tylerkramer

Halfway Point

Posted on July 10, 2015 by tylerkramer

Hello everyone!

After today, I have just completed my 6th week here at JDRF! Even though it doesn’t feel like this summer in NYC is already half way through, I have had an incredible time so far, as you may have heard. If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, you probably know what I have been working on these past 6 weeks and this week I have continued on the same projects for the most part. The Children’s Congress is next week, and I am getting all the final preparations in place. We have 9 T1D celebrities that will be at Capitol Hill on behalf of JDRF in which they will be advocating in front of Congressmen alongside the 160 children delegates from all 50 states that have been selected to attend as well. I have been putting together documents for my supervisor as he will be there too. On top of all this, I was assigned to update our contact list for the local JDRF Chapters in each state. So this week I have been calling a good chunk of them and getting the updated board member contacts, as they change every year. I also wrote a pitch letter that I sent out to all the “Mommy Bloggers”, informing them about the Children’s Congress for a possible upcoming blog post. Yesterday, all the interns had the pleasure once again to have lunch with our President and CEO, Derek Rapp. I still think it’s pretty generous of him to set time aside to have lunch with even the interns! As some people may know, the whole deal about the Cross Fit “joke” about drinking Coca-Cola and it’s correlation to T1D has been brought up in the news, and all over social media this past week. Derek asked us what our thoughts are about it and what we think should be a good approach by JDRF to settle the issue. Overall, we had great conversations and well a spent lunch break.

As my life outside the office goes, I continue to explore mostly everyday after work, if it’s not raining. On Wednesday I headed over to Williamsburg to cross some other things off my list, and I stumbled upon the pier which had a beautiful view of the East Side of Manhattan and the Williamsburg Bridge.

Yesterday after work I went over to the Meat Packing district. The name of this area is pretty condescending because I saw maybe 2 “meat packing” buildings on the edge of the highway. Everything else there are upscale stores, boutiques and restaurants. I explored the High Line, which is an old, raised railroad that stretches along the highway filled with modern art and too many tourists to handle. There was also a really cool modern art/painting museum at the bottom with enormous paintings of Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and statues of splattered painted elephants, horses and Mickey Mouse. I went in to the Apple Store, because it looked really cool. All the Apple Stores in the city are all different type of buildings and have the coolest staircases. I had dinner at a small diner across the street, I sat outside and enjoyed a turkey club with my most common request, “hold the tomato”.

That’s pretty much it for this week. Oh, and the Champions of the Women’s World Cup, Team USA has a parade right outside our building that is about to start so Derek invited us to come watch from his office, because he’s got the best view! As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned for more posts, & check out the pictures tab for more photos!

-Tyler

Back to Reality

Posted on July 6, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning readers!

Today is Monday July 6, and after my long weekend it feels good to be back in the office. Last week I left off telling you about my work week and that I had some plans for the 4th of July weekend, and so I will tell.

After leaving work early on Thursday just after 1pm, I volunteered to help my friend Aamna (fellow SWD intern) move her mattress and bed frame she had just bought on Craigslist from the sellers house to her apartment. Since I’ve had some experience moving furniture and mattresses to and from school I didn’t think it would be too challenging. We met in Williamsburg, a city in the borough of Brooklyn at the sellers house. We got the mattress and box spring down from the 3rd floor to ground level, and it was pretty heavy for us to carry about a half mile so we we’re looking for a dolly, or something on wheels to carry it on. We asked the Popa Johns pizza store that was right next door if they had one, but the manager came out with this little cart on wheels thing, like something you would put garbage cans on to wheel down a driveway, or 10 pizzas I guess. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for but it worked to carry the mattress, for the most part. We got to her apartment, but with both of us being T1D’s, we checked our sugar after that long haul and we were both pretty low, so we took a short break and then went back to the sellers place to grab the box spring and frame. We agreed that this wheely thing wasn’t going to help very much to carry the frame, so we stopped at gas stations and some markets to see if we could borrow a real dolly. Luckily, we found one and we returned the other as we picked up the box spring and frame. I’ve never felt more like I was living in the city when we were wheeling a mattress down the sidewalks of Brooklyn. After the 2 trips back and fourth, we were both exhausted and hungry so we found a pizza place on the way back to my subway stop and called it a job well done.

When I got back to Manhattan it was just after 7, so I continued to explore a little bit. I found out that Jay-Z and Beyonce owned an apartment in TriBeCa so I wandered over there just to get a glimpse. I found a “famous” ice cream shop, Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream on my walk back near SoHo. I waited in line for 35 minutes just to try the 4 different types of vanilla ice cream they offered, and after all that I ended up getting one scoop with some caramel on top. Friday morning I thought I’d catch up on my sleep a little. I made myself breakfast in my dorm’s community kitchen and headed out to Central Park for a couple hours with my longboard and hammock. I love Central Park. The atmosphere is great and all the different sceneries and attractions are really cool to explore. Even with the thousands of people walking their dogs, and riding Citi bikes, it’s probably the only place that I can safely cruise on my longboard while listening to my favorite band of all time, The Beatles.

