Many of our student workers were able to spend this summer participating in various internships outside of the Hunt Institute. Students often return from these experiences with a fantastic arsenal of newly acquired skills, ideas, and perspectives. This summer, the Undergraduate Creative Development Lead in the Institute, Mariana Midolo, was a Business Systems Analyst Intern at Epsilon in Dallas. Mariana shared the following about her experience:
During my internship I worked on the Bank of America team, where I served as a liaison between the client, internal Epsilon technical delivery teams, and management. Furthermore, I executed Change Management Requests and coordinated full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) processes and tasks including requirement definition, functional specification, and client documentation. Also, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other interns on a group project, where I assembled and analyzed data to produce well-reasoned recommendations for our client, Ben & Jerry’s. Our sponsor for this project loved our presentation and even mentioned that she would be implementing our recommendations!
Overall, I enjoyed my internship experience at Epsilon, and I believe I gained very valuable experience. The internship taught me many things outside the classroom and textbooks. I learned to never be afraid to ask too many questions. No question is a dumb question, and questions lead to answers and knowledge. As simple as that sounds, I was the only intern assigned to the Bank of America team, and as such, I was challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone many times to ask questions to my teammates in order to move forward with my projects. Also, I realized how certain skills like time management, multi-tasking, and communication are applied differently in the workplace than at school. At the internship, my primary focus was the client, while in college, we often focus on our own personal and academic development. These lessons and skills are all things I will work on improving as I finish my senior year and start my professional career.
To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.
