August 5, 2025
Starring: The “Jarty” (Jean Party)
As the 2025 internship program comes to a close, Starlight’s tradition of having the interns plan a celebration with the staff resulted in another success. Every summer, the intern class is tasked with planning, executing, and hosting a lunch to show off what they’ve learned during their time at Starlight.
The special events intern, Hali Deatherage, worked closely with Bridget Pohlman, the community engagement intern, to organize the end-of-summer celebration. The two of them scheduled catering and created timelines for the event.
The process took about a month with the busyness of the season. But the interns were happy to put in the work to see the payoff.
The entire intern class decided on a theme for the party and helped brainstorm decorations. After a poll of ideas, the theme was “Jarty” or Jean Party! Everyone dresses up in their favorite denim and decorations are shades of blue and denim with shiny silver accents.
Behind the scenes, there were many spreadsheets, planning meetings, and finding available materials in order to stay within our budget. Which was $0. We all had so much fun with the planning aspect and getting a taste of how planning events works for different departments.
After a few brainstorm sessions, we decided to bring as many pairs jeans as possible to hang all around the Applause Club. All 14 interns brought a pair (or 8) of jeans to use as decor. The morning of the event, we hung out and spent a few hours decorating. The production interns worked on a blue light show for the entire event to make everything feel more “denim.” Jeans were hung up on an indoor fence (or a jence) borrowed from the production team to make a cute photo-op for the staff. Jeans were hanging up on the windows, on the doors, even the podium! The point was to put jeans in as many places as possible.
“I truly enjoyed getting to help create the layout and make decisions regarding the decor,” Hali said. “Having everyone came together in the end to make the entire day really special.”
The lunch was a total success! Hali planned a great menu with “Jean Seam Sliders” and “Pocket Slice Pizza” and “Denim Dots” (cookies) for dessert. Starlight’s CEO, Lindsey Rood-Clifford, gave the interns some farewell advice in an opening speech. Intern Bridgette Pohlman thanked all the hiring managers and interns for all the work done this summer. The main event of the lunch was an intern presentation to share the key takeaways from the summer.
The interns created a video, filmed and edited by multimedia intern Abigail Henshaw, to entertain the staff and show off our work this season. It’s 15 minutes long but it’s amazing! Staff and the interns had the chance to sit and laugh together about the summer they experienced.
The process of collaborating with all the interns was an exciting and professional-feeling experience. We were able to navigate making decisions as a team, balance creative and realistic ideas, and were able to spend time getting to know each other through the summer. Planning together as a group was a very special time for the interns, it was a time to express creativity while also being productive. Having a large end-of-internship project like this makes it more of a celebration instead of a sad goodbye.
While our class of interns will be sad to see this summer come to an end, we have all collected memories and professional experience we will carry with us forever. Starlight is now a part of all of us because it became home for the summer.
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