When Celia Mastromattei ’24 was in seventh grade, she played exhibition basketball at the Garden during halftime at a Boston Celtics game. Years later, she was back on that court—as an employee watching the Celtics bring home the 2024 NBA championship. “It was a full-circle moment,” she recalled.
And it all started with her internship.
Endicott students aren’t just landing internships—they’re securing opportunities with some of the world’s biggest brands and institutions, including the Celtics, Patriots, Reebok, Puma, Harvard, Disney, Aflac, Clarks, Marriott, and the New York Film Academy, to name just a few. Many alumni, including Emmy Winning ESPN Lead Video Editor Rachel Pearson ’08, attribute their success to the transformative power of Endicott’s hands-on learning model.
Mastromattei spent her senior full semester internship with the Celtics working in Partner Development, and at the end of it was offered a part-time position as a partnership coordinator assistant. Her first day as an employee was the day of the final championship game, and she got to watch it all “from jump ball to confetti.”
“It was incredible,” she said. “I never thought I’d be in that position in my life. Growing up, I had only been to one or two Celtics games and now I’m working them all and getting paid to be there. I have had an opportunity to meet many incredible people passionate about working in sports.”
Mastromattei’s journey with the Celtics began in her internship interview when she met her future boss and fellow Gull Jim Kallinich ’10.
“Celia being from Endicott was a plus given I also went through the sport management program and know how well-balanced it is,” recalled Kallinich, Director of Partner Development.
“However, Celia’s team-first attitude, attention to detail, and general approach to work sealed the deal for us to bring her on for the internship and later an expanded role.”
When Kallinich came to the Celtics in 2019, he was also hired by a former Gull, Kara Keena ’09, Director of Basketball Operations, with whom he’d stayed connected after becoming friends at Endicott.
They met up at spring training while Kallinich was working in Client Services with the Red Sox (a position that had also come from another Endicott connection: Amanda Heglin ’06, who Kallinich met at Fenway Park during an Endicott alumni speaker series).
“I told Jim I needed him on my team,” Keena shared. “I knew I could trust him to get on board and run.”
Keena has also worked at the Celtics since her internship role during the 2008 championship run.
“I loved it and pretty much tried to never leave,” said Keena, who started as a receptionist, then worked her way up through the Corporate Partnerships team. “Two years ago, our new head coach Joe [Mazulla] asked me to work for him on the Basketball Operations side. It’s been the fastest 15 years of my life.”
Another Gull who calls the Celtics home is Director of Basketball Communications Brian Olive ’06, who started his internship in the Media Relations department during the 2005-06 season and was hired full-time.
“My advisor at Endicott, Professor Rich Nastasi, knew that I was trying to get into professional sports and suggested that I contact the Celtics where he knew the Vice President of Media Services/Alumni Relations,” recalled Olive.
The moral of the story: when a proven internship model meets the Endicott network, magical things happen.
Introducing the Endicott Experiential Edge
Endicott has a long history of leading in the internship and experiential learning space—but the market is getting noisy. As appreciation grows for the value of experiential education, it has become much more ubiquitous in higher ed marketing strategies.
Despite that growth, said Assistant Professor of Experiential Learning Cherie Lynch, Endicott maintains a high profile amongst other institutions because of the proven and unique structure of the program here.
“It’s exciting to see this concept becoming a part of institutions more broadly,” she explained. “At the same time, people are still learning how to build these programs, and our structured model with specialized internship faculty and three required experiences is highly enviable and something many schools would like to try to build in.”
To celebrate and better promote the robustness of Endicott’s internship model, the College launched a branding campaign that introduces a new name for the internship program: the Endicott Experiential Edge.
“With the new Endicott Experiential Edge name, we’re making it easier to tell the story of Endicott’s successful internship model to people who haven’t seen it in action,” said Endicott College President Steven R. DiSalvo, Ph.D. “Now, the proof of concept our outcomes provide can be partnered with branded language to showcase the power of the program.”
Endicott Provost Sara Quay, Ph.D., added that the branding will strengthen messaging about how large the impact of internships is on students.
“Endicott’s history of requiring three internships is transformative. We now have a way to reference our program’s excellence and to promote the value it adds to the student experience,” she said.
The new campaign will also help broaden what ‘experiential learning’ means at Endicott, explained Lynch.
“There is nuance to the term that we can explore further—things like research-based internships, more creative internships related to film, and service-based internships,” Lynch said. “We’re looking to see how we can help students customize and curate their internships in a way that helps them shape their future and capitalize on their differences and strengths.”
Coinciding with the branding launch, the College has completed its first extensive external review of the program, which included looking back over the entire history of internships at Endicott back to the 1930s, said Internship & Career Center Dean Dale McLennan. Insights from the review are already evolving the internship program; one major enhancement planned for the upcoming year is an update to the entire four-year internship course sequence.
