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Good morning.

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My name is Juliet.

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I'm a senior here
at Mount Holyoke.

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And I study psychology
and anthropology.

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And today I'm very excited
to be talking to you

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about arts administration and my
summer at New York City Ballet.

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So today I'm going to be
talking to you about some

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of the background
of the company,

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how I got this position, sort
of the ins and outs of living

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in New York City.

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Some of the major
projects I worked on,

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as well as take a
look at [INAUDIBLE]

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OK, so a brief history
of New York City Ballet.

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So up here on the left
is Mr. George Balanchine.

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He was a very well-established
dancer and choreographer.

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And he and Lincoln Kirstein,
here on the bottom,

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sort of got together.

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And they were thinking,
we need to create

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a really distinctive American
style of ballet technique.

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Because there were companies
all over the world.

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They had Russian
ballet, and French,

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Italian, English,
and so many others.

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And they said, we
really need something

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that is truly American.

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And so they got together, and
Balanchine came up with what is

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known today as the
Balanchine technique,

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as well as the school of
American ballet [INAUDIBLE] And

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they trained dancers to be
[INAUDIBLE] [? adapt to ?]

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[? this style. ?]

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And Jerome Robbins
was also [INAUDIBLE]

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He is a very well known
choreographer, who

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did pieces for New
York City Ballet,

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as well as West Side Story,
and many other works.

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And this is them today.

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It's bold, it's striking.

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And it is distinctively
American [? in tone. ?]

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So this was my office,
[INAUDIBLE] center.

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This is the Metropolitan
Opera House.

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And each of these
buildings together

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comprise the Lincoln Center
for the Performing Arts.

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It's the Upper West
Side of Manhattan.

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And so a little bit
about how I got this job.

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So I really tapped into
my networking resources.

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So last summer I worked for the
Saratoga Performing Arts Center

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up in Saratoga Springs.

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And this is the summer
home for New York City

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Ballet, [INAUDIBLE] Orchestra,
and some other companies.

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And I was kind of going around
doing my internship duties,

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and I was setting up this
[? iron ?] testing for an event

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that we were having.

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I was actually working
with a representative

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from New York City Ballet
[? sitting ?] on this event.

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And I said, OK,
this is my chance.

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I'm going to talk
to her, I'm going

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to get a little
bit of information

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about what she does.

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And tell her about myself.

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I had that one-minute
elevator speech in mind.

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And in that time I was able
to ask her about her job.

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She worked in education, which
I'm really interested in.

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And I was able to
get her information.

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And a couple months
later, I said,

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I'm going to go
ahead and do this.

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I reached out to
her, I sent email.

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At first, no response.

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But I wasn't frustrated.

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I sent my feelers out
elsewhere, and I was

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applying for other companies.

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And then I did hear back.

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And she said I would
be happy to forward

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some of your information.

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And I was able to go through
the interview process, which

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was a two-day process.

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And actually got the job.

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And I was super grateful.

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And so some of
the major projects

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I worked on-- when I landed,
they were diving right

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into the Playbill Project.

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Which is essentially,
that booklet

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that you get when you
go to any performance.

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And it has the artists' names.

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It has advertisers.

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It has all that
kind of information.

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They also have pages
of contributors.

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So the first project
that they had me do

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was work on updating and
revising the patron listings

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this upcoming season.

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So that required me
to use this software

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called Tessitura, which New
York City Ballet, Metropolitan

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Opera, these companies use
to manage their constituents,

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and the relations
with the constituents,

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and their contributions
[? too. ?]

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So yeah, I learned how
to use the software.

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It was very number-crunchy.

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It was very analytical.

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I was just spreadsheets
on spreadsheets,

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very, very detailed work.

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And it was invigorating,
also, because this

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is a collaborative venture
for the entire department

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of development.

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I should say I worked in
membership and development.

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So many members of the
development department

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were working on this.

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And [? that was ?]
[? one duty ?] for me to meet

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with and kind of [? connect with
 other people. ?]

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But then I went to my
supervisor, and I said,

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you mentioned appeals earlier.

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I would love to be doing more
writing and creative work.

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And she said absolutely.

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So we got to work on doing an
appeal, where I was devising

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interview questions, and
reaching out directly

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to a company choreographer.

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And I interviewed
him, and this was

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to compose the
language for an appeal.

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So an appeal is a
letter that's sent out

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to new and exsiting
donors to urge

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them [INAUDIBLE]
contribute the company,

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and kind pledge their
ongoing support.

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So these letters take
on many different forms.

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And this one was focused
[? around jewels, ?]

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which was the opening
performance for the season,

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[INAUDIBLE]

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So I did a lot of
online research.

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I did this interview
[INAUDIBLE] format.

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And I found that I
absolutely loved, loved,

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[? writing them. ?] Because
I was communicating with

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constituents in all different
[? ways. ?] I was answering

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the phone calls.

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I was managing ticket
reservations for a young

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patrons event with the
[? US ?] [? Open. ?]

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So I was communicating
over email and phone.

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And I realized that this was
the way that most [INAUDIBLE]

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skillfully, I was able to
communicate with people.

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And I felt like it was a
very successful project.

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I know that now I can bring this
to other jobs in the future.

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And I know that's
[INAUDIBLE] so that

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was a great thing to learn.

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And then just a
little bit about how

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I sort of navigated the city.

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Because New York City is not
an easy place to live in.

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It's extremely rewarding.

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I was able to actually
connect with some alums who

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were very kindly able to
take me into their home.

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And of course, using my funds
for transportation and food

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and all those things
[INAUDIBLE] city.

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So just using your resources,
using your alum connections

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is all really important.

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And then finally, I just
want to go ahead and talk

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about some takeaways.

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So some things I really
got out of this internship

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was I realized how crucial
your environment is, your work

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space.

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I mean, New York City Ballet,
the department I was in

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was so well [INAUDIBLE] and
so supportive and so healthy.

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And I think that's really
crucial in determining where

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you best fit in, and where
you can find a job that really

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sustains you in the long term.

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So I found that to
be really important.

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And when I was doing
that Playbill project

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with Tessitura, that software,
it was all very new to me.

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And it's kind of a high
[INAUDIBLE] situation.

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That's sensitive information.

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People want to be
accurately represented

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for the contributions
they made to the company.

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So I wanted to make
sure that, obviously, I

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was doing a good job.

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There was no room for
mistake in that case.

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So I really needed to reach
out and ask questions,

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even if it was uncomfortable,
and really make

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sure I was doing a good job.

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And also, this last
point here, giving your

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all even to small tasks
that seem, maybe, mundane.

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People will notice.

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Your employers will notice,
will supervisor will notice.

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And really, just being
present, and providing

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substantive efforts
[? to what you ?] need to do.

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And one other thing that I
wanted to talk about too,

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that I actually
did this here, was

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space, sort of taking up
space in the work place.

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So I was completing
my internship.

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I requested an exit
interview with my supervisor

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and the director of my office.

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And I said what could I
do better in the future?

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What can I bring to
the table next time?

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And he said everything
you're doing is great.

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But what I really say is
don't doubt your place

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in the workplace.

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Don't doubt your
place in the office.

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And that really stuck with me.

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Because I think that's
really important as people

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who identify as women
in the workplace,

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and all these kinds of--
these things we absorb,

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it's really important
to feel comfortable,

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and to take up the appropriate
amount of space [INAUDIBLE]

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office.

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So that was really
important to me.

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[APPLAUSE]

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