Big City Connections

the statue of liberty

Photo by Anh Phuong Nguyen '18.

Dickinson’s New York program is a networker’s dream, injecting students into the lifeblood of Manhattan

by Tony Moore 

 

Dickinson has several study-abroad centers around the world—15 to be exact—ranging from such locales as England, Italy and Germany to Cameroon, Russia and Australia, and the college also has global partner programs in Denmark, Brazil, Israel and 11 other countries. But here’s something not everyone knows: Dickinson has a study-abroad program in New York City as well, and since 2008 it’s allowed international business & management and economics majors to immerse themselves in the nation’s largest city in unique fashion.

 

“I had always dreamed of working in a big city after Dickinson, and the New York City program was a perfect choice for me to experience city life,” says Yoonseok Choi ’15 (economics), who used his semester in New York as a launch pad to his current position as an analyst with Deutsche Bank. “I also thought it would give me lots of networking opportunities with Dickinson alumni—a successful career starts from building good relationships.”

 

Those relationships—often formed with alumni, as Choi notes—form the cornerstone of the program, through which students spend the spring semester living at the 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side and studying at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, located in the vibrant Gramercy Park neighborhood, a quick subway ride straight down Lexington Avenue. At Baruch, students take two classes, complete a two-credit independent study with a Dickinson faculty member and pursue an internship or substantial hands-on project, keeping their academic plate full. They are also free to take their independent study in a different direction from their internship, keeping the diverse spirit of a Dickinson education alive while the students are away.

 

The alumni link

Amity Fox ’04, Dickinson's associate dean of academic advising and director of the internship program, notes that participants are considered Baruch students while in the program and have full access to all the resources the 15,000-student college has to offer. “But Dickinson alums regularly host the internships and provide projects,” she says. “So being in NYC—and having Baruch resources and Dickinson alums readily accessible—can have a fundamental impact on a student’s career exploration and Dickinson experience.”

 

Ja Min "Jasmin" Lee ’16, who will join Bank of America Merrill Lynch in July as a full-time global transactions services analyst through Merrill’s graduate program, agrees.

 

“As an international business & management major, I felt like I needed a solid internship experience before I graduated,” says the Seoul, Korea, native. “The Dickinson in NYC program puts a strong emphasis on balancing your time between a part-time internship and school, which is exactly what I wanted to experience at the time.”

 

One alumnus who’s hosted several internships is Donald Nagle ’76, chief financial officer and senior VP of operations at the Asia Society, a global educational organization that promotes understanding and partnership between a wide variety of Asian and American institutions. Through Nagle’s office, the Asia Society has been taking an intern from Dickinson’s New York program each spring since 2011, and the projects that students undertake provide them with a semester of practical finance-related work while making them a real part of the Asia Society’s activities.

 

“The experience allows students to work on a project that ties into our work,” Nagle says. “One year it was a competitive analysis, the next one helped us develop our accounting manual and another helped us analyze our costs to look for opportunities for savings.” Nagle notes that where the internships and classes leave off, New York itself takes over.

“Its wealth of culture, diversity of people and breadth of professions offers students many opportunities to learn—in and out of the classroom,” he adds.

 

More networks, more connections

Jack Connolly ’11, now a global product manager with Michael Kors, found his first leg up through his time in New York. “I was introduced to my first boss as a byproduct of the program, which really helped my career,” he says, advising students to look at every event as a potential game-changer. “Take advantage of as many networking opportunities as possible; you never know who you will meet or what you will learn.”

 

Connolly interned with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management while in the New York program and with Toys ’R Us the following summer. And while Dickinson doesn’t set up internships for students, Baruch’s internship coordinators are at the ready. Over the past six years, nearly every Dickinson student has completed an internship or a comprehensive project through Baruch resources or Dickinson alumni.

 

Those alumni connections are often facilitated by Dickinson’s Career Connections events. Held annually in New York and Washington, D.C., these full-day events offer students a great chance to meet and speak with alumni with careers in their areas of interest, and the Dickinson in New York program guidelines have required all recent participants to attend.

 

Lee got her start at a similar event last summer, when she met Ruth Ferguson ’92, at the Alumni-Intern Networking Reception. “While I was fortunate to connect with many alumni in NYC, Ruth, who works at Bank of America, highly encouraged me to apply for the graduate program, and that’s where it all started,” Lee says. “I cannot thank her enough for her encouragement and guidance throughout the journey.”

 

International appeal

The New York program also has been a great way for Dickinson’s international students to see life beyond campus in dramatic fashion.

 

“Each semester we have one or two U.S. citizens in the program, and the rest have been international students,” says Fox, who attributes the program’s international appeal to New York’s being a major global banking center and career destination for anyone interested in the field. It’s a point backed up by Csilla "Gloria" Huse ’16 (international business & management major, economics), who hails from Brisbane, Australia, and was in New York in the spring of 2015.

 

“Being an international student in the United States, I was fascinated by NYC every time I visited,” says Huse, who landed a 10-week investment banking internship with BNP Paribas for the summer and also received a returning full-time offer that begins once she graduates. “It was a goal of mine to be able to live and work in the city one day, and being a fast-paced individual, I found myself thriving in this environment. And you’re right in the heart of the city and have countless opportunities, academically and career-wise.”

 

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Published March 14, 2016