Saturday the 4th was a great day. Logan and I started early at about 9am to get to Coney Island to watch The World Famous Nathan’s International Hot Dog Eating Contest, and what a wild contest it was. First up was the women’s competition, and after watching these women eat 30+ hot dogs in under 10 minutes we thought we’d seen enough. Unfortunately, the men’s competition wasn’t scheduled to start until after 12:30 and we planned on backtracking to a subway station to catch the Long Island Rail Road to get to Long Beach for the afternoon. It was real nice to get out of the city for a short while and fall asleep on the beach with the Atlantic ocean waves crashing into shore. We stayed on the beach until about 7pm until we headed back to the train station to catch the train back to Brooklyn.

When we got back to Brooklyn, we met up with our friend Jennifer (another SWD intern) and her roommates to watch the Macy’s sponsored fireworks show over the East River. Luckily, Logan’s rooftop probably has the best view of all so we went up there and had a good time. Finally, on Sunday one of my old friends told me she was visiting her roommate from school that is also interning this summer in NYC. We met at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park for a late lunch, and then we explored the financial district as I showed them around downtown and battery park. I’ve only been here for just over a month but I feel as if I’ve already lived here for much longer.

she said she’s never been to Shake Shack

Anyway, back to reality this week in the office as my work will definitely pick up some more. This was basically how I spent my 4th of July weekend and I enjoyed it very much being in the city. I can’t wait for my mom to come visit me in 2 weeks so I can show her around too! 🙂 As always, thank you for following and stay tuned for more posts and check out the pictures tab for more photos!

-Tyler

My adventures continue!

Posted on July 2, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning readers!

I can’t believe how fast this summer is going, have you been keeping up with me? Although this week was short in the office, (getting out early today & off tomorrow) that hasn’t stopped us from working hard and getting through the projects we’re working on. The highly anticipated JDRF Children’s Congress is just 2 weeks away and I feel like I really have been a big help to the Communications & Marketing teams getting everything put into place. This week I have been creating new media contact lists for a few more cities that selected delegates are in. I have also been working on my media analysis project in which I am comparing similar non-profits media coverage such as press releases, internal news and social media content. JDRF has also selected one delegate that will be attending the Children’s Congress and covering a story on his journey, so I was asked to come up with a few questions that he’ll be asked. I was also assigned a new task to research “Mommy Bloggers” as what they referred to now. These are moms and dads of either T1D’s or not, but they blog about life and parenting. I just started to write a pitch letter to inform them about the Children’s Congress and I’ll be sending it out to all the bloggers next week. On top of the daily News You Can Use document that I upload to the JDRF intranet, I’m also taking responsibility of the weekly “This Week in Mar/Com” document which we also upload and share with all the other departments to show what our team has been working on in the past week. So anyway, that’s what my days mostly consist of. In between making coffee for myself and checking in with my supervisor on the floor above, I try to keep busy every day and gain as much as I can from this internship.

On the other hand, my adventurous life outside the office has not been slowing down at all! On Tuesday during lunch, I saw that yet another one of my top artists ( a rapper) was in town doing a CD signing because of his new album. He posted on his Instagram that he’ll be at his new Puma sponsored clothing store in SoHo from 5-7pm signing autographs. So as the clock struck 5pm and everyone was leaving the office, (myself being the only fan) I didn’t even think I would make it to the store on time, but that didn’t stop me. I caught the subway to that area and got there at about 5:15. As I arrived on Mercer St. I saw a line of people outside the store anxiously waiting. I tried to hop in the back of the line but security stopped me and said I needed a wristband in order to get a picture and autograph. So yes, I bought the CD in the store, which came with the wristband then got back in line. Only about 150 people were there, so I knew I’d get an autographed CD at least. Surprisingly, after 3 hours of standing in line, in the drizzling rain on and off he finally showed up to the store. Everyone in line got a quick meet & greet, with an autograph of the CD we purchased and a professional picture! Do you know who he is?

Meek Mill (I think I won the awkward handshake award)

Meek Mill, signed by Rick Ross as a member of MMG Music Group and Warner Bros Records. (I think I won the awkward handshake award)

Dreams Worth More Than Money by Meek Mill

By the time I got out of the store with my autographed CD, it was already 8:30pm and I still haven’t eaten since lunch. When I was in line for so long I knew I couldn’t get out of line for food or even to use a bathroom. Thinking ahead, I had suspended my insulin on my pump, (stop giving basal rate) so I wouldn’t go low because of not eating for a 7 hour period. I ended up walking about a mile to Luke’s Lobster which I actually planned on going to before I knew about this CD signing. I love lobster, but I’ve never tried a lobster roll before. I knew it is my nana’s favorite so I had to try it! I didn’t know it was a little order at the register, carry-out type deal but I got the famous “A Taste of Maine” which was half a lobster roll, half a crab roll and half a shrimp roll, absolutely delicious!

