Hello again! I’m just finishing up my second week at the Girls Who Invest summer program. I’ve had a blast participating in the program and would love to share my experience here so far.
I’ve been staying in a dorm at the University of Pennsylvania with the 59 other girls participating in the program. We attend class each day usually from 9 – 5 and sometimes we have night sessions that last until 8:30. During the day, I’ve had the opportunity to learn finance and investment concepts from industry professionals and professors from a variety of universities, including Wharton and Yale. We spend a large portion of our day learning new concepts, and every few days we will have a working session where we can apply our new knowledge to concrete examples. Every day during lunch, I’ve enjoyed hearing from a variety of speakers who share their professional experiences with us and answer any questions we have.
As part of the program, all scholars will complete a final valuation project and presentation on a company. My team will be completing our analysis and recommendations on Urban Outfitters, and we had the opportunity to tour the company’s headquarters in Philadelphia. We also visited Wellington Management’s Radnor, PA location, where we learned a little more about the day-to-day work at the company.
I’ve also had the opportunity to develop relationships with many of the other women in my program. GWI participants come from more than 34 different universities nationwide, and the opportunity to learn alongside them and gain such diverse perspectives has been amazing.
I learned about the Girls Who Invest program through an email from Tulane’s Career Center. The application process was an extensive online form with background information, essay questions, recommendations, and a video introduction. For students looking to secure an internship, I would recommend you talk to older peers about their previous internship experiences. I learned a lot about what I’m looking for in an internship by asking my peers about their summer experiences.
I’ve had a wonderful experience at this program so far, and I’m expecting to gain much more knowledge in the areas of finance and investment. I’m also looking forward to participating in our upcoming site visits at PGIM in Newark, NJ and Bloomberg in New York City. I’m excited to take what I learn from this program and directly apply it to the work I perform in my upcoming internship at Wellington Management.