What I’m Doing This Summer: Selina Katumba ’26

What are you doing this summer?

I’m interning at Bank of America in New York City. I'm part of the Global Markets Sophomore Summer Analyst program. Specifically, sales and trading. I learn from the traders and salespeople — shadow them, learn about their work, how they got there, and their day-to-day. It's definitely information overload but it's also so informative. Every three weeks I try out a different desk to figure out which one I'm most interested in, so that if I do get a return offer when I've graduated, that would be a desk — a trading desk or a sales desk — at which I'll be beginning my career.

How did you find this internship?

In my first year I happened to check my email over the winter break, and I saw an email from the Career Services Center. Bank of America was going to have a three-day event in New York, where they would have two days of networking and telling you what it's like to work at the bank and then the third day was a super day, which is like a big interview day. They mentioned that they do take on international students. I’m from Uganda. So I applied to the event over winter break and then I went to the actual event in February. Went through the programming, did the super day, and then got an offer of an internship from Bank of America. And now, more than a year later, I’m doing the internship.

What’s your major?

Data science. When I arrived at USF, I was a computer science major because being in San Francisco I would have a lot of opportunities in computer science. I just didn't like it. I didn't like how many coding classes were required for it. But I’d heard about data science when I was still back at home, and initially my plan was to do data science in grad school. But when I discovered that USF has a data science major for undergrad, I made the switch about halfway through my first semester.

So you’re a data science major and you’re interning in banking. What’s the attraction of banking for you?

Sales and trading is like a unique blend of quantitative analysis, which I get from my data science major, and deep engagement with financial markets. So when I discovered that sales and trading kind of combines those two things, it's what really attracted me to the bank.

What’s your advice to other students?

Definitely open your emails at all times — all the emails from Handshake, all the emails from the Career Services Center. You never know when an opportunity is going to come through. And if you see something that you're eligible for, just act on it. I didn't have a stellar resume or anything, honestly. This wasn't the first bank that I applied to. I had also applied to a different one, which ended up not accepting me, but because I landed this position with Bank of America, I was cool with it.