College athlete to test his skills on Wall Street this summer

Todd Smalling accepts AlumniAthlete Network internship with JP Morgan

March 31, 2008 - Todd Smalling, a junior in business management and finance at North Carolina State University College of Management, has accepted a summer internship position at JPMorgan as a sales and trading analyst.

A career working as a Wall Street analyst isn't for the faint-hearted, but Smalling – a Park Scholar, member of the NC State Cross Country team and first in his class of over 5,000 – said he is up for the challenge.

Smalling secured his internship position through the highly-competitive AlumniAthlete Network. Its 10-week summer Wall Street internship program is targeted to collegiate athletes who have shown a commitment to athletics and academic excellence. The program accepts 30 to 40 student athletes each year from more than 1,000 applicants.

“Out of [the AlumniAthlete’s] six banking partners on Wall Street, I was lucky to be placed with JPMorgan, which has managed the economic downturn better than most banks and has been rated as one of the ‘Ten Best Places to Launch a Career’ by BusinessWeek," Smalling said. "I hope to represent NC State, the College of Management, NCSU Athletics and the Park Scholars well in this position.”

Acknowledging that working on Wall Street "is competitive,” Smalling said he expects to draw on his experience as an athlete. “As an athlete, you have to have the leadership skills… and good team work,” he said. “It seems like everyone on Wall Street has those traits.” He said he feels the internship experience would be intellectually stimulating. “I’ve always loved to be challenged,” Smalling said.

“Sales and trading are very fast-paced. Every day you’re constantly making quick decisions and you need to have some courage and judgment, because a lot of times there’s a great deal of money riding on those decisions. That’s exciting. Athletes do particularly well in that kind of role and I don’t think I could be in a better position for my abilities,” he said.

Smalling is the second College of Management student athlete to participate in the program. Nandita Chandrasekar, NC State college of management alumna (2006) and tennis player, participated in 2004, when the network’s Wall Street summer internship program was piloted. She is now working on Wall Street in international mergers and acquisitions as a financial analyst for Citigroup, the company she interned with four years ago.

Founded in 2001 by Ron Mitchell, former member of the Harvard University basketball team, the AlumniAthlete Network has continued expanding to become the largest resource of its kind for collegiate athletes. Its programs and services offer a value-added approach to helping corporate partners identify promising candidates for their businesses. Its corporate partners include: Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS.

“The AlumniAthlete Network is icing on the cake because they’re giving me a lot of resources,” Smalling said. “[Ron Mitchell] has the corporate experience, he’s worked on Wall Street, and he knows what needs to be done. Having the network support and its help to me has been invaluable. It’s hard for me to thank them enough for this opportunity,” Smalling said.

Smalling tapped his advisors at NC State, professors and the career center to secure his internship.

“Internships are an extremely important step toward launching your career,” said Brenda McCarthy, director of career and internship development for the College of Management’s Undergraduate Programs. “They provide an opportunity to build on what you have learned in the classroom and often can lead to a job offer.”

- story by Cailin Deery, communications intern