by Charlotte Coffin
I grew up in rural Northern California and am a hippie at heart. I never thought I’d find myself working for a large corporate bank, but life is strange and full of surprises. Last summer I spent ten weeks working for one of the largest banks in the world. When I told my friends and neighbors back home that I was going to work for a bank, I kept hearing, “What?! Banks are EVIL!” and “Are you selling out to corporate America?!” Not entirely funny, because that is how I was feeling as well. In spite of this, I went into the experience with hope that it would be something new and entirely different. I decided that since it was something so foreign to me, it was something that I had to try, and so I did. While in some respects, the internship was exactly what me and my neighbors back home and I thought it was going to be, I still gained invaluable skills.
Pace Career Services introduced me to JP Morgan through a scheduled visit. I was impressed with JP Morgan’s solid dedication for technology improvements, and I decided to, at least, apply for the job. Svetlana (awesome Seidenberg career counselor) helped me, and I sent in an application. A couple of weeks later, I got a call asking me to schedule two back-to-back phone interviews: one behavioral and one technical. Each was half an hour, and fairly straightforward. After that, I didn’t hear much for a while, but I was eventually offered the job, and I accepted.
The semester ended and soon the 10 week internship began. I learned it was to be team-based project work. Each team of interns was assigned to a manager within a specific division of JP Morgan. Next each manager gave his or her team a project to complete over the course of the ten weeks. In addition to a manager, each intern was matched with a mentor: a recent college graduate working full time within the firm.
Throughout the summer there were various speakers, workshops, networking events, and even a firm-wide hackathon designed for the interns. I got to go to a talk about quantum computing in FinTech, as well as other talks about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I also got to speak to all sorts of people about why they like working at JP Morgan. All of this was intended to help us get a feel for what it would be like to work at JP Morgan. At the end of the ten weeks, we presented our work in. and people from within the firm came to hear about it. We set up booths with demonstrations of our work, and people came up to us to ask questions. We explained what we had been working on over the past 10 weeks.
I was on a team of four interns working with big data in the back office. Our job was to speed up data aggregation on an internal company application designed only for JP Morgan employees to use. Using big data technologies such as Hadoop, Apache Spark, Hbase, and Hive, we migrated an oracle database into a Hadoop environment. Next we used software called Apache Kylin to pre-aggregate the data in an OLAP cube so that queries would run faster. After extensive testing, we demonstrated a 99% speed up. This solution worked because the relevant data rarely changed, and was mostly just read, not written to.
Overall, I learned a lot about what it was like to be at one of the largest corporations in the world. I like that I was able to network with so many people, and understand more about how banking works. I also liked really knowing what it is like to work a full day, every day, 9-5, Monday through Friday. I learned how important it is to me to work for a company where I believe in the mission. (Very! -no matter how nice the pay is!), and I learned that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life sitting in a corner coding. I like interacting with people and collaborating and really learning about the world around me. I also want to feel like the work I do matters and affects people positively. My summer at JP Morgan was enlightening; I learned a bit about banking and quite a bit about myself, the world, and what I want in the future.
Charlotte Coffin is a student of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University. She is taking the BS in Computer Science, and will graduate in 2019. Her interests are in Quantum Computing among other things and she is co-President of the Seidenberg School’s Women in Technology club.
As a 
The Juan Bautista Gautreaux Foundation was founded by my grandfather in February, 2000, to provide assistance and health for those most in need.
The community needs an act of healing and renewal so I have taken the time to listen, connect, and support those in most need through service this January 2017. Having contributed more than 400 hours of community service throughout my academic years, my natural desire and motivation to serve has grown stronger with this project.
New York, Pace PLV Campus: The Benefit Dinner I hosted with my volunteers at the Kessel Multi-Purpose Room on November 13th, 2016, collected donations to bring relief to families in need in the Dominican Republic. Pace WPAW was the DJ of the event and there were four raffles as well. My mentor, Vincent Birkenmeyer (Vinnie), was a tremendous help for me to organize the event months in advance and I will always be grateful for his support. Vinnie and Pace Restaurant Sponsor with Pace Residence Life were able to provide the dinner. Donations of non-perishable food, toiletries, gently used clothing and shoes, as well as educational supplies for all ages, were accepted at this dinner and during tabling sessions (information sessions). Handcrafted accessories I crocheted were sold in exchange for donations. I made necklaces, scarves, headbands, and butterfly-bouquets. 
While walking on mountainous trails to bring food for those families in most need, my volunteers and I witnessed extreme living conditions, which include broken down outhouses made out of rags and twigs. We personally brought food packages to twelve different homes of elderly people and learned about their needs. The team and I visited the sick, blind, and injured. Many homes had no lighting and water for their homes. We met one elderly woman in her eighties who was missing a leg. Sadly, this elderly woman passed away in February 2017. Other people were suffering from osteoporosis, asthma, and depression. A bedridden and sickly man, father of two elderly sickly siblings, about 101 years old, smiled at us because he was so excited to have visitors stop by his room, a dark shack with sand and dirt for floors and dogs roaming around. His daughter was in tears because she was so happy that we came to bring her food.
Back on the site of my grandfather’s foundation, there were approximately 100 people from the community in need who showed up to receive donations. The team and I helped kids make Vision Boards so they can draw what they want to aspire when they grow up. We made sandwiches to feed everyone and gave out juice, distributed the donated clothes and toothpaste with toothbrushes. I taught young girls how to crochet as well so they can continue to build that skill to help their families. School bags with supplies were given to kids too. There was so much excitement and joy at this moment. Everyone who received their donation was so grateful to us and showed their gratitude with lots of hugs and smiles. It was incredible to see the huge positive impact we all created with combined efforts from NY and DR.
Poverty can be greatly reduced when people create dreams to strive for. My hope is that with this volunteer experience is that we helped developed courage, strength, and creativity in the lives of those in need so they can develop a better overall quality of life.
