From Oak Experience to Career Launchpad: Seth Smith ’20

For Seth Smith ’20, an internship during his time at Norfolk Collegiate’s Oak Experience (formerly LEAP Week) was just the beginning.

Today, Smith is a passionate advocate for the value of internships and hands-on learning — a perspective shaped by his own experiences both at Collegiate and throughout college. After graduating from Old Dominion University and Georgetown University, Smith now works as a Business Systems Manager at Quartermaster AI, a Washington, D.C.-area maritime domain awareness company. In his role, he helps implement and integrate software that directly supports the organization’s finance and operations teams.

Seth recently shared his experiences with internships in a feature published by Old Dominion University, highlighting how six internships helped him explore his interests, build professional skills and ultimately launch his career.

“Internships boil down to simply one thing: they give you a competitive edge,” Smith told ODU. “A freshman might not care about how competitive they are, but trust me, come senior year when applying to jobs, it will truly matter.”

That belief in the power of real-world experience began early. During his time at Norfolk Collegiate, Smith participated in an Oak Experience internship, gaining an early introduction to the professional world and seeing firsthand how classroom learning could connect to future career opportunities.

At ODU, Smith continued to pursue those opportunities, completing six internships across a variety of organizations and roles. Each experience helped him build skills, expand his professional network and, perhaps most importantly, better understand where his interests and strengths could take him.

“Things just started to click,” Smith said. “I went over this concept in macroeconomics. But, with internships, you begin to connect the dots.”

That spirit of curiosity and exploration is at the heart of the Oak Experience — giving Norfolk Collegiate students opportunities to step beyond the classroom, explore potential career paths and learn through authentic experiences.

We’re proud to see how Smith has continued to build on that foundation and turn those early experiences into a career launchpad.

Read the full story from Old Dominion University: How Work-Based Learning Helped ODU Alumnus Make His Mark