When Maya Zittrain (McIntire ’26) came across a Hilton info session on the MyMcIntire portal, she couldn’t have known it would lead to a summer internship that immersed her in the global hospitality company’s marketing operations. But an openness to career possibilities, passion for travel, and drive to apply what she was learning in the classroom positioned her perfectly to make the most of the experience.
“I’ve always been passionate about travel. I studied abroad two summers ago, so I thought that this might be a really cool company and fun if it works out,” Zittrain says.
That curiosity turned into an internship offer from Hilton’s Global Media Strategy and Planning team in McLean, VA, where she spent summer 2025 learning, collaborating, and tackling projects that gave her an inside view of how one of the world’s most recognized hospitality brands communicates its message to millions of travelers.
From Info Session to Internship Offer
Zittrain’s path to Hilton began with an interest in marketing and learning about Hilton at the info session. She liked what she heard and applied to their Marketing and Loyalty department and the Brands department. A month later, she heard from the Marketing department, completed a HireVue assessment, and then spoke with the recruiter for the next round.
“She gave me more information about the internship and beyond, like the specific team that I would be working on, the opportunity to speak with executives and leaders in the company, and more about the company culture,” she says.
The decision to join the media team quickly became clear. “[The recruiter] asked me if I would be interested in media. I said I’d do anything, and she passed me along to speak with one of the directors on the Global Media Strategy and Planning team. That was when I was like completely sold,” Zittrain recalls, noting the many exciting projects and campaigns she might be working on in the role. “I told her how passionate I am about analytics and creativity. From there, I got the offer.”
Hilton’s intern preparation impressed her. “We had several info sessions, opportunities to attend different webinars on how to improve, and how to make the most out of your internship. I had a lot of communication with my team leading up to my start date as well. They wanted to get to know me and my interests so that they could place me in projects I would be passionate about.”
The company’s culture stood out as well to Zittrain. “Because it’s a hospitality company, everyone who works there is so hospitable; they’re very excited about the interns and want to help them. That was something that previous interns in the prep sessions talked about. Thinking, learning about different ways to communicate with different leaders and how to navigate those coffee chat sessions in a smart way,” she says. “That was something that I definitely felt when I was in my internship.”
Projects That Made an Impact
Once the internship began, Zittrain wasted no time digging in. “I got a lot of exposure to campaigns that we were working on and initiatives. For my first few weeks, I got to sit in on meetings, learn how everything worked, and say which projects I was interested in helping out with,” she explains.
She immersed herself in brand safety, doing her part to ensure Hilton’s ads appeared in the right contexts. “Every quarter, our agency sends us a list of where our TV ads are being placed, and I was tasked with auditing the list for Q3 and making sure that everything was brand safe. With my recommendation, I outlined a strategic framework for how we place our ads and what we should monitor throughout the next year. I got the opportunity to present that to my manager and one of the directors on my team.”
That project even earned recognition from Hilton President and CEO Chris Nassetta (McIntire ’84)—himself a beloved UVA alumnus. “I raised my hand to ask him a question. I said that I was working on a project with brand safety. He told me that his mom will send him a Hilton ad, if it’s being placed in the wrong location. I said, ‘Well, if she has any qualms, send it my way.’ That was super cool for me and my team to see because we didn’t realize that our CEO is so aware.”
She also tapped into her IT background for a competitive analysis. “I was vocal about my analytics skills that I’ve learned in school and applying them. I got to use Excel and pivot tables and some of those hard skills that I haven’t done in the workplace yet to find trends in the data.”
Her summer wrapped with a strategic project presenting Hilton’s media spend compared with its competitors, “predicting, hypothesizing reasons why their media strategy might be different from ours, and then try to finding areas of opportunity for us moving into 2026.”
“It was a really fun project because that also helped me learn a lot about the business, where our competitive positioning is, our media strategy, and why we do what we do,” says Zittrain. “I really loved that project because there was a lot of learning involved.”
The Hilton Hospitality Challenge: The Integrated Core in Action
One highlight of Zittrain’s summer was the Hilton Hospitality Challenge, an intern case competition reminiscent of McIntire’s hallmark Integrated Core curriculum. “They were not my corporate sponsor [in ICE], but I became very close with the recruitment team and the people who work with the Integrated Core. And they asked me if it reminded me of the ICE.” It did.
“All the interns across three different offices and business functions were placed in teams of six or seven and given different prompts of a business challenge that Hilton is facing today. My prompt was ‘How can we use AI to spark creativity, collaboration, smart decision making within our team members?’”
Her group developed a proposal for an AI-powered chatbot to support Hilton employees. “I got to collaborate with different interns across different offices, learn about what each person does, and work on my teamwork skills,” she says, noting the diversity of views and approaches of collaborating with those with different educational backgrounds.
Zittrain’s McIntire background gave her confidence, but collaborating with students from varied schools sharpened her adaptability. She recalls coaching her fellow interns about properly creating a slide deck and insisting they properly rehearse their presentation: “Everyone has different things that their professors say. But now I know I can work with anyone.”
Ultimately, the idea drew executive attention. “We even spoke with the HR tech people, and they said that’s something they’ve been trying to do. We worked with them to create a recommendation and strong argument for why we need this,” she says. “In the presentation at the end of the program, many business leaders were there and able to make those decisions. Our Chief HR Officer, Laura Fuentes (Engineering ’97), was asking questions and very interested in the project.”
Through the challenge, Zittrain saw how the Integrated Core prepared her for professional collaboration—and how McIntire’s ties with Hilton give students avenues to solve real business problems.
Looking Forward
After a summer filled with hands-on marketing work, high-level strategic projects, and exposure to executives like Nassetta and Fuentes, Zittrain is eager to carry her experience into the next stage of her career. Just as importantly, she leaves Hilton with a sharpened sense of adaptability and teamwork. “It was a really good challenge to communicate my ideas in an effective way, but also being open-minded to different things that other people have learned,” she explains.
As she moves into her final year at McIntire, Zittrain is ready to channel those lessons into what comes next—whether in hospitality, marketing, or another path shaped by the same blend of analytics, creativity, and collaboration that made her Hilton internship a standout experience.
For McIntire, partnerships like their special one with Hilton provides more than internships—it connects the Comm School’s unique classroom experiences directly to global business practice.
