Chapel Intern gains hands-on HR experience with Estée Lauder Companies

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Penn State student Karli Brenneman arrived in New York City for a summer internship with Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), the company was in the midst of an organizational restructuring that gave her an opportunity to see firsthand how human resources supports a global organization through change.

Brenneman, a fourth-year student majoring in labor and human resources and minoring in information sciences and technology for labor studies and employment relations, spent 10 weeks working with ELC’s Global Corporate Functions HR Business Partner team at the company’s New York City headquarters.

During the internship, Brenneman built more than 65 job requisitions, created an employee-facing playbook for new roles, and supported confidential work related to the company’s restructuring.

The experience allowed her to put concepts from her liberal arts coursework into practice while seeing how decisions made at the highest levels of a company can affect employees throughout an organization.

“Building job requisitions and employee playbooks connected directly to what I learned in strategic staffing,” Brenneman said. “Seeing how HR decisions move from the CEO all the way down to something as tangible as an office move gave me a much clearer sense of how what I've studied in the classroom actually shows up in a real business.”

One of Brenneman’s most significant projects was helping to lead an office move involving approximately 50 employees across seven teams. She organized seat assignments and office layouts, developed a welcome packet and created communications to help employees prepare for the transition.

The project taught Brenneman that successfully managing organizational change requires thinking beyond logistics to consider how employees experience the transition.

“This was one of my favorite projects because it showed me how much the small things matter,” she said. “It's easy to focus on logistics, but what really helped people was knowing where to grab lunch or how to get there on day one. It taught me that managing change well means paying attention to the human side, not just the moving parts.”

The internship also gave Brenneman opportunities to learn directly from ELC executives through speaker sessions with members of the company’s leadership team. She and seven other HR interns also participated in a coffee chat with Chief People Officer Michael Bowes.

One piece of advice that particularly resonated with Brenneman came from William P. Lauder, chair of the company's board of directors, who encouraged interns to take advantage of the flexibility they have early in their careers to explore different opportunities.

“He shared a ‘roots and anchors’ analogy,” Brenneman said. “When you’re young, your roots are shallow and your anchors are loose, meaning you don’t have as many things holding you down or back. But as you grow older, your roots grow deeper and your anchors become stronger and tighter. It really resonated with me, especially given where I am in my life and mindset right now.”

For Brenneman, the summer also meant learning to navigate New York City on her own after growing up and attending college in smaller communities. From mastering the subway to making new friends, the experience pushed her to become more independent and comfortable putting herself in unfamiliar situations.

“I didn’t have roommates around like I am used to having at school, so I had to have the courage to talk to the random girl also waiting for the elevator or reach out to people I knew but wasn’t super close with prior to moving to NYC,” she said.

Outside of work, Brenneman enjoyed exploring the city's restaurant scene, particularly its Italian restaurants, and spending time in the West Village.

Brenneman participated in the experience through the Chapel Executive Internship Program in the College of the Liberal Arts. Through the program, she received enrichment funding to help support her summer in New York.

“The enrichment funding I received helped cover my housing, which made it financially feasible for me to take on a 10-week internship in one of the most expensive cities in the country,” Brenneman said.

As part of the Chapel Executive Internship Program, Brenneman and the other 25 Chapel Interns also enrolled in LA 495 Undergraduate Field Experience, a half-credit course taught by Katie Wysocki, director of the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network. The course is designed to support students’ engagement and professional development throughout their internships.

For Brenneman, having Wysocki available as a resource proved especially valuable when she reached a point in the summer when she felt she wasn't contributing as much as she could.

“I wasn’t sure how to address it, so I reached out to her for advice,” Brenneman said. “She reminded me that strong interns ask for work and seek out opportunities, and that doing so reflects positively on you.”

Wysocki’s advice encouraged Brenneman to stop waiting for assignments and instead proactively seek opportunities to contribute.

“That advice helped shift my mindset,” Brenneman said. “Instead of waiting for work to come to me, I started proactively seeking out opportunities to contribute, which made me feel more engaged and confident in my role.”

A Lancaster, native, Brenneman originally came to Penn State with an interest in criminal law before discovering human resources. Having grown up with a father who has worked in the human resources field for more than 20 years, she decided to change her major to explore whether HR might be the right fit for her.

“He is truly one of my biggest inspirations in life,” Brenneman said. “I ultimately switched my major to see if it was something I was genuinely interested in, and it turned out to be the perfect match.”

She later added her minor because she wanted to better understand technology’s growing role in the workplace. Outside the classroom, Brenneman is involved with Gamma Phi Beta and Penn State THON, as well as the Business in Cosmetics Club and Society for Human Resource Management. Her involvement with the Business in Cosmetics Club, combined with her interest in the beauty industry, helped inspire her to apply for the ELC internship.

Brenneman also entered the internship with a new perspective on human resources after completing a two-and-a-half-week embedded program in Athens and Spetses, Greece, through Penn State’s School of Labor and Employment Relations just one week before beginning at ELC. During the program, LHR 499 Comparative Labor and Human Resources: The Greek Perspective, she collaborated with students and faculty from the Athens University of Economics and Business on case studies and workshops that explored cultural and professional differences between Greece and the United States.

“As someone pursuing HR, it was eye-opening to see how differently employment relations can look across countries,” Brenneman said.

The experience strengthened Brenneman’s understanding of collaboration, adaptability and working across different perspectives — skills she said became especially relevant as she supported teams navigating change at ELC.

The internship also helped Brenneman clarify what she is looking for after graduating from Penn State in spring 2027. Working at ELC confirmed her interest in beginning her career at a large organization where she can continue to learn and grow, while introducing her to an industry in which she could envision building a career.

“This experience confirmed that I want a career at a large company with real room to grow, the kind of scale and structure I saw firsthand at ELC,” Brenneman said. “It also showed me that beauty is an industry I could genuinely see myself in, though I'm staying open to other industries.”

Brenneman is similarly keeping an open mind about which area of human resources she ultimately pursues. After gaining experience with compensation and benefits during a previous internship and working on the HR business partner side at ELC, she hopes to explore more people-facing areas such as employee relations and talent acquisition.

“I’m staying open to all opportunities and areas within the field rather than narrowing in on one path right now,” she said, “and I’m genuinely excited to see where I end up.”

Looking back, Brenneman said the summer gave her greater confidence in her ability to take on unfamiliar challenges.

“My biggest takeaway is that you don’t have to wait until you feel ready to go after something,” Brenneman said. “This summer pushed me outside of my comfort zone in the best way, and I’m walking away with so much more confidence in myself and what I have to offer.”