Back to the beginning…
Shaping the Future
The first time I was given real academic freedom was the moment my interest in advertising sparked. Before my sophomore year of high school, I was selected for the Alternative School (A-School) program at Scarsdale High School. Made up of just 82 students out of my 1600-person high school, the A-School was a tight-knit, project-driven community that encouraged curiosity, independence, and creative thinking. It was the first place where learning felt truly personal, where I felt seen, and where I began to understand the value of following my instincts.
As part of the A-School’s mission, every student completed a January internship each year in the program. While I wasn’t initially sure what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to do something creative–something that told a story. I wanted to be in a similar environment to the A-School: where my ideas mattered. That led me to my first internship, and ultimately, the path I am still on today.
Auburn Jewelry
Finding an internship as a 15-year-old was no easy feat. After days of cold-calling, most companies turned me away. That was until I met Sam Levine, founder of Auburn Jewelry, who took a chance on me.
What began as a crash course in small-business operations quickly became my first taste of branding and digital marketing. I created social media content (seen right), learned Pinterest strategy, and designed posts that spotlighted Auburn’s signature pieces. Within a month, I helped grow the brand’s Pinterest reach from 700 to 72,000 monthly viewers through trend research, design, and consistency.
It was my first experience with visual storytelling, and I absolutely adored it.
Sparti Scents
After nearly a year of remote school during COVID, I was craving a creative project that challenged me. That search led me to Sparti Scents (now Scentivent Technologies), a Scarsdale-based fragrance balm startup, where I joined the team as their newest intern.
Working directly with founder Abby Wallach and a small team of interns, I created content to help the brand stand out in a crowded beauty market. I designed social media graphics and ads, scheduled Pinterest content using tailwind–a strategy I had refined at Auburn Jewelry and later taught to Abby–and contributed to growing Sparti’s digital presence. I also co-hosted Instagram Live sessions to support product launches and connect with customers in real time.
Sparti showed me what it looks like to build a brand from the ground up, and how quickly a small team can grow when there’s clear vision and consistency behind it.
Pamela Robbins
For my senior year internship, I wanted to explore the world of fashion, which had always fascinated me. That led me to Pamela Robbins, an upscale boutique in Scarsdale carrying designers like The Row, Proenza Schouler, Isabel Marant, and more–labels that I had never even heard of before.
As I learned the rhythms of luxury retail, I found myself paying attention to not only the shoes, but to how they were styled, how the staff talked about them, and how customers reacted. It was my first exposure to branding that’s subtle and understated, yet incredibly intentional.
During my internship, I managed inventory, tagged and organized weekly shipments, reworked store displays, and digitized the store’s order history to streamline operations. As I became more involved, the owner, Pamela Hochstin, offered me a part-time position that I kept thorough the rest of my senior year.
This experience helped me understand how presentation shapes perception, and how fashion communicates a story in itself.
Conclusions
Looking back, I don’t have many polished visuals from these first few internships (thanks to my long-lost high school email account and the ever changing nature of technology)–just the memories, lessons, and creative spark that started it all. However, what I do have is tangible proof of my growth: evaluations from my A-school internship advisors and excerpts from my own reflections at the time, documenting how these early roles pushed me to be resourceful, ask questions, and think like a creative professional before I even had the language for it. These early roles shaped the way I approach brand storytelling, content, and collaboration. They laid the foundation for what I am doing now, and for everything I am still eager to learn.