugene was able to accomplish was in actuality new habits thanks to the basal ganglia. That is all for this summary however I will continue reading this book.

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Computer Language

This past week I have been working on a new project, this project consists of using a coding software to fix any typos on the HTML and CSS code. Just to give you guys a little bit of background HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is a system that uses tagging text to create different fonts, colors, graphics etc that will be used on websites. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet and CSS is used to format the layout of the elements in HTML which determines how it will appear in websites. Coding can be time consuming and it requires a lot of critical thinking, patience, and good memory. Coding is like anything; the more you practice the better you will become and you could eventually create websites which is what I am doing with this project. The photo above is the language for a website. I will post my result in the upcoming weeks. 

Spring is HERE!

Hello Scholars!

This week at the Center for Teaching and Learning I got to work on a new project. I honestly have been enjoying my internship the most at the CTL because instead of working on only one loooong project I am working on multiple short projects. This makes it nice because I get to switch it up and I like it when things change. This week I created a couple banners for Dr.Shaffer's emails. The size of the banners were the size of your typical Facebook cover (640 by 360 pixels). It was a really simple project where I had to use a website called Canva (I've used Canva plenty of times in the past)
to create them, although Canva has mostly templates you also have the option to create your own visuals from scratch which is what I did. Here are the photos of what I was able to create on Canva.

Center for Teaching and Learning

This week was exciting for because I was able to work on a new project for the CTL building located inside South Mountain Community College's library. CTL stands for Center for Teaching and Learning; the purpose of this area is to assist SMCC's professors/instructors with tools and resources like workshops (for example) that will help them become successful instructors/professors. The ladies in charge of the CTL building are Dr. Shaffer and Patricia Herrera who are the ones who organize all of the events going on in the CTL. They also have a multimedia room, they create videos and podcasts. The name of their podcast is called Innovative Teaching Podcast. Hopefully I'll get to experience working in the multimedia room!
This week I worked on a slideshow presentation that included information like dates, events, workshops, tips, and motivational quotes. The slideshow will be used to present the information on a big monitor that is located right in front of the main entrance of the CTL building. The purpose

of the slideshow is to keep all of the faculty entering informed. Here is a snippet of one of the slides.

Working out the plan using Adobe Animate

Hello Scholars!

This week I met up with Larry (Marketing Director for AlturaCS); we caught up from where we had left off last week and I am glad to know that I brought up an important piece of information to Larry in regards to their website. While I had researched and familiarized myself with their webpage I noticed that one of the tabs under their solutions category had a dead link. This is critical to a business because they need to ensure that they are providing updated information to potential clients who may be interested in their services/solutions. The good thing is that the webpage will be updated and that will be a problem from the past. My job this week is to create an animated photo using Adobe Animate that will be used in the wheel infographic. I have attached a photo above to give you (engaged reader) a glimpse of the draft of the "wheel" (infographic). This animated photo will contain Altura's logo and different quotes that will transition from one another, similar to a slide show. I am planning on uploading the end result for next weeks blog post, so stay tuned!

Creating a Plan

Hello Scholars!

This week I have been working on creating a draft/blueprint and gathering ideas that will help in the creation of the visual "wheel" for the AlturaCS website. I have attached a photo just to give you guys a glimpse of what I am working on and I haven't finished the infographic just yet as I will continue to work on it throughout the rest of the week. Eventually the plan is to transfer all of the drafts and ideas to a final visual that will be created using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. For now I have been using a website called Canva to create these infographic. I've been really enjoying working on collecting all of the information and using different websites that help put my ideas more visually. As each week passes I will continue to share more of how my project is going. Good luck everyone!

Providing Healthcare Solutions through Technology

This week has been very eventful as it marks the first week of my Graphic Design Internship with a great solutions company; Altura CS (Communication Solutions). I've had a very productive week working with Larry Carlson who is the Marketing Director at Altura CS. We met on Monday to discuss all about what our goals will be throughout the 10-week internship and I also met Ruth via Skype (since she is located out of state), Ruth is the Social Media Manager for Altura CS. The purpose of this blog is to give a little bit of insight about what Altura CS does and how they play an important role in healthcare. Altura CS provides system solutions customized to fit the needs of many healthcare organizations and serve very important clients like CIO's from multiple medical centers. However Altura doesn't only focus in the healthcare industry they also serve industries like education, federal and government. Since this internship is 10 weeks long I will be focusing in the healthcare area. I believe this fits well with my background experience as I've worked for Optum RX and I am also a Licensed Insurance Agent for United Healthcare (these two companies are brands under UnitedHealth Group).

 Altura CS is a company that is partnered with Avaya and are designed to bring digital transformation to healthcare organizations whose patients are in high demand of communication via different channels like email, social media, web, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and text. Through the help of Altura CS and Avaya many organizations are able to provide seamless, real-time/anywhere care through secure networks all while making it easily accessible and personalized for the patient. This helps organizations like clinics, urgent cares, hospitals reduce administration errors, lower wait times, and improve the quality of care. 

Officially an S-Stem Trainee!

I am very excited to have been selected to be part of the S-Stem Train Internship, today was our first meeting. During the meeting I got the opportunity to meet other individuals who are part of the team and we were able to introduce ourselves and get to learn a little bit about each other. I look forward to starting my internship and I look forward to what the future will bring. I am beyond grateful and hopeful for these open doors.