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Meghan Goodwin ’06 (Dresher, Pa.) is spending two and a half months in Shanghai, China this summer, learning Chinese while serving an internship with IBM.
A double major in A.B. engineering and economics & business, Goodwin learned of the internship through Ann Barnett ’74, business management director for IBM’s data processing outsourcing operation, at Leopard Career Connections Day, a program sponsored by Lafayette’s career services that brings alumni back to campus to give students career advice and networking opportunities.
“My willingness to approach Ms. Barnett and introduce myself led to this internship opportunity,” says Goodwin, who is helping coordinate operations between the current IBM offices in Tokyo and new headquarters in Shanghai.
Goodwin, who already had been taking Mandarin Chinese language classes, believes the internship is a good fit with her interest in international business.
“I have always had an interest in working in Asia/Japan since living in Tokyo from 1995 to 1999,” she explains. “I decided to find my own internship focused on an international business assignment in the finance area to serve my future career aspirations.”
Barnett says the internship will provide Goodwin with experience in how a large corporation works.
“Because of the new organizational structure in China, she should learn about setting up a new operation,” says Barnett, a mathematics graduate who has worked at IBM for 25 years. “Hopefully she will also be a good ‘disciple’ for IBM, coming back to tell others of the wonderful experience she had working for us.”
Barnett was surprised and pleased when career services contacted her about participating in Leopard Career Connections Day.
“It was very flattering to be asked and I am always willing to take the call from a Lafayette student or organization in order to help with placement activities,” she says.
Goodwin appreciates that Lafayette allows her to fully explore her interests.
“Lafayette has provided me the opportunity to pursue my dual degree interests and my business courses provide a base on which to contribute to IBM this summer,” she says.
Goodwin competes on the varsity women’s swimming & diving and golf teams, serving as the swim team’s representative on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She also is treasurer of the Leonardo Society for A.B. engineering majors and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Barnett says her own time at Lafayette provided her with the framework to solve the everyday challenges of her job.
“The best thing about my Lafayette education was that I learned how to learn,” she says. “I was a math major at Lafayette and while I almost never use calculus or differential equations in my job, I use the logical skills that I learned and apply them to each problem, each day.”