Jillian Thurston, C’26

Jillian Thurston, C’26, was looking for new experiences when she chose to pursue an international internship in Seoul, South Korea. But she didn’t expect that those experiences would include posing in front of a camera with bright lights and twenty pairs of eyes on her as she modeled for a global cosmetics brand. 

“If you had told me a year ago that I would spend the next summer living, working, and modeling in Korea, there’s no way I would have believed you,” says Thurston.

Taking advantage of Sewanee’s partnership with the Freeman Foundation, which provides selected students with up to $9,500 to support a summer internship in Asia, Thurston had traveled to South Korea to serve as an intern on the marketing team for the Korean skin care brand Skin & Lab. Hoping to one day work in the business and/or environmental sectors in Asia, Thurston says, the internship provided the perfect opportunity to test the waters.

It turned out to be the perfect time to intern at Skin & Lab, as the company was looking to reach more American consumers as it expanded into the U.S. market. Thurston’s work, at least at first, consisted primarily of brand analysis and influencer research. She’d scroll through social media posts, cataloging trends and identifying influencers with whom the brand might strategically partner.

“I spent so much time on TikTok,” she says with a laugh. But as she dissected the reasons certain posts went viral and learned more about the influencer packages negotiated between brands and social media personalities, she developed a new understanding of the machinery behind social media marketing—and how little of what goes viral does so by accident.

That enhanced perspective was especially useful when she and her fellow interns were called upon to pitch ideas to the brand’s content team. And it was that connection to the content team that then led to Thurston’s unexpected modeling career. Initially called in for a sunscreen photo shoot, she found that the team kept asking her back.

Her days began to look a little different after that. Her mornings would still begin with her daily milk tea at the local café and influencer research. She’d have a quick ramen lunch with coworkers, but then it might be time to get changed for a photo or video shoot. “It was fun, but also hard,” she says. “You have to keep a serious face but also look pleasant, and you have a ton of people watching your every move.”

Though not necessarily looking to step in front of the camera again, Thurston is eager to return to Asia. She intends to study abroad in Japan for the Easter term, and hopes to work in the region after she graduates. After the inimitable internship experience she had thanks to Sewanee’s support, that dream feels entirely possible.

“It can be very difficult to make connections and start a career in Asia,” says Thurston, “So this was just the perfect opportunity to get started.”