2020 Farm to Table Speaker: Allison Alvarado

Allison Alvarado transferred from the College of the Desert in Palm Desert to attend Cal Poly Pomona.  She is a senior in apparel merchandising and management with an option in retail and minoring in business management. Born in Chesapeake, Va., and raised in Palm Springs, her short-term career plans are to work in wholesale sales, attend trade shows, do road work, and represent several clothing brands in a showroom while gaining a master’s degree in business. Her long-term career goals are to work in public relations or have her own showroom with several brands.

Before attending Cal Poly Pomona, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I attended junior college because I wanted to save money and figure everything out without paying the tuition at a four-year university. I graduated with an associate’s transfer degree in business administration and found out about the apparel merchandising and management program at Cal Poly Pomona from my Disability Resource Center counselor. She suggested I check out the program after I expressed interest in fashion. After I received my acceptance letter, I attended the Huntley College of Agriculture’s open house and was able to meet the professors and the department head in apparel merchandising and management. The event helped me and my family fall in love with the program and Cal Poly Pomona.

My initial career plan coming into the department was to study to become a buyer, however, I learned about other career opportunities and decided to keep an open mind during my college career. The department gives multiple opportunities to network with industry professionals through events, alumni panels, and they frequently send emails about internship opportunities.

I was able to apply and receive an internship with a showroom in downtown Los Angeles. I started interning for One of Eight showroom and since then I have attended the MAGIC tradeshow twice, a full year of Market Weeks, and several appointments with major retailers like Nordstrom. I was able to make this connection with my boss and mentor, Sesi Teal, thanks to Professor Muditha. Senanayake who emailed out Teal’s internship opportunity.

In my internship, I have helped with the daily tasks of keeping the showroom clean and ready for market week or appointments. I have researched new accounts within the West Coast region for our fashion-forward labels, worked with buyers and industry professionals at tradeshows and market week, and placed orders with buyers one-on-one. Teal has given me so much hands-on experience, and this wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t already have the foundation from the department which helped her gain trust in my capabilities as an intern. Being in this internship and in the apparel wholesale operations class has shown me what it’s like to be a sales rep and it has made a remarkable impact on my future career goals.

The AMM department gave me classes that taught me new skills such as Adobe Illustrator, using Microsoft Excel for buying formulas, and professional development. It also gave me multiple chances to network amongst my professors and classmates with clubs, alumni panels, and learn-by doing group projects. My favorite group projects were the ones that taught me something new and challenged me. AMM consistently threw me in group projects with classmates, and they prepared me with the knowledge in each of my classes.

For example, this spring I had the chance to analyze a research paper for the first half of the semester so that I could write one with my group during the second half. Our prompt was to research how to make the Target Club Wedd Registry more attractive to Generation Z and millennial clientele. We decided to revamp the registry to make it a customizable personalized experience for those guests so that they would be more likely to choose Club Wedd over competitors. We sent out a survey to AMM students, who fall in our consumer demographics, and received high agreement rates. This helped us proceed with our research and develop our new strategy, and we used our Illustrator skills to demonstrate different examples of how we could make it a customizable experience.

This paper took more than 10 weeks to complete and we will be presenting it to the professor and the class as our final. I would not have been able to succeed in this class if it weren’t for my previous courses such as digital illustration, integrated fashion communication, apparel professional development, and dynamics of the global apparel complex. In all, my classes integrated well to give me the knowledge that I need to jump into the fashion industry.

I also have learned a lot through club activities. When I came to Cal Poly Pomona in Fall 2017, I lived on campus so that I could meet as many people as possible. I immediately joined all three of the AMM clubs: Fashion Society, the Apparel Merchandising and Management Association (AMMA), and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) so that I could see what each one was about. I ended up joining Fashion Society in my first year and participating in AMMA as a member, then secretary, and finally vice president.

Being a part of AMMA has been one of my greatest achievements while at Cal Poly Pomona. Along with the president, and my friend Rhiza, we were able to rebuild the club, add 35 new members, have guest speakers, and attend field trips to places like VANS, Reformation, and a Cal Poly Pomona alum’s factory. We were also able to do all this thanks to our club’s advisors: Professor Peter Kilduff and Lecturer Claudine Papillon; Professor Senanayake, the department chair, and Patty Mutz, the department’s administrative support coordinator.

In my second year at Cal Poly Pomona, I became an agricultural ambassador for the Huntley College of Agriculture and helped the recruitment office for the college. Because the AMM building is so far away, I wanted to make sure that I joined an on-campus club so that I could feel close to the main campus as well. At the end of my second year I started working for the Veterans Resource Center.

My time serving as the Huntley College of Agriculture ambassador at the Veterans Resource Center, has been my overall favorite opportunity that I was able to take advantage at Cal Poly Pomona. My dad is a Navy veteran and being able to meet and work with other veterans and dependents has been the cherry on top of my final year at Cal Poly Pomona. I have been able to gain a support system that I didn’t realize was open to me as a dependent, gained friends, and lifetime caliber connections with the people at the center.

I feel like I have made an impact at the center by creating events that encourage our veterans and dependents population to achieve their best in school. This position led me to meet Elke Azpeitia, the coordinator of the Veterans Resource Center, and with her guidance, I have been able to build my professional development. For the past three years, Cal Poly Pomona has provided me the opportunity to learn and achieve confidence by actually doing the work and for this, I feel extremely lucky.

Unfortunately, a lot of the events that I had been planning for the past year for AMMA and the Veterans Resource Center were cancelled because of COVID-19. We had just put money on a location for AMMA’s yearly gala and put together a planning committee before we were given the news to cancel the event. It would have been a Roaring 20s theme and the last gala I could attend before graduating. For the Veterans Resource Center, I was looking forward to having my last couple of weeks with my coworkers and be able to say goodbye to everyone at the VRC’s ceremony for vets. I was really looking forward to commencement since I had family flying in from Virginia, Colorado, Mexico, and Brazil. It has always just been my parents and me in California, so I was looking forward to having everyone together for this celebration.

When everything was getting canceled, it was difficult having to give up these events and celebrations because I have always loved tradition and having my hard work pay off. However, it is extremely important to me to flatten the curve and to protect those who are at risk. In the meantime, I have moved home temporarily to help my parents, and I have helped my mom make masks for our family and friends.

My immediate future is uncertain. I lost a job opportunity with my internship because of the economic instability created by the pandemic. I also see it as a sign that I should jump into an MBA program sooner than I thought. Meanwhile, I have been working on my resume with the Career Center so that it is perfect to send out. But I have faith that what is supposed to happen will happen. I am confident that my Cal Poly Pomona education and experience has prepared me for when that opportunity arises.