Success Story: Alina Kwiatkowski ’20 interns with Lockheed Martin

Success Stories | Mar 20, 2019 | admin

By Kelly Anderson

While searching for a summer internship, Alina Kwiatkowski, BS ’20, decided to reach for the stars—literally.

A Sunnyvale, California native, Kwiatkowski landed a recruitment-marketing internship with Lockheed Martin, the aerospace and global security company. After interning full-time over the summer, she continued with Lockheed Martin remotely into the fall semester, collaborating with colleagues over Skype.

“There was so much I didn’t know about company hierarchy and running multiple business areas,” says Kwiatkowski on her intern experience. “Being immersed in it for seven months taught me a lot about the unsaid nuances.”

Her work at Lockheed Martin included engaging with advertising agencies to improve the company job site, consulting with talent acquisition to create internal logos, and communicating with the diversity and inclusion team to build web pages for hiring events.

By the end of her internship, Kwiatkowski realized that “there are so many different paths one can take to get to where they want to be later in life,” she says. “It’s not always the perfect journey, but hard work and bold decisions will get you there.”

Between interning remotely and her marketing classes, Kwiatkowski also found inspiration in the Social Innovation Collaboratory, a network of students, alumni, and faculty working together to promote social justice. By discussing with others and leading initiatives, she has been inspired to make an impact through marketing in the future.

And where does Kwiatkowski see herself next? “My dreams change five times a year,” she jokes. “Right now I’m super interested in the power of workplace design and its ability to influence the productivity and happiness of employees—it would be cool to have a role that influences the design of company workplaces. We’ll see!”

Although Lockheed Martin is one of the largest employers in the United States, Kwiatkowski advises incoming freshmen not to worry about “interning at huge, well-known companies” or following the traditional path to a business career. “The career you want can happen without sacrificing the opportunity to explore and enjoy life,” she says.

Taking her own advice, Kwiatkowski carves out time to appreciate her life in New York City: Whether she’s brunching with friends at Regional or frolicking through Central Park, Kwiatkowski feels the path she is on is right where she needs to be.