Liberal Arts student follows finance internship abroad

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Dylan Benson is forging international connections with finance professionals and business leaders at Goldman Sachs this summer in London, United Kingdom. Thanks to funding from the Virginia Todd Chapel Executive Internship Program in the College of the Liberal Arts, Benson is able to explore and travel around the surrounding European countries alongside his internship duties.

The Virginia Todd Chapel Executive Internship Program supports internship experiences for high-achieving Liberal Arts students who seek top-level career development opportunities in the private business sector. The program was established by Virginia “Jinnie” Todd Chapel (Penn State class of 1965, in English) and her husband, John, with endowed gifts valued at over $2.5 million. This year, the program granted its students $5,000 stipends for their internship experiences.

Benson, a fourth-year finance and Chinese major, is a firmwide strategy summer analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he works with a team to develop, evaluate and execute plans for new growth initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, and partnerships. The team also works with other departments to identify, evaluate and execute possible opportunities for the firm’s advancement.

Benson said he credits his dual-major background with helping him work through challenges, identify strengths and work collaboratively with a team.

“By doing two majors [one in the College of the Liberal Arts and one in the Smeal College of Business] simultaneously, I have taken on the challenge of moving between two completely different environments and learning very different subjects,” Benson said. “The perspectives from the professors in these different classrooms allow me to use different parts of my brain to think through solutions and solve problems.”

It is Benson’s second summer working with Goldman Sachs. Last summer, he interned for the firm in New York, New York. He originally learned of the internship opportunity through a mentor in the Nittany Lion Fund (NLF), a Penn State student-managed investment fund nested in the Smeal College of Business. The NLF serves more than 70 individual investors and manages more than $14 million. Benson currently serves as the fund’s president.

“Throughout my time in the Nittany Lion Fund, I have gone through a variety of different roles, from learning financial modeling to understanding financial statements of companies and from building presentations to networking and other soft skills,” Benson said. “These skills are used every day at my internship and have helped me succeed.”

Working abroad also has allowed the Blairstown, New Jersey, native to pursue a life goal on his weekends off: visiting every country in the world. With two weeks left in the internship, Benson’s country count stood at 14. He said he credits funding from Chapel Executive Internship Program with providing the financial freedom to travel around Europe and explore different cultures.

“[With this internship] I’ve not only been able to pursue everything I want in work, but I’ve been able to see parts of the world I’ve never been to,” Benson said. “It’s been an amazing experience to work in ‘high finance’ with its intensity, but having the time to learn and develop [outside the office] is equally incredible.”

One unexpected challenge Benson has experienced during his internship is acclimating to the different sounds of verbal language due to a hearing disorder.

“While learning finance has been a great experience, one of the biggest challenges has been learning how to adapt my ears to understand different accents."

Noting that he has relied on part-time jobs to make ends meet both during the summers and during the academic year, Benson said the Chapel funding has allowed him to focus on doing his best during his internship.

“It has taken a lot of my financial stress out of the picture,” he said. “The funding has also helped me cover my airfare to and from London, the housing of my long-term Airbnb this summer, and the train fare to get around and across Europe.”

For other Penn Staters wishing to go into finance, Benson offered these words of advice:

“Get involved as early as you can in a variety of organizations. Whether that’s academic or career-oriented, social or otherwise, having a breadth of experiences is what is going to make you a more interesting candidate when it comes to interviews, internships, et cetera, and these are the areas that will allow you to develop a variety of soft and technical skills to grow professionally.”

This is one in a series of stories about Liberal Arts students who are participating in Chapel Executive Internships this summer. Students interested in applying for a Chapel Executive Internship for fall should apply by the Sept. 1 deadline through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network.