Catherine Oh, WH ’26, Athens, GA
As someone who seeks growth through new experiences and opportunities, I came into my internship curious to explore the startup space, which is quite distant from what I considered pursuing. During the school year, I became narrowly focused on other finance fields as an inevitable result to the clubs and activities I was involved in. This led to my interest in this industry coming from a broader place of trying to grasp the greater ecosystem of finance and, subsequently, questioning how one area fit in. I specifically wanted to understand how the innovative and economic power behind startups affected other parts of the economy.
A surprise to me, analyzing the audience of the startup’s service best quenched my curiosities. Intending to learn more about the greater Philadelphia community through physical interactions created the chance to learn from these community members. I witnessed how a startup’s mission and identity could, broadly put, turn the wheels because of the support towards its respective audiences, which in this case were marginalized communities.
On a personal level, these incredible experiences built the most tangible understanding of how my work could “help people,” and now, I strive to be more critical about factoring realistic impact into decisions for future work opportunities. I’ve also come away much more cognizant about the role of community and relationships in business. Soft skills seemed especially important when it came to connecting with board members, executives of companies, and community members, so it’s become an area I’m intentionally improving and learning about.Along with these takeaways, I’ve developed more curiosities. Now, I wonder about the influence of startups on the global financial system as well as the venture capital side of how different investments create competition and value in certain startup industries.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
