Alumni Update: Hailee Spoor '23
Learn how Carrollwood Day School alumna Hailee Spoor '23 is building her career in English, advertising, and publishing at the University of Florida and Penguin Publishing.
Hailee is turning the foundation she built at Carrollwood Day School into opportunities at the University of Florida and beyond. This summer, her journey took her to Penguin Publishing, where she gained firsthand experience in consumer marketing and saw the power of making meaningful connections.
For Hailee Spoor '23, her Carrollwood Day School experience helped shape a lasting love of writing, creativity, and getting involved. Today, she is carrying those interests forward as a double major in English and Advertising at the University of Florida, where she is building a career path through leadership, hands on experiences, and meaningful connections. This past summer, Hailee put her interests into practice as a Consumer Marketing intern with Penguin Publishing, gaining an inside look at the publishing industry while contributing to real projects and building her professional network.
Hailee’s path to Penguin began long before her first day in the office. She applied for the internship in October, but she also reached out to a UF alumna she knew through the English Society who worked at Penguin. That connection led to an opportunity to learn more about the company and, ultimately, helped open the door to her summer internship. For Hailee, the experience reinforced something she had already begun to understand in life: relationships matter.
Creating Opportunities at UF
As president of UF’s English Society, Hailee has helped reshape the organization into a resource for students interested in building careers alongside their studies. When she took on the role, she saw an opportunity to bring more professional development to the organization. Under her leadership, the society has expanded its programming to include cover letter workshops, networking and coffee chat guidance, LinkedIn education, guest speakers, and opportunities to learn about career paths available to English majors.
Hailee also serves as vice president of the Advertising Society, where she oversees the Speakers Team, Memberbiz Team, Events Team, Elevate directors, and Trips Team. Her work centers on creating meaningful opportunities for members to develop professionally and connect with the advertising industry.
Her involvement at UF has extended beyond student organizations. At the Harn Museum of Art, Hailee first worked as a Museum University Student Educator and later as a Copyright Research Intern. In that role, she researched copyright holders for artwork in the museum’s collection, updated the museum’s database, identified works with copyright implications or in the public domain, and helped develop a procedural document for continuing the project.
Last summer, she also worked on a digital archive project focused on George Elliott after connecting with the opportunity through one of her English professors. She designed digital postcards and helped organize and update information from the archive.
Each experience has added another piece to the career she is building.
Inside Penguin Publishing
At Penguin, Hailee joined the Consumer Marketing team, where she shadowed two members of the team and gained firsthand experience seeing how books are marketed to readers. She participated in planning meetings, worked on the Penguin website, contributed to a company task force, and helped with a campaign focused on story advocates and influencers who could amplify books and campaigns.
One project allowed her to connect with an influencer in Hillsborough County, bringing a personal connection to the work she was doing. She also gained experience with PR and influencer partnerships and saw how marketing strategies are tailored to individual books, audiences, and campaign goals.
The internship also introduced Hailee to the broader work happening behind a major publishing campaign. She saw how Consumer Marketing collaborates with social media, PR, creative, and other teams to turn ideas into campaigns that reach readers. She was also exposed to Penguin’s Ban Wagon campaign, which advocates against book banning and demonstrates how a publishing company can use communications and marketing to engage audiences around larger conversations about books, reading, and access to literature. Technology was another part of the experience. Hailee learned about the ways AI is becoming part of modern marketing workflows, from creative briefs and design assets to organizing projects and determining what falls within the scope of a campaign.
Perhaps one of Hailee’s biggest takeaways from her summer at Penguin was the value of getting to know people throughout an organization. She connected with people across different departments through coffee chats and informal conversations, intentionally looking beyond her immediate team to learn about different roles, career paths, and experiences within publishing. She described this networking as a kind of “side quest” during her internship, but it became one of the most meaningful parts of the experience.
Looking Back at her Time at CDS
Hailee’s interest in writing, creativity, and getting involved began during her years at Carrollwood Day School.
“I look back on my experience at CDS so fondly!” she said. “From the time I started in 6th grade, I absolutely loved the school environment. The teachers and other students made every day so fun and memorable, to the point where I still keep in contact with many of them.”
She credits her CDS experience with preparing her academically while encouraging her to pursue opportunities beyond the classroom.
“The extensive writing I did in HL History and HL English prepared me well for my time in college by making a five-page essay feel like effortless work,” Hailee said. “CDS also showed me the value of getting involved!”
That involvement included starting her own Art Appreciation club, participating in Beta, competing on the swim team, and taking part in memorable DOE trips and school travel experiences. Her favorite memories include those DOE adventures with Mr. Miller, from hiking and practicing Spanish oral exams over walkie talkies to late nights playing UNO in the tents. Another lasting memory was her senior art showcase, where she displayed work created during two years in Mr. Firestone’s class.
“Seeing the culmination of two years of hard work and creativity was incredibly rewarding,” she said. “It was so amazing to not only see my art displayed in the hallways, but to get to choose where I wanted it and hang it myself!”
Today, some of those same pieces are still hanging in her home.
For Hailee, the journey from CDS to UF and now to Penguin Publishing has been shaped by curiosity, creativity, involvement, and the willingness to reach out and make connections. And she is still building.
We love sharing our alumni achievements with the CDS community. If you are a CDS Alumni and would like to share your accomplishments, please contact our Alumni Engagement Coordinator, Carli (Gauthier) Mianne '16 at cmianne@cdspatriots.org and let us know what you have been up to since leaving CDS. We look forward to hearing from you!