Students gain experience through JPMorgan Chase Summer Internship Program

Kelly Homan Rodoski
(315) 443-3784

This summer, Syracuse University students-with a broad spectrum of majors from information technology to management and engineering to visual arts-are gaining valuable practical experience through the JPMorgan Chase 2009 Summer Internship Program.

Sixty-four students are engaged in internships:

• Forty-three are working at six U.S. locations-New York City; Syracuse; Columbus, Ohio; Newark, Del.; Wilmington, Del.; and Boston.
• Thirteen students are engaged in a pilot internship program in India- eight students in Bangalore and five students in Mumbai.
• Eight students are extended interns, who completed an internship in the spring and are now working on a summer project.

Students from five schools and colleges at SU-the School of Information Studies (iSchool), the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS), the Whitman School of Management, The College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts-are participating in the program

Through the 10-week internship, which runs through Aug. 7, the students are gaining hands-on experience by working alongside JPMorgan Chase employees in the areas of technology, operations and finance. Interns are also paired with peer mentors and have the opportunity to hear and learn from the company’s leaders. Within the India program, student interns, all natives of India, are learning within JPMorgan Chase’s expanding operations in the country.

Students were selected from the iSchool, Whitman and LCS to participate in the India internship. Leading up to the final selection of students, JPMorgan Chase surveyed students who were eligible to work in India and hosted focus groups on campus to determine the interest in and expectations for the summer internship program.

“Despite a difficult year for the financial industry, JPMorgan Chase’s strong commitment to Syracuse University resulted in an increase in amazing opportunities for our students with their company,” says Michael Cahill, director of SU’s Center for Career Services. “These internships provide students with an understanding of how to apply their various academic backgrounds and talents to the workplace, and the experience they will gain will make them much more marketable upon graduation.”

“JPMorgan Chase continues to seek unique opportunities to source, select and hire the best talent,” says Jill Pineiro, global director of the Corporate Development Program for JPMorgan Chase. “The Syracuse University Internship Program continues to be an excellent pipeline. In 2008, nine of the 31 SU interns accepted full-time positions with JPMorgan Chase after graduation.”

Srividya Srinivasan of Medway, Mass., a senior majoring in mechanical engineering in LCS, is a second-year participant in the program. She worked as a business analyst last year, and Srinivasan this year is working as a technology analyst in investment management in New York City.

“This year, I want to broaden my skills and become more familiar with the technology side. I have made it known to my manager that I want to focus on these technical skills during my summer experience,” she says. “Having interned at JPMorgan Chase for two years, I can say from first-hand experience that there are plenty of opportunities to grow within this financial company.”

Brian Scasserra of Skillman, N.J., a senior in the Whitman School, heard very good things from the SU students who interned with JPMorgan Chase last summer. “The primary reason I chose this internship was that I knew I would be working for the best bank in the world in one of the worst job markets and financial situations since the Great Depression,” he says. “I know that having an internship with JPMorgan Chase on my resumé in a very rough summer for jobs will be a big help to me.”

Scasserra is based in New York City, working for the Prime Brokerage business within the Investment Bank. “I’ve found it to be a very interesting business, and I really enjoy the exposure to the hedge fund world,” he says.

Bhawana Bhatnagar, a graduate student in the iSchool from Mumbai, India, is currently engaged in an internship in Mumbai, where she is working in close coordination with the Investment Bank Risk Management Team and the Foreign Exchange and Global Reference Data Teams. Her role is to find scope for business process reengineering and automation in the teams’ current manual processes in order to save both effort and costs.

“This internship is proving to be a great learning experience and a well- structured program,” says Bhatnagar. “The HR management here has closely studied our areas of interest and tried to map our roles to these interests. I am receiving guidance from time to time for my progress and am being mentored by the executive director in the Investment Banking domain here. I think I will have a lot to take away at the end of this 10-week program.”

About the Collaboration
In June 2007, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Syracuse University established a unique corporate-university collaboration and joint venture. The purpose of the collaboration is to develop education and work experience innovations in the area of financial services information technology, leveraging each other’s knowledge and expertise in the building of a best in class curriculum for entry- level technologists and to collaborate on projects of joint interest that provide value to both organizations and to society. For more information about JPMorgan Chase or the Syracuse-JPMorgan Chase Collaboration, visit http://globaltech.syr.edu.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.2 trillion, operations in more than 60 countries and more than 180,000 employees. JPMorgan Chase is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management and private equity. The firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its JPMorgan Chase and WaMu brands.