Department of International Trade and Marketing (ITM)

Kerstin Charlotte Wendel

Charlotte is currently a research assistant volunteer at Lost City Products, an exclusive design house in New York, where she also facilitates sales, marketing, and sample coordination. Prior to this position, she held internship posts at The Foundation Showroom and Tommy Hilfiger and was store manager of a flagship store owned by Peak Performance in Sweden. She is fluent in Swedish and English and has basic knowledge of the German, French, Danish and Norwegian languages.

In her application for the scholarship, Charlotte outlined her deep interest in China, having already visited the country as a Swedish scholar together with other State University of New York students earlier this year. Because of her keen interest in the Asian region, she is pursuing a minor in Asian Studies while completing her major in ITM. Charlotte hopes to combine her European background, American education, and exposure to Asia to build a strong foundation for a future career in a global company and ably serve as an effective ambassador of ITM and Gemini Shippers Association.

For her practicum project, Charlotte plans to examine Shanghai’s unique role as a textile trade hub, where the city may be positioned in the overall Chinese international trade expansion plan, how the city can promote itself as a trade center, and how the city can ensure continued success as a connection point for foreign businesses.

Charlotte is a highly valued volunteer of the Women in International Trade, assisting primarily in the communications for special events. She also helped to plan FIT’s Falling Whistles charity event, which focused on rehabilitating the former child soldiers in Congo. In addition to being a President Scholar, she is a contributor of the College’s W27 school paper and participated in FIT’s Student Life leadership weekend. She has also volunteered at the Mercedes-Benz fashion week and the Swedish Church.

Alexis Feldman

Alexis served as the public relations coordinator of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, developing press kits and marketing materials, managing media contacts and vendor agreements, and deploying communications documents through

e-commerce to assist in publicizing over 400 performances and events. She was also a sales associate at Sephora as well as a visual merchandiser and sales associate at Charlotte Russe - Rampage

Alexis was a key member of the winning team of the Ambassadors of Cotton competition, receiving a significant and highly visible scholarship award for the team’s research and proposed marketing campaign to build the awareness of cotton in India. She is fluent in English and proficient in Spanish and intermediate Italian.

In her determination to join ITM, Alexis worked to build her savings to finance her move from Florida to New York to pursue the education she passionately treasures. She has served the College by volunteering in ITM’s third scholarship fundraising breakfast in 2009, ITM’s Economic Forum on India, the International Trade and Students Association’s promotion of the ITM program to other colleges, and the FIT Global Film and Lecture Series on Africa – Genocide and Civil War. She is also a disaster and emergency volunteer of the American Red Cross.

Her professional goal is to pursue a career in marketing and communications for an international fashion brand or a trade organization. She is also very interested in market research, which she believes may be a way for her to promote the industry and create jobs.

For her project in Shanghai, Alexis plans to learn how China communicates and connects with the world across cultural barriers to share information and build connections. She hopes to conduct research on the Chinese culture and how symbolism translates into communication within their own language, looking forward to observing the arts, music, product design, packaging, product tagging, electronic coding, technology, and many more.

Miho Chung

Miho is currently interning at Marc Jacobs International, playing a role as a communicator among buyers, merchandising, production, planning and logistics teams. She was also a retail management intern at Louis Vuitton, a backstock associate at American Apparel, and a sales associate at FIDM Museum and Galleries in Los Angeles, California. In addition, Miho has volunteered for designers in New York’s fashion week and assisted a student from Mary Mount College in writing an article about the event in her school paper.

She is fluent in English and Korean and has a basic knowledge of Japanese and Chinese languages. Miho also strongly values ITM’s diverse student body, citing it as the best part of the program in addition to its challenging curriculum and world class faculty. She consistently volunteers for the Talking Trade @ FIT guest lecture series and attended field trips to global companies that have been greatly impressed by her intricate knowledge of them.

In her pursuit of different experiences within the campus, Miho applied for and became a finalist in a competition within FIT’s Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology to present a New York retail concept at the World Retail Congress in Berlin.

Miho’s main goal for her Shanghai project is to discover the city’s strategy to become a mecca for international business. She would like to compare its economic model with that of Beijing and Hong Kong, focusing primarily on the fashion industry. Miho would like to explore the extent of American and European influences of Shanghai’s corporate and retail sectors through secondary research as well as visits to government offices, companies, factories, museums, restaurants, and other cultural sites.

As she progresses into her career, Miho hopes to work for a multinational company, which conducts business between America and Asia, combining her background in retail, wholesale, merchandising, logistics, planning, sales, accounting, public relations, and marketing. Because of this, she considers the visit to Shanghai as an essential part of her professional development.