Derek Bannister, a Chapel Executive Intern and Paterno Fellow, interned with Capital One this past summer. Bannister is a senior pursuing a double major in economics and history. As a Capital One intern, Bannister spent the summer as a “scrum master” within the Commercial Bank Tech team where he helped “manage two tech teams that worked on building out the digital capabilities of the commercial banking online platform.” His day-to-day responsibilities consisted of providing and documenting metrics involving team performances, the business value delivered to customers, incident reporting, and team satisfaction scores, as well as providing daily reports to senior management.
Bannister highly values the internship experience and believes “no matter what your area of interest is, pursuing an internship is often a great way to get a feel for working life in that field. An internship is a great way to really find out if your current path is truly ideal for you.” After graduation, Bannister will join Capital One as a full-time Commercial Banking Rotational Program associate. Bannister thoroughly enjoyed the company culture of Capital One over the summer and is excited to switch tracks from a management role to an analyst position.
The Paterno Fellows Program has been a driving force in Bannister’s academic career at Penn State. In Bannister’s opinion, the Paterno Fellow Program is the height of honors education at Penn State. “The honors and upper-level classes that I have taken to fulfill Paterno Fellow requirements have been challenging in a great way and have introduced me to some of the premier scholars in their respective subjects anywhere in the country. Requirements outside of the classroom have provided the impetus for me to seek out different experiences like studying abroad and pursuing an internship,” said Bannister.
The Chapel Executive Internship Program was key in providing Bannister the possibility to work at Capital One and live in Virginia during the summer. The program allowed Bannister to find a place to live in a new state without having to worry about how he would afford it, which Bannister said was incredibly helpful.
The Virginia Todd Chapel Executive Internship Program was established by Virginia ‘Jinnie’ Todd Chapel and her husband, John, with leadership gifts creating a $2 million endowment. Virginia Todd Chapel graduated Penn State in 1965 as an English major. Virginia and John generously began the internship program in order to encourage liberal arts majors to pursue a career in the business/private sector. To learn more about the Chapel Executive Internship Program, visit http://www.la.psu.edu/current-students/undergraduate-students/experiences/internships/chapel-executive-internship-program.