A Place to Succeed
Meet a few of the students, alumni, faculty and staff who have found success at RIT/NTID.
May May Pan
Some people’s names reflect their personality, and May May “Summer” Pan, whose sunny disposition is as bright as a Southern California summer day, is one example.
Born in Los Angeles, Pan, who is Chinese, is the first in her family born in the United States.
The 23-year-old is majoring in Graphic Media Marketing and plans to earn a master’s degree in Packaging Science at RIT.
“One of my favorite classes is Graphic Media Work Flow,” she says. “It’s a challenge and mixes creativity with organization and the ability to manage many projects.”
Pan also has a passion for fashion, and she spent last summer as a co-op student at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, blending her graphic media marketing expertise with her fashion flair.
“I learned so much,” she says. “The people were very friendly. There are a few RIT graduates working there, and they went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.”
When asked what was the best part of living and working in New York City, Pan says, “The shopping, naturally! I also loved going to Times Square and seeing the huge advertisements on enormous billboards. I especially enjoyed people-watching— everyone is so fashion conscious—you see so many styles and get lots of new ideas.”
Will she make a career in the fashion industry?
“I’m not sure — it’s very competitive,” says Pan. “But fashion will always be a part of my life.”
Pan’s original six-week co-op was extended to 10 weeks by Bloomingdale’s, and they recently offered her another 10-week co-op for next summer.
“They liked the work I did on photo retouching,” she says. “And I really loved working there. I had a great advantage — I always knew what was going to be on sale before everyone else! I like having the inside scoop!”
From the Fall/Winter 2007 issue of FOCUS magazine