An Infusion of Talent from the Finance, Tech, and Manufacturing Industries at MPOWER
MPOWER is proud to welcome nine summer interns with diverse geographic, academic, and professional backgrounds. This summer’s internship application process was competitive and rigorous – we were lucky to have received over 1,000 resumes! We’re thrilled that these finalists all have one thing in common: they wanted to work for a fast-growing FinTech startup with a social mission close to their hearts.
Since completing their orientation and onboarding, our interns have all jumped headfirst into their summer projects on our teams and we’re already grateful for their valuable contributions.
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Name: Mandar Kashikar
Internship Department: Marketing
School: Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Currently enrolled in: Dual Masters in Business Administration and Marketing Analytics
Where I worked before: BIEL Startup incubator (India), Philips Healthcare Innovation Center (India)
Why I joined MPOWER:
As an international student, I personally believe in MPOWER’s mission to remove financial barriers in education. Having worked previously as a marketer for startups, I have handled everything there is to marketing, starting from downstream (think campaigns) to upstream marketing (think customer research). However, all of my learning in marketing has been on the job and ad-hoc. At MPOWER, I have an opportunity to develop expertise in upstream marketing, a domain that excites me. I get to understand what customers care about and design programs that engage them better.
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Name: Charles Zheng
Internship Department: Corporate Strategy
School: Columbia Business School, Columbia University
Currently enrolled in: Master of Business Administration
Where I worked before: Partners Group (New York) and Raymond James (Atlanta)
Why I joined MPOWER:
I joined MPOWER because it was the ideal intersection of my background in financial services, interest in FinTech, and passion for helping those who are underserved. The internship represents a unique opportunity for me to leverage my background in business and apply it to help drive MPOWER’s mission, as well as to gain valuable experience contributing to an exciting, high-growth FinTech company. At MPOWER, I’ve had the opportunity to help drive the company’s growth from an operational perspective. My role involves implementing company-wide initiatives, allowing me to hone a broad skill set including strategic planning, business analysis, interfacing with clients and third parties, market research, and general organizational planning.
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Name: Rakhi Dubey
Internship Department: Finance and Accounting
School: McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Currently enrolled in: Master of Business Administration
Where I worked before: AquaMobile Swim School (Canada), PWC (India), and KPMG (India)
Why I joined MPOWER:
Because of my personal experiences as an international student in the U.S., I strongly believe in MPOWER’s business model and values of financial inclusion and access to higher education. Plus, as a finance and accounting professional, I wanted to work for the FinTech industry as it provides me with not only an exposure to finance but also an opportunity to understand and support company operations. MPOWER is among the top FinTech companies to work for in the U.S. and has even been featured as one of the 2018 best places to work in financial technology by American Banker and Best Companies group. I wanted to be a part of such a growth story and to be excited about coming to work every day.
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Name: Shrawan Saraogi
Internship Department: Capital Markets
School: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Currently enrolled in: Master of Business Administration
Where I worked before: DBS Bank (Singapore)
Why I joined MPOWER:
With a 7-year stint in banking before going to business school, I was looking for a summer internship at a FinTech firm so I could experience working in an up-and-coming part of the financial services industry. The fact that MPOWER has such a positive impact on its customers’ lives and helps them with a problem I have faced myself, made the decision to work here quite easy. At MPOWER, I have the opportunity to raise capital for a fast-growing venture-backed startup, using my extensive experience as a debt banker. My key projects for the summer involve working on various fundraising activities, including lead generation, attending meetings with existing & potential investors, and analyzing term sheets both qualitatively and quantitatively.
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Name: Moni Kumari
Internship Department: Engineering
School: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo
Currently enrolled in: Master of Computer Science
Where I worked before: Infosys (India) and Logic Square (India)
Why I joined MPOWER:
After working at a startup for a year, I’ve realized that one can learn lots of things in a relatively small amount of time. You get the chance to build a product from scratch, to determine best practices of s/w development, and to understand changing customer requirements. I joined MPOWER because I believed that with a growing engineering department I would get the chance to gain experience in different fields – and here I am working under the director of engineering on a project to automate tests for the MPOWER web application as well as for the mobile web app. The learning curve in a startup is steep and I will no doubt learn varied technological skills since working with a good mentor and team is definitely the best environment to grow.
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Name: Tony Liu
Internship Department: Analytics
School: Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Currently enrolled in: Master of Science, Information Systems
Where I worked before: Chubb Insurance (Delaware)
Why I joined MPOWER:
I believe one thing makes MPOWER absolutely unique: its mission. When I was 15, I came to this country with a story and a dream like many other international students. Throughout my journey, I’ve witnessed numerous students who had to drop out of school because of financial difficulties. MPOWER works to help international students gain access to higher education at top U.S. universities, and I want to be a part of this process so I can make a difference. At MPOWER, I have the opportunity to leverage my previous experience as a system analyst and database designer as I learn about corporate information system design at a rapidly growing FinTech company.
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Name: Zian Ke
Internship Department: Engineering and Credit
School: College of Engineering, University of Michigan
Currently enrolled in: Bachelor of Computer Science
Where I worked before: Huawei Technologies (China)
Why I joined MPOWER:
My reason for joining MPOWER is quite simple. As an international student from China, this is my first year in the United States. MPOWER provides me with a golden opportunity to be fully involved in an American working environment. I have a strong interest in FinTech, and at MPOWER I can explore the combination of computer science and finance by developing programs and building models to make a contribution to the company’s business. My previous skills mainly focused on software development, especially web-based applications development, and during my internship, I will develop skills in data analysis and machine learning.
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Name: Nishant Shetty
Internship Department: Corporate Strategy
School: McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Currently enrolled in: Master of Business Administration
Where I worked before: Alpha Plus Technologies (India) and EY (India)
Why I joined MPOWER:
As an international student myself and having gone through the nerve-wracking process of seeking a financial loan for my education from traditional banks, I can strongly relate to MPOWER’s mission of providing a better option to high-potential students who are trying to complete their higher education at a top university in the U.S. I was also impressed with the tremendous growth MPOWER has achieved in the last four years and how it has been named as one of the best places to work in FinTech. Having worked in a client-facing role, product development and strategic business planning, I understood the importance of innovation and meeting customer requirements. At MPOWER, I have been able to work with business heads to gain deeper insights on the day-to-day functioning of a fast-growing startup, actively participate in fundraising efforts, and sharpen my market research and problem-solving skills.
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Name: Kwame Nsiah-Poku
Internship Department: Operations
School: Kogod School of Business, American University
Currently enrolled in: Master of Business Administration
Where I worked before: EY Ghana
Why I joined MPOWER:
MPOWER is known globally for its ability to deliver loans and other services to international students who have no credit or co-signer as well as for its commitment to building a better future for students worldwide. I believe these two things make MPOWER an employer of choice, and I look forward to the opportunity to learn and grow while supporting the company in creating value for its stakeholders. Coming into MPOWER I had quite a bit of experience in process improvement and I have always believed that any process in an organization can always be made better, faster, and more efficient. My project uses these skills in a service industry, where I will identify the bottlenecks in our business processes and help provide solutions to them. MPOWER has made me appreciate that in a service industry it’s always important to continue to innovate your business processes and operating model.
