Early on, Promise President Patricia Melton recognized that more than scholarships were needed to ensure successful graduation and career transition; students also need valuable real-world experience. Through partnerships with various Yale departments and the Yale Community Hiring Initiative, 60 NHP Scholars worked at paid internships at Yale this summer.
The Yale School of Management has for several years also partnered with NHP and has provided professional development (through its Promising Leaders program), mentoring, and internships. This year all NHP interns are also participating in sessions on resume writing and how to maximize their internship experience, hosted by the school.
Several NHP Scholars have also interned at Yale SOM. Teddy Garcia (Career High), a 2015 graduate of University of Connecticut, worked with the Yale Program on Financial Stability during 2015, assisting it in migrating its cases and hundreds of primary resources onto its website platform.
YPFS, founded and directed by Professor Andrew Metrick, a NHP supporter, studies the causes and remedies of the global financial crisis that occurred in 2007-2009. Its case studies and materials are made available for free to practitioners and academics all over the world via its website.
The YPFS internship enabled Garcia to learn about financial stability, economics, and banking and also gave him invaluable practice in working in a professional environment and contributing to a team. “I liked being included in the weekly team meetings and seeing how Professor Metrick ran his group,” Garcia says. “I learned just by being there.” Garcia performed so well that his internship was extended twice before he began a permanent job as a financial assistant with the Yale Medical School.
“Internships provide our scholars with real-world experience and knowledge that they can’t learn elsewhere,” says Melton. “Many of the NHP Scholars come from families where they are the first to graduate from college and that have limited knowledge of areas such as banking and finance.” And while one can learn much from a college education, it may not provide all the answers.
Alejandra Rodriguez (New Haven Academy), a 2016 graduate of Southern Connecticut State University, majored in business but was still unsure of which industry she wanted to pursue. During her YPFS internship, she was able to attend employee development sessions offered by Yale and to network with other employees.
Her networking skills paid off. She stayed in touch with her managers from her previous year’s internship at Yale ITS and when her YPFS internship ended, they hired her as a six-month casual web producer. She is hopeful of transitioning into a full-time position. “This internship opened many doors for me, not only for my career but also to the financial industry,” Rodriguez says. “My team was supportive in every single aspect. As an intern, I was treated with respect and was helped to grow as a young professional.”
Although she has only completed her freshman year at Fairfield University, Tiffany Fullerton (James Hillhouse High School) brought an eagerness to learn and an attention to detail to her internship with Yale SOM Case Research, the unit that produces the case studies that professors use in their classes, including the “raw” multimedia cases that the school is known for. Tiffany’s role included not only helping the unit migrate hundreds of cases over to a new web platform but she also assisting in the research and drafting of a new case study. “I would definitely recommend this internship,” Fullerton says “I was exposed to a variety of different people and the cases helped me learn about different companies and what goes on behind the scenes.”
“The NHP Interns have been eager and hard-working,” says Metrick. “We are very pleased that the experience is helping them launch meaningful careers at Yale.” Melton concurs. She sees the Yale SOM experience as fulfilling the NHP mission and its commitment not only to education but also to the careers and economic development of the scholars and the city consistent with NHP’s informal motto —To. Through. And Back.
New Haven Promise Business 