As a summer associate at Financial Health Network (FHN), I worked on three main projects across the organization.

First, I compiled a database of 60+ behavioral economics journal articles and case studies to identify ways employers can maximize employee engagement with workplace financial health programs. This research was part of a larger project to develop a financial health toolkit that employers could provide their employees to help them navigate financial health benefits and drive engagement. Companies’ financial benefits are often confusing, overwhelming, and time-consuming for employees, and basic needs such as caregiving, household duties, and day-to-day work obligations take precedence over understanding and enrolling in workplace benefits programs. After delving deeply into the behavioral science literature, I presented my findings to the team and top recommendations employers could adopt to increase employee engagement with important financial benefits.

Second, I led quantitative market-sizing analyses of financially underserved consumers’ participation in auto loan, auto lease, and private and federal student loan markets. These results will be published in the Financially Underserved Market Size Study, which reaches over 10 million readers annually. The publication helps financiers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and funders understand where underserved consumers are spending their money, and ensure that stakeholders identify and develop higher quality solutions where revenue pools actually exist.

Third, I worked with the Financial Solutions Lab (the innovation arm of FHN) to spearhead the collection of a variety of impact metrics for four fintech companies participating in the accelerator program, which this year focused on student and worker financial health. This role was new, as impact measurement has become increasingly important internally and to stakeholders. I collaborated with the fintech companies to determine which metrics to track based on their business models and product offerings, and advised them on how to best leverage FHN resources and expertise to meet their data-driven objectives and best serve their consumers. Each of these projects aligned with FHN’s mission to improve financial health for all, from employees (especially low-wage workers), to financially underserved consumers, to students.

My CBS courses prepared me for the summer internship. Behavioral Economics and Decision Making with Professor Elizabeth Friedman, and The Psychology and Economics of Consumer Finance with Professors Eric Johnson and Stephen Zeldes stand out. These classes provided me with a deeper understanding of consumer psychology and the behavioral biases that lead people to behave irrationally yet in predictable ways. Many of the examples we touched on in class related to financial decision making, which I found myself leveraging for the employer toolkit project. High Performing Nonprofits with Professor Amy Houston widened my perspective on the nonprofit landscape and the internal and external forces that lead many nonprofits to face significant barriers to producing effective results. Having this background in nonprofit operations allowed me to contribute meaningfully in coffee chats with senior members of the organization on its short- and long-term strategic vision.

What I did not expect was how a semester of virtual classes would prepare me for my internship. Most of my courses culminated in a final presentation or group project, to be delivered over Zoom. These experienced helped hone my virtual presentation skills and helped me practice how to read a room in a virtual environment. When I presented my ideas during my internship, I was not fazed by the completely virtual nature of the experience because my CBS Zoom classes prepared me.

The greatest challenge I faced was never meeting my colleagues in person. What would have been my in-person final-round interview in March was switched to virtual because COVID-19 was ramping up. I always thought about learning in two buckets. One is active learning – learning you do through diving into the work, researching, asking questions, and proactively seeking answers. The second is passive learning – learning you obtain from consciously or unconsciously listening to phone calls happening around you, informal conversations in the kitchen or on walks to grab lunch, and general observations about the work environment and interactions people have with each other. I felt the second type of learning was missing from the virtual experience, and so I worked extra hard to fill in those gaps. I and the other summer associate organized coffee chats with various colleagues across the organization so that we could learn as much as possible outside of our day-to-day projects. I made sure to always attend the weekly Tuesday NYC team lunch to get to know people I wasn’t interacting with otherwise. While navigating a new job and work environment in eleven weeks had its challenges, I am grateful to my colleagues at FHN for being so generous with their time, being willing to help, and constantly striving to find ways to create a sense of community in a virtual world.

My experience at FHN was eye opening and enriching. It was an invaluable experience to be surrounded by such thoughtful, smart, passionate, and driven people who are motivated to improve the financial health of all individuals. I came to CBS with very interested in pursuing career opportunities in financial empowerment for women, and while my experience at FHN didn’t focus on women’s financial health in particular, it did expose me to various other demographics, including low- to moderate-income individuals, students, and the elderly. I came away from the experience inspired and motivated to continue my journey to improve financial health, whether for children, women, or the elderly. I greatly appreciated the transparent and dynamic culture at FHN. The team was receptive to my feedback and staffed me on projects that aligned with my interests and areas that I expressed I wanted to pursue further. The team entrusted me to determine the strategic direction of my projects and the format of the final deliverables, for which I am grateful.