Now more than ever, graduate students seek opportunities to gain hands-on experience interning with companies where they may one day gain full-time employment. In response to this demand, the Charles F. Dolan School of Business has forged relationships with two financial services groups, The Hartford and Synchrony, where students can apply to co-op programs while pursuing their Master's in Business Analytics (MSBA). Students in these programs assist in projects that require analytics support for strategic initiatives.

Recently, Synchrony announced that six Fairfield Dolan graduates have landed full-time jobs following the completion of the co-op program. One of them, Mark Drummond MSBA’22, will use the "soft skills" he acquired through the graduate program to work with the institution’s smaller clients and use analytics to help them grow their businesses. 

“Dr. Huntley and Dr. Maymin both stressed the importance of telling a story with the data collected. It’s not enough to simply analyze it,” Drummond said. “Rather, it’s essential to craft an objective narrative that explains the data in terms of the company’s trajectory. I’ve learned to look at the data year after year, then report on the story to see what the numbers are telling us.”

The highly competitive, paid co-op positions and their results speak for themselves. These unique programs are one reason that Dolan’s MSBA program ranks #21 on U.S. News and World Report’s list of 2023 Best Graduate Business Specialty Programs.

“Drs. Maymin and Huntley used to say that data analysis is 80 percent cleaning and 20 percent analysis, and that couldn’t be more pertinent to the work I’m doing,” said Andrew Mahoney ’21, MSBA’22, who will continue to work in campaign performance. His team dives deep into clients’ marketing campaigns in order to analyze their degree of success.

With the co-op program, “students gain real-world perspective and marketable experience at a Fortune 500 company, all while getting a chance to network. They not only become part of the team, they have the added benefit of being able to use the research they do at the company for their capstone projects,” says MSBA program director Philip Maymin, PhD.

The other 2022 graduates hired by Synchrony are Jack Stroud, who will be working in consumer banking; Stathis Tsiranidis, on the cross-platform strategy team; Arnold Welles, on the co-brand team; and Tochi Agulanna, who will be working in treasury.

“I’ve found the people I work with to be remarkably friendly and helpful,” said Mahoney.  “It’s a great company, and I couldn’t be happier.”

To learn about the Fairfield Dolan MSBA program, visit fairfield.edu/msba.