Yesterday it was our fellow intern Erika’s birthday, so she invited us to join her for lunch at a burger joint near the office. I actually had a lobster mac & cheese appetizer, just can’t seem to get enough! After work I felt like a real New York-er as I picked up my dry cleaning before getting back to my dorm because lately I haven’t had the best luck doing laundry myself.

Today I’m wrapping up my projects for the week and planning out my weekend, trying to pick out the best fireworks display. I think I’m having lake withdrawals as I’m seeing my friends posts back home hanging out on the lake, so I might just have to check out Long Beach this weekend on Long Island. There’s also a hot dog eating contest in Coney Island (an area in Brooklyn, not a hot dog) that I’ll probably check out but not participate in. As always, stay tuned for more posts and check out my pictures tab as I added a bunch, (it’s the drop down menu next to the title of my blog). Thank you for keeping up with me and I hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July weekend festivities as I will too!

-Tyler

Week 5

Posted on June 29, 2015 by tylerkramer

Welcome back everyone!

Today is Monday, June 29th and I am preparing myself for this short, but busy week due to the holiday this weekend. Everyday as I come into work I always think to myself how I got here and the long journey I have traveled (literally). Many of you may not know, but since I was diagnosed I have always been very involved in the diabetes community back home. My first year with diabetes, my family and I participated in a nation-wide bike ride, the Tour de Cure. I was nominated the Youth Ambassador our 3rd year participating in 2008, which led to many more opportunities in my community. My bike ride team, named Team Tyler, consisted of more than 50 family members and close friends, and we raised an astonishing $26,000 that year. About a year later I was introduced to Sanofi-US, a pharmaceutical company which my representative that sold my insulin pump had told us about. At the time they had a pilot program for children & parents of T1D’s to lead empowering and interactive support groups for fellow kids and parents dealing with T1D. Since becoming an A1C Champion (my title as a youth mentor), I have had the great pleasure and opportunity to travel all around the country leading support groups, with either one or both of my parents by my side. Going on 7 years now, I have been to about 20 different cities, from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Dothan & Birmingham, Alabama, and to even Fargo, North Dakota (not as weird as the movie Fargo, fyi) just to name a memorable few. Since I turned 18, I began another program within the support groups to travel alone, and was provided hotel and chauffeur accommodations to and from airports, because I’m still not even old enough to check into some hotels or rent a car. All of this has just been an absolute amazing experience and I cannot express enough through words how life-changing it has been, and how lucky I am to have done these things over the years.

Within this time period, my family and I founded our own non profit organization called D.R.E.A.M (Diabetes Research and Education Advocates of Michigan). D.R.E.A.M. has partnered with the University of Michigan to fund cutting-edge research programs at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in which our proceeds support research projects that my doctor, Dr. Menon was leading. All the support I have had since my diagnoses in 2005 has really had the most positive impact on myself and my outlook on my disease. I do not know where I would be today without the day to day support of my parents, my sister Allison, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and everyone in between. On top of all of my friends who have stood by me and supported my campaigns and fundraising events, and even you guys reading my blogs, you know who you are ;).

After all of these positive things that have happened because of just one unlucky occurrence when I was 10 years old, it had really made me realize that having type 1 diabetes isn’t the worst thing in the world. Yes, it can be very annoying and repetitive at some points but dealing with this is just something I have learned to incorporate into my daily life. I am generally good about handling my diabetes and staying in control, which is why I truly enjoy reaching out to fellow T1D’s and share my stories and experiences with them at these support groups.

I feel everything I have done over the years has led to this internship at JDRF and I want to thank Students With Diabetes for giving me the opportunity and to be a member of SWD. As I wrap up, I just want to say something that my dad always said to me growing up and that is, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. I think he was right.

As always thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more posts and check out the pictures tab for more photos!

-Tyler

Are you ready for this?

Posted on June 26, 2015 by tylerkramer

Once again, good morning from JDRF International!

Before I start today’s post, I want to warn you that this will be a little lengthy because of my series of events this week, but hopefully worth the read and I appreciate everyone’s interest in my blog!

