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Scoop Dreams

Kirsten Schimoler '08 invents ice cream flavors for a living (yes, it's a real job)  Kirsten Schimoler '08 invents ice cream flavors for a living (yes, it's a real job) You've heard of the Freshman Fifteen. But what about the Ben Ten? That's the risk you run when you join a company whose official employee […]

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Kirsten Schimoler '08 invents ice cream flavors for a living (yes, it's a real job)
 

Kirsten Schimoler '08 invents ice cream flavors for a living (yes, it's a real job)

You've heard of the Freshman Fifteen. But what about the Ben Ten? That's the risk you run when you join a company whose official employee perks include three free pints of ice cream a day. But thanks to a solid understanding of nutrition and an active lifestyle, Kirsten Schimoler '08 has managed to avoid packing on the pounds. "I've actually lost weight since I got to Ben & Jerry's," the petite blue-eyed blonde says, sounding a little amazed. "If I'm eating ice cream all day, I'm probably going to go home and have vegetable soup or a salad, not sit down to a big bowl of carbonara alfredo. When you're eating ice cream for a living, you have to know moderation."

Kirsten Schimoler 

Don't hate her because she's beautiful—or because she has one of those jobs that's guaranteed to hijack the conversation at parties. In fact, sometimes the twenty-four-year-old Schimoler prefers not to tell strangers her profession, because "I design ice cream for Ben & Jerry's" tends to send the chat in a predictable direction: once people realize she's not making it up, they start suggesting new flavors (or complaining about the ones that have been discontinued). Then there's the task of explaining what a product developer is in the first place. "Overall, everyone is like, 'That's the coolest thing ever,' " Schimoler says. "But sometimes you just don't want to talk about it, because you have to devote at least five minutes to explaining it. I tell people, 'Walk into the grocery store, and behind pretty much every product— whether it's Doritos or Ben & Jerry's or breakfast cereal—is someone like me.'"

To get to the Ben & Jerry's headquarters, you drive to an office park in South Burlington, Vermont, and enter a lobby emblazoned with a mural of blue sky, green grass, fluffy clouds and—naturally—black-and-white cows. Speaking of which, there's a life-sized fiberglass bovine against one wall, under a photo of the brand's hippyish founders. Across the room, next to the vintage Wurlitzer organ, is a freezer filled with frozen treats. On one corner, a small laminated card makes a demure appeal to dietary restraint: "Please, only one ice cream novelty per person." Down the hall, past the twisty red slide that runs from the second floor to the first, is a maze of cubicles and offices as well as the gym, the nap room, the Comfy Couch Area, the lab, the "sensory room" for taste-testing, and Scoop University, the working ice cream shop where new franchisees get eight days of hands-on training. Conference rooms are named after flavors, from Vanilla to Peanut Butter Cup. The closest thing to jack-booted corporate culture is the sign sternly declaring, "No food or dogs are allowed in the Zen Den." Today, the whole place smells like brownies.

Yes, Ben & Jerry's is now owned by food giant Unilever—but Schimoler is quick to point out that the company has held onto its alternative, liberal-minded corporate culture. Each employee gets a week's paid leave per year to do volunteer work; a wellness program offers free yoga classes and personal trainer sessions; the Community Action Team organizes service projects, like building cabins at a camp for kids with cancer; the Joy Gang promotes employee unity with mini-golf outings, barbecues, and other social events. The woman who arranges media interviews signs her e-mails "PR Chick." Anyone wearing a suit to the office is most likely a visitor, or maybe they're on their way to a funeral. "Casual day is every day," says Schimoler, sitting in the Strawberry-Kiwi Room clad in jeans, a flannel shirt, and flip-flops. "Everyone is super happy to be here, and they love what they do. If you look at the slide, that's pretty much our MO. It's fun all the time, but we get a lot of work done."

A food science major in CALS, Schimoler started working for Unilever a week after graduation, beginning in its New Jersey corporate headquarters developing frozen "skillet meals" for the Bertolli and P. F. Chang's brands. Although she hadn't planned on working for a giant firm—she'd envisioned herself at "some little organic granola company"—she decided to give it a try, with an eye toward eventually transferring to Ben & Jerry's. When the job opened up, Schimoler—who grew up within walking distance of the company's factory in Waterbury, Vermont—jumped at it. "As kids we'd go on the tour over and over, because it's free if you're under twelve— and Waterbury's a small town, so there's not much else to do," she recalls. "So I'd say that was my biggest qualification: I literally grew up on Ben & Jerry's." The job, she says, "is my dream come true, way earlier than I thought."

In the year or so that she's been at the company, her biggest project has been developing two flavors sold exclusively at Target stores as part of Scoop It Forward, a campaign to promote volunteerism. The flavors—Berry Voluntary, raspberry-cheesecake ice cream with white chocolate chunks and a raspberry swirl, and Brownie Chew Gooder, caramel-vanilla ice cream with brownie pieces and a caramel swirl—were planned as limited-edition, but since being introduced in late June they've sold so well that Target is stocking them indefinitely. Schimoler would love to see them on freezer shelves herself—but the chain has no stores in Vermont. "To make people happy via ice cream is pretty awesome," she says. "I just wish we had a Target so I could go and say, 'Those are my flavors.'"

Despite the gustatory rigors of her day job, Schimoler swears that she still enjoys ice cream in her off hours. So what flavors does the ice cream designer favor for her weekly allotment of—do the math— fifteen gratis pints? She names Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, Chubby Hubby, and Mint Chocolate Cookie. "Those are my five favorite pints. Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! is only in the scoop shops, but I do love that," she says. "I can't say there's a flavor I don't like."

— Beth Saulnier

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