Elena Filekova '08 spent her summer in New York City interning with the ING Funds of Funds Group. Filekova's internship was one of 13 funded by a Hamilton grant this summer. While pursuing internships is an increasingly popular move for students, the realities pose certain problems. Most of the available positions are unpaid, requiring students to fund their own housing and living expenses as well as working for free, all in pursuit of the elusive resume-booster "work experience."
Thanks to generous grants from parents and alumni, 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 Filekova worked in what is known as an "unpaid internship," she received money 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.
Filekova spent the first few weeks of her internship learning about hedge funds and funds of funds and getting on track with the situation of the market by reading articles, books and newspapers. She spent time working with the analysts, helping with due diligence reports on hedge funds that they were thinking about investing in by creating spreadsheets based on monthly risk reports and writing newsletter summaries focusing on quarterly returns and best performing positions of long/short hedge funds. Filekova was also able to attend all departmental and cross-departmental meetings from the beginning of her internship.
"Overall my internship in NYC has been very inspirational…this internship has been and continues to be a very valuable exposure, which made me more aware of and knowledgeable about the career field," wrote Filekova in a progress report written during her internship.
-- by Laura Trubiano '07