So as far as in the office, every week seems to be getting more hectic! I have more tasks to be completed; I am participating more in meetings and team conference calls, meeting more employees and getting a real feel for the professional workplace. Monday I was assigned a new task in which I would compare other non-profit organizations’ websites, internal news stories, media coverage, broadcasts and all that jazz. On top of my daily task of completing the News You Can Use document for the JDRF intranet, I also was assigned to research news outlets and reach out to them with a press release to cover a story on the celebrities that are attending the Children’s Congress next month. Tuesday was Staff Appreciation day, but even though the 5 interns and I are not quite staff, everyone was very accepting of our presence thus far. We had a great luncheon, with a taco and salad bar, refreshments and even desert! On Wednesday I had a check-in with the Human Resources team, which went very well I thought. I had to explain what I have been doing since starting my internship, my process of applying for this internship and any accommodations needed. On through Thursday and today I’m continuing my projects.

Now I’ll move on to the exciting stuff. Wednesday was a beautiful day in the city, with blue skies and a temperature of about 85 degrees so I thought I’d skip the dreadfully hot and limited personal space subway commute and walk home. On my way I stopped at Bryant Park and checked that off my list, grabbed a bite to eat at Shake Shack inside the dinning course of Grand Central Station for the 3^rd time since being in NYC, (different Shake Shack locations each time) and explored the NY Public Library for a refreshing break of air conditioning. On Thursday, probably the most spontaneous thing to ever happen to me on my lunch break or in life in fact had happened. It was about 11:55 and we were about to grab lunch (eat my pb&j in the café on our floor), and Logan, being the huge Jimmy Fallon fan he is was checking their snapchat story for the weekly VIP ticket giveaway in which they announce a location in NYC that an intern is going to be, and the first two people to find him/her will win the tickets.. Can you guess what happens next? So, as he sees that the intern is going to be at the Staten Island Ferry Station, which happens to be just 3 blocks from the office, he asks me in full excitement “Do you wanna come with me to try and find this intern?!”, and I reply with a sense of no chance of actually winning “I mean, sure”. At this point it’s already a couple minutes past 12pm so I didn’t even think we’d make it on time. But, that didn’t stop us at all. We got off the elevator and literally sprinted down to the insanely busy station, with a slight chance of finding her. We split up and circled 2 laps around the entire perimeter, each shouting “Jimmy Fallon Intern! Tonight show tickets!” Unfortunately, no sign of anyone. At this point it was about 12:15 and we thought we missed them. Suddenly, as we’re standing right outside the middle of the station, catching our breath and sweating through our work attire, we see a girl with a Jimmy Fallon t-shirt walking towards us. We asked her if she’s there for the tickets, thinking she’s just a fan, but she says “I have the tickets, and you guys just won!” We were both in complete shock! She gives us two VIP tickets, wristbands, a letter with procedures, takes our picture, tells us to give her our twitter accounts and minutes later my phone is blowing up with notifications with our picture we just took mentioned by the official Tonight Show account.

Only picture I could take from the VIP lounge

The Fallon Tonight snapchat

Tweet from the official Fallon Tonight Twitter

Now, before I explain the next part, a couple weeks ago we actually bought tickets for the NBA draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which was also last night but didn’t start until 7pm. We asked the intern for what show are these tickets for and she says for tonight only, and she needs confirmation we can go before she signs them off to us. We think to ourselves for a minute, NBA draft or Jimmy Fallon live? We told her about the draft but she said we’d have to be in line at the Rockefeller Center at 3:30, the show starts at 5 and only runs until about 6pm, which was perfect!

We rushed back into the office, and we explained to our supervisors what just happen, with hopes of leaving early to catch the show and luckily they had no problem at all! So we took off at about 2:30, stopped at home to change, and met back at Rockefeller. As soon as we got in line, the security guards were extremely firm about no cell phones, cameras or anything allowed upstairs in the lounge or studio so unfortunately I do not have any pictures. Being there was such a cool experience to be in the studio, with Jimmy Fallon, the Roots (his band) all the producers, and everything! We waited for about 45 minutes for him to come out at 5 and the show hosted Mark Wahlberg, Chris Colfer (from Glee), and Morrissey as the musical guest! Unfortunately, Mark Wahlberg was only in NYC for one night, which was Wednesday so we didn’t see him or that part of the show, but overall it was a great show, especially to experience it live. I had a seat in the 3^rd row, because of our winning VIP tickets, and during a commercial break, Jimmy came out into the audience for questions so I raised my hand and got to ask him, “How long did it take you to write your new book” He replied with a short pause, some filler words, and replied “Uhm, well, probably.. shorter than this conversation.” The whole audience laughed and my face was frozen in the smiling position after the show because Jimmy was absolutely hilarious!

Oh yeah, then the NBA draft! The Tonight Show ended before 6 o’clock so that gave us time to grab a quick sub from subway, then catch the actual subway from Times Square and make it to the Barclays center right on time for the #1 pick. We originally had upper bowl tickets, but halfway into the first round I, being the more experienced concert/NBA game attendee, I convinced Logan to come with me and try to get as far down as we could to sit. Especially because the stadium had so many open seats in the lower bowl. We made our way down, without anyone stopping us and grabbed seats in the 6^th row right in front of all the players, reporters and announcers. The draft was filled with mostly rowdy Knicks fans, a section of Sixers fans, Logan who was probably 1 of 5 Spurs fans and I, most likely the only Pistons fan in the arena but it was a great time and such a cool experience yet again to see something like this live.

