From Classroom to Calling — How Three Innovate Internships Are Shaping Culture Makers
At Innovate Academy, learning doesn’t only exist inside the classroom’s walls. Our upper-school internship program invites scholars to step into real responsibilities where imagination meets initiative, service meets skill, and faith meets practice. This year, three interns—Zachary Paulus, Mykah Mazzoli, and Georgia Allemeier—have been pioneering new pathways in community development, worship arts, and literacy education. Their work is already leaving a visible imprint on our school and our partner communities.
Building Bridges: The Community Developer Internship
Zachary Paulus
As Community Developer Intern, Zachary Paulus has discovered that leadership begins with relationships. Working alongside Mr. Ryan Derfler, Zachary helps design and promote initiatives that connect Innovate Academy with local families, businesses, and civic leaders. From organizing Fall Festival and Game Night to energizing campaigns like Feed the Need and Giving Tuesday, he is learning the craft of marketing, fundraising, and event planning from the ground up.
But this internship is about more than logistics—it’s about vision. Zachary collaborates with younger scholars to create dynamic promotional materials, coordinate outreach with partner communities, and shape programs centered on sports, fitness, recreation, food, and farming. Through weekly strategy sessions and off-site service opportunities, he is developing as a communicator, organizer, and servant leader who turns ideas into action.
Cultivating Worship: The Worship Arts Internship
Mykah Mazzoli
In the Worship Arts Internship, Mykah Mazzoli is discovering the intersection of musicianship, technology, and spiritual formation. Mentored by leaders from ccdelco and Moment Worship, Mykah assists in coordinating setlists, rehearsals, and technical production for ministries such as The Space Between and Innovate showcases.
This role stretches far beyond playing notes on a page. Mykah is learning to cultivate a healthy worship culture, manage schedules, and support fellow teen leaders—while also gaining hands-on experience with tools like ProPresenter, Planning Center, and SongSelect. The internship nurtures both character and competence, teaching that excellence in worship requires humility, preparation, and teamwork.
Nurturing Literacy: The Education Internship
Georgia Allemeier
Education Intern Georgia Allemeier is helping to bring stories to life for the next generation. Partnering with Dr. Julia Barcalow and Mrs. Monica Guaglione, Georgia designs literacy initiatives for Innovate scholars and partner communities, including Urban Promise and The Greenhouse Project.
From organizing reading buddies to planning interactive storytelling hours, she is learning the art and science of education—classroom management, child development, and the power of literature to shape imagination and virtue. Georgia’s projects invite children to experience history and classical stories through art, music, theater, and play, proving that reading is not merely academic but transformational.
Internships with Outcomes
These three internships embody what we mean when we say Every Scholar a Culture Maker. Our scholars are not only learning skills for future careers; they are contributing now—planning real events, influencing real worship sessions, and nurturing children’s hearts and minds. Along the way, they are gaining:
Professional communication and collaboration
Event planning and project management
Technical and creative problem-solving
Leadership rooted in service
A vision for faith in action
Innovate Academy internships turn the classical model outward, equipping scholars to know and love what is true, good, and beautiful—but to build it with their own hands as well. We are grateful for Zachary, Mykah, and Georgia, whose work reminds us that formation happens when opportunity meets courage.
