With final exams and projects beginning to pile up, many QUESTees have begun daydreaming about the upcoming summer. Students make plans to take trips, spend time with family, and develop new skills and hobbies. Additionally, many QUEST students also use summer to gain professional experience in the form of a summer internship. With the large variety of students’ years, majors, and disciplines within the QUEST program, I wanted to learn about what kind of roles student interns would be taking on this summer. I was lucky enough to talk to a few QUESTees to learn more. 

Ayman Bootwala (Cohort 38)

The first student I was able to connect with was Ayman Bootwala, a newly joined QUESTee in Cohort 38 majoring in Applied Math and Economics. Ayman recently accepted an offer for a summer internship at Insomnia Cookies, where he will be a Corporate Finance Intern. As a Corporate Finance Intern, Ayman will be helping the company by creating financial projections, developing financial growth plans, and doing other general financial tasks. He also said that the company is undergoing a major supply chain change initiative, so he will also be advising on that project. Overall, Ayman is excited to get some finance experience in a company with a strong start-up culture and a “sweet” reputation!

Grace Rocco (Cohort 36)

I then talked to Grace Rocco, a Cohort 36 student double majoring in Finance and Operations Management and Business Analytics. This summer, Grace will be interning at Peloton as a Supply Chain and Logistics intern. Though the experience will be virtual, she’ll still get to work with the Procurement team on different projects throughout the summer. She’ll also have to opportunity to attend what Peloton calls their “Warm-Up Session” to learn about Peloton, meet her team, and meet her fellow interns. When asked why she chose to intern at Peloton, Grace explained to me that health is one of her core values and exercising is a huge part of her lifestyle. She also decided to intern as a Supply Chain and Logistics intern because of her interest in Supply Chain and its relation to her OMBA major. When asked about how she feels about her approaching start date, Grace said, ”I’m excited to take on the challenges this internship will present me and the growth and development I will gain from it!”

Ishaan Kapur (Cohort 36)

Also from Cohort 36, QUESTee Ishaan Kapur (an Accounting and Finance major) will be an Audit Intern at SC&H Group this summer! SC&H Group is a mid-size accounting firm located in Tyson’s Corner. When asked about the internship, Ishaan told me, “I am super excited because this is my first real internship, and my first exposure to accounting outside of classes. I’m really grateful that I got to take BMGT190H before my internship because I think that many of the skills we learned in class are going to help me succeed. Doing our consulting project this past semester has taught me so much about working with a client, managing constraints, and doing due diligence to get to the bottom of a problem, and I am very excited to put these skills to work!” 

Heather Bacon (Cohort 34)

Moving on to our QUEST juniors, I then talked to Cohort 34’s Heather Bacon (a Systems Design & Analysis major). This summer, Heather will be working as a Systems Engineering Intern at Leidos. This will be Heather’s second summer at Leidos, and she has the opportunity to return to the same team as last year! When asked about how QUEST prepared her for this role, Heather told me that “not only did QUEST help me get the interview (shoutout to the resume book!), but it also developed the skills necessary for the internship.” Heather spoke about how in her position, it’s important to understand both the technical and business factors interacting within a problem and be able to develop feasible solutions. Her previous QUEST projects have given her exposure to these concepts.

Amod Mathur (Cohort 33)

Lastly, I caught up with Amod Mathur, a Cohort 33 student majoring in Computer Science. Amod will be living in New York City this summer as he completes a software engineering internship at Blackstone. Blackstone is a New-York based Financial Services firm. As a Software Engineering intern, Amod will have the opportunity to leverage software platforms that turn financial data into meaningful investment decision tools. When asked about the internship, Amod told me that he’s excited for the role as he’ll get to combine his dual interests in business and technology while also scoping out New York City! 

While all of these internship roles are unique in the skills they require and their scope, there is no doubt that all of our QUESTees will be able to bring their strong communication and problem-solving skills to the table at these firms. Best of luck to our QUESTees on their upcoming finals and those starting internships this summer! See you all in the fall!