Student Spotlight- David Castelli

I am currently studying mechanical engineering at Villanova with minors in business and finance. Following graduation in May, I hope to begin a career in investment banking. I am interested in the interplay between engineering and business – specifically the business applications of science, mathematics, and technology. My dynamic work-life experience has shaped me into a mature leader respected for my quantitative and analytical skills, fine grain of attention, and interpersonal competency. My interdisciplinary background positions me well for work in financial services, consulting, technical/industrial sales, and external or customer-focused support of manufacturing, engineering, financial services, and other related industries.

Aside from my engineering courses and extracurriculars at Villanova, I have been getting involved in business/finance-related activities as well. I added an additional finance course to my schedule this semester and I also have been taking advantage of Villanova’s technological resources to do some recreational finance research on publicly-trading companies. The finance lab located on the ground floor of Bartley contains multiple Bloomberg terminals to look up a company’s financial documents, current stock price, etc. Although I am in my senior year, I believe it is important for me to continue to advance my learning and understanding of the finance world, especially since I am planning to go into this field after I graduate.

In addition to the resources I have on campus to expand my knowledge of finance, I also had the opportunity to spend this past summer working at J.P. Morgan &Chase Co., in their Global Finance and Business Management Analyst Program. I was in the New York office on the Corporate Investment & Bank Banking Operations Business Management team. I reported directly to an Executive Director, in which I helped establish a new governance process for headcount forecast changes to provide managers a real-time view of their global employees. I created a waterfall illustration on Microsoft Excel to accurately reflect workforce expense reporting. I also lead the process of reviewing performance highlights provided by global team to present senior managers with a high level overview of key pieces of work, partnership and delivery across all lines of business. Lastly, I supported the metrics team based in Manila by providing data analysis of weekly targets in order to provide future recommendations.

I definitely learned a lot throughout the course of my internship and networked with fellow Villanovans at the firm. I also participated and engaged in various senior speaker series events, software trainings, career fairs and panel discussions. I hope to return in July as a full time analyst and continue to advance my technical finance studies for the remainder of my senior year at Villanova.