A New Internship Endowment Will Power Strong Launches to Tech Careers

Jonathan Sposato ’89 is a firm believer in a Whitman liberal arts education as a pathway to success in life and work, especially in entrepreneurship and technology, where he has made his mark as a serial entrepreneur.

Now he and his spouse, Heather Lowenthal, are investing in that tradition with the Sposato Internship Endowment for students exploring careers in startups and tech.

“The world is changing so fast that those who are most prepared will be those who have mental agility, adaptability, a grab bag of fantastic core skills, and ... a prescience that comes from contextualizing the here and now within a larger framework,” says Sposato. “That’s a liberal arts grad.”

Building Bridges to Great Careers

Sposato and Lowenthal were inspired by the opportunity to help students access internships, an increasingly critical experience in preparing for strong graduate launches.

“It can be difficult to bridge not just from academia to industry, or young adulthood to ‘real life,’ but also simply from Walla Walla to Seattle,” Sposato says. “Anything we can do as alums to lower barriers for superqualified Whitman grads to be noticed by great companies in Seattle or any other city so that they can move forward in denting the universe is meaningful to Heather and me.” 

Through the support of funds like the Sposato Internship Endowment, the college has expanded the number of available Whitman Internship Grants to help students gain access to experiences at startups and nonprofits, where the employer may be unable to provide wages for students. During the 2023–2024 academic year, 129 students completed internships funded by a Whitman Internship Grant.

The Liberal Arts Edge 

Sposato applied his own skills, honed as a Political Science major at Whitman, to build a series of successful companies, including Picnik and Phatbits, which he sold to Google, and PicMonkey. He is also a Co-Founder of Geekwire, the Founder of JoySauce Network, and the Owner and Publisher of Seattle Magazine.

“If I was to pick one thing about my own pathway through the liberal arts that is accretive to a career as a serial entrepreneur, [it] has to be storytelling,” Sposato says. “How do you communicate your value proposition as a new invention to people who don’t know they could benefit from it? It’s about telling the story the right way, making the technology relatable and humanizing the experience you’re providing.”

Sposato says he remembers the lessons of Whitman faculty every day, including Nancy Simon, Mary Hanna and David Schmitz.

Sposato has his sights set high for Whitman student entrepreneurs. “In startups, we like to think of the BHAG. That’s Big Hairy Audacious Goals. In that light, we hope that this endowment for tech and startup internships will help create the next Steve Jobs, Jensen Huang or Whitney Wolfe Herd.”