NYC!

Yet another awesome opportunity that Elmira College offers is a trip to New York City for the students who are enrolled in Professor Wolfe's Strategic Retail Management classes. For a small additional course fee, students can catch a bus to New York City and view many student-exclusive places, have special tours, and network with Elmira College Alumni who currently live in the city. This year since we were only able to stay in the city for the day, Professor Wolfe packed as much activity and opportunity into one day as possible. Wednesday morning, met the bus behind McGraw at 3:50 am. and left for NYC at 4:00 am. There was heavier traffic than anticipated since President Obama was visiting the city and Justin Beiber was in the area to perform for the annual tree lighting ceremony at Rockafeller Center, so we arrived for our first appointment at the New York Stock Exchange a little after 9:00 am. After going through security and getting our photo I.D. badges, we met Mr. Smith, a stock broker, who gave us a tour through the building. Then, we met the bus and traveled to our second appointment at Tommy Hilfiger Corporation where we met with a graduate of Cornell College who recently started her employment at Tommy Hilfiger. She showed us two videos of the history of Tommy Hilfiger and we heard a Public Relations representative speak before beginning our walking tour of the building. Our favorite part of the tour was "The Closet" which held over 30,000 articles of clothing which was every single piece of clothing made by the company. They were organized first by type of clothing, then by color. There was even a section of clothes from the most recent collection that had been viewed at fashion shows and runways. We were told that when celebrities contact Tommy Hilfiger for clothes to wear, a selection is always made from the rack of clothes from the latest collection. There was also a display of Tommy products that had been worn or embellished by well-known celebrities that Tommy had purchased back at auctions to showcase for the company. There was a black sequined Tommy dress worn by Tina Turner, Tommy jeans worn by Marilyn Monroe, butterfly embellished jean shorts by Tommy worn by Mariah Carey, and various pictures of other celebrities wearing Tommy clothing.
After our tour of Tommy Corp, we met the bus and traveled to nearby Tommy Hilfiger store in Soho. From there, we went to IAC where we met an Elmira College Alumni from the graduating class of 2004 who was recently promoted to Director of Event Planning. She gave us a brief tour of the building and brought us to a meeting room on the eighth floor where she showed us a powerpoint presentation of her experiences working for IAC. Every floor of the building had floor to ceiling windows displaying the Manhattan skyline, which was breathtaking to view during the tour. Then, we had some free time to explore the Apple Store, FAO Schwartz and Barney's before heading to the Union League Club on 37th Street to meet with Elmira College Alumni and network. We headed back for Elmira around 9:00 pm. and returned around 2:00 am.