My name is Rachel Geissler.  I’m 22 years old and have lived in Staten Island my entire life.   I have one younger brother, named Sean.  He’s 19 years old.  We both still live at home with our father.  The house that we live in is the house where my father was born and raised.  My parents are divorced.

I attended the College of Staten Island High School for International Studies as a member of the inaugural class, starting in Fall 2005.  As a member of the inaugural class, I was very much involved in many “firsts” for the school and helping establish traditions alongside my classmates.  During my four years at CSHSIS, I studied Mandarin Chinese.  I hosted exchange students from both Bahrain and Berlin.  In my junior year I went on a school trip to Paris, London and Madrid.  I participated in the school’s journalism program, working as both the business manager and copy editor for the school’s newspaper, The International Insider.  As a part of the journalism program, we worked in conjunction with The Asia Society, having opportunities to attend special events and report on them for the school’s paper.  For the first three years I was also a member of the school’s Model United Nations team and had the opportunity to attend conferences at the actual United Nations and in Washington, DC.  I also played on the school’s soccer team for the first three years.

I started at Baruch College in the Fall 2009 semester as a finance major and communications minor.  During the Spring 2012 semester I decided to switch my major to corporate communications and my minor to business writing.  I have taken several business classes at Baruch, including microeconomics, two levels of accounting, two levels of marketing, two levels of management, intro to business and business law.  In terms of journalism courses, I have taken business communications and copy editing.  This semester is my last and I am taking this course alongside another journalism course that focuses on covering economics.

Last semester, I interned with Hifive Agency.  Hifive Agency is a small public relations company that was founded about a year and a half ago.  While interning there, I managed one of our clients’ Facebook and Twitter accounts, scheduling daily posts for them.  I also assisted the agency’s president in putting together media lists, writing pitches and any other research tasks she assigned me.  This semester I am interning with Key Food Stores Co-op, Inc.  I just started this past Monday and will be interning in their marketing department.  For the past 4 1/2 years, I have been working as a physical therapy aide at Staten Island Orthopedics & Sports Medicine.  I assist the physical therapists by calling patients in, preparing hot and cold packs as needed and demonstrating exercises for the patients as directed by the therapist while keeping track of the patients’ progress in their charts.