Summer is supposed to be time off, but for Xiaobo Ma '09 (Chengdu, China), it's math as usual. Ma explained that, as well as monitoring fund activity and attending marketing conferences, she had learned to do very advanced probability calculations as part of her work as a portfolio management intern with Archery Capital in New York City.
Ma is one of more than 20 Hamiltonians who received College funding to conduct a summer internship. Work experience is becoming more and more necessary for college students, but many opportunities are unpaid and require students to fund their own housing and living expenses as well as working for free.
Thanks to alumni and parent donations, Hamilton students can apply for funding to support them while they work in a field of interest with an organization that cannot pay them. Though Ma works in an unpaid internship, she received a stipend from Hamilton's Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, given in honor of a 1944 Hamilton graduate who served the college for 18 years as vice president for communications and development. The fund in his name provides individual stipends to support full-time internships for students wishing to expand their educational horizons in preparation for potential careers after graduation.
As a portfolio management intern, Ma monitors the Archery fund portfolio, collecting and analyzing data from monthly reports. She performs other tasks as well, including work on advanced statistics and research of potential investments. Ma also gets to attend marketing conferences, such as the Asian Emerging Manager Forum 2007, where she met with management teams and learned about their strategies. "It's amazing how much I can learn from these professional individuals," she said.
She works with Timothy Foley, a Hamilton alumnus (Class of 2006), and Ramunas Rozgys, a fellow member of the Class of 2009. Ma enjoys her environment and her work and added that the number-crunching had its benefits. "After a while I was amazed to find out how much it helped me to acquire a good understanding of fund's portfolio management. Although I expected to have more analytical work before I came to Archery, I am pretty satisfied about how much I have learned," she said.
Ma is busy this summer as she is both an intern and the recipient of a research grant from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. She spent last summer working on research funded by an Emerson Grant. Asked which she preferred, Ma said she liked them both. And the most unexpected skill for a finance intern? Creativity. "I need to sort out the most efficient and convenient ways for me to do analysis and comparisons."
Ma is also busy on the hill as the co-chair of the international students association, the treasurer of Ballroom Dancing Club, an E-board member of Hamilton Polling Organization, and a member of Diversity and Accessibility Committee of Student Assembly. In her spare time, she is a Resident Advisor. "I like keeping myself busy and devoting much time to different activities," said Ma.
The rising junior is still deciding between which of her double economics and mathematics majors will be her path after graduation, but she is strongly considering work in research or asset management in an investment bank.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
Ma is one of more than 20 Hamiltonians who received College funding to conduct a summer internship. Work experience is becoming more and more necessary for college students, but many opportunities are unpaid and require students to fund their own housing and living expenses as well as working for free.
Thanks to alumni and parent donations, Hamilton students can apply for funding to support them while they work in a field of interest with an organization that cannot pay them. Though Ma works in an unpaid internship, she received a stipend from Hamilton's Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, given in honor of a 1944 Hamilton graduate who served the college for 18 years as vice president for communications and development. The fund in his name provides individual stipends to support full-time internships for students wishing to expand their educational horizons in preparation for potential careers after graduation.
As a portfolio management intern, Ma monitors the Archery fund portfolio, collecting and analyzing data from monthly reports. She performs other tasks as well, including work on advanced statistics and research of potential investments. Ma also gets to attend marketing conferences, such as the Asian Emerging Manager Forum 2007, where she met with management teams and learned about their strategies. "It's amazing how much I can learn from these professional individuals," she said.
She works with Timothy Foley, a Hamilton alumnus (Class of 2006), and Ramunas Rozgys, a fellow member of the Class of 2009. Ma enjoys her environment and her work and added that the number-crunching had its benefits. "After a while I was amazed to find out how much it helped me to acquire a good understanding of fund's portfolio management. Although I expected to have more analytical work before I came to Archery, I am pretty satisfied about how much I have learned," she said.
Ma is busy this summer as she is both an intern and the recipient of a research grant from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. She spent last summer working on research funded by an Emerson Grant. Asked which she preferred, Ma said she liked them both. And the most unexpected skill for a finance intern? Creativity. "I need to sort out the most efficient and convenient ways for me to do analysis and comparisons."
Ma is also busy on the hill as the co-chair of the international students association, the treasurer of Ballroom Dancing Club, an E-board member of Hamilton Polling Organization, and a member of Diversity and Accessibility Committee of Student Assembly. In her spare time, she is a Resident Advisor. "I like keeping myself busy and devoting much time to different activities," said Ma.
The rising junior is still deciding between which of her double economics and mathematics majors will be her path after graduation, but she is strongly considering work in research or asset management in an investment bank.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
