Angelica Niedermeyer
Manhattan College prides itself on being “uncommon” in a location beneficial for commuting to jobs and internships. How does this benefit students seeking professional opportunities before graduation?
According to the Career Development website, “In today’s competitive job market, a degree alone is not enough to secure desired employment. Having hands on applicable experience is invaluable.”
This summer, MC students of all ages went far and near to research, learn and work in their fields of interest. The Quadrangle spoke to six students in various departments about what they did this summer vacation.
Seniors Skye Lehr and Julianne Santospirito traveled along with others from the biology department to conduct research in Bolivia. The two spent two and a half weeks traveling through the Andes mountains to dig sites where they discovered specimens.
Julianne Santopirito and Skye Lehr at a dig site in Bolivia. SKYE LEHR/COURTESY
“We traveled to a lot of really remote parts of the country like towns that are completely self-sustaining to see if we can find any fossils or any plants that the other team was looking at that grow at exceptionally high altitudes for our project,” said Lehr. “It was really cool.”
Lehr, working on a separate project under Professor Bruce Shockey, Ph. D., named a new species and is currently publishing a paper on the topic.
“We were looking for more fossils and specimens to work with to gain more insight on just how big the creature was, if there was anything we didn’t expect about its teeth, about its diet that we hadn’t already determined.”
Santospirito focused on furthering the biodiversity of the different ecosystems of Bolivia.
“My favorite part was when we were hiking in the mountains and we found some really great spots with views like no other,” said Santospirito. “We even got caught in a snowstorm. Overall, I’d say the trip was a great experience that besides going with the school, I probably would have never visited.”
Senior Emilia McCarthy, a political science major hoping to go into corporate law, spent the summer interning at iCapital as a Legal & Compliance Intern. There McCarthy, one of 26 other interns, conducted internal forensic checks, managed training modules and initiated a contract aggregation process.
“My biggest takeaway from this experience was the knowledge in private capital including private equity and hedge funds,” said McCarthy. “Aside from the educational and experiential aspects, I would also say the organization had a great program all around providing fun activities. They took us to a Mets game, a cruise and a charity event. It allowed us all to connect better and also relieved the stress.”
Senior Christian St. Vil, a finance major, was a corporate retirement solutions intern in the product and business development department at TIAA. He was excited to understand the industry and the value of networking.
“My time at TIAA was incredibly insightful,” said St. Vil. “I collaborated on real projects, learned about retirement planning, and sharpened my skills in a dynamic environment. It solidified my passion for a career in this field.”
Senior Juan Posada, civil engineering major, spent two and a half months as a construction intern at Gilbane New York-New Jersey. Shadowing the superintendent, he was assigned to The Urban Health Plan development in the Bronx, UHP 1095 Southern Blvd.
Juan Posada presenting his final presentation on The
Urban Heath Plan development.
JUAN POSADA/COURTESY
“I worked alongside a project executive, project manager, project engineer, and a superintendent,” said Posada. “I came in at 6:30 a.m. every morning and gave safety orientations to new workers on the job that day. It was a lot of hard work, but also an incredible learning experience. I learned at least one new thing every single day.”
Senior Ryan Segali spent the summer with The United Parcel Service (UPS) as an Information Technology Intern. His main project there was helping manage the upgrade of all phones and fax machines to reduce costs.
“The hands-on experience made me feel like all my hard work really means something,” said Segali. “My favorite part of my internship was the UPS hackathon. We spent 24 hours straight programming a user portal for a healthcare company that tightly works with UPS. We coded the project in python using FLASK and MYSQL.”
Source: WordPress.com.
Original content:
https://mcquad.org/2023/09/05/what-did-seniors-do-this-summer/