On top of this long, eventful night as I got back to my dorm to test my blood I noticed that my finger poker has fallen apart. Luckily, being an intern with 5 other T1D’s I send out a group message to the interns asking if anyone had an extra that I could use until getting a replacement. Fortunately, Jennifer did have one and brought it for me this morning. Now, I’m thinking to myself if I hadn’t been working here at JDRF I probably would have no chance of getting another pricker from someone, so shout out to Jennifer and thanks for that! 🙂

Today marks the 30^th day of being here in NYC and with my internship already more than 1/3^rd completed, I couldn’t be more pleased with everything this wonderful city has given me the opportunity to do and on top of the work experience that I am really here for. As always, stay tuned for more posts, check out the pictures tab for more photos of this week and enjoy your weekend, as I most definitely will as well!

If you made it this far, I thank you and appreciate it greatly for reading!

-Tyler

Is it Monday already?

Posted on June 22, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning readers!

Today is Monday, June 22 and I am in the office at my desk getting ready for my 4^th week here at JDRF. This weekend was very exciting and adventurous to say the least, like all of my weekends have been while being here. After work on Friday, Logan and I thought we’d give the Citi Bikes a try (rental bikes sponsored by Citi to ride around the City, no pun intended). We picked them up right outside the JDRF office, and rode across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was very cool. The only problem was that when renting the bikes for a 24-hour period, you have to check in at another bike rental stop every 30 minutes, or you’ll be charged. So we hauled across the Brooklyn Bridge using our bells on the bike to clear the bike lane, checked in and rode around Brooklyn for a couple hours.

Saturday I tried to sleep in just a little to catch up on my sleep, however the city sirens always seem to keep me from sleeping in too late. After breakfast I explored SoHo for a while, walking around and going into some stores that I had on my NYC list. I used to watch this show called Miami Ink, in which the owner and star of the TV show, Ami James has a tattoo shop in Miami, and now in open in New York as well. The shop used to be called Wooster St. Social Club but they changed the name to Love Hate Social Club, which made it a little confusing for me to find. I walked in and asked if Ami was there, but he is currently in Brazil. Ami was born in Israel and served in the Israeli Army, which is mandatory for all Israeli’s when they turn 18. I thought it’d be cool to talk to him for a moment because I was just in Israel last summer and also met and stayed with Israeli soldiers while I was there. There’s also a tattoo artist who has type 1, Darren, who I also wanted to hopefully meet but unfortunately he wasn’t there either, so I just may have to go back. In the evening, Logan and I met at the Staten Island Ferry, and cruised over to Staten Island. The boat ride was probably the best part because when we got there, we didn’t want to travel too far because it was already about 7pm and we didn’t want to get lost. So we stopped in a local Chinese carry-out for dinner and walked down by the water then got back on ferry to head home.

Sunday I attempted to sleep in again but that never seems to work anymore, even at home or up at school. I’m not mad though, because I want to take full advantage of my time here. Although it was raining all morning, I stayed in my dorm for the majority of the day and tuned into Netflix. At night, the other interns and I had plans to go see this comedy show, featuring Amy Poehler. It was a free show and started at 9:30 so we wanted to get in line early to make sure we got tickets that they handed out at 8:15. So we arrived at the theatre at about 7pm, after a short meal at Potbelly (my suggestion, because I love Potbelly). We got in line but we were definitely near the end. We did get tickets at 8:15, and then everyone in line left and planned on coming back a little before 9 to get back in line. We took an ice cream adventure, and we found Hagaan Dazs in Penn Station which was only a few blocks away.

While waiting in line outside the theatre, I took a walk up closer to look at the line and I noticed a girl standing with a tube coming out of her pocket. “Is that a pump”, I asked myself. I took a double-take and we made eye contact, then she actually asked me “are you diabetic?” She noticed my tattoo as I walked by. We started talking a little bit and she said she noticed all of us standing in line, because I and all of the interns have noticeable insulin pumps. Just another fellow T1D awkward encounter; seems to happen to me more and more. Anyway, we came back at about 9 and stood in the back of the line again. However, the line we got in then was apparently the stand-by line for tickets, which we were not told and neither were the other 100 people in front of us. So the line started to move in the theatre, but about halfway the ticket lady says, “I’m sorry there are no more seats available”. Pretty bummed, we waited in line for all that but it was a good night anyway, despite the unfortunate timing and rude ticket lady. I went up and asked why we weren’t told to stand in the other line when we had gotten the tickets but she replied, “Just leave”.

