SU Arts and Sciences students benefit from JPMorgan Chase 2009 Summer Internship Program

SU Arts and Sciences students benefit from JPMorgan Chase 2009 Summer Internship ProgramAugust 14, 2009Rob Enslinrmenslin@syr.edu

Students in The College of Arts and Sciences are among the many from Syracuse University participating in the JPMorgan Chase 2009 Summer Internship Program. The 10-week program, which promotes hands-on experience in technology, operations, and finance and occurs primarily in New York City, is part of a new joint venture with the financial services giant. Interns from The College are Shannon McCool ’10 (Trenton, N.J.), Kristina Sarcione ’10 (Methuen, Mass.), Michelle Sollod ’11 (Denver, Colo.), Drew Sullivan ’10 (Moorsetown, N.J.), and Jane Tran ’10 (Bayside, N.Y.).

Sollod, a junior majoring in economics and international relations, hopes to parlay her internship into a full-time job with JPMorgan Chase. “I’m a firm believer that a liberal arts education is compatible with a career in business,” she says. “What matters here is not what you know, but what you do with it-your passion, work ethic, and ability to learn quickly.”

An award-winning honors student, Sollod works in Item Processing and Global Deposit Processing, part of JPMorgan Chase’s Central Technology and Operations division. Already, she has created a website devoted to improving employee productivity and conducted a detailed cost/benefit analysis of the bank’s fixed assets. She is currently working on the conversion of Washington Mutual (WaMu) to Chase. “My skills and perspective have been broadened by interning at a private bank,” adds Sollod, who drew on experience she acquired last summer as an intern in the Small Business Administration’s credit risk department. “I’ve grown a lot.”

Like Sollod, Tran is putting her liberal arts training to good use. The senior in economics and policy studies is interning in Treasury Security Services Public Sector Strategy, where she tracks immigration legislation to help develop processing strategies for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Tran, who fondly refers to her projects as “middle and back-end jobs,” says she has become adept at tracking and creating processing strategies. “This internship has helped me weed out the things that I love to do from the things I don?t,” says Tran, who interned last summer at JPMorgan Chase and, before that, the Syracuse office of New York Senator Charles E. Schumer. Tran credits SU for giving her a leg-up on the competition: “The liberal arts help people think about projects in larger terms. This kind of freedom, or exposure, is important in a business environment.”

McCool also majors in policy studies, in addition to psychology and Spanish. On the surface, such a combination might not seem applicable to banking, but McCool and her colleagues beg to differ. The rising senior recalls a conversation with Michael Cavanaugh, JPMorgan Chase’s CFO, in which he admitted to having no college financial training. “Michael said that almost everything he learned about banking occurred on the job,” she explains, adding that Cavanaugh’s history and law degrees helped him overcome his banking learning curve. “What employers want are hard workers who look at things analytically and understand their place in the big picture. My experience at SU has made me observant and well-rounded and has contributed to my success this summer.”

“Well-rounded” might be a bit of an understatement about McCool, who serves in JPMorgan Chase?s Asset Management division. “Prior to my internship, I couldn’t even have told you what a mutual fund was. Thanks to my JPMorgan Chase training, I work on cost-savings projects, research competitor funds, and confirm tax and accounting treatments of specific funds,” says the rising senior, who previously interned at JPMorgan Chase, in addition to the local VA Hospital, The Prevention Network, and SU’s public affairs department. Her portfolio includes a semester in Madrid, as well as community service at Habitat for Humanity, Francis House, and Relay for Life. “Do-gooders like me usually become public servants or work in the non-profit sector. If hired, JPMorgan Chase’s flexible hours and generous pay will give me the time and resources I need to support the causes I am passionate about.” McCool says the internship has shed light on both her professional and personal aspirations. “I feel like I now have some direction,” she says.

Sullivan, an economics major, echoes these sentiments. A summer analyst in JPMorgan Chase’s Operations and Business Services, he reviews trade operations to make sure they are executed in a timely manner. This experience builds on his previous internship at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he was exposed to a variety of financial technologies and practices. “This summer has been educational,” says Sullivan, who also is an honors student and has spent considerable time studying in Spain and volunteering at Habitat for Humanity. The rising senior is equally at home as a member of SU’s Investment Club, in which he manages a $150,000 portfolio, and as the performing arts director of University Union, for which he oversees a $50,000 entertainment budget. “I feel like JPMorgan Chase has given me a comprehensive understanding of finance, and that’s something I can apply to many areas of my life.”

Sarcione, also an economics majors, has a penchant for critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communications. These qualities, she says, not only underscore JPMorgan Chase’s work ethic, but also are at the heart of the liberal arts. Such gumption has spurred her lifelong interest in seemingly unrelated areas–finance, mathematics, art, dance, and women’s studies, to name a few–and has led to leadership positions on campus with Students in Free Enterprise and with Sigma Delta Tau Omega. “I’m interested in a job that promotes entrepreneurship, personal growth, and strong values. JPMorgan Chase embodies all these qualities and more,” says Sarcione, who interns in the Boston office of JPMorgan Chase’s Worldwide Security Services. She hopes this summer will eventually lead to a full-time job or graduate school or both. “I’m excited about the future.”

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 the bank?s and University’s expertise to build 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 the broader community. Unlike traditional university-industry relationships, every aspect of the collaboration involves JPMorgan Chase and SU representatives working side-by-side–from new academic programs to groundbreaking research to technology development. The collaboration is emblematic of SU’s Scholarship in Action vision, which encourages multi-sector collaborations that simultaneously enrich student and faculty scholarship and education and address the critical issues facing the world. For more information about JPMorgan Chase or the SU-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.

More information about The College, SU’s oldest and largest academic unit, is available at http://thecollege.syr.edu.