Title

Helen Xenakis interview, 1995 February 22

Contributor Names

Poll, Carol (Interviewer)

Xenakis, Helen

Date

1995-02-21

Date Digitized

2020

Description

Helen Xenakis, the Internship Coordinator at FIT at the time of this interview, began as an adjunct professor in theFashion Buying and Merchandising Department (FBM) in 1988, following a 25-year career in buying. She talks about the inception of the internship program at FIT and its growth ten-fold. She sees the program as mutually beneficial for employers and students, which explains its exponential success. At the time of the interview, FIT had over 900 company sponsors including Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Made in America, major television networks, and New York-based start-ups. She discusses networking through alumni and what the internship process entails. Xenakis then describes a successful candidate for the internship program and how eligible students have a conversion rate of over 40% following the internship. She discusses the especial success of the program with international students and delves into the demographics of most interns. She mentions that she is optimistic about the future of the program and how grateful she is for her time at FIT. Finally, Xenakis discusses her education and buying career during which she worked for Kresge's, Sears, and Bamberger's before developing a fashion merchandising program at Rockland County BOCES, a vocational high school.

Type

Moving Image

Oral histories

Subject

Xenakis, Helen

Godnick, Newton E.

Macy's (Firm)

Bamberger's

Sears, Roebuck and Company

K-Mart Corporation

Kresge's

Donna Karan Company

Ralph Lauren (firm)

Calvin Klein, Inc.

Fashion

Education

Internship programs

Fashion merchandising

Students, Foreign

Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, N.Y.)

New York (State)

New York (State)--New York

Related Materials

Finding Aid

Rights

In Copyright

This video was produced by the Fashion Institute of Technology ("FIT") and is the property of FIT. FIT expressly prohibits the copying, displaying, or uploading to a website of any portion of this video, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws, without express written permission from FIT. This video has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for content in this video and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].

Identifier

FIT Repository ID: aod_000676

SPARC reference code: US.NNFIT.SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.31