INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY: Kinkaid School students Greta, Gabriel, Charlie, and John (all Class of 2025) interned at real estate firm Hines. They were hosted by Kinkaid graduate Palmer Letzerich (Class of 1990).

Credit: Kinkaid School

Palmer Letzerich wears three hats at The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas, U.S. He’s an alumnus, an alumni board member, and a current parent to students in the upper school. He had been informally offering internships to his daughters and their friends through his own alumni network for the past couple of summers. Wanting other students to gain the same experience, he proposed an idea for a formalized Kinkaid program sponsored by the alumni board that could support the entire rising senior class.

“He saw value for his daughters as students and as people to get real-world experience—even for just a week in the summer. It helped them wrap their minds around career paths and decide what they wanted to do [in the future],” says Emily Dominique, Alumni Activities Manager.

Kinkaid’s alumni internship program gives students a one-week job shadow experience in the summer. It pairs rising seniors with hosts who are alumni, current parents, or parents of alumni in industries throughout Houston (including nonprofits, hospitality groups, real estate, oil, gas, renewable energies, education, and science labs). Time is saved by limiting hosts to those already known to the Kinkaid community and not having to vet external organizations, says Dominique.

A key to the program running smoothly is having a manageable matching framework, she says. Instead of asking students to share their interests and advancement staff then finding a host to match, Kinkaid instead finds hosts with pre-committed dates and presents those options to students. A matching process then takes place based on students’ availability and top industries of interest.

The internships’ one-week time frame is attractive to hosts who view it as a less intimidating ask compared to a multi-month internship, and it also allows students with other summer commitments like sports, camps, and work to still participate, says Dominique.

“They can do [an internship] one week right before they go back to school, and still get this experience. It doesn’t have to be an either/or decision. That helped alleviate concerns about putting too much on our students that already have so much on their plate during senior year,” she says.

The program has presented alumni and the current parent population with a way to directly interact with the students, an engagement opportunity they’ve asked for, says Dominique.

“It’s been a wonderful surprise to find a whole new crop of volunteers—people who are passionate about professional mentoring and offering students something they wish they may have had during their time as a student,” she says.

The program already saw growth in its second year. In 2023, Kinkaid placed 60 students (39% of the rising senior class) in the program, which increased to 77 placements, or 52% of the class, in 2024.

“[The program] has let us demonstrate the value of the Kinkaid alumni network to current students—to model what an active alum looks like and show them ways that they can give back,” says Dominique.