I’m starting to work on new projects for the week and looking forward to more adventurous days in New York City, but I am also missing my family and friends back home. This is my first summer I haven’t been on a lake every day, but instead working hard and preparing for my future, which is also pretty important I guess. I hope you enjoy following, and as always check out the pictures tab for photos and stay tuned for more posts!

-Tyler

TGIF

Posted on June 19, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning readers & happy Friday!

Pheww, what a week this has been! But before I go into this week, I thought I’d share what the other interns and I have been working on in the studio. To watch the videos that our IT intern, Erika has filmed, edited and posted last Friday, click here!

Anyway, this week I continued to reach out to different outlets (newspapers, magazines, broadcasters) in order to send a pre-written press release to cover the local JDRF Chapter delegate’s story on their journey to the 2015 Children’s Congress in Washington D.C. next month. I have also been writing/editing letters that my supervisor will send out and sharing my ideas on many different projects that we work on. Meanwhile, on Wednesday I was invited to my first “official” meeting with the Communications team including my supervisor, his boss, and everyone in between to discuss our weekly updates and progress on all of our tasks. On Thursday, the other interns and I were treated to lunch during a Marketing/Communications team meeting, which went well. I am also listening in on conference calls, learning new things every day, and experiencing how JDRF operates and what everyone here at the corporate offices does to help JDRF as a nonprofit organization.

As far as outside of the office goes, on Monday while on my lunch break I saw that one of my favorite rappers, Juicy J, was in town and had a concert at the Irving Plaza at 7pm. I had asked Logan if he was interested in going with me, but he is not much of a fan so he respectfully declined my invitation. I really wanted to go and especially at a small venue only 5 blocks from my dorm, I couldn’t resist. So I bought a ticket, and went to a concert by myself, which was a first. The show started at 7, so I had gotten permission to leave the office a little early. I met some people standing in line, who were also huge fans like myself and ended up getting a front row standing space for all of us. It was a great show, and I’m glad I went. Here’s a picture of Juicy, so you can really see how close I was.

On Tuesday, I went over to Brooklyn and enjoyed a phenomenal cheeseburger & fries at Shake Shack with Logan. I normally prefer sliders over big burgers, but it was delicious!

After dinner, we walked around the pier and the sporting complex and played some soccer on the field, with a beautiful view of the Financial District skyline behind us. Again, on Wednesday I started the day working on the “News You Can Use” and posted it to the JDRF intranet. I have never been much of a daily news reader, but with this assignment the news I read through is mostly all about type 1 diabetes work, local fundraising, community news, blogs, and JDRF involvement, so I like that I’m always up to date on the most recent technology, events, and local/community news. Wednesday night after work, I crossed off a few more attractions on my NYC list which included the Apple Store on 5th Ave, Trump Tower, and Barney’s New York.

Yesterday, the other interns and I were invited to the JDRF New York Chapter office to participate in a panel discussion in which the main topic was, “transitioning into college, dealing with type 1 diabetes”. Although we had thought it was going to be more of a formal question/answer discussion, when we arrived there was only 2 families with younger children, one of which the mom was a student currently in med school, on the way to becoming a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and one other mother who has a son that had just finished his freshman year at college. She had the most questions, and I felt that we helped her worries, for the most part. I always enjoy just talking about type 1 diabetes with other people that are going through the same experiences, trying to be a helping hand with parents as well. Having to deal with diabetes on a day to day basis for the past 10 years, I feel I have learned what tends to work for myself. Although everyone is different, and diabetes may have slightly different effects on other people, for the most part we all have the same daily occurrences and I like to share what works for me and learn from other T1D’s as well.

As I’m finishing up my work for the week, and planning things to do this weekend, I just want to say again I am so incredibly thankful to be working at JDRF this summer and all the things I have been able to do while I’m here. As always, I hope you enjoy reading my posts and stay tuned next week for more!

-Tyler

3 weeks in NYC & loving every minute!

Posted on June 15, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning readers!.. (followers, mom & the rest of my family, interns, facebook/linkedin/twitter friends & fellow T1D’s) As my 3rd week begins in the office, I’m starting to work on many projects to help my supervisor and the rest of the Communications team here at JDRF. Every morning when I get to work, I start working on a daily update of today’s news involving JDRF, type 1 diabetes, and all of the relevant stories. I put together a document that we like to call “News You Can Use” that I post to the JDRF Intranet every day before 2pm (our internal network). This week I will also continue to reach out to each city that has a JDRF Children’s Congress Delegate and pitch a press release to reporters, editors, & outlets of local news for each city. For more information about this years Children’s Congress check out the website, http://www.cc.jdrf.org. On top of joining in on meetings, conference calls and making mocha’s, this is what my daily schedule consists of.

