Internship Tell All

MBA Students Share Their Experience Interning Through the Summer.

Summer’s all about beach days, sunshine, sandy toes, and—internships! That’s right. Our MBA students know first-hand how amazing a summer internship can be – because they’ve experienced it. Learn about some of the roles our MBAs found themselves in this summer, the opportunities they gained, and the change they helped contribute to.

Myles Fish (MBA’18)
EnergySage

Myles Fish, who worked as a Strategic Partner Associate at EnergySage, says he worked to engage with potential partnering organizations.” As the second most trafficked solar website in the United States, EnergySage runs the largest and only truly vendor-neutral, online solar marketplace. Fish explains, “Like Kayak.com for flights or Carfax.com for used cars, homeowners interested in residential solar can use EnergySage to receive up to seven custom quotes from pre-screened installers and compare them on an apples-to-apples basis.”

During his time with EnergySage, Fish managed outreach campaigns to over 100 universities as well as corporations that declared their commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. The experience has been incredibly positive, “Each month we’ve hit new goals and set more ambitious targets,” says Fish. He says that Energy Sage was the perfect fit for him, “I went to business school because I wanted to help market renewable energy and clean technology. That’s exactly what EnergySage does, so it’s a perfect match to my interests.”

Shironda White (MBA’18)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“It has definitely been a worthwhile experience,” says Shironda White on working at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation this summer. The foundation has several teams or divisions and White worked as an intern under the US Program, Washington State, which White explains as the team that works on local education initiatives with a community development lens. She explains, “One of my interests is community development, so this was a perfect fit for me.”

One of her projects was The Road Map Project, a community-driven effort in South Seattle and South King County designed to keep students on track, both in and out of school. Her summer project specifically focused on out-of-school time programs within the same region.

Her internship has not only informed her perspective; it has inspired her as well. White explains, “My experience so far has been great, especially as it relates to seeing first-hand the challenges and opportunities of being the largest private philanthropy in the world. The Gates Foundation has tremendous influence, but with that comes tremendous responsibility (and of course occasional criticism), and watching them navigate the political, societal, and legal challenges as they keep their eyes focused on the goal of eradicating poverty, disease, and inequity has really been inspiring.”

Alexander Neary (MBA’18)
Founding and Developing Startup Company

Six BU students in the BUzzLab Summer Venture Accelerator are aiming to reinvent the construction industry by creating a job search business platform built from the ground up. Alexander Neary explains what he’s trying to accomplish during his unconventional “internship”, “We’re building a product as different from LinkedIn or Indeed as a bulldozer is from a pickup truck,” he says, “Hiring in the construction industry is currently done almost entirely through word of mouth references because no one has taken the time to figure out what construction workers and companies actually need in an online hiring platform.” Neary says he and his partners are aiming to change that. He says without the support of The BUZZ Lab summer venture accelerator, led by the director of entrepreneurship activities Ian Mashiter, CompanyWide would still be a PowerPoint presentation. He says that, “in 10 weeks we have a website built, customers lined up, and are seeking $250k in seed funding for the project.”

Clark Soucy (MBA’18)
Panda Capital

Before his MBA, Clark Soucy worked for three years at a Chinese Airline in Shanghai and over the summer he had the pleasure of returning to Shanghai to intern at Chinese Venture Capital Fund, Panda Capital. Shanghai and Beijing are both home to a rapidly growing startup scene with many local and overseas investors providing funding for new companies. Soucy’s responsibility as an intern was to assist the fund founders evaluate potential investment projects. He explains how the experience expanded his perspective, “I was afforded the opportunity to meet with many entrepreneurs seeking funding as well as portfolio CEOs. Meeting these entrepreneurs and working closely with the founders gave me insights into the latest trends in Chinese business and a new mindset for analyzing investments.” Soucy used his time with Panda Capital to improve his ability to use Chinese to conduct business. He’s looking to develop his career in China after graduating from Questrom and says that interning with Panda Capital was “great preparation” for the next stage in his career.

Jen Prelack (MBA’18)
IFAW

Jen Prelack interned this summer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in their East Africa office in Kenya. “As a program and strategic development intern my work has largely been focused on scaling up our counter poaching, illicit trafficking, and wildlife security project.” Through working directly with communities, Prelack analyzed threats to wildlife and mapped historical wildlife conflict and crime data to find areas of convergence. Where there was overlap, Prelack worked to strategically assess mitigation projects and implementation to secure space for wildlife.

Prelack has the Questrom Internship Fund to thank for her invaluable experience. She says, “Thanks to the Questrom Internship Fund, I have been able to spend the last 3 ½ months applying the skills I have acquired to the field I am most passionate about.” She’s had the chance to collaborate with local communities, government entities, and other NGO’s furthering my industry experience. She explains where she’s headed next, “With my MBA, I am looking to further my career in conservation management and animal welfare, and this summer has shown me that the diversified skills that Questrom teaches will help me address some of the most pressing issues facing the world.”

Related Reading:

In Part 2 of “Internship Tell All”, our Specialty Masters and Dual Degree students share their internship experiences.

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