Goodbye? Or see ya later?

And so the internship draws to a close...

When we last left our valiant heroine, she was embarking on a journey of research on hedge funds. This journey took place in the form of reading Sebastian Mallaby's More Money Than God. Once I started reading, I understood why Leena gave it to me -- in a weird, financial-y way, it is exactly what I'm interested in: 20th century cultural change. As an American Studies major, it was awesome to see how market fluctuations and the people that cause and respond to these fluctuations largely shaped American history. I finished the book at the beginning of my last week at the internship, and created a large chart for Leena about the traders mentioned in the book and their career activity, supposedly for an upcoming hedge fund exhibit. In some small way, it seems I've left my mark on the museum.

The last couple days of the internship, I worked on the Facebook project with Jennie and Alex. We created fake Facebook-style pages for various historical figures of finance. If you get the chance, look up Maria Reynolds -- trying to decide on how to list her relationship status was probably the hardest part of the project.

We visited the New York Stock Exchange two weeks ago, but this time we oversaw the floor instead of actually walking on it (VIP treatment was apparently only for Julia and me, haha). I made good use of my time by quizzing our tour guide with questions I formed while reading Mallaby. (Did you know that in Europe, they list stock prices differently? It makes sense, it's just not something one might immediately realize.) During my last day, I was supposed to go to the Federal Reserve with the rest of the group, but I had a meeting with my faculty mentor from Fordham that I had to prepare for. Bummer.

Overall, this summer has been amazing, thanks to the quality of people I've met at the museum, interns and staff alike. I've learned more about finance than I thought a measly American Studies (Cultural Products concentration)-Theology double major possibly could, and I've figured out that museums really are fun to work in -- and the smaller, the better. I'm really going to miss everyone in the office, and from the intern program; but we'll always have Facebook, plus I gave Becky and Leena the address of my new apartment in the Bronx to put me on the special events mailing list! So, this isn't "goodbye," it's most definitely a "see ya later."


Oh, and I haven't really made any money trading currency. Maybe I know a liiiiittle less about finance than I thought...