It was only one year ago that she graduated from Washtenaw Community College, but in some ways it seems like a lifetime.
Since May 2023, Kaelyn Collins moved from her home in Ypsilanti to Washington, D.C., for a busy freshman year at prestigious HBCU Howard University and then spent this summer as an executive intern with Rock Ventures in Detroit.
With one of Collins’ goals to work in international business, specifically real estate, she has been right at home in the parent company of Rocket Mortgage and over 100 other companies. Another goal is to work on Wall Street and help young Black students learn how to invest and build wealth.
“I’m learning so much. This company’s philanthropy includes donating millions to the city, reducing home foreclosures by 90%, and promoting a client-focused business approach. Our mission is to ‘Help Everyone Home,’ and I am excited to contribute my passionate perspective, be part of an organization that values compassion at every level, and learn about the operations of large corporations at the executive level,” Collins says.
The internship is a powerful entry on an already impressive, rapidly growing resume that’s thrusting Collins toward her dreams. Those dreams began to percolate while on the WCC campus as a college student and a Washtenaw Technical Middle College high school student.
“I feel that WCC really set me up for success at Howard and beyond. The leadership opportunities that you can get on what seems like a smaller scale really benefited me when I made it to Howard,” Collins says.
In addition to earning two associate degrees in Math and Science from WCC, Collins was involved in Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the Black Student Union and other WTMC clubs and organizations.
As soon as she arrived on the Howard University campus last year, she immediately got to work networking and was elected secretary on the College of Arts and Sciences Freshman Council. Among Collins’ other activities when she returns to campus this fall: serving on the board for the first Black Intercollegiate Ice Skating Team.
“Because of the focus on gaining college credits while still in high school now I can graduate in two to three years from Howard. That puts me in the workplace and into internships so much earlier so that I can kind of start life earlier” — a life of impact helping others.
---
This story appears in the Fall 2024 edition of Launch magazine. See complete issue.
Tags: Internship, Launch, Launch Fall 2024, Real Estate, Student Success