Internships and Co-ops

Dafra Sanou, ’12 MBA, Marketing
RJ Reynolds

Dafra Sanou is a marketing intern at RJ Reynolds and feels she’s become an inherent member of a hardworking team.  Unlike what she initially expected, she has the ability to schedule meetings, use resources, and travel. Her major deliverable is a campaign to migrate consumers to a new product offering. She is taking a global approach, using multiple touch points (media vehicles), for consumers to have many ways to participate. She has briefed a creative agency about her project, and the deliverables the team is expecting.  She even hopes to have sample mail pieces to share with her team as part of her final presentation. She knows that her project will definitely deliver value to the organization as an inherent part of the marketing strategy for 2012.

Mike Reszka, ’12 MBA, Marketing
BMW

Mike Reszka is working as a marketing intern at BMW on a variety of customer relations assignments. This includes the customer experience with BMW and MINI products as well as the service experience at the dealerships. He’s been reviewing customer comments from surveys as well as going over customer satisfaction scores for dealerships. This will allow BMW to examine which dealerships are providing superior customer service and which ones have room for improvement. Mike is also developing a problem solving methodology for dealerships to use to target their areas of weakness which ultimately affect their performance in the industry standard JD Power and Associates surveys. While Mike will only be able to establish the structure of the project this summer, he can see that once it is in place, it will be a part of the day to day process to review customer satisfaction at BMW.

Michael Palermo '11 MBA, Finance
Ayco, a Goldman Sachs Company

“The focus of my internship was to develop asset allocation models for clients with $25 MM or more of investable assets.  My experience with Ayco has given me the confidence to discuss and make recommendations pertaining to the personal finances of high net worth individuals and families. In addition to building asset allocation models, I was afforded the opportunity to work closely with the Portfolio Management Group; assisting with buy/sell decisions for Ayco proprietary portfolios. Interning with a division of Goldman Sachs has prepared me for a fulltime career in Investment Management and given me an edge over candidates with comparable credentials.”

Lauren Hunter ’11 MBA/MS, Marketing and Media Management
20th Century Fox Studios

"My hands-on experience at 20th Century Fox in the International Home Entertainment Catalog Marketing Department gave me great insight into brand management.  I worked on Fox Filmed Entertainment and MGM’s catalog titles that have been available in home entertainment formats for more than 18 months. During my time at Fox, I was able to play a role in development of key strategic marketing, digital marketing, video-on-demand, electronic sell- through plans for release campaigns ranging from $750K to $8 Million. As well, I was fortunate to have been integrally involved in the packaging design and content development for future Blu-ray disc releases. Shortly, the Blu-ray titles I helped put together with the creative and content departments will be on the shelves at major retailers in Brazil, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Russia and the UK. My summer internship was great exposure to MBA career tracks in entertainment and I concluded the experience with a broader knowledge of the industry."

Sunaina Swaminathan, ’11 MBA, Marketing
SuperMedia

“I gained experience in interacting with a diverse set of B2C clients in upstate New York. I learned how to provide results-oriented advertising solutions and was able to understand which advertising solutions were able to drive customer behavior. I developed over 90 direct mailer offers for various clients and helped generate $11k worth of revenue for the company in a period of ten weeks. The knowledge I gained in marketing at Whitman over the past year helped me achieve a steep learning curve in a short period of time. The experiential learning program has definitely given me the edge I need to compete in the real world."

Thiripura Sundari Sanmugam, ’11 MBA, General Management
Welch Allyn, Singapore

Thriipura worked for Welch Allyn, a manufacturer of medical diagnostic devices with a mission of “Advancing Frontline Care”. Thiripura conducted an analysis of the market opportunities for Welch Allyn in the Indian market. She prepared SWOT analyses for the industry as a whole and for Welch Allyn specifically Part of her analysis required her to conduct primary research with doctors, biomedical professionals, purchasing managers, and distributors. Her analyses led to specific recommendations on how to grow market share, maintain inventory, and to consider potential partnerships.

Xuanling Lu, ’11 MBA, Marketing and Supply Chain
Eastman Kodak Company

Xuanling interned in the Future Product Marketing Group for Digital Capture & Devices. One of her projects was to develop substantiation for a claim to differentiate Kodak digital cameras from competitors in a price-sensitive market. Given her knowledge of Chinese language and culture, she also did a presentation for the director of the marketing group about social trends in China and recommended target segments.

Chinyarai Modesti Hamilton, ’10 MBA, Marketing and Entrepreneurship
John Varvatos

Chinyarai worked for John Varvatos, a luxury brand of VF Sportswear that markets men’s designer suits, shoes, belts, and men’s and women’s fragrances and skincare. Chin worked with the vice president of marketing and communications, the marketing manager, and the marketing coordinator to assist in the launch of e-commerce capability, which will expand the brand and business model while deepening customer relationships. She also worked on public relations activities like fashion show production, events, store and product launches, and maintaining databases of press and VIP contacts.

Rony Funes, ’10 MBA, Supply Chain
Crouse Hospital

Rony had several years of experience in Transportation & Logistics in his native Honduras, which sponsored him as a Fulbright scholar to pursue his MBA in the United States. He applied that experience and his Whitman class work to a new setting at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, first as an intern and then in his Lean Six Sigma class. Crouse is in the process of expanding their operating suite to add more operating rooms. Rony worked with the Central Sterile Reprocessing Department to analyze their current processes and work flow, define opportunities for improvement, and assist in developing processes and work flow for the future expansion.Because of the impact that this project had at Crouse Hospital, Rony and his teammates were awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement.

Oladayo Kusamotu, ’12 MBA, Finance
Ford Motor Company

Oladayo is working as a Commercial Finance Intern in the Controller's Office. As part of his assignment, he formulated a 2013 Competitive Pricing Allowance strategy to improve market share and profitability for key vehicles. In order to do this he gathered and analyzed variances in market share, net pricing and net revenue of key vehicles. He understands that his careful analysis of the problem will help Ford avoid margin challenges for key 2013 model year vehicles while driving 290K commercial fleet sales and $651 million in Net Revenue. In addition, he worked with AT&T mobility solutions team to develop a computer application that helps fleet sales managers drive sales.