I refused to let Covid wipe out summer internships for CUNY students and recent grads.

In mid-March of 2020, many of my students and recent grads found out summer was canceled as agencies and advertisers alike started to shut down internship programs due to Covid. At the time, I was trying to convince Pereira O'Dell to hire a few paid interns. When the agency started to waffle like so many others had, I knew something had to be done - in a way that would give visibility to these students so the industry would realize the huge impact canceling internships would have on everyone. 

Most CUNY students work while studying, and those jobs help pay their family’s bills. Many of the students lost jobs due to the pandemic, so losing their paid internships was a double whammy. I wasn't about to give up without a fight. I challenged Pereira O'Dell to double down – to go ahead and hire the interns and to do it publicly in order to provoke conversation and get other agencies and advertisers to step up.

I created a site featuring the cream of the CUNY crop.

Time was of the essence. It took only a few weeks to identify and vet the best students and grads. Then a couple more to build the site, which I did myself using Squarespace. I had a very clear vision of what the site should look like from the start. It needed to put a human face on the problem. It's one thing to talk about young talent. It's another thing to look into their eyes. The logo was designed very quickly by Pereira O'Dell, and we threw together the Instagram and Twitter presences practically overnight. The site launched on May 11th with an article in Adweek and some grassroots LinkedIn and IG posts. Vision to launch of the Save The Internships site took less than a month.

I made it easy to find and hire a talented, diverse intern.

Employers browsed the talent pool via the “Find Intern” page where candidates were grouped by role. They viewed talented and diverse Account Management, Copywriting, Design, Strategy, UX/UI candidates and then clicked through to their profile page which included a photo, bio, LinkedIn profile link, portfolio samples, and a portfolio link.

The result: dozens of summer interns hired. And a handful of full-time hires at agencies like Pereira O’Dell, BBDO, Mediacom, and more.

Partners helped make it possible.

When it comes to helping interns get the experience they need, we were all in this together. Thanks to Mona Gonzalez of Pereira O’Dell, our Founding Agency Partner. And a heartfelt thanks to Ericka Riggs who was then with The AD Club of New York and to Keni Thacker, founder of the G.R.O.W.T.H. Initiative who provided STI interns with education and development and most importantly contacts that will last them a lifetime.

Employers who stepped up.

Participating CUNY schools.