James Kelly '26 found the perfect internship. The only problem? The company offered the position to someone else. For Kelly, that was nothing more than a temporary setback...
Sunmark Credit Union has a mission to spread more kindness in the world. Kelly can happily get on board with that. This summer, the marketing intern played a leading role in the credit union's annual Summer of Kindness initiative. Children submit their ideas on how they'd like to spread kindness in their communities, and Sunmark brings selected ideas to life. The "bringing to life" part fell to Kelly.
Sunmark Credit Union has a mission to spread more kindness in the world. Kelly can happily get on board with that. This summer, the marketing intern played a leading role in the credit union's annual Summer of Kindness initiative. Children submit their ideas on how they'd like to spread kindness in their communities, and Sunmark brings selected ideas to life. The "bringing to life" part fell to Kelly.
"Early in the summer, I would check with my supervisor every time I had an idea or was about to send an email. Eventually he said, 'Don't upload payment information without checking. Short of that, I trust you. You plan the event, and I'll approve it.'"
So he did. Lots of events. For example, Sunmark hosted a kindness event at a local park. They supplied fishing poles and bait, and staff – including Kelly – taught kids how to fish.
"The whole idea of a credit union is people helping people. It's inherently community focused. Giving back to the community is what we do."
The "we" is intentional. Kelly's summer internship ended in August, but his fall internship begins this month. Last summer, Sunmark passed on Kelly's services, but now they really don't want to let him go.
"I applied for the summer marketing internship last year, and I made it to the second round of interviews. It was disheartening when they went with someone else. I ended up with a different internship, and I was able to gain some valuable experience. Then, back in December, I saw that same internship opportunity with Sunmark was posted again for this summer. Even though I missed out last year, I got this sense that it would be the perfect place to work. So I applied again, and they said, 'We remember you.'"
Kelly's first impression obviously made a difference the second time around. So did his university. Sunmark posts its openings on Handshake in hopes of attracting Siena applicants. The CEO, Jerilee Beaudoin, is a Siena graduate, and according to Kelly:
"Sunmark wants people from Siena to apply first and most often. I think the community-centered, person-centered culture at Siena gels very well with Sunmark's philosophy."
Kelly enjoyed some face time with the CEO this summer, and he also got to meet other major Capital Region players as he quickly expanded his personal network while planning "kindness" events. In the fall, he'll focus more on graphic design and copy writing tasks while concurrently finishing his communications-marketing degree this semester. After that? We'll let Sunmark have the last word. Kelly was the focus of "Intern Spotlight" on the company's LinkedIn page last month, and the post ended like this:
"We're excited to see James take what he's learned here and turn it into a bright future!"