Every week here in New York City seems to be getting better on better, even in the office! However, this past weekend was definitely a weekend I will never forget. Friday night was an average night in the city, walking around, exploring, window shopping and showing my friends Logan and Erika around my neighborhood in Manhattan, also known as the Flatiron District. Erika had mentioned to us that she was going to Barnes & Noble a couple blocks from my dorm for Jimmy Fallon’s book signing in the morning. Meanwhile, Logan and I had been trying to get tickets to see his show since the first day we arrived in NYC but unfortunately the whole summer is sold out already. So, we decided to join Erika in the morning and see what the deal was. They woke up earlier than I did and texted me at about 8:30am (which woke me up), saying they are in front of the line about to walk in. Right then I was thinking to myself, well if they are already there, I’d have to still wait in line, and maybe get a chance to get his book signed. However, I still wanted to see what the deal was so without showering I ran out the door, stopped in the cafe at the corner, grabbed a bagel and rode my longboard about 12 blocks uptown. As I approached the doors to Barnes & Noble there was no line, (surprisingly) I bought the book and went upstairs. I saw Logan and Erika in the 3rd row sitting down, and there just so happen to be 1 empty seat on the end in the 4th row, so I took a seat and we waited for 2 hours for Jimmy to come out. Long story short, everyone in the room ended up meeting Jimmy Fallon personally, I shook his hand, he signed the book, and the security guard kicked me off stage before I could say another word. Well worth it!

The rest of the day we hung out at Central Park, tossing a football, playing soccer & Frisbee during the beautiful afternoon. For dinner, Logan and I met up at the Brooklyn Pier once again and enjoyed the famous Grimaldi’s Pizza and ended the night a little earlier because I wanted to rest up for my Sunday adventure. One of my older cousins, Randy lives on Long Island and told me when I moved out here that he had a friend who is a pilot and can take us flying for a day, so that’s what we did! I took the train from Penn. Station to Long Island and we drove out to the airport ready to take flight. Although I’ve been on many commercial size planes, one my top things to do in my lifetime just so happens to be to fly in a 3-4 passenger plane no matter where we go. So yes, my dream came true as we flew all around Long Island, down to New Jersey, and back over Manhattan. This was the flight of a lifetime and it was such a cool experience that I had the opportunity to do while I was here. I actually learned a lot as well, about flying, being a pilot and what it entails, the communication that is needed to be in the air and all sorts of interesting things that I never knew. We were in the air for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, and we landed once in New Jersey at the smallest airport I’ve ever been to. I took a ton of pictures that I will post in the pictures tab of my blog so check those out too! As always, stay tuned for more posts as I’ve got more work to get done. I hope you enjoy readying my blog and feel free to share!

Signing off, Tyler

“I’m not a bum, I’m a human being”

Posted on June 12, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning readers!

Today is Friday, June 12th and another week in NYC is in the books! Although this week was a very busy week in the office, as my supervisor was present and had daily tasks for me to complete, (sorry I cannot go into deeper details) I’d like to focus on something else that really got to me, in a personal way.

Now living here in New York City, I am fortunate enough to commute to work everyday, with the use of reliable transportation, even though many people may have doubts about it. I will get where I need to be, on time, give or take a few minutes, am I right? Anyway, the other day I came across this video (not during work of course) and it really made me think different about homeless people. Living in an area such as West Bloomfield, Michigan all my life, I very rarely saw homeless people, or even people that seemed to be struggling. Besides the once in a while trips down to Detroit for a Tigers game, you do see more homeless people in the city. When I was younger it was like I was scared of them, or even thought they were not worth helping because it was their fault they were living on the streets. However, as I’m getting older I’m starting to realize a lot more, as everyone should, and after watching this video my perspective changed drastically.

So since my first day of work, as I get off my subway stop at the corner of Wall St. and Broadway, I see this young homeless man on the corner, every single day. My first week here I would just walk by, and not acknowledge him at all (as I have been doing all my life). Then day after day, I would look more, and see people talking to him, over-hearing a little of what he was saying to people. On Wednesday, as I walked by I read his sign and it said “Parents were killed by a drunk driver, homeless, anything helps, God Bless”. Reading that got to me, not only because of the on-going drunk driving epidemic, but also a young man, maybe 5 years apart from myself, sitting on the ground every single day, begging and begging people for anything that could possibly help him survive.

As I left work that day, he was still there with a couple more dollars in his cup than what he had in the morning. I was thinking all day that I wanted to help, but not give him money directly, because I guess there is a trust issue in the back of my mind thinking about what he would do with the money, which sounds bad but everyone thinks it, you just do. So that evening as I prepared lunch for myself for the next day, I see my loaf of bread is about done. Me, being the picky eater that I always have been, I never eat the ends of the loaf of bread. I took those end pieces and made another pb&j with the hopes of seeing this homeless man the next morning so I could give him something to eat. I know the ends of the loaf of bread isn’t the most appealing, but I sure wasn’t going to eat them, but this man is out there literally trying to survive.

