Each summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics gain valuable professional-level exposure through internships. This year, young scholars were able to traverse the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic by pursuing an array of internships, externships and other professional development opportunities. Each profile of this series will detail a Lerner student’s experiences working on business-oriented projects.
Urvashi Jain, Class of 2023 MBA in business analytics, spent her summer as an attorney in India.
Lerner: What did you do this summer to develop readiness for your future career?
Jain: I was an attorney at an appellate court in India where summers are court-declared holidays. Since I had plans to come to the US for my MBA, I took online professional courses on business analytics, tableau and digital marketing. I also coached and mentored aspiring law students in their graduate school search.
Lerner: Did the coronavirus pandemic impact your summer plans? If so, how?
Jain: I received admission with a graduate assistantship and tuition scholarship for two years at the Lerner College of Business and Economics to start in Fall 2020. But the coronavirus situation led me to defer my admission by one year. I also had to put off my wedding and am now planning to get married in the coming winter of 2022.
Lerner: What did you learn from this experience that you think you would not have learned elsewhere?
Jain: I was admitted to a few other colleges along with Lerner – some of them ranking within the top 30 in the world. But Lerner had been the most supportive. In the crazy pandemic situation which grappled all across the globe, only Lerner showed support and was open to accepting deferrals. From time to time, I get honest updates about the coronavirus situation in the US from my admissions advisor. Never did she advise me in a way to pressure me to join the program as early as possible so that I don’t lose my place in the program. The entire team at Lerner was empathetic and caring about the student’s health and safety and offered all the administrative support that they could.
Lerner: What is an example of a time you were able to apply something you learned at Lerner to your efforts?
Jain: Now that I am working as a career coach at the Lerner Career Services Center, I always keep in mind how Lerner helped me make important decisions about my graduate school and career. I try to walk in the same footsteps, hoping to help undergraduate students in their job or graduate school search in a meaningful way much like Lerner did for me.
Lerner: What did you do this summer outside of professional development, just for you?
Jain: Being an animal lover, I fed the street dogs and cattle who also suffered the wrath of the pandemic. In India, in small cities, it is very common to see an uncontrolled population of stray dogs wandering the streets in search of food. In this search for food, they sometimes get into accidents or are abused by society. I fed these street dogs and took them to the vet where medical assistance was required. I also helped a calf with a fractured upper limb in his hand movements. It was more like physical therapy so that his limbs would not become stiff. All these activities were not with some organization but all myself and with the help of my mother. Helping the animals is something I do for myself, for my own satisfaction and my love for them.