My Junior Experience
Junior year has truly been a year of learning and growing for me. This includes taking many advanced classes for my majors in Business Analytics and Information Systems; gaining significant exposure to advertising, analytics, and finance through internships at Nielsen Catalina Solutions and JPMorgan Chase & Co.; experiencing beautifully new environments around the world such as China, and meeting so many new people along the way.
I am very interested in data science in terms of analytics and coding, but I am unsure what type of broader field I would like to work in. Luckily, through classes and internships, I have had exposure to many different fields. One of my Business Analytics classes that I really enjoyed was Data Mining, in which we used R (an open-source statistical software) to create predictive algorithms to help answer a plethora of different business questions. I really enjoyed this class and could definitely see myself working in this space, using algorithms and technology to produce novel business opportunities. Similarly, I have been exposed to database design coding through my Information Systems classes and have become even more interested in the data field in terms of both managing and analyzing datasets to tell stories/study trends. At Nielsen Catalina Solutions, I learned how companies can utilize consumer data to track the engagement and Return on Investment (ROI) of advertising. This tech-heavy field is very new and is growing very quickly, and I had the opportunity to work alongside amazing companies such as Facebook, Google, L’Oréal, and P&G. I worked full-time and part-time at NCS for a year, learning so many interesting things and meeting so many great people that I could not have experienced otherwise. This summer, I am interning with JPMorgan Chase & Co. as an Analytics Intern within Wealth Management. The team I work on specifically is Quality Assurance, which is the first line of defense in uncovering any critical/high-risk errors that could damper customer transactions and JPMorgan’s reputation if not caught quickly. In preparation for this internship, I have become very interested in finance and the use of technology (fin-tech) in optimizing and driving opportunities both in investing and wealth/asset management. As a global, Fortune 100 company, I am very excited for the opportunities that my internship at JPMorgan will grant me long-term.
I have also had many opportunities to travel throughout this year. Not only did I get to travel to Brooklyn, New York for a Hispanic Leadership Summit through JPMorgan, but I also travelled to China for three weeks for a study abroad program through the Lindner College of Business. China was an amazing place, full of beautiful and storied culture, booming city life, delicious food (I miss the dumplings already!), and many unique people. My favorite city to visit was Shanghai, as it is a big and exciting city full of opportunities and things to do. This experience really has motivated me to work at a global company where I would have the opportunity to travel to different cultures throughout my life, and I really hope to visit China again. On my blog page entitled “Doing Business in China”, I go more in-depth on the Chinese culture and how it affects their business practices.
Everything that I have done this year has led me to so many new people. Interning at and visiting new places has really put me out of my comfort zone in that I get to always meet new people. As a relatively introspective and introverted person, meeting new people has not always been something I seek out, but forcing myself to branch out really made me more confident in myself. I feel very comfortable meeting and interacting with new people now, which is something I have strived to get better at since starting college. I am still a quieter person, but I love all the connections that I have made this year and cannot wait to continue to branch out as well as further the connections that I already have. I cannot believe that I am almost a senior now, but I feel at ease with my future because I know that the right opportunity in life will present itself to me as long as I continue to work hard and am willing to seize it.
