Articles by National Association of Women MBA's

This summer I interned at PNC bank’s Corporate and Investment Banking(C&IB) Division, in the Corporate Finance department as a Junior Relationships Manager (RM). My department lends credit to and deploys PNC’s tools and services in large corporations with annual revenues of $500MM and higher. PNC was named the Middle Market Investment Bank of the year by Investment Digest in 2008, was ranked amongst the “Most Admired Companies” in Fortune 2006 and PNC now is the number one lead arranger of market syndicated loans in the North East..

As an intern and Jr. RM, I spent a lot of time prospecting new clients. What that meant is I would review the 10-Ks, 10-Qs and credit ratings of customers that PNC would like to do business with and rate them based on their credit worthiness, liquidity, outstanding debt and overall risk profile. PNC has very stringent lending standards and its this risk averseness that has led PNC to book a 20% Net Income growth in 2Q08 compared with Net Income a year ago, while other banks and financial institutions are booking subprime related losses. My team and manager encouraged me to meet with other departments and locational teams of PNC. I went to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia locations of PNC C&IB and met with other businesses like Treasury Management, Capital Markets, Business Credit, Credit Policy, Asset Backed Securitization, Loan Syndications etc. My other job functions included, sitting on prescreen meetings (to screen new or existing clients), learning about PNC’s portfolio of clients, tools and services, developing a Formalized and Business Independant Client Acquisition strategy and developing a mechanism to get any RM’s portfolio breakdown by location, clients and facilities.

Thankfully within 6 weeks of my being with PNC I was offered a full time position within the C&IB. I am looking forward to the remaining weeks in PNC and am equally eager to go back to State College and to the blessed life of a second year MBA. A word of advice to the incoming class, if you are interested in Corporate Finance or in PNC, please give your 100% to Dr. Muscarella’s and Dr. Fisher’s classes. All the concepts taught in those classes come back to you while interning.

-Amishi Patel
MBA Class of 2009

I spent my summer working for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. in the Global Pharma R&D Sourcing division, specifically supporting Clinical Services. I was tasked with developing two high-level budgeting tools, which allowed me to interface with both internal and external stakeholders. The tools will result in a significant time savings for the company and will provide consistent, accurate results on an ongoing basis. They also provide the ability to do more analytics on the tracked data and will aid in controlling scope and price creep on projects.

Aside from my actual projects, I had ample opportunity to learn about other areas of J&J through various Procurement Leadership Development Program events. One of the major highlights of my summer was the open access and exposure to top executives, ranging from Directors to Vice Presidents, and even included both the CEO and CPO. J&J is all about passion and purpose, both driven by our Credo, and it is certainly a culture that I would be thrilled to build my career in. Overall I had a wonderful summer and am grateful for the opportunity that I had to join the 250+ Johnson & Johnson family of companies!

Emily MacPhail

Women in the Workplace:

A group of Smeal MBAs spent a couple of hours discussing the context of “Women in the Workplace”. Despite the female context of the session, a few brave male students contributed greatly to the session as well as Smeal MBA faculty and staff. Co-sponsored by the WMBA and Minority MBA clubs, the session was facilitated by Peggy Lorah from Penn State’s Student Affairs Department. A selection of Valentine’s Day desserts helped to bring in the crowd.

Peggy really left the floor open to discussion regarding a few topics that are seldom broached in everyday business conversation. Participants reflected on whether they had a preference for a male or female boss and, if they had a preference, what made them more inclined to work under one sex over the other. Conversation soon turned to the fine line that female managers sometimes face – how to balance competence with compassion. Peggy explained how female bosses are typically viewed as having to forego relationships with coworkers in order to maintain an expected level of respect and allegiance. However, a few of the participants were able to share management experiences where they were able to develop comfortable relationships with subordinates and still be respected for their competence as a leader. The discussion approached several other topics regarding “Women in the Workplace”, specifically the sometimes dilemma of work/life balance and how to be recognized for the work ethic that you have regardless of sex. By the end of the session, all participants seemed to have learned something more about the framework of women in the working world.

