Humans of Kellogg: Isabelle Hofgaertner, Nike MBA Intern
- Cathy Campo
- Sep 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 1
Looking at Business Like a Child Looks at Art
By: Tejas Niphadkar
"You should look at art like a child."
Isabelle Hofgaertner 2Y '26 is explaining her philosophy to me, one she developed while leading elementary school kids through the Metropolitan Museum of Art during her undergraduate years at Barnard College. It's a philosophy that sounds simple enough, but in the hyper-analytical world of business school, it feels almost revolutionary.
"Kids were so lovely to bring around the museum because they didn’t have to intellectualize anything," she says, her eyes lighting up at the memory. "They’d just be like, 'This is so fun. I love this—what an awesome painting of the people having dinner!'"
The Museum as a Classroom
Through the "Meet Me at the Museum" initiative that Isabelle helped start, she brought New York City elementary school children, primarily from underprivileged areas, to experience art firsthand. Many families didn't know the Met was free for NYC residents or felt intimidated by the grand Fifth Avenue institution.
Her teaching method was radical in its simplicity: "I'd tell them, looking at art should be the same as listening to music…. If you don't like a song, you just skip it. Go to a museum and just walk around. Look at what draws your attention. If you don't like it, just keep moving."
No lengthy placards to read. No pressure to understand. No pretending to appreciate something because you think you should.
"You don't have to research it. You don't have to understand it deeply. You don't even have to read the placard."
From Monet to Marketing
This childlike approach—immediate, honest, unpretentious—has also shaped how Isabelle navigates the business world. At Nike this summer, she watched campaigns come to life through weeks of creative reviews, observing how "everything is so intentional. Whether it’s colors, fonts or the expression of an athlete, how their eyes look."
But she approaches these high-stakes decisions with the same philosophy she taught those kids: What do you genuinely respond to? What moves you? What should you skip?
"People think art has to be this very intellectual, inaccessible thing," she explains. "But all art forms matter equally. Music versus visual arts versus TV or movies. They're all someone's ideas being brought to life, and that's beautiful."
It's a perspective that feels particularly relevant at Kellogg, where we often intellectualize everything, from market positioning to organizational behavior. What if we approached some decisions more like those kids at the Met, with genuine curiosity rather than calculated analysis?
The Jackson Pollock Problem
"People look at Jackson Pollock's paint splatters and say, 'I could make that,'" Isabelle tells me when I ask about modern art. "Sure, you could make it, but first of all, you didn't come up with the idea. Second, it's someone's inner expression."
Similarly, at Nike, after watching photographers, designers, and creative teams pour weeks into a campaign, she'd read comments claiming the work was AI-generated. But she saw it being created first-hand. “I know everything that went into it."
The parallel to business school is hard to miss. How often do we look at successful companies or campaigns and think, "That's so simple; anyone could have done that"? But like those Pollock paintings, the simplicity often masks deep intentionality.
Not Everything Needs a Framework
"I'm not a pivoter," Isabelle states matter-of-factly, almost defiantly in an environment where career pivots are the norm. She came to Kellogg to deepen her expertise in marketing, not to escape it.
She refused to be caught up in her classmates’ pull towards consulting, where the majority share of class of ‘24 landed (35%).This, too, echoes her museum philosophy. Don't force yourself to appreciate something because others do. Skip the songs you don't like. Move toward what genuinely draws you.
The Art of Keeping Wonder
Isabelle's fiancé/JV, Ben Tilden, a software engineer, has been with her for nine years, through her transition from art student to CPG marketer to MBA candidate. "Life feels like a great adventure when we're together," she says simply.
Their partnership is its own creative collaboration. He worked remotely from Portland during her Nike internship, and he embraces each city move as a new adventure. "We're growing up together, and growing up means learning new things every day."
But growing up, in Isabelle's world, doesn't mean losing that childlike approach to discovery. It means keeping the wonder while adding the skills.
At Nike, she brought both the analytical rigor from her previous careers at Walmart and Colgate, and the pure creative appreciation from those museum tours. "I wanted to learn that storytelling aspect," she says. "Being a storyteller is a very different skill. How do you make a 15-second video that lives on TikTok, connects back to the brand, has the right tone, is inspiring, energizing, interesting, maybe pushing the envelope?"
You approach it, perhaps, like a child in a museum. You trust your instincts. You skip what doesn't work. You linger on what does. You don't overthink it.
Read about other Humans of Kellogg: John Gilmore (JV)
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