Exclusive Dickinson Internship Opens Doors in Business, Finance
Hiring Dickinson interns is a win-win, says Rob Jakacki '89, CEO and co-founder of Kudu Investment Management, who created a Dickinson-exclusive data analytics internship at his firm.
CEO creates opportunity for students in data program
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Rob Jakacki ’89 didn’t set out to pioneer data analytics internships at Dickinson, but when inspiration struck, he stepped up to the plate. It’s a meaningful way to help today’s students. And also it’s a win-win for this finance CEO, who believes passionately in the benefits Dickinson grads bring to the business world.
Meaningful reconnection
“Liberal-arts students excel in critical thinking and writing, and they’re able to wear a lot of hats. That’s essential in business and finance.” —Rob Jakacki '89
Jakacki, a former student-athlete and international studies major at Dickinson, co-founded Kudu Investment Management in 2015. He also leads the NYC private-investment firm as CEO. Like many busy executives, Jakacki lost touch with his alma mater over the years, but Dickinson’s innovative data analytics program, launched in 2021, recaptured his attention. The program combines a broad-based foundation, including ethics education, with the technical skills needed in this leading-edge field.
Jakacki worked with Dickinson to establish one of the college's first Dickinson-specific internships focused on data analytics. Because the Kudu data-analytics internship is a paid position, it's accessible to students who would be unable to accept an unpaid opportunity.
Kudu has partnered with Dickinson to recruit and host a Dickinson intern every summer since 2022. In 2023, Jakacki and wife Peggy deepened their involvement with Dickinson when they established the Margaret and Robert S. Jakacki '89 Scholarship to provide support for students with demonstrated financial need.
Lasting effects
Han Nguyen '24, one of Kudu's first Dickinson interns, holds a kudu antelope horn, a symbol of the firm. She says her internship taught her a lot about how data scientists can contribute in the fields of business and finance.
Han Nguyen ’24, a double major in data science and quantitative economics, completed a Kudu internship in summer 2023, with support through a summer-internship grant. She was thrilled to meet Jakacki during her first week in NYC.
"[It] was a perfect chance for me to get familiar with corporate life and understand what data science looks like in the financial-services industry." —Han Nguyen '24
Nguyen used Python, SQL and Power BI to analyze the company’s performance, extract relevant information from the sea of available data and create monthly data dashboards. She also researched tools to automate or simplify processes and wrote code to automate strategy-performance calculations for Kudu’s portfolio companies. At summer’s end, Kudu offered Nguyen an opportunity to work part-time, remotely, throughout her senior year. Now, she’s a research & development analyst at Loyola University-Maryland.
“My internship at Kudu was a perfect chance for me to get familiar with corporate life and understand what data science looks like in the financial-services industry,” Nguyen says. “It taught me a lot about what a data scientist can do.”
The company also benefited. According to Nguyen’s former supervisor, the code she wrote allows employees to complete some calculations in minutes that previously took two or three days. This comes as no surprise to Jakacki, who is pleased to advocate for the strengths Dickinson students bring to the table.
“I’ve done a lot of hiring, and I know—both through my own career experiences and in leading other people—that liberal-arts students excel in areas such as critical thinking and writing, and they’re able to wear a lot of hats,” he observes. “That’s essential in business and finance, particularly for those who will be running a business and managing people, and it’s valuable in every profession.”
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Published November 4, 2024