October 14, 2019
Student Spotlight - Rachel Pleasants
Burlington, NC native Rachel Pleasants is concentrating in Risk Management and Insurance, as well as Management Information Systems. She recently completed an internship at Munich Reinsurance in Princeton, NJ. We recently chatted with Rachel about her internship experience.
How did you learn about your internship?
I learned about my internship with Munich Reinsurance at the Gamma Iota Sigma national conference in Chicago last school year. Gamma Iota Sigma is the Risk Management and Insurance professional fraternity. I was able to complete a first-round interview for my internship at the conference.
How did the College of Business prepare you for this successful internship?
The College of Business helped prepare me for the professionalism needed in my internship. Through my classes, COB organizations, and leadership, I knew how to properly communicate with my co-workers.
Describe your experience at this company.
I can describe my experience at Munich Re in two words – rewarding and challenging. I worked on a personal project and a group project with five other interns. Both of these projects had a learning curve that I had to overcome. However, I felt accomplished when I was able to present on them at the end of my 12 weeks. Everyone at the company and on my team was supportive and willing to help at any time.
What was the moment during your internship you knew that your ECU COB education had paid off?
The moment I knew my COB education had paid off was near the end of my project. My internship was very much an insurance position, therefore I used most of my coursework knowledge from my RMI classes. However, my team knew that I was also majoring in MIS and that I had just completed a course on SQL. I was able to write SQL code to obtain data from their database. I would have never been able to do that without that COB course.
Why would you recommend a business student take advantage of an internship opportunity?
The biggest reason I would recommend an internship to a business student is to understand how to conduct yourself in the workplace. Every company may have different procedures, software, etc. but my biggest takeaway was learning how to communicate with co-workers of all ages. In an internship, it is understood that you might make mistakes, but it is the perfect opportunity to make those mistakes before you get into the workforce. After two internships in undergrad, I can definitely say transitioning into full time after college does not intimidate me at all.
What would be the one thing that people would be surprised to learn about you?
One thing that may surprise others about me is that I am very competitive. I have been competitive my whole life whether it be my professional activities, the sports teams I am a fan of, or simply games with friends. I do not enjoy losing!