Raia Thomas

During the start of my sophomore year, which was held online due to the quarantine, I decided that I wanted to begin using my love and talent for art to create a business. This self-created and administered business began as me painting commissioned portraits for friends of my mom, or old teachers. I was able to create and grow an Etsy shop. Over the years I have painted over 50 commissioned pieces, and hope to continue to build my business. This serves as both a creative outlet and a way for me to create memorable pieces for friends. I work 10 hours a week, typically during my free time. This business began due to COVID boredom, but has become something that I hope to turn into a potential career. I continue to create works when I have access to my materials.

My babysitting experience has been growing since I began babysitting in middle school. However, I now babysit for a brother and sister. I have the responsibility of picking them up from school and bringing them to after school activities. I take them on the subway from Carroll Gardens to Bedford-Stuyvesant. I typically work on school days, but occasionally on the weekends or late nights. I have worked for a number of families over the summer of 2023. This included watching, and playing with, a three year old girl whose parents recently had a baby. I would see her for 25 hours a week, which consisted of taking her to the park, carousel, botanical garden, and simply playing with her at home. Over these years, I have become experienced in a multitude of tasks; playing games, reading books to young children, helping parents with their daily tasks, making meals, running errands, creating fun activities for children, and building my communication skills with both parents and the children.

Throughout the duration of my internship, I spent time working between the office and the store. As a small company, I was able to work closely alongside the owner and founder, as well as the CEO. While they were not in the office every day, I worked under their assistants. I became familiar with Google Sheets and organizing things online, as well as more manual tasks like running errands and organizing items to be shipped or sold. I participated in organizing aspects of shoots and helping maintain an efficient and productive work environment.

Throughout my senior year of high school, my close friend and I decided to plan and host social events for our friends and other high school students around New York City, as a result of our shared passion for organizing events and social activities. We organized the renting of venues, collection of money, and created lists. Additionally, we coordinated schedules and timelines for events, as these events would consist of over 250 attendees. Communications with the venue owners were administered directly by us. We brainstormed and implemented creative event concepts and themes. I furthered promotion for these events through creating and designing posters for each event, based on the themes and goal of the event. Ultimately, we have gained both experience and memories from these events and hope to continue them when we return home.

My internship at Rag and Bone was held in the Design Department of the company, working alongside designers in three factions within the department. During my time at Women's Ready to Wear, I helped with color-ups, picking out colors, and coloring in the sketches, and photographing pieces. I would assist my mentor, Donna, with anything she needed and would attend meetings with her. After two weeks of working in Women’s Ready-to-wear, I moved on to Denim, requiring more hands-on tasks. These included photographing pieces, organizing the archive closet, and working on the slideshow sent to the head of the company, Marcus Wainwright. The final department, Accessories, was more similar to WRTW, requiring help with color-ups, taking photos of pieces, and editing the designs of the items. The internship consisted of 18 hours a week for the two months in the summer prior to my senior year. Over these weeks, I had the task of working on mood boards for the fall collection and finding inspiration images on the internet. I was able to gain insight into the inner workings of the fashion industry and how company decisions are made.

On September 28th, 2022, NPR released a podcast in which interviewer Gwynne Hogan detailed a situation within a New York public school. Asylum seekers coming from Central and South America were placed into P.S./M.S. 5 in South Bronx. Their sudden introduction into life in the United States, resulted in the lack of a smooth transition into this new living situation. Many of the asylum seekers do not speak English nor have vital resources available to them to live. After hearing this podcast and reading the article, my mother sent it to me, knowing I would seek out ways in which I could help. Although I do not have an immediate personal connection to the asylum seekers or the school, being a member of the community of New York City sparked my initiative. I reached out to the journalist, Gwynne Hogan, to discover ways I could help. I began to construct ways to bring attention to the subject to my community within my own school.

Along with one of my friends, I began to construct ways to bring attention to the subject to my community within my own school. We organized a drive for clothing, school supplies, and toiletries, a bake-sale, and created posters containing an Amazon Wishlist in which people could purchase items that would be directly sent to the school. We also organized a clothing drive alongside the Social Justice committee within the school, creating posters to bring attention to any specific needs. Then bins were placed in the school lobby that are available for people to bring donations to. I was able to contribute around 6 hours a week to this cause.