Kristen Orlando-Ricordati ’05 has always wanted to be a creator.

As a kid, she constantly was writing stories. After college, she worked in TV and print journalism — including time as a producer for NBC News — then pivoted to marketing for Fortune 500 companies. Along the way, she published a trilogy of young-adult novels with Macmillan.

But her best creation to date may be the team of Kenyon alumni she’s assembled at her digital marketing agency in Columbus, Ohio.

At Milestone Marketing, where Orlando-Ricordati serves as CEO and executive creative director, three of her four full-time employees are graduates of the College. So it’s not a stretch to say that as her company has grown, it’s been powered by Kenyon.

“I wanted to work with Kenyon students because I knew, from my time there, that they were really creative, fantastic writers, smart and hardworking,” she said. “All of the people who work here right now, I saw something so incredibly special in them and just thought: I want to have these women on my team.”

Today that team includes Emma Tolley ’19,  associate creative director; Anna Ensing ’23, senior manager of marketing strategy and content development; and London Anderson ’24, man-ager of content marketing and brand development.

Each of them made their way to Milestone through a robust internship pipeline that Orlando-Ricordati has developed in coordination with the Career Development Office. Since 2018, 26 students from the College have interned for her, with many continuing to work at least part-time for the company.

“I started the internship because I didn’t have something like that when I was at Kenyon,” Orlando- Ricordati said. “It’s been so meaningful to me to be able to mentor and open doors for students.”

This past summer, as part of a pilot program that will continue this year, the College used donor funds to underwrite three in-person, full-time internships at Milestone that were available exclusively to Kenyon students. The students wrote blogs, assisted on photo shoots, met clients, wrote social media posts and more. It was the kind of practical experience that members of Orlando-Ricordati’s team — all former English majors at Kenyon — said inspired them to pursue a career in the field.

“Even before I was full-time, I was in a client-facing role, taking meetings with new clients and developing strategies and presenting them. It’s been an amazing hands-on opportunity since day one,” said Ensing, who interned at Milestone in 2021, then continued to work part-time while she studied abroad the following year.

Today the team works together — Ensing remotely from Chicago and the rest in Columbus — helping small- and mid-sized businesses across the country in industries like hospitality, healthcare, retail, real estate and home services. If marketing wasn’t on their radar before their internship, it certainly was after.

“Marketing is not something that I knew to look for, but once I found it, it felt like a perfect fit for the problem-solving, storytelling and creative thinking I nurtured at Kenyon,” Tolley said. “You’re able to make such a meaningful impact working with small- to medium-sized businesses.”

That means a little something extra to Orlando-Ricordati, who cherishes helping clients grow in ways that mirror her own family’s businesses over the years.

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs,” she said. “My grandfather owned a grocery store. My father owned a medical practice. My uncles own orthodontic practices. So I saw people building things from the ground up. The first client I sort of stumbled into. It was me telling my dad over dinner, ‘Hey, your website’s not the best. Let me help you with it.’ From there I realized I could take all of my big-agency knowledge and make a real difference for small-business owners.”

It’s the relationships formed in helping clients realize their dreams that matter the most to Anderson, who once brought more than a dozen of her Kenyon friends to a photo shoot to serve as models. “I’m connecting with (clients) on an in-person level and getting to know them, and that makes it really fulfilling to create the materials that are going to give their business a boost,” she said.

Equally important are the relationships between the team members, and the similarities that start — but don’t end — with the institution name on their diplomas.

“I always wanted to make sure we had an incredible team that got along, that loved each other, that wanted to support each other, and that made going to work really enjoyable,” said Orlando-Ricordati. “I’ve been really lucky.”

The feeling is mutual, according to Ensing, who as a student lived in the same room in the New Apartments that Orlando-Ricordati once called home.

“Kristen runs an amazing team with so much warmth and leadership,” she said. “And so I feel like for a lot of people, if you start from the internship and you get the offer to continue working with such a wonderful leader, it’s a no-brainer.”

Pictured, from left: London Anderson ’24, Emma Tolley ’19, Kristen Orlando-Ricordati ’05 and Anna Ensing ’23. Photography by Brian Kaiser.