Stardess Karitonze

Class of 2026-2027

Smith College
Mathematics and Computer Science Double Major

Capstone Project Abstract

Remodel Health is a rapidly growing health benefits platform that enables employers to offer individual health coverage through Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs). The company administers employee enrollment, premium payments, and carrier relationships across more than 200 insurance carriers and over 800 employer clients. As Remodel Health scales, so does the volume of customer interactions captured through support tickets, service requests, and customer feedback. While these interactions provide valuable insight into customer needs, they are primarily managed at the individual case level, making it difficult to systematically identify recurring patterns and high-impact sources of customer friction.
This capstone project focuses on transforming customer support data into actionable business insight. The student will analyze and cluster support tickets to identify recurring themes and quantify their impact, conduct customer discovery interviews with members, employer administrators, and internal stakeholders to validate those findings, and benchmark how peer organizations apply AI to customer experience operations. The project will culminate in prioritized recommendations for improving customer experience and identifying opportunities where AI can enhance support operations.

Why did you choose ESTEEM?

I chose ESTEEM because I wanted to understand how technology creates value, not just how it gets built. After studying mathematics and computer science and working as a software engineer, I found myself less interested in the elegance of a system than in whether anyone actually needed it. ESTEEM's mix of entrepreneurship coursework and a year-long industry capstone gives me the chance to answer that question in practice, with people who are asking it too. My goal is to become a leader who not only builds AI-powered products but also shapes the strategy behind them.

What do you hope to do after ESTEEM?

After ESTEEM, I hope to join an AI-native technology company, in a role close enough to customers that I can see which problems are actually worth solving. I am drawn to companies where the technology is new enough that no one has settled yet on what it should be used for, since that is where product decisions carry the most weight. I want to spend the early part of my career learning how those decisions get made, and eventually be the one making them.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Outside of work and school, you'll usually find me dancing, reading a good book, spending time with friends and family, or keeping my Duolingo streak alive as I learn my fifth language.