Breaking into fashion can feel like it depends on connections you don't have yet. At the FSF, our priority is helping Scholars find those connections and turn them into opportunities. We spoke to five FSF Scholars who found those connections and did the work to make them count.
Ask five FSF Scholars how they landed their placement and you'll get five completely different answers. Jason applied to a job at Kohl's and realized the hiring manager was the same person who'd reviewed his FSF Case Study earlier in the year and selected him as a Kohl’s x FSF Named Scholar. Rachel walked into a virtual recruiting event with five brands researched and a warm-up conversation planned, and ended up in Macy's first-ever digital internship. Aalona didn't wait for an introduction at all—she set up her own meeting with LaQuan Smith and used her case study to close the deal. Benicio spent months getting ghosted by brands before FSF's KidSuper collaboration came through. Ethan wasn't even looking for an internship.
What happened after the door opened is the part worth paying attention to. Here's how five Scholars made it count.
Jason Baloyo — Assistant Buyer Trainee, Kohl's
Jason Baloyo graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University this spring with a major in Fashion Merchandising, and in June he started at Kohl's corporate headquarters in Wisconsin. He came to fashion through music, skateboarding, and theater, the places where he first noticed how much what people wear says about who they are. He chose merchandising because it sat between his creative and analytical sides.
Jason was first introduced to the team at Kohl’s after being named a 2026 Kohl's x FSF Scholar. However, Jason is precise about how this touchpoint helped him in his interview process. The person who reached out about the scholarship turned out to be the hiring manager on the Kohl's side, so he started the process with a real point of contact who already knew his work. She walked him through which roles fit him best, then he went through the full interview like any other candidate. "The scholarship didn't hand me the job," he said. "It put me in front of the right people and gave me someone who could point me in the right direction. I still had to interview and earn it."
For Jason, a first-generation student, the recognition landed as relief as much as excitement. He'd had to figure out most of this industry on his own. "There was no one at home I could ask how any of it worked." A Fortune 500 company betting on him gave him a different kind of confidence than a good grade ever had. "It told me I wasn't just hoping I belonged in this industry. Someone with a real stake was telling me I did."
His advice to other Scholars centers on the part most people skip. "FSF gives you access through the events, the mentorship, and the opportunities, but that access only matters if you use it." He talked to as many people as he could, then followed up after every event with a specific message, never a generic one. "The connection FSF hands you is only the starting point. What you do after you meet someone is what turns it into a job."
The Kohl's Named Scholars, from left to right, Jason Baloyo, Destiny Robinson, Tru Longyear, on a tour of the Kohl's NYC design office. Photo courtesy of Jason Baloyo
📲 Follow Jason's journey: LinkedIn | Website | Portfolio
Rachel Kelly — Digital Marketing Intern, Macy's
Rachel Kelly graduated from North Carolina State University this May with a degree in Fashion and Textile Management, a concentration in Brand Marketing, and a minor in Business Administration. She grew up the eldest daughter of two engineers in Northern Virginia, spent years convinced she'd study marine biology, and used the quiet of the COVID lockdowns to ask herself why. The honest answer was that she'd been chasing a path she thought she should follow, when her real pull had always run toward visual arts and fashion.
She found FSF in August 2024 while scrolling through her school email during the first week of junior year. Two case study cycles later, she's a 2026 SKIMS x FSF Scholar with two FSF LIVE Galas behind her. Her Macy's connection started at FSF's Fall 2025 Talent Acquisition Event, a recruiting event she walked into with a plan. She researched five target brands in advance and opened with a low-pressure "warm-up" conversation to shake off the nerves before the meetings that mattered.
Macy's ended up being her first conversation of the day. "What I thought would be my most nervous conversation turned into such an easy one," she said, partly because the recruiter had earned her master's at NC State. Macy's didn't have an internship program in the area Rachel wanted at the time. About a month later, the recruiter emailed to say the company was launching its first-ever digital internship program and encouraged her to apply. Rachel interviewed, passed two rounds of skills testing, and built and presented a mock campaign in the final round before landing it. "With my expertise in building a case study, thank you FSF, I was highly motivated to make that project as strong as it could be."
Her advice is to use the FSF team itself. Rachel kept her application process quiet, telling almost no one outside her family, but she looped in the FSF team near the end. "FSF is for real when they say they have a strong network, and with Macy's being a part of it, I knew I wanted to keep them updated." The support hasn't stopped since.
Rachel in front of her case study panel at the 2026 FSF LIVE Gala. Photo courtesy of Getty images
📲 Follow Rachel's journey: LinkedIn | Instagram | Portfolio
Aalona Snell — Sales Intern, LaQuan Smith
Aalona Snell is a junior at Drexel University studying Fashion Industry & Merchandising with a minor in Business Administration. She gravitated toward the industry once she realized fashion can tell stories, shape culture, and start movements. She applied to FSF after watching her mentor, a 2025 Virgil Abloh™ "Post-Modern" Scholar, move through the galas, the internships, and the rooms that came with it. "I immediately knew it was something I wanted to be a part of."
She used her LinkedIn network to land a meeting with someone at LaQuan Smith and, around the same time, learned she'd won her FSF award. She brought it into the conversation and used her case study as a talking point. "Since the brand is familiar with FSF, they understood the significance of it, which strengthened the conversation and ultimately landed me an internship.”
