With support from the General Assembly, the University of South Carolina is offering financial supplements to students with internships in high demand industries in South Carolina. Through the South Carolina Internship Program, students receive $3,000 stipends after completing internships in fields such as manufacturing, aerospace, energy, health and life sciences, and financial services.
Poorva Dalvi is a third-year Honors College student from Easley, South Carolina, dual majoring in finance and risk management and insurance, who was a participant in the program. After graduating, she wants to enter the investment banking field.
What was your summer internship, and how did it help you toward your goal?
My internship last summer was with AgFirst Farm Credit Bank. I worked as a counterparty intern, which meant that I performed analysis and assessed the counterparties they worked with — from big banks like J.P. Morgan to smaller banks similar to AgFirst. I learned a lot about financial analysis and just how banks work. I’m not embarrassed to say I didn’t know how they worked before that internship. And now coming out of it, I know how they make their money, how they operate, and what each line item on each statement means.
I spent the first few weeks taking notes and just learning how everything flowed together. Writing reports and analysis didn’t come naturally to me — that was something that I had to learn. My internship even helped me in my classes this year.
How did you find out about the South Carolina Internship Program and how did it help you?
I got an email about it from the business school, and I was like, “Wait, this is really cool.” It’s awesome that they're offering financial support for people who are staying in South Carolina in specific industries. So, I decided to go for it.
The program made my internship experience so easy because it covered a lot of the financial burden. It covered my living expenses and helped with groceries and things like that. It made my experience much more pleasant.
Did you always have an interest in finance and risk management and insurance?
No, I originally wanted to be a clinical psychologist or a therapist. It sounds kind of strange to say, but I feel like debt advisory, the career that I want to go into, kind of gives the same vibe because I get to help people. Helping people and having a job that feels like I’m doing something different every single day is important to me.
I came here as a marketing major and an international business major. I was really into the creative aspect of social media marketing and marketing in general. After taking the introductory finance class, I was like, “This is cool. I want to do this instead.” So, I changed my major to finance and later added on risk management and insurance because those majors pair well together and I thought it would really help.
What attracted you to USC?
I really wanted to go out of state — like, that was a big dream of mine. But just looking at it financially, I got some great scholarships here. The reputations of the South Carolina Honors College and the Darla Moore School of Business were two huge deciding factors for me. I knew the business school was on the rise. We are slowly becoming a target school for these bigger companies. And then the South Carolina Honors College is just like an incredible community of students who just want to work hard and to build community academic excellence. I came here and I was like, “You know what? This seems like the place for me.”
What have you enjoyed most in your time at USC?
I love our culture. I love how as a school, we come together in more ways than one. Obviously, I love football games and celebrating with everybody. I never feel bored at school because there’s always something going on. But I’ve also really enjoyed taking classes outside of my majors. I’m currently in a class called Asian Americans in the 21st century, and it’s a very thought-provoking and awesome class. We get to talk about Asian American history in the U.S. and Asian Americans in pop culture and movies. I’ve also been able to take a service learning class where we got to use assessment methods like surveys, interviews and things like that to help nonprofits. It was really cool that we created something that directly helped an organization, and it wasn’t just for a grade.