When Class of ’24 alumnae Allison Gallant, Alison Vonderharr, and Devin Willen first set foot on UVA’s Grounds, they, like most first-years, weren’t exactly sure about what they envisioned for their careers. They had their sights set on studying business at the Commerce School, but the three admit that hospitality hadn’t exactly been a landing spot they had in mind when they found Hilton.
Hilton, one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, has more than 500,000 team members around the world across more than 8,800 hotels and corporate offices. While the name is recognizable, the Hilton hospitality today is more than just the familiar hotels you see. The company, named frequently as a best place to work by GPTW and Fortune, consists of hotel and corporate teams that span a variety of roles finance, sales, marketing, food and beverage, development, wellness, and beyond.
Each has forged a unique path to Hilton—through learning and development, customer insights, and corporate strategy—and together their stories underscore three common connections: McIntire’s powerful role in preparing students with transferable skills, the importance of adaptability and nonlinear career exploration, and the enduring appeal of Hilton’s global culture for students considering the future.
Building Transferable Skills
Regardless of their study concentration, all three found McIntire’s rigorous coursework equipped them with skills that carried over to Hilton, no matter the role or department where they landed their first job.
Gallant is part of the Customer Insights team as part of Hilton’s LAUNCH rotational program, a 24-month rotational program designed to develop the next generation of hospitality leaders. The program begins with a four-month on-property immersion, where participants gain hands-on experience and a deep understanding of the heart of Hilton’s business before embarking on rotations across corporate functions like HR, Operations, and Finance, cultivating their cross-functional knowledge from the ground up.
She saw a strong similarity with McIntire’s Integrated Core when she began her role. “I was in Block 1, which was supported by CarMax. The yearlong project is basically a consulting project and mirrors what I do every day,” says Gallant. She describes her current process of launching surveys, analyzing feedback, and presenting findings: “I take that feedback, which is all sorts of raw data, and then I make it into a story, a deck, and then present it to the stakeholders. That’s exactly what we did with the CarMax project.”
Vonderharr, now a Learning Experience Associate with the company, manages survey design, reviews analytics, and conducts reporting for Hilton University, the company’s global learning platform for its team members, as a portion of her role. She credits McIntire’s Marketing faculty with laying the groundwork for her early success with the organization. “Professor Nicole Montgomery’s class provided the beneficial opportunity to explore hands-on work with data through real-world business cases,” she recalls. “Even though I’m not specifically in a marketing role, I still use a lot of the data analytics techniques that we learned in class to assess the performance of our Learning and Development content.”
Skills in questioning customers and assessing the results from Professor David Mick’s class also proved relevant. “The coursework has a direct correlation to my role through survey creation and implementation,” she says. “I’m able to take the foundation that he gave us to approach surveying and have put that to practice.”
For Willen, transferable skills came through in strategy and global business. “Professor Amar Cheema’s Consumer Behavior was fantastic,” she says. “That was the first time I really understood how much psychology has to do with decision-making.” She also points to Professor Peter Maillet’s Foundations of Global Commerce course: “Every day, we were talking about the news and how everything is interconnected. That was something that I really cherished about McIntire: It is a global school. We were constantly thinking and talking about how one decision that a company makes affects all these different countries and has the power to develop nations. Professor Maillet focused on the power of commerce for the common good—and that’s also something I see reflected at Hilton.” Today, in Willen’s LAUNCH Rotational Analyst role, where she’s completing the first 10-month rotation with Hilton’s Global Brands Commercial Services finance team, she found that same global lens invaluable.
If there’s a throughline here, it’s that McIntire’s hallmark combination of case-based learning, data analysis, and polished presentation skills prepared these alumnae to thrive—whether the task is designing global surveys, advising stakeholders, or shaping brand strategy.
Staying Flexible and Finding a Career
The three Comm grads we spoke with may not have initially sought out hospitality as a career path, yet their stories offer a helpful reminder to current and prospective students that adaptability can often lead to the most fulfilling opportunities.
Gallant’s winding path took her from a brief flirtation with pre-med to McIntire’s IT concentration and a track in Global Commerce (now Global Commerce and Society), then nearly into consulting. But after studying abroad in Dublin, she returned to her interest in global business and procuring a better work-life balance. The Hilton LAUNCH program, with its promise of exciting international rotations, fit perfectly.