- Jenny Moerschbacher

Prior to coming to Smeal, Jenny was an Operations Manager in Phoenix, Arizona for a large private label food company. Jenny earned a B.A. in Engineering Policy from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Her areas of concentration include Strategic Leadership, Supply Chain Management, and Product & Market Development.

24th of January was an exciting day for many of us. Lots of internship
action around. Sears had come in for summer 2008 internship
interviews, and DuPont had also invited us for a day long DuPont visit
early next morn. But the most exciting part of the day for us women was
getting together that Thursday evening to celebrate the success of the
existing WMBA board of officers and welcome the new board members for
2009.We were also excited to elect our new VP -Communications for WMBA.

The event was organized at one of the local Indian restaurants in the
downtown area. Since most of us love Indian food around here, we couldn’t
wait to reach the venue. A bunch of us huddled together in Jodie’s car
(thanks Jodie for the ride that night) and reached Indian Pavilion just
in time to taste some wine and chat with the girls before we began the
main elections event. Marcela, WMBA President 2008, addressed us with
warm touching words to kick off the events. She welcomed the new board
members and encouraged us to keep WMBA as a special and a safe space for
women in the MBA program. Amy, our newly elected President for 2009 took
the stage next and enthused us all with her energy and excitement for
the year ahead. After each one of the new board members had shared with
the group their vision for WMBA in the coming year, we voted for the
post of VP-Communications. With most of the “business” for the night out
of our way, the fun began. We celebrated a second year WMBA member, Jess
Berger’s birthday, ate some cake, drank some more wine and eventually
enjoyed the scrumptious spread of Indian appetizers and main courses
that were served. To add to the merriment, we had an exciting round of
lucky draw with special gifts of Penn State memorabilia for the
winners, Kat and April.

Finally, no WMBA event can be complete without a photo session for the
ladies. Both the incoming and the outgoing board members had a great
time clicking away for the official group pictures as well as some fun
shots with all the WMBA members to remember the evening with. Overall, a
fantastic time spent well with girlfriends and colleagues from 220.
Robin and Carrie, thanks to both of you for your continued support to
our group, and ladies, let’s keep up the good work in 2009!!!

-Priyanka Dwivedi

MBA Class of 2009

What happens when a group of female MBAs sit together, each with a cosmetic mirror, and follow professional guidance to try over ten different kinds of make up? A lot of fun! The Women’s MBA Association organized this activity to help female MBAs to improve our makeup skills and have a little girls-only fun.

After over one hour of hard work on our faces, we were all excited about our new appearances. So what followed next? Well, of course nobody wanted to go back home and wash it off. So, it was off to Tony’s Big Easy (a local bar) where there was a networking event for MBAs and JD (law) students. With our new looks, we showed the law students how energetic and pretty women MBAs could be.

I had heard of the make up session during the orientation week and had been looking forward to it for weeks. I have taken part in many activities and this one, believe me, is a must if you are a female MBA. After the make up session, I was excited about exploring the magic of eyeliner, which I had always skipped. Now, I’m sacrificing some sleep time every morning (I’m sleep deprived already, so what’s a little less?) to stand in front of the mirror and add that extra little touch.

–Chao He
Originally from China, Chao attained her Bachelor’s Degree in English there and has over six years working experience in international education. At Smeal, Chao plans to focus on Product & Market Development, Strategic Leadership, and Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

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Finally, some time with the girls…

After what I deemed the most stressful week of first mod (count them: two accounting projects, stats quiz, teams quiz, first communications speech, SIPs) we finally had some time to breathe. A visit to 2nd year, Jodie Vanderman’s apartment was exactly what I needed. A glass of wine, appetizers, and our first informal get-together as women leaders of the future was born. Well… not so dramatically. It was a great opportunity to relax and just be girls in the midst of a male dominated education. Jodie instructed us on proper make-up application and color choices from her Mary Kay kit and caboodle. We all listened intently as she unveiled the cosmetic secret to covering those nasty dark-under-eye circles. Let me tell you – the results were gorgeous and the celebrated success carried itself downtown to a mixer.

–Amy Hsieh
MBA Candidate 2009