The next morning as I got off my stop, I do see this man so I take a seat next to him. He had the same sign from yesterday so I asked him, “is this true?”. He replied without hesitation, “yes”. I asked him a few more questions about it, being respectful as possible, because it would really suck to find out that people are lying about this. After about 4-5 minutes of talking, I did feel a sense of truth in his words, and I felt bad. So I asked him if he’s hungry, and he said “of course, man”. I pulled out the sandwich I made and gave it to him. He seemed surprised that a man younger than him would do such a thing. As I’m about to stand up and walk away he stood up with me, but as I reached out to shake his hand, he gave me a hug and told me how thankful he was to have this meal. Now, normally I wouldn’t even think twice about a peanut butter & jelly sandwich as such a blessing. However, as his sign read, “anything helps” I realized the sandwich could be his only meal of the day. As I walked away, I started to tear up and could only think about how grateful I really am to be able to live the life that I do. Knowing that there are people like him everywhere I go in this city, I know I can’t help everyone but this man’s words really struck me. I can’t even begin to imagine growing up without parents, and the struggle of living on your own in this concrete jungle.

As everyday goes by, I think to myself how lucky I am to have this internship experience and the opportunities that I have been fortunate to come across growing up. I love listening to music every morning, and coincidentally today before I wrote this, I heard from Snoop Lion, “money makes a man, and that’s a crime”. I feel it’s very sad that people are looked down upon so much more because of their status but as the title of this blog is “I’m not a bum, I’m a human being” comes from the man in this video that I came across the other day, please watch it in your spare time.

I could rant some more about the things that most people take for granted, including myself, but I’ve got some work to get done and with that, I hope everyone has a great day and enjoy your weekend. As always, stay tuned for more posts and check out the “pictures” tab for more of a glimpse of my life in New York City!

First official weekend & week 2 at JDRF

Posted on June 9, 2015 by tylerkramer

Good morning from 26 Broadway!

It’s Tuesday, June 9th, and my 2nd week of work here at JDRF has begun! This past weekend was pretty filled as my tourist life continued. Before I came out to NYC, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do while being here, which mostly included touristy attractions, stores and restaurants to dine at. On Friday night, Logan (friend/cubicle neighbor) and I explored the meat packing district (surprised to see no meat factories), but we went to the High Line Museum which was interesting to say the least. Although, I feel there was more hype about the 8th floor observatory than how the view actually was, as we stepped out onto the platform. Overall though, it was well worth the free attraction!

Saturday I took a personal tour through the Upper East Side, and wandered into a couple of stores like Bloomingdale’s and had a late lunch at Serendipity 3 (both on my NYC list of places to go). In the office, as I am venturing to drink coffee, I thought I’d try their “famous” mochaccino, which was more coffee flavored than expected but it was good on top of my mid-day cheddar & bacon omelette. At night, I met up with Logan again on his side of Brooklyn and explored the pier, which was full of beautiful views of the Brooklyn Bridge and many, many time-lapse photographers as the sun set beyond the Financial District over the East River. On Sunday, I woke up and attempted to do laundry for the first time in my building. I had to call my mom because I wasn’t sure where to throw in the individual soap packages that we had bought, because the directions on the washer was a bit confusing to me, but like always she knew what to do, thanks mom :). Later on, I spent the majority of the day around the famous 5th avenue, again window shopping as I love to do. As the evening came quick in this fast pace city, Logan invited me over to watch the NBA Finals game 2, (because I don’t have a TV in my dorm) and was glad to see King James come off on top.

Monday morning was a beautiful day in Manhattan, once again my daily morning to catch the subway to work was jam-packed as always. Although, I now understand the “hold your backpack in front of you” subconscious rule to avoid hitting people and creating more space for even more passengers to avoid my personal space. Me, being amongst the younger crowd on the subway going to work, I do get some “looks” upon the other older businessmen as I get off at my stop at Wall St. with the big boys. As I arrived to the office yesterday morning, I was eager to finally meet my supervisor, as he was fresh off the cruise ship and survived the Bermuda Triangle last week. Soon after we had a formal introduction I was quickly diving into projects that he had planned out for me to tackle, which I am proud to be working on things that are as important as these tasks are to the Communications team here at JDRF. Yesterday we had such nice weather around lunch time, the other interns and I chose to take our daily post-lunch walk around Battery Park just a block from the office. Again, getting caught in the street performers stunt act, I can practically say their chant with them because I’ve seen them everywhere, as it goes, “Obama wants change, but we want twenties!”, then us interns disperse quickly before they come around with their bags.

As this week goes on, we are treated to see the New York Mets vs. San Francisco Giants game this evening after work, which we’ll be leaving right from the office. As always, stay tuned for more of my adventures as this week continues and check out more pictures from this past week!

-Tyler