During the summer of 2025, Eliana Kanefield (MBA '26) interned as an NYU Stern MBA Supply Chain and Sustainability Fellow at PayPal. Read on to learn more about her time there:

Name: Eliana Kanefield

Grad Year: 2026

Specialization: Global Business, Sustainable Business and Innovation, and Marketing

How will agentic commerce affect small businesses and human rights? How can sustainability teams leverage AI to streamline their work? How do human rights and sustainability intertwine with the core responsibilities of Third-Party Risk, Human Resources, Privacy, and Government Relations teams?

This summer, I had the opportunity to dig into these questions—and more—as a Social Impact and Human Rights Fellow at PayPal. Placed under the Corporate Affairs umbrella at PayPal, I had the privilege of reporting to Brynn Albrecht and Suzanne Hilker—two experts in the sustainability and reporting space.

I had five main workstreams over the course of my fellowship. I worked as the project manager for a human rights impact assessment and relationship manager for a preeminent third-party human rights advisory group. Through interviews with leaders across PayPal’s value chain, as well as policy and documentation research, we were able to surface salient human rights risks and opportunities for PayPal to advance its human rights strategy. To further strengthen PayPal’s human rights work, I built out a governance structure for a cross-functional human rights working group and conducted a human rights benchmarking report to identify key growth areas. I was also able to leverage my experience as an educator and customer success manager to build out an internal human rights training module. Lastly, I managed a website refresh to ensure the corporate affairs site aligned with PayPal’s social impact and sustainability focus areas. 

My fellowship at PayPal solidified what I have learned across my Stern coursework—that sustainability and social impact are competitive advantages. Investments in this critical work protect against reputational and legal risks, reduce operational costs, drive talent acquisition and retention, protect customers’ and communities’ financial wellbeing, and increase brand value through increased trust and safety.

One of the highlights of my fellowship was the opportunity to meet PayPal’s CEO Alex Chriss in a small group discussion. When asked about the legacy he wanted to leave at PayPal, Chriss smiled and declined to answer—not out of hesitation but out of conviction that his actions as a leader and those of the entire PayPal ecosystem will speak for him. As I advance my career at the intersection of technology and impact, I intend to mirror the values put forth at PayPal—substance over signaling, collective growth over collecting recognition.

I am deeply grateful to Mariah Maldonado for her leadership on creating opportunities for mission-driven MBA candidates, to the broader Corporate Sustainability and Impact team at PayPal for teaching me what philanthropy, communications, strategic partnerships, and environmental work looks like behind the scenes of a multinational tech company, and to Brynn and Suzanne for their mentorship and feedback throughout the summer and beyond.