This four-part series spotlights four Syracuse University students during their summer internships — part 3 of 4.

Chances are, somewhere in your home sits a kitchen appliance, a cleaning product or a beauty item awarded the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. But before a product earns this honor, someone needs to test its worthiness.

Molly Pomroy, a senior English and textual studies major at Syracuse University, is one of these people.

As an intern in the kitchen appliances and technology lab for the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, Pomroy tests products that may be featured or advertised in the publication. The goal of the research floor — where Pomroy works — is to discover high quality products that readers can rely on.

Dawn Rzeznikiewicz, Pomroy’s friend and Gamma Phi Beta sorority sister, recommended the position. Rzeznikiewicz, a recent magazine journalism and English and textual studies graduate, held the same internship one year ago. She felt Pomroy would be an excellent fit.

Rzeznikiewicz worked closely with Pomroy on the staff of The Student Voice, a bi-weekly publication at SU. Rzeznikiewicz said Pomroy was always prepared to work hard and came in with a positive attitude, which helped the staff during long hours of work.

“Molly is such a hands-on person, and she’s so enthusiastic,” Rzeznikiewicz said. “This job involves working with the other interns really closely, and Molly is so sociable and outgoing. I knew she would love it.”

This summer, the kitchen appliances and technology lab kicked things off with the testing of a household staple: ovens. Decked out in official white lab coats stamped with a green “GH,” Pomroy and her two co-interns got to work running a number of tests on 22 different ovens — including baking.

An oven passed the test with a five-out-of-five rating if all the cookies were cooked evenly to an appetizing golden brown, or if the mini chickens and steaks were cooked to perfection. When the items came out of the ovens, the team would taste-test every cookie, chicken and steak, all in the name of finding the perfect oven.

“I don’t think I could ever eat a chicken or a chocolate chip cookie ever again,” Pomroy said. “We had to bake three chickens per oven. We had so many chickens. We just ate it all day long.”

Fellow intern Amelia Rosen, a junior sociology major at Barnard College, enjoyed working with Pomroy in the test kitchen throughout the summer and found her bubbly personality and dedication a great asset to their team.

“You spend all of your time working with other interns instead of being stuck in cubicles,” Rosen said. “It was nice having someone around who was so fun and upbeat.”

Aside from testing ovens, Pomroy and her fellow interns had the opportunity to help the engineering lab as they tested out toys for the magazine’s 2013 holiday gift guide.

Though the kitchen appliance interns had their own work to do for the holiday guide — such as ordering product samples like cookies, brownies, chocolate and popcorn and then tasting and ranking them — Pomroy said she really enjoyed toy testing. There, she got to work closely with children as they played with the toys.

“I had this one boy named Preston and he was absolutely adorable,” Pomroy said. “We played with this miniature parking garage for a solid two hours. He wouldn’t let me guide him anywhere else and they are supposed to see a few toys but he only wanted to play with the parking garage.”

While interacting with the kids, Pomroy would ask whether or not they liked the toys they played with and what they liked about them. Their answers were used to determine which toys will be featured in the magazine.

Pomroy contributes to the magazine in other ways also. She writes a number of blog posts for the company’s website. Her most recent blog post was an idea that she pitched to her boss.

“I took a watermelon and made a little keg out of it with a spigot,” Pomroy said. “Once that was finished and tested, and we made sure it actually worked, then I wrote a blog about it.”

The blog posts have been one of the most rewarding parts of the internship, Pomroy said, because it is exciting to see her name attached to such a high-ranking publication.

Pomroy also said her time at Good Housekeeping has helped her figure out what she would like to do in the future. After writing for the magazine’s website, she hopes to get into the editing side of the industry, possibly as an editor of children’s books.

Said Pomroy: “I’ve always been kind of in the mind of a child and now seeing all these articles about gardening sheers and salad tools, I think it would be more fun to work in the mind and imagination of a child.”

Published on August 2, 2013 at 10:23 am

Contact Katie: kjrichar@syr.edu | @ktjrichards