Alexandra Hofacre ’27, left, and Catelin Bromfield ’26 as interns for Milestone Marketing in Columbus this past summer. (Courtesy of Kristen Orlando-Ricordati ’05)
When it comes to finding the ideal job candidate, employers know they can count on Kenyon — which is why a growing number are offering internships exclusively for students from the College.
Created with the help of the Career Development Office, recent ones have involved helping small- and medium-sized businesses with their marketing, conducting international research, supporting the performing arts, and working for the nonprofit sector.
“The College is committed to generating more experiential learning opportunities, and internships are core to that. But they have never been more competitive, and they’re getting increasingly competitive. This just removes the competition.”
Josh Lisko
director of employer relations at the CDO
These opportunities are designed to be win-win situations, he said. The employer gets a known quantity — smart, talented Kenyon students who can work across disciplines — and students and recent graduates get a leg up on their careers.
G Vu ’25
G Vu ’25 is one of three current or former students to work for AGO, a movement accelerator that helps activists with their communication strategy, since the nonprofit formalized an agreement with the College to grant students first access to well-defined projects that support positive social change. An economics major from Vietnam who graduated in May, Vu researched and wrote about economic reconstruction in Myanmar to help inform the organization’s work.
“I feel like it really aligned with my skills and interests and helped with my resume,” Vu said. “It was also really good for networking because I met a lot of great people through AGO, and they connected me to other people who were on the career path that I want to pursue.”
While this ongoing partnership is paid for by AGO, the CDO has created additional opportunities by using donor funds to underwrite Kenyon-only internships on a more limited basis.
This past summer, for example, the Harlene Marley Endowed Fund for Internships dedicated to the performing arts allowed the CDO to seed two internships at New York Stage and Film — a nonprofit arts incubator that helped workshop “Hamilton” before it took Broadway by storm — and another pair at The New Harmony Project, a national organization based in Indiana that nurtures writers.
The CDO also was able to pay for three students to live in Columbus over the summer and intern at Milestone Marketing, an alumna-owned digital marketing agency, thanks to support from the Wright Family Fund for Experiential Learning in Central Ohio and the Robert J. Gibbons Internship Fund.
Next summer, the CDO will fund an internship at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Melzetta Moody ’05, chief people officer at AGO, with intern Gus Callejas ’26
Melzetta Moody ’05, chief people officer at AGO and a member of the Kenyon Board of Trustees, said she sees the partnership with her organization as a way to help both her current employer and the institution that molded her.
“I feel a deep sense of responsibility to ensure that not only AGO gets the talent that they need but to also ensure that the talent at Kenyon is celebrated and elevated as much as possible,” she said. “I’m always going to find an opportunity to bring a Kenyon student or alum into the mix because I intimately know the quality of the talent.”
Harnessing that talent through this internship program is paying dividends for AGO already, according to Executive Director Gillian O’Neill.
“It blew our expectations out of the water in so many ways,” she said. “They were so smart. They were so articulate. And cared deeply about the work we are doing at AGO. I’ve referenced their work many times. Their contribution was really important to what we do, and the social movements we do it for.”
At Milestone Marketing, Kristen Orlando-Ricordati ’05 has made a habit of hiring Kenyon students as remote interns — and later, as full-time employees. Providing stipends so that student interns could work with the company and its clients in person was the natural next step, Lisko said.
This past summer, three students filled these Kenyon-funded spots, writing blogs, assisting on photoshoots, meeting clients, writing social media posts and more.
“I loved it,” said Alexandra Hofacre ’27, a student from outside Washington, D.C., who is majoring in English and religious studies. “I came away from it with a vast portfolio of new skill sets. Every week, Kristen and her team did a great job of introducing a new skill.”
“I loved it. I came away from it with a vast portfolio of new skill sets.”
Alexandra Hofacre ’27
who interned this past summer at Milestone Marketing in Columbus
Even better, Hofacre has continued working on projects on a part-time basis for the company from Gambier this fall.
Orlando-Ricordati said her Kenyon experience gave her a great respect for the quality of the students who go there, and she wanted to give back.
“So many amazing people opened doors for me and gave me opportunities and taught me and mentored me,” she said. “And I wanted to do the same thing for Kenyon students.”
