Classroom collaboration leads to student internship at Church & Dwight

Gavin Komoda ’28 (industrial design) is spending his summer “using the skills I’ve learned at RIT in a real setting.”

He’s an intern in the product engineering department at Church & Dwight, the New Jersey-based consumer goods company behind well-known brands such as Arm & Hammer, Batiste, Hero Cosmetics, OxiClean and TheraBreath. 

“It entails everything in industrial design,” said Komoda, from East Windsor, N.J. “It’s nice to feel capable of properly bringing an idea to life, from sketching all the way up to CAD and 3D printing. Every day is about improving my work and trying new technologies.”

The breadcrumbs of Komoda’s opportunity trace back to Church & Dwight’s participation in RIT industrial design’s annual T-Minus experience in January. 

The annual workshop brings together everyone in the program to create group projects guided by an industry sponsor. This year, students were challenged to develop alternative user experiences for several of the company’s brands. Church & Dwight representatives spent a week engaging with students through talks, feedback sessions and a final critique. 

“The whole experience was exciting,” Komoda said. “Seeing a company as big as Church & Dwight take the time to work with us is such a great feeling. They truly cared.”

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Provided

Gavin Komoda operates 3D printers and other technology daily in his internship role.

After Komoda built connections during T-Minus, Church & Dwight offered him an internship when he reached out afterward. 

Prior to that, Church & Dwight displayed select projects for research and development executives and product development teams to browse. It spurred company interest in bringing on an RIT student to further grow one of the winning T-Minus proposals.

As the hired intern in the product engineering department, Komoda is refining a project started by RIT peers that introduced a new cosmetic to the Touchland brand, using the same design language as its signature hand sanitizer. Komoda and the rest of his Church & Dwight team is investigating the feasibility of bringing the product to market. The original concept was created by the team of Leia Gibson, Jan Hikmatullah, Agneya Kulkarni, Sienna Mekker and Max Wu. 

Komoda’s own T-Minus group was also chosen as a winner for a concept it developed. He is following the same principles he learned from that experience for the Touchland project.

Exposure to innovative technology and resources at Church & Dwight has facilitated rapid prototyping that informs his design process.

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Courtesy of Dylan Scarpato

Dylan Scarpato '24 organized a showcase of T-Minus 2026 projects at Church & Dwight. The display led to one of the students projects being chosen by the company for refinement this summer.

“The biggest game-changer has been our makerspace,” Komoda said. “We have a bunch of 3D printers and all these fancy laser cutters and I can access it all so quickly. I can design something in CAD and 30 minutes later have it printed in my hands. That immediate feedback makes my workflow very fast paced here.”

Dylan Scarpato ’24 (industrial design) was among the Church & Dwight employees to lead T-Minus and is also Komoda’s manager and mentor for the summer. Scarpato is a prototype specialist and product engineer for Church & Dwight.

“He’s always reinforcing good design habits,” Komoda said. “Throughout this design project I’ve been documenting my process — sketches, early prototypes and reference images. It’s a healthy habit as a designer to stay organized.”

“It’s been exciting to see the concept continue to evolve,” Scarpato said. “Gavin’s done a nice job building on that original direction while bringing his own ideas into the mix.”

For Komoda, the internship has confirmed his class projects at RIT authentically simulate industry expectations.

“It makes what you learn in school fully make sense,” Komoda said. “All the things professors want us to do on our projects are just how a project at this company works. I can’t wait to use the additional skills I’ve learned here as I continue to grow at RIT.”