“We assessed what we’re doing now and where we’d like to be in the future,” explained McLennan. “By setting short- and longer-term priorities, we have a roadmap to keep innovating and ensuring that experiential learning continues to be the differentiating factor in students’ academic experience and career success.”
Internship journeys in action
A growing number of Endicott alumni trace their career success back to a specific internship or connections they made while seeking and completing internships.
Josh Sousa ’20 M’21, Global Brand Partnerships at Bose, said his internship experience gave him an edge over his peers.
“When many of my friends from other schools graduated and were ready to enter the workforce, they were left with very few options,” he explained. “At Endicott, we benefit from choosing from the company that makes the most sense for both parties, kicking off an incredible career.”
Inspired by her special agent uncle, Sharon Phelan ’07 wanted to work for the FBI since she was a little girl. Now she’s a Tactical Analyst on the Counter Terrorism Squad, all thanks to the experience she earned through internships at Woburn District Court, Woburn Police Department, and the Massachusetts State Police Crime Prevention and Control.
“The internships are 100% why I work for the FBI today,” she shared. “During the interview process, I articulated the experience gained by observing cases firsthand within the Computer Facilitated Crime Lab and various trials at Salem District Court. I was also able to observe subject interviews and witness prep to testify, which is part of my job now.”
Gina Melaragni ’22 credits her internship and now position as a Sales Enablement and Marketing Coordinator at Groupize, a unified enterprise meetings management platform co-founded by former Endicott Alumni Council President and Board of Trustees member Alisa de Gaspe Beaubien ’94, to help from Endicott’s Career Center.
“I’m the biggest advocate for the Career Center,” she shared. “They would sit down and do interview prep and look at my resume. It helped me secure this internship.”
De Gaspe Beaubien’s connection to the internship program started with her own experiences as a Gull. Since graduating, she’s hosted more than 50 interns over the years.
“I picked Endicott due to the professional focus of it and I enjoyed my internships,” she explained. “Now, regardless of where I’ve worked, I take advantage of the internship program … Employers get extra help and insights from younger generations, and the students learn practical things they can put as skills on their resume.”
Powering the network
The symbiosis between the Endicott Experiential Edge and engaged alumni highlights why the breadth of the Gull network is so beneficial. Alumni send open positions back to campus, host informational interviews and shadow visits, return to campus to speak to current students, and serve as ambassadors who may receive a resume and recommend a fellow Gull to the appropriate people within their own company.
Why does it work so well?
“Alumni have confidence in our process because they’ve gone through it,” said Cher Harrington, Internship Faculty. “They know the rigor of having a full-time internship, and I think they’re confident that any students that come out of Endicott will have similar skills to what they have.”
Endicott helps teach and maintain networking skills by organizing transportation to events and meetings for professional organizations like Women in Sports and Events (WISE) and by fostering intentional relationships with alumni willing to mentor or speak to students about their careers.
One of those mentors is Candace Giselle Thomas ’12, Vice President of Human Resources Generalist at Eastern Bank and Vice President of Endicott’s Alumni Council, who wanted to pay forward the guidance she received from faculty and staff as a first-generation college student.
“Now that I’ve learned the ropes, it’s important to reach back and do the same for others,” she said. “In a niche industry like HR, who you know can help you in your career long-term, so I’m always willing to help someone take their career to the next level.”
For Chris Lipscomb ’17 M’18, working on the corporate side of a footwear and fashion brand was something he’d never considered before an internship at public relations agency TRACS exposed him to Reebok as a client. Now, he works there as a Talent Acquisition Manager, several years after landing a role through connections made with a few Gulls at the company.
One of those Gulls was Jason Silva ’14 M’15, Senior Manager of Global PR & Brand Marketing at Reebok. Silva got his start in public relations through an internship at CGPR, which he took on as an elective to get exposure to marketing while he earned his MBA and later turned into a full-time position. From there, he heard of an opening at Reebok through fellow Gull and friend Tyler Redding ’14 M’15.
“Tyler notified me of the role right as I was finding out about it on my own,” Silva explained. “I got to talk to him about the business, his role, and his exposure to the marketing team. He gave me some good insights into how to formulate and pass along my resume and what kind of conversations I might have. And he put in a good word for me, too. It was a full-circle Endicott Gull moment.”
Paying it forward, Lipscomb brought in one of his good friends, Andrew Sawyer ’17 M’19, to fill an opening at Reebok that he knew Sawyer would enjoy.
“This role came across my desk that I knew Drew would be a great fit for, so I called him and got him involved in the hiring process and he ended up landing the role.”
And the great circle continues.
The Class of 2023’s Career Successes Include:
- 99% employed, in graduate school, or in the military
- 65% making $50k per year or more
- 95% of those employed found work related to their program of study
- 35% obtained employment through a former internship site or Endicott referral
- 87% say their internship experience prepared them for their current role