A Day in the Life of an Intern at the Department of Homeland Security

By Miranda Curry, Senior, Mathematics Major

Almost nine months ago I started my internship at the Department of Homeland Security in the Program Management Office. Ever since then my life has completely changed. If you had asked me what I wanted to do with my math degree a year ago, I couldn’t give a straight answer. All I knew was that I needed an internship to get my degree and thanks to Career Services, I received an email with a link to apply. After an intense 3+ month background check and interview process, I was given a start date. My days here start early and end late (if you get here before 6 am, you are usually lucky enough to get a parking spot underground).

 When I first started I was thrilled about the idea of working in a cave, but nine months later I am really missing the sun. Twelve-hour days don’t allow for a lot of time outside. Working in the Program Management Office, I have a wide range of duties. Recently, I helped prepare and balance the $50 million budget for the entire facility here for the upcoming fiscal year. Additionally, I have helped work on projects from file size analysis to creating shelving and storage plans for another cave location. The work never becomes boring because it’s different every day. Additionally, working in such a high performing office means you create significant impact to the organization. The projects that I have worked on have given me such a feeling of purpose because I know my work will make a positive difference in other’s efficiency.

Summer 2016 Interns - From Kansas City to St. Louis

Hallie Cooley - Junior – Double Major in Applied Mathematics & Economics

My actuarial internship in the insurance industry is allowing me to see the various models and reports used to predict data about our clients. Here I am evaluating a couple of analyses in order to express their meaning to clients in simplified terms. 

 

Decho Valev – Senior – Corporate Finance & Accounting Major
With H&R Block and the Expat Tax Services Team, I have been able to help US citizens living abroad in Australia, Europe and Canada get tax preparation service. It has been a great learning experience.


  
Janine Koleta – Junior – International Business Major

My internship allows me not only to intern for the Human Resource department, but also to shadow and interview employees from other departments. I am always challenged to do new things on a daily basis and get out of my comfort zone. I really like my coworkers and the team environment is great.

 

 

Joseph Lipoff – Junior – Applied Mathematics Major, Physics Minor

I am a data engineering intern at the Digital Ally Open, which is a tournament office on the Web.com-PGA Tour. I have set up Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Etix, Google Analytics, and website analytics with the google task manager. I am excited to see what is next for me.

 

 

Brendan Bostwick – Senior – Accounting Major

Interning at a local law firm has given me the opportunity to work behind the scenes of the court trials. Here is me looking through  documents and getting them in order for the attorneys to use.

 

 

Kyle Barnes – Junior – Accounting Major

My internship in the federal tax department has allowed me to apply what I have learned in my accounting classes to a real world situation. Here I am analyzing last year's financial statements to help with the 2015 Federal Tax Return for the company.

Jake Weible, Marketing Major in the Google Community Leaders Program

 

My internship with the Google  Community Leaders Program allows me to partner with Literacy KC, bringing a Digital Literacy program to their firm. The Digital Literacy courses allow students to supplement their English and Mathematics courses with computer classes. These classes help to close the digital divide in Kansas City and its surrounding districts. - Jake Weible, Senior, Marketing Major

Senior, Co-op Student Tyrone Blackmon - Reflection

One thing that I had to be more comfortable with this semester is approaching my advisors in a confident manner. Not to say that I wasn't confident before, but after having to approach them on a consistent basis on more pressing topics, this taught me that I must be able to communicate my thoughts confidently and properly in order to get the results and reactions I would like. One thing to take away: even if you feel nervous about approaching a Senior on a touchy subject, do it anyway and sooner rather than later. It can only help you grow as a person, make you better and more comfortable with yourself.  - Tyrone Blackmon, Senior, Accounting Major

Your Email Storage is Full

By Miranda Curry, Senior, Mathematics Major

 

I find it surprising how much time people spend on their emails every day at work. When my mentor comes up to me and asks me, “What did you do yesterday” and I reply saying I checked my email, it sounds like a very unproductive day. However, checking email really can be a very tasking project to do every day.

As of this morning, my email storage space was 95% full after just 6 months of work. The next 8 hours were spent going through just one of my folders to try to clear up some space, and now I’m about down to 80% storage used. It just seems crazy to me how much time we waste reading pointless or irrelevant emails, to the point where my job has monthly webinars about how to manage your email more efficiently and how to properly send emails. I also find it interesting how some people don’t pay attention to their emails and either delete them automatically without reading them or just let them pile up until there’s 18,000 unread emails in your inbox.

I saw a post the other day that said when email was first invented, there was a happy greeting associated with receiving an email (You’ve got mail!). Now, email is treated more as a chore, something that people avoid or dread checking simply because of the massive amount of time it takes. As an intern, I love checking my email and going through every link and article sent to me because I am still new to everything and it gives me a sense of importance. However, I can see how this will eventually wear down over time. I’m glad that email platforms like Outlook are coming out with new features to help email organization and to help important emails show through mountains of clutter.

The Time I Became the Entire Marketing Department

By Sarah Basler, Senior, Marketing Major

Currently, I am a marketing intern for a commercial realty company that operates around Kansas City. My role as marketing intern involves assisting the Marketing and Communications Director with creative writing, graphic design, and various other tasks in the marketing department.

Recently, my boss informed she would be heading to Cancun, Mexico for a quick getaway. While I was super excited for my boss to have the opportunity to escape and get some sun, I was also nervous about her leaving. My company is a fairly flat firm meaning, that each department is small without many levels of seniority. Because of this, my boss leaving meant that half of the marketing department was gone. The remaining half was me. There is no better test of strength than being thrown in the deep end to see if you can swim. I was about the face that challenge.

The days went by without my boss and everything went smoothly. Because I had been detail-oriented while my boss was training me, I was pretty comfortable with the day-to-day tasks of the job. A unique part of my job is graphic design. I often create brochures using InDesign, a program I just recently learned to operate. When my boss was gone, I was asked by a Broker to create a brochure, email blast for a mass audience, and website posting for a new development site the company is working on. I successfully completed the tasks as asked and consulted with the Brokers and Project Managers for any assistance. It was cool to be challenged in that way and it helped me to gain significant confidence in my position. While I resume my role as marketing intern this week and my boss returns from her vacation, I take with me the skills I learned from working independently.

A Day in the Life at State Street

By Sean Flynn, Senior, Accounting Major

 

This spring I had the opportunity to work on the Core Accounting with Mutual Funds Team at State Street. It was a very rewarding experience overall and the hands on experience I was able obtain has proven to be invaluable. The overall objective of the core accounting team is to properly price the net asset value for the various mutual funds we manage. My schedule each week was Monday through Friday 8:00 to 12:00.

I typically would arrive at work about fifteen minutes early to allow plenty of time to log in my computer and settle in. The first thing task I was assigned was to send an email to the core accounting team informing them of which team members are on vacation or will be unavailable that day. Next, I would record any ETF creations or redemptions that were submitted the previous evening. A different team would send me the information of the ETF transaction and I would use our mainframe computer system to record the transaction and an excel macro to ensure that the information was accurate. After completing the ETF transactions, I would check to see if a specific fund we manage had any activity. This particular fund usually had three or four trades each week which I was responsible for checking and recording. If a trade occurred, I had to record it by 9:30 so that the International fund team would have the information in time for their morning audit.

Finally, I would review our short-term funds. These funds matured at year end and often had activity towards the end of the afternoon. I would run funds that had trades or sales through a macro and make any necessary corrections. In addition to my daily tasks, I would also be available to assist the other team members with anything they needed.