Addison Leonard ’26 fell in love with Rhodes’ campus during her visit tour, but hearing about the opportunities offered by the college—small class sizes, mentorships, and internships in the vibrant city of Memphis—sealed her decision to attend. Now a business major with an interest in marketing, the Dallas, TX, native recently completed an internship with the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Leonard first learned about ALSAC through the Winter Mentor Program, in which students are matched with alumni and others to supplement their academic career with real world exposure. With the help of Career Services, she landed the Recruitment Marketing internship at ALSAC, where she learned about talent acquisition and community partnership when not working on her own project for the charity. For that, she created an ambassador program where former and current ALSAC interns share their experiences and encourage their peers to be involved.
Leonard says her favorite part of working at St. Jude was sharing the same space with a team of people dedicated to the same cause. “St. Jude's mission is so impactful. I wanted to be part of an organization that made me feel like I was doing good in the world, and I feel so proud to be on the campus trying to help raise awareness for St. Jude.”
Before this experience, she wasn’t used to working on such large projects with real-world implications, so it was both exciting and intimidating when from day one she was extended the same trust and responsibility as the full-time employees of the organization. “I had to learn how to trust myself, rely on what I have learned, and be open to making mistakes.”
Leonard approaches her academics with the same zeal as her internship. As a first-year, she took full advantage of Rhodes’ liberal arts curriculum by choosing classes from a wide range of topics, from anthropology to computer science. She enjoyed the problem-solving aspects of computer science so much that she has learned multiple coding languages and plans to apply this knowledge in future internships and eventually in the increasingly technology-oriented business world.
As a recent recipient of the Buckman Fellowship for International Studies, Leonard will go abroad in Prague, Czech Republic, in the spring of 2025 to study business and marketing in Eastern and Central Europe, the Czech language, and Czech culture and history. She hopes to learn about marketing in a new cultural lens and how to create strategies and solutions from a different business perspective.
Outside of her academic and career-oriented pursuits, Leonard is the vice president for programming of the Panhellenic Council and an active member of her sorority. As the student supervisor for Career Services, she assists her peers in finding impactful internships like hers. But even outside of this position, Leonard cannot help but encourage her friends and classmates to explore all the opportunities available through Rhodes: "I gained so much confidence in myself from this experience, and I find myself telling other students about the internships program and connecting them with the resources that helped me find this role.”