Earlier this year, Milken hosted Career Discovery Day, which culminated with three workshops, where 11th and 12th graders choose sessions from a wide array of alumni-led industry talks. Over 50 alumni joined us to speak about their time post-Milken, their professional journeys, and shared job search tips and post-graduation advice with our students. 

Several of our current students made connections with alumni that led to job opportunities. One of those students, Stella Goldstein ‘23, has been working weekends with alumnus Lindsey Davidson ‘11 at her retail store ‘Lenny’ in Studio City. We recently sat down with Stella to chat about how this opportunity unfolded and where it fits into the broader picture of her professional interests. 

I've been at Milken since seventh grade and over the years, I have really enjoyed honing my writing skills in a variety of contexts like creative writing and journalism. During my junior and senior year, I have been the chair of the Media and Marketing branch of student government where I’ve worked to promote mostly student run events and increase school spirit. Through this experience, I discovered how exciting and challenging it is to combine my writing abilities with the strategic aspect of promotion and branding. I began to realize that this is a field I want to continue learning more about and perhaps pursue professionally in the future.

One of the industry talks I joined at Career Discovery Day was about the fashion industry which was led by Lindsay. She shared about her journey becoming a business owner in fashion, her brand, and product. She works with vintage denim that is tailor made for each client and that really interested me as I’m a fashion and denim lover. At the end of the session, I made sure to connect with her and let know how inspired I was by her story and her brand and that I’d love to work for her if there was an opportunity. We got along really well and just like that, I began my position at Lenny. 

It’s definitely not your average retail job. While I had some experience working fashion retail in the past, at Lenny I’ve been able to develop new skills in content creation and marketing for the store. I have also learned how to assist with tailoring and embroidering which I never thought I would be doing and it has actually been a great way to connect to our clients and create relationships. Considering my interest in studying marketing next year, this opportunity has made me realize that intimately understanding the customer experience is crucial to telling compelling and authentic stories about the brand. 

Well, first of all, I’m really thankful that my classmates and I had the opportunity to meet and learn from alumni. Meeting so many young professionals who were in our same position not that long ago is both comforting and inspiring. Working with Lindsey has been amazing. We share about our Milken experiences and she just has a lot of wisdom to share. There’s just a lot of parallels between us. I think it’s important to be able to see someone that was in your exact place 10 years ago and to learn from their experiences. 

I'm just really excited for college. I honestly don’t know what to expect, but I just know that I’m excited to learn and grow and continue on my own path.