Getting Started
MY STORY
Shaping the Future
The first time I was given academic freedom was the day my passion for advertising began. Before my sophomore year of high school, I was selected for the Alternative School (A-School) program at Scarsdale High School. Made up of 82 students and just five faculty members out of a 2,000 person institution, this tight-knit group of intellectually driven individuals formed my sense of identity and belonging. The A-School fostered a love of learning; it was a welcoming, motivating environment where students felt they could reach their highest potential and be authentically themselves.
As part of the A-School’s mission to help students discover their career paths and become self-starters, the January Internship Program tasked each student with finding and securing an internship for the month of January. Internships spanned a broad spectrum; I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but I wanted something hands-on and creative, something that reflected the originality and independent-spirit I found in the A-school. That search led me to Auburn Jewelry, a boutique, woman-owned jewelry brand.
What I didn’t expect was how hard it would be to convince professionals to take a chance on a 15-year-old. I cold-called businesses for days, running into walls at every turn–most of these roles were designed for college students. However, when I met Sam Levine, Auburn’s founder, something clicked. She saw past my age, recognized my early interest, and gave me a shot.
Auburn Jewelry
As an eager student intern to the CEO and founder, Sam, I was thrown right into the fast-paced world of owning and operating a small business. What started as a crash course in the basics of visual branding turned into hands-on lessons in content creation, Pinterest strategy, and the magic of knowing your audience. I designed social media posts to spotlight Auburn’s signature jewelry and ran weekly scheduling through Tailwind, testing and adjusting as I learned what worked and what didn’t.
Within a month, I helped grow Auburn Jewelry’s Pinterest reach from 700 to 72,000 monthly viewers by combining trend research with strategic design and consistent posting. Additionally, nearing the end of my internship, I assisted Sam in the early stages of a complete redesign of her website. I also supported the business’ day-to-day operations, from coordinating product deliveries to managing inventory. It was my first taste of brand storytelling and digital marketing, and the feeling stuck.
Sparti Scents
The COVID-19 pandemic was undoubtedly a time of uncertainty, isolation, and boredom. After what felt like a year of being cooped up at home attending school over Zoom, I decided to transform my boredom into something greater. In August 2020, I discovered Sparti Scents: a Scarsdale-owned, fragrance balm start-up company. Continuing with my passion for fashion and beauty, I quickly got started as Sparti Scents newest intern.
Working alongside the founder and CEO, Abby Wallach, along with a small team of interns, I aimed to create content that helped differentiate the brand in a crowded market. With most A-school internships still remote due to the pandemic, I made Sparti my full focus for the month of January and poured myself into the work, eager to create and learn despite the virtual challenge.
I designed social media graphics and ads using Canva, scheduled Pinterest content using Tailwind, a strategy I had just fine-tuned at Auburn Jewelry that I went on to teach Abby, and helped grow the brand’s digital presence. I co-hosted Instagram live sessions to promote new product launches and engage directly with customers in real time. Sparti showed me the ins and outs of truly building a business from the ground up, and how quickly a brand can progress when there’s vision, effort, and consistency behind it.
Pamela Robbins
After spending time in beauty and small business, I wanted to explore another world that had always fascinated me for my senior year internship: fashion. At first glance, my role at Pamela Robbins, an upscale boutique in Scarsdale, might have just seemed like another retail job. But to me, it was something entirely different. The store carried luxury labels like The Row, Proenza Schouler, Victoria Bekham, Isabel Marant, and IRO–brands I had never even heard of at the time.
As a teenager still learning what high fashion even was, this quiet, refined side of luxury felt like a new world. I found myself paying attention not just to the clothes, but how they were styled on the mannequins and clients, how the staff spoke about them, and how customers responded. Although most times I watched this happen as an outsider, I finally felt like I was getting my “in” into the fashion world. It was my first real exposure to the kind of branding that doesn’t scream for attention, but stays with you anyway.
During my internship, I handled tagging and organizing weekly shipments, reworking store displays, and managing inventory. I paid close attention to the store layout and presentation, learning how even the slightest shift in product placement or spacing could change how someone moved through the space, or whether they stopped to try something on. I also took on back-end tasks like digitizing the store’s complete order history, which helped streamline day-to-day operations. As I got more involved, the owner, Pamela Hochstin, offered me a part-time job to continue working beyond the internship. I stayed on through the rest of my senior year–including during my senior project internship at the end of the year. Pamela’s trust meant a lot to me, and gave me the chance to stay immersed in an environment that, for the first time, helped me see fashion as not just clothing, but also as a story brands were quietly telling.
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. But, 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.