(Left to right) Hukkster interns Elaina Atallah-Yunes ’16, Caroline Hoskinson ’15, and Hillary Kupferberg ’15
Colgate students, interning this summer at companies such as NBCUniversal, Hukkster, Nike, and Facebook, are sharing their experiences. This post is written by Hillary Kupferberg ’15, an intern at Hukkster.
As a rising Colgate junior, I am spending the summer working at Hukkster, along with three other interns, two of whom — Elaina Atallah-Yunes ’16 and Caroline Hoskinson ’15 — are current Colgate students as well.
Hukkster is an online shopping tool, app, and bookmarklet that saves you time and money. It allows you to track items that you love by “hukking” them as you shop online at your favorite retailers. When an item you have hukk’d goes on sale or an applicable coupon code becomes available, Hukkster will alert you with an e-mail, text message, or push notification. The site works with hundreds of retailers so you can hukk everything from clothes at J.Crew to televisions at Best Buy.
Hukkster was co-founded by Colgate alumna Katie Finnegan ’05 and Erica Bell. Recently, Hukkster was named one of Time Inc.’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch.
I met Katie this winter when she led a workshop in New York City for members of Colgate Women in Business. After meeting Katie, I became an avid hukker, due to my love of online shopping. Katie encouraged me to apply for the summer internship position, and I was excited to receive an offer.
It is great to work with other current students, as well as several Colgate alumni in the office, including John Steigerwald ’07 and Rebecca Griffin ’12.
As an intern, I am part of a team that is brainstorming creative marketing ideas, and I have the ability to share my ideas in order to promote Hukkster as it grows. Along with the other interns, I have researched and prepared a presentation to the Hukkster team on social media and guerilla marketing.
Our next project is to create a formal marketing plan in order to implement our ideas. I am learning the importance of a company’s brand image and business partnerships, along with gaining insight into retail, business strategy, and marketing. I am also learning from the amazing people at Hukkster, as well as various speakers from other companies — including American Express, Google, and Barneys — that come into the office as part of a speaking series and discuss their careers paths with the intern team.
I am looking forward to the many other projects, opportunities, and experiences I will gain as the summer progresses!
— Hillary Kupferberg ’15