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Highlights from "Internships Targeting Students of Color" panel
October 19, 2004
Moderator: Ruth Shoemaker
PRESENTERS
Joanne Levy - Summer Undergraduate Minority Research program (SUMR)
James Gaston III - United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Corporate Scholars Program
Federico Serrío & Federico Alvarez - Citigroup Investment Banking, Latin America Division Global Diversity Scholarship Program
Tonya Gayle - Associate Director, Career Program with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO)
Martin Rodriguez - Diversity Recruiter, Goldman Sachs Scholarships for Excellence Program
Q & A
Joanne Levy SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE MINORITY RESEARCH (SUMR) PROGRAM
- The goal is to get bright undergraduates to consider academia as a career.
- SUMR is a research mentorship in which the intern works for twenty hours a week doing health services research with a faculty mentor.
- Health services research is a multi-disciplinary study of the management, financing, organization and delivery of healthcare. Health services has nothing to do with biomedical research, but can be an alternative career path for those who are pre-med.
- If you’re interested in research, healthcare and creating knowledge as opposed to applying knowledge, this program is for you.
PERKS OF THE PROGRAM
- The program includes a research mentorship, weekly seminars and opportunities for travel. Last year we took people to San Diego for a health services research conference. This year the conference is in Boston, and they give our students a taste of what the field is all about.
- There are other opportunities to go to conferences at Penn. We support a GRE class for our participants and there is guidance counseling, career advising and other services available.
- There is great camaraderie among the students. Last year we had a record number of six scholars and we ended up doing some trips to Washington DC.
- The application is on our website.
James Gaston III UNCF CORPORATE SCHOLARS PROGRAM
- 20 programs in which students do an internship (8-10 weeks in various locations throughout the US) followed by a scholarship of anywhere between $3,000 and $15,000. The hope is that you will be hired by the company you work for and be acclimated into their workforce.
- Depending on the program, applications may be required far in advance.
- Most programs pay for housing, most pay for the work and there are a wide variety of disciplines they are looking for.
- Applications are on the website.
Federico Serrío and Federico Alvarez SERRÍO’S BACKGROUND
- Studied Economics in Argentina, came to US as exchange student, worked in Argentina, applied to Citigroup.
ALVAREZ’S BACKGROUND
- Worked in Madrid and came to Citigroup because he wanted to work on Wall Street. It is a great experience if you are interested in Finance or Business.
DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
- Paid internship and a one-time award of up to $10,000 for tuition.
- You need a GPA of 3.5+ and US citizenship.
INTERNSHIP
- 10-week internship in the investment banking division.
- You apply when you are a junior, work for that summer and if you do well, get an offer to come back after senior year.
INVESTMENT BANKING DEPARTMENT
- Two main products: mergers and acquisitions and fund-raising. Fund-raising is for corporations, governments and financial institutions. We help clients raise money by issuing debt, issuing stock and so on.
- You would be pitching and presenting business opportunities (deals) to CEO’s or CFO’s of major companies or the government. If the client agrees, you help that process along as well.
- In ten weeks, you won’t be able to execute a whole deal but you will get a taste of what it is that you experience as a financial advisor for companies.
- Whatever group you get, it is a great chance to show your potential and be exposed to the full-time analysts in the group. You will be working with all levels of associates, because we work in teams and there is a lot of interaction among all the members of the team.
- The exposure is fun, but the hours are not fun—they are unpredictable and can be very long sometimes.
- There are several divisions within the investment banking department. There are industry groups of people who cover a specific industry. In the Latin America group there are regional specialists. However, there is a breadth of things that you can do within each group. In my case, I am working with a whole team in the Energy industry, even though I didn’t know anything about the industry. I’m also working in real estate, and I’m learning how the business works.
- People from the banks are always looking for interns to hire for full-time positions, so it’s a good way to get your foot in the door.
Tonya Gayle SEO
- We are an internship and mentoring organization. We provide college students with ten-week paid internships. We have eight program areas. We are strong in financial services and investment banking is the largest partner in terms of number of internships and number of firms. We prepare young people of color to launch their careers.
- SEO recruits nationally to identify students primarily in their junior year, as well as some sophomores. For Philanthropy and Corporate Law, seniors who are interested in summer opportunities are encouraged to apply.
APPLYING TO SEO
- We try to get a sense of your preparedness to be successful, so if you are a Wharton student or have a financial background, it will enhance your candidacy as an intern to do banking. What’s most important is your demonstrated commitment to being successful, to learn and to be passionate about whatever it is you pursue. That is more critical than a lot of nuts and bolts.
- Minimum GPA is 3.0.
- You must be interested in activities that you’ve been involved in as a college student beyond the classroom. Leadership skills are also important, and we want to see leadership behavior in the past.
- We are also interested in your desire to give back, not only to SEO but to your community. We want to know what you’ve done for people beyond yourself. It could be family, etc. but we want to know that it’s not all about you.
- We have about 3,000-4,000 applicants this year, and last summer we had 332 positions.
SEO PROGRAM
- Alumni serve as mentors to SEO interns.We try to prepare you through online training before you come to New York (the majority of our internships are in New York City with a handful of opportunities in San Francisco and Hong Kong).
- On Memorial Day weekend, you get indoctrinated into the ‘SEO Way’ which means that we talk to you about our expectations and how we expect you to be successful. We introduce you to our staff and mentors that will be your support structure.
