Internship Highlight- Danno Lemu

Hello CSS Community: My name is Danno Lemu and I am a junior majoring in Economics and Mathematics with a minor in Business Analytics. This past summer, I had the privilege of interning with the International Finance Division of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, specifically the International Financial Stability section. Reminiscing now, I can say without a doubt that this was one of the most enriching experiences of my life.

During my time with the organization (approximately 10 weeks), I gained invaluable insights into the work that PhD economists do. I worked on two separate projects for the economists in my section. The first, involved proofing the output produced by the code written by the one of the research assistants in my section. The second, was more extensive, and allowed me the opportunity to learn programming in R to build a data frame to be used for future research. What I loved about working on these specific projects was that they allowed me to participate in two separate ends of the research cycle; I was able to work on a project nearing its completion and juxtapose it with a project that was at its beginning stages.

Though this work may have been challenging at times, it was always fulfilling. Through my exposure to the work conducted by such extraordinary people, I was able to gauge if attending grad school would be something of interest for myself. This experience also provided me with a preview of the type of work I could expect to complete upon graduation once entering the field. I am very grateful to all those whom I met at the board for getting to know me during my time there. This is not an experience I can see myself forgetting any point in the near future.

CSS Scholar & Executive Board President,
Danno Lemu