She chose sales on purpose. LaQuan Smith carries a distinct identity, and Aalona wanted to understand retail from a B2B standpoint, to see how detailed decision-making shapes whether a product sells. "Design choices always impact sales, and I've always wanted to understand that connection more deeply."
FSF reframed what she thought was possible. "It's shown me that there are many different paths to reach the roles we aspire to, as long as we stay open, intentional, and consistent." Her advice carries the same directness she used to land the role: "Be persistent, follow up, and connect with intention. Always come to meetings prepared with an agenda, and don't be afraid to clearly ask for what you want."
Aalona at the 2026 PVH event featuring Stefan Larsson and Jerry Lorenzo. Photo courtesy of Fashion Scholarship Fund
📲 Follow Aalona's journey: LinkedIn | Instagram | Portfolio
Benicio Gomez & Ethan Gayle — Interns, KidSuper
FSF's collaboration with KidSuper placed three Scholars at the brand at once. (The third, Kuan Jackson, won FSF's 2026 Chairman's Award, and you can read his full story here.) Benicio Gomez and Ethan Gayle came to the studio from different directions, which is part of what makes the cohort work.
Benicio graduated this spring with a concentration in fashion design. He grew up in a close-knit family in Virginia, surrounded by his parents' cooking and music and his mother's books, and he traces his creative outlook to that constant rotation of cuisines, genres, and stories. The same instinct drew him to KidSuper, a brand built on blurring fashion, art, and storytelling. He'd been cold-emailing and DMing brands for months, getting rejected or ghosted enough times that he'd started to wonder if it would ever land. Then the news came, from someone who'd advocated for his work. "It was awesome to share that moment of relief with them."
Ethan, a knitwear designer studying Fashion Design at Drexel's Westphal College, wasn't even looking for an internship. He's set on graduate school abroad and figured he had more to learn in school first. Knitwear is what changed his mind about taking one now. "Without it, I couldn't clearly communicate to Colm the depth of my knowledge and how it could benefit KidSuper." He's unsentimental about his specialty: knitwear is niche enough that it only paid off once he learned to pitch it—convincing people they needed expertise they didn't know they were missing. "That's how I believe I got the internship in the first place."
Inside the studio, the pace surprised him. "Things move fast, much faster than I expected," Ethan said. "The real world is a lot more than making moodboards and sketching." Benicio values the shared starting point of going in alongside peers he already knew from FSF. "I'm hoping that base will allow us to connect and bounce ideas off one another more organically."
Benicio in the studio. Photo courtesy of @joedellacorte
📲 Follow Benicio's journey: Instagram | Linkedin | Website
📲 Follow Ethan’s journey: Linkedin
Direct advice from the Scholars
Their paths diverge, but their advice doesn't. If you're a Scholar trying to turn an FSF connection into a placement, be sure to remember:
Do the work after the introduction. FSF opens doors with events, mentorship, and introductions, but none of it moves on its own. Jason talked to as many people as he could—every role sees the industry differently—and then followed up with a specific message after each one, never a generic one. "That access only matters if you use it," he said. "The follow-up is the part most people skip."
Walk in with a plan. Rachel researched five target brands before the TAE and opened with a warm-up conversation to settle her nerves. Preparation is what let her treat a first meeting like an easy one.
Ask for what you want, directly. Aalona set up her own meeting and brought her case study into the room. "Come to meetings prepared with an agenda, and don't be afraid to clearly ask for what you want."
Sell what makes you specific. Ethan's knitwear specialization only began to pay off once he learned to articulate its value. "You need to sell yourself and your talents to get the recognition you want. Waiting for opportunities to find you just isn't realistic."
Go deep, not wide. Benicio's takeaway after months of cold outreach: "Prioritize the relationships in the few rather than the greater. Quality over quantity."
Advice from the other side of the desk
Namra Khan runs FSF's internships and mentoring program, which means she sees more Scholar job searches than almost anyone. She knows which resources are used and which sit untouched. Most of her advice comes down to closing that gap.
Two things go underused more than anything else: the FSF Career Toolkit and the Alumni network. The Toolkit covers the practical work, from recruiter-ready email and LinkedIn templates to resume and portfolio guidance. The Alumni network is the part Scholars forget is theirs. Find professionals whose careers you'd want, write a real outreach message using the Toolkit, and ask for a coffee chat.
"You'd be surprised how many meaningful opportunities begin with a simple conversation," said Namra. The same goes for the team itself. With more than 160 Scholars in the community, initiative is what gets you noticed; a short introduction email or LinkedIn message is enough to put your goals on Namra's radar, and her weekly office hours are open for help on portfolios, resumes, applications, and career strategy. "The more we understand your goals, the better we can support you in reaching them."
The thing she wishes Scholars acted on earlier is mentorship. A mentor can open doors through their own experience, company, and network, and even when their path turns out not to be the one you want, you learn something about the one you do. "The fashion industry is incredibly interconnected. Every conversation has the potential to lead somewhere unexpected."
Namra's clear-eyed about the slow stretches, because she was a fashion student not long ago. The placements in this piece took months — Benicio's KidSuper offer came after a long run of silence. "What sets successful professionals apart is not that they never face setbacks. It's that they keep going." The FSF team, she'll tell you, is in it with you.