- Seminar opportunities exist with firms other than the one you are working for.
- Our goal is for you to have at least one full-time offer by the end of the summer. It is basically a ten-week-long interview.
Martin Rodriguez RODRIGUEZ’S BACKGROUND
- I joined Goldman five months ago. I used to work for MBA admissions at NYU.
- I had never worked in the corporate world before, but I wanted to see what the corporate world is like. I started networking, and Goldman Sachs kept popping up so I did some research and applied.
SCHOLARSHIPS FOR EXCELLENCE PROGRAM
- Open to sophomores and juniors.
- We have opportunities in all divisions and not just investment banking, including equities, fixed income, investment management, operations, technology, etc.
- It is a ten-week, paid internship along with scholarship.
- You must have a GPA higher than 3.4, a letter of recommendation, two essays and your transcript.
PARTICIPANTS
- We had four students from Penn interning last summer. One was a junior and three were sophomores. You don’t need a background in business to be part of this program.
- Some of the most successful people at Goldman Sachs are not even business majors. Some never worked in investment banking before they came to us. They had the drive, intelligence and willingness to learn and contribute.
INROADS (representative was not present, but other presenters had general information)
- Compared to SEO, the type of companies they work with is different.
- They want you to apply early and stay with them for your whole college career.
Q&A
Key
J: Joanne Levy (Penn, Summer Undergraduate Minority Research program)
G: James Gaston III (UNCF, Corporate Scholars Program)
F: Federico Serrío and Federico Alvarez (Citigroup, Global Diversity Scholarship Program)
T: Tonya Gayle (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity)
M: Martin Rodriguez (Goldman Sachs, Scholarships for Excellence Program)
Q: The majority of internship opportunities are 8-10 weeks long. What if the student wanted to take a course at the beginning of the summer?
J: You could take classes while you’re interning because our program is 20 hours a week.
F: Our program (Citi) is not so flexible. You would have to contact the director of the program to see if it is possible.
G: It would be difficult to take a class while also doing UNCF’s programs, because they start in June and go until early August. Our programs also usually require you to go to the city where the position is, so you’ll be away from your home school.
M: It’s similar for Goldman. You’re on a 10-week program so along with work, you’ll have to do workshops and attend training sessions. You’ll be putting in long hours at work as well, so it will probably be unlikely that you could take a course. As long as the course ends before the summer program begins, that would not be a problem.
T: SEO internships usually begin at the end of May, or late June at the latest.
Q: If you haven’t declared a major, is it possible to apply?
G: Just create one for the particular program. If it changes the following summer it’s fine, but to fill out an online application, you’ll have to have a major.
Q: The SEO application requires two letters of recommendation from relevant courses. Let’s say that I want to apply for the investment banking internship, but I am a sophomore who hasn’t taken any finance courses yet. Can those letters of recommendation be from other courses?
T: We’re interested in courses that train quantitative ability, so yes, recommendations from math or statistics courses would be acceptable. Most other colleges don’t even have finance majors, so any kind of quantitative or analytical courses that you can get a recommendation from would be fine.
Q: Why are there multiple deadlines?
T: We have rolling admissions. Our goal is to have all of your information by those deadlines. If your recommendations are late, let us know. Don’t wait to apply because your recommendations are running late.
Q: Why is the deadline for international students earlier?
T: International applicants are asked to complete their applications earlier because the Immigration and Naturalization Service is very challenging and we want a sufficient amount of time to clear the bureaucratic hurdles.
Q: Does SEO only take recommendations through the Internet?
T: If you are having trouble submitting recommendations online, there is a form that you can give to your recommender to submit by snail mail.
Q: Let’s say a student is deciding among these programs and she’s narrowed it down to a banking internship. How should she decide what path to take to apply for that internship?
F: We had SEO interns last summer, and they did the same work as non-SEO interns. SEO interns were very well-prepared. There are some benefits to applying directly to Citi, such as the scholarship, and SEO has other benefits. It’s really up to you.
Q: Can you apply for the same internship through more than one program?
M: If you have never worked in financial services, the kind of help that SEO can give an applicant is something that cannot be overlooked. It is a very competitive process, and the training that SEO students are offered makes a big difference because you are competing with people who have had training in that field sometime in the past.
T: If you are applying through several routes, we need to know that you are so we can speak with the employer.
Q: SEO has a lot of training online and through workshops. Can you elaborate a little on that?
T: We launched the online component last year, and alumni and employers say that it’s been extremely helpful.
Q: How does SEO decide how many of what kind of positions are available?
T: Every year our partners tell us how many positions they have, what the positions entail, and so on. By looking at that, we come up with some criteria. First, we look for whether or not you would be successful in an SEO summer. Second, we look at your skill set and your fit for the position. Then, the whole committee gets together and discusses your application. If there is a firm-requested placement then that’s an obvious pick, but otherwise it is a complicated process.
Q: For the application, if one chooses investment banking as the desired field, for example, and doesn’t get an investment banking position, would s/he be considered for a position in another field that s/he didn’t list on the application?
T: This year we formally invite applicants to request their top three choices. In the past, we decided for you if you were fit for another field and contacted you about that. This year, we won’t be doing that. We consider what you tell us first, and then what we think is viable.
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