Student Gains Exposure to the Business World—and the World

Amy Engel
Photo by Bruce Gilbert

By Maja Tarateta

For Amy Engel, a senior in the College of Business Administration, leaving her hometown of Ogden Dunes, Ind., to study business in the Big Apple was not only a dream but a major cultural change. Most of her fellow students in the tiny town of about 1,300 people opt to stay in Indiana for college. Attending a private school on the East Coast was not promoted by guidance counselors. Affording it was an even bigger hurdle.

Thanks to her parents’ support, a half-tuition scholarship from Fordham and financial aid, Engel left the Lake Michigan town and found a new home in the New York City.

“The thing I love about New York, when you talk to people, a lot of people are here for a purpose,” Engel said. “At home, there are good qualities—it’s simplistic and relaxing. But people are there because they are born there. They are indifferent to it. I never knew you could have feelings for someplace you live.”

Engel definitely has feelings for New York City, thanks to her time at Fordham, from which she will graduate with a degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and a specialization in Global Learning Opportunities and Business Experiences (GLOBE). While studying abroad in China her junior year, she would tell people she was from New York. A friend teased her that she wasn’t allowed to say that until she had spent more time in Manhattan than Indiana. “But it’s in my heart now,” she said.

Her experiences in China and in the GLOBE program, which teaches students business skills and provides a broad understanding of the countries in which they may one day work, solidified her interest in working and doing business in the Asian country.

The two experiences “helped me see how international and global and interconnected everything is becoming,” she said. “Business is exciting, challenging and changing the world, and I want to be a part of that. I feel that business in general gets somewhat of a bad reputation, but overall it leads to the betterment and advancement of society. It can elevate the lifestyle and livelihood of people around the world as long as it is not done in the wrong manner … . In studying banking and being in China, I saw there is so much potential and things we take for granted —simple things like giving people loans and teaching them how to save. The possibility to be a part of that is phenomenal.”

But before returning to China, Engel will work for Citigroup. She starts management training on June 11, a three-year program in financial management and regulatory reporting for North America and Latin America that will take her to Tampa for a year.

Through her years at Fordham, the Matteo Ricci Fellowship recipient volunteered for local organizations, including the P.O.T.S. soup kitchen and visiting retired Jesuits living at Murray Weigel Hall. “The Jesuits give their lives to educate us,” she said. “I feel so grateful for the life I have now, so I just want to give back.”

She is also thankful for her time at Fordham. “The exposure that Fordham provided, the academic reputation, the phenomenal teachers and faculty, and the fact that I got my job through career services,” she said. “Also, the opportunities to intern. If I had stayed in Indiana, I think I would have done well. But at Fordham, you can be in New York year-round, working.”

Which is exactly what Engel plans to do.