For Vonderharr, who had been a Marketing and Management concentrator, the pivot came during internships. After an early experience in financial planning that wasn’t the right fit, she explored digital marketing at an agency before interning at Hilton on the Employer Brand team. That experience opened the door to her current role. “After my incredible internship experience, I knew I wanted to return full time, and my role allows me to incorporate elements from both my Marketing and Management concentrations into my day.”
Willen likewise began on a traditional business path, interning at a growth equity firm and later at J.P. Morgan. Ultimately, those experiences helped clarify what she wanted out of her professional life. “I knew that I wanted something that I could make an impact and then also feel the impact as a consumer and be closer to an actual product or service,” she says. That realization, combined with her experience working on her Integrated Core project with sponsor Hilton, motivated her to look into a career in hospitality.
Each path reinforces an essential truth: Career journeys rarely follow a straight line. By staying open to exploration, Gallant, Vonderharr, and Willen each found a professional home base that blends their strengths with their passions.
Hilton’s Culture Cultivates a Global Outlook
What eventually cemented Hilton as the right fit for all three alums was more than the work itself—it was the company’s global scope, outlook, and culture.
Allison Gallant visits rice fields that serve Hilton’s Japanese restaurant Junisoh.
Gallant experienced Hilton’s international footprint firsthand in Tokyo. “Tokyo was awesome. I wish I could do it again. I’d recommend it to anyone,” she enthuses, recalling her time rotating through the hotel’s seven restaurants, the concierge desk, and an executive lounge, and even lugging suitcases as part of the bell staff. She also learned the Japanese philosophy of omotenashi, “the art of hospitality,” which left a lasting impression for its high standards that apply to every aspect of caring for guests. Back in the U.S., she quickly came to appreciate Hilton’s well-known culture as a LAUNCH Analyst. “Everyone is very supportive here at Hilton. Most of my team is relatively young, and although our team is in high demand, we manage to get everything done while maintaining a positive work culture.”
Alison Vonderharr participates in Travel with Purpose Week.
It was Hilton’s Integrated Core sponsorship and sustainability commitments that first caught Vonderharr’s attention. “I read the entire Travel with Purpose report for that year, and I was impressed with Hilton’s sustainability initiatives, along with its support for communities on a local and broader scale,” she remembers. Later, during her internship, she sifted through survey stories from across the globe. “It was an insightful experience that paralleled my discoveries from the report. The stories showcased how Hilton’s values, culture, practices, and benefits improve the lives of team members for the better, and why team members love to work for Hilton.”
Willen’s perspective on global hospitality stretches even further back, to her teenage years in Dubai. “That really formed my love of travel and hospitality,” she says. Watching tourism transform Dubai’s economy gave her an appreciation for Hilton’s asset-light, brand-focused model: “We are more so selling the Hilton brand and expertise rather than the actual real estate.” The combination of global scope and company culture made Hilton a natural fit that was further solidified by an engaging four-month rotation in Hawaii.
Devin Willen completed a four-month rotation in Hawaii.
Strengthening Ties Between Hilton and McIntire
For more than a decade, Hilton has played an active role in McIntire’s Integrated Core Experience, serving as a corporate sponsor and offering students firsthand exposure to the challenges of managing a global brand. In return, Hilton has gained access to graduates like Gallant, Vonderharr, and Willen—Comm grads who bring analytical rigor, adaptability, and a global mindset to their roles.
The relationship is already bearing fruit, with UVA representation in Hilton’s summer internship program and across all three Launch cohorts. Through continued and expanded presence on Grounds, Hilton is further strengthening its brand visibility and deepening its talent pipeline.
This year, enhancements to on-Grounds engagement include a Graduate by Hilton Charlottesville Property Immersion experience and participation in the Consulting Fair, the Business Job & Internship Fair for all majors, and a professional development session on storytelling scheduled for November.
Additionally, Chris Nassetta, CEO, is confirmed to join the upcoming UVA Real Estate Conference, further reinforcing Hilton’s commitment to engaging at UVA.
As these three alums show, when McIntire’s training meets Hilton’s global platform, the results are a powerful combination of graduates prepared to succeed and eager to shape the future of hospitality and business worldwide.
