This summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics discovered new avenues for professional preparation and practical hands-on experience. Lerner College students pursued an array of internships, externships and other professional development opportunities. From MBA scholars to undergraduates entering their second year at UD, students across a spectrum of Lerner programs shared their experiences accomplishing an assortment of projects.
Our “My Summer Internship” series highlights these unique experiences, showcasing how students translated classroom knowledge into real-world success.
Zeyu Chen, Class of 2026 financial services analytics Ph.D. student, spent his summer as a data & analytics summer associate at JPMorgan Chase.
Lerner: How did you find out about this internship? Why did you pursue it?
Chen: I learned about this internship opportunity through recommendations from students in my PhD program who had previously completed summer internships at JPMorgan Chase. I pursued the opportunity to gain more industry experience and explore how the knowledge and skills developed through my PhD research could be applied to real-world business problems.
Lerner: What was the most exciting task or project that you completed?
Chen: The most exciting tasks involved exploring and applying a range of advanced machine learning and deep learning models. This aligned closely with my PhD program’s emphasis on AI and fintech, and it also helped me better understand how research ideas can be viewed and applied from an industry perspective.
Lerner: What did you learn from the internship that you think you wouldn’t have learned elsewhere?
Chen: One of the most valuable things I learned was how to translate a business problem into a well-defined quantitative problem that can be addressed using mathematical and statistical methods. This gave me a much stronger understanding of how analytical methods are applied in practice to support real business needs.
Lerner: What is an example of a time where you were able to apply what you’ve learned at Lerner to your role?
Chen: One example is the communication and presentation skills I developed at Lerner. Having served as an instructor for undergraduate courses for two semesters, I learned how to explain complex concepts clearly to audiences with different levels of technical background, which helped me present my work more effectively and make it accessible to a broader audience during the internship.
Lerner: Did you face any challenges during your internship? If so, what was the issue and how did you overcome it?
Chen: Yes. One challenge was adapting to a more team-driven project timeline, which was somewhat different from PhD research where I often have more flexibility in organizing my own schedule. This experience helped me strengthen my time management skills and become more effective at prioritizing tasks based on team needs, project deadlines, and overall priorities.
Lerner: What are your career plans, and how do you think the internship will push you closer to your professional goals?
Chen: Through the Financial Services Analytics program at Lerner, my career goal is to build strong expertise in AI and fintech and apply these skills in the financial services industry. This internship gave me valuable exposure to an industry environment, strengthened my practical skills, and helped me better understand how AI and analytics are applied to real-world financial problems, bringing me closer to my long-term career goals.