Name: William Ouyang

Year: Junior

Major: Economics

Minor: Music Technology

CFS Program: Analysis of Field Experience

Employer: Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.

I’m an Economics and Music Technology student at Northwestern, and I’m spending the summer before my junior year in New York City, where I’m interning at a boutique investment bank. The Chicago Field Studies department has given me the opportunity to attain work authorization and take a discussion class alongside my internship experience, which has proven to be a great way to share ideas with other Northwestern interns.

To me, CFS is flexible option available to students who see an internship as an important stepping stone in their academic and professional careers. I have quite a few friends who weren’t exactly sure about what type of career they wanted to pursue, but were able to find guidance after being accepted into the program, which led them to place into firms they were happy with. Personally, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in investment banking, and I conducted the majority of my internship outreach on my own, but CFS was still able to add value to my experience by establishing a connection with the employer as a third party facilitator, which encouraged responsibility and accountability.

This summer, I’m enrolled in the Analysis of Field Experience (AFE) class, in which students have weekly discussions about different aspects of internships, whether that be financial, social, ethical, etc. The most interesting part about AFE is that the students are interning in very different fields, i.e. from finance to healthcare to science to media, which results in a very wide range of opinions and experiences that students like to incorporate in their comments and dialogues.

With internships becoming increasingly important in industries like finance, consulting, tech, and more, it’s encouraging to see Northwestern provide a program like Chicago Field Studies that effectively bridges and intertwines our academic and career passions.