Leading EDGE: End of Summer 2025 Recap

August 21, 2025
Shelby Truxon
Blog, Leading EDGE Employers, Leading EDGE Students, Workforce Development

That’s a wrap for Cohort #4 of our Leading EDGE Student Internship Program!

The summer kicked off with eight dedicated employers looking to host 14 college students from schools in D.C., MD, VA, NYC, and Chicago for 10-week internships. In addition to hosting, employers signed up to work alongside The Nonprofit Alliance Foundation on our efforts to diversify the industry by creating nonprofit career opportunities for college students, including those in underrepresented and first-generation student populations, within the employer job market; and enable first job placements that can lead to a career path in the social good sector. From there, this talented group of college students worked with and learned from their employers in various roles such as marketing, fundraising, data analytics, and project management.

Interns and employers included:

Tsion Amare with Eidolon Communications
Jazmin Calimano Colon with Engaging Networks
Angela Fokam with Mo o re
Ella Herrera with Shatterproof
Owen Herrera with TrueSense Marketing
Ava Jutras with Defenders of Wildlife
Camille Koslo with TrueSense Marketing

Danfei Li with K2D Strategies
Zaira Matin with Mo o re
Jillian McGeehin with Shatterproof
Vivian Nartey with Concord Direct
Hannah Schwartzberg with Defenders of Wildlife
Alice Smith with TrueSense Marketing
Leahnata Tejan with Mo o re

Read more about our interns here.

In addition to receiving a hands-on learning experience, many of our interns attended industry conferences, participated in company activities, and hung out with colleagues after work.

Owen Herrera in a virtual meeting with his internship supervisor, Ann Campea, at TrueSense Marketing.

Click to watch a day in the life of Shatterproof intern, Ella Herrera.

Interns were also introduced to industry professionals through Leading EDGE Lunch n’ Learns and webinar events. Topics included an overview of the nonprofit sector, consulting in the nonprofit sector, and Direct Marketing in the nonprofit sector. For the fourth year in a row, our annual “What I Wish I Knew” and “Next Gen Panel” webinar events were a hit with students and interns from all over!

See what some of our interns learned and worked on this summer:

Click to read about protecting our wildlife from Ava Justras.

Click to read about Camille Koslo’s lessons from two summers with Leading EDGE.

Click to read about the hidden cost of fireworks from Hannah Schwartzberg.

What a summer! CONGRATS and all the best to our amazing interns. Next up is cohort #5 in the D.C., New York City, and Chicago areas for summer 2026. Read more about our program on tnpa.org/leading_edge/ and stay tuned for 2026 open enrollment.

Special THANK YOU to everyone who helped this year:

Employer Hosts

Nicole Fox, Sophie Gabrion, and Passionate Amukamara
Shatterproof

Cynthia Kilgore
Concord Direct

Brandy Swimeley, Britt Faulkner, and Maggie Dewane
Defenders of Wildlife

Jennifer Deerr and
Katie Keese
K2D Strategies

Lynn O’Connell, Ann Campea, David Torres, and Autumn Melcer
TrueSense Marketing

Ashley Hansen, Ann Marie, and Faizan Faruq
Engaging Networks

Kayla Twain, Kellianne Usher, and Michael Crump Moore

Gerri Zimbardi and Erin Bricker
Eidolon Communications