Muhlenberg athletes are spending the summer of 2024 enjoying fantastic experiences on campus, in their hometowns, across the country and even around the world. Rising junior softball player Sarah "Scooter" Hulsen, an accounting major and double minor in Spanish and business administration, wrote about her internship in the finance department at Pfizer.

This summer I have been fortunate to intern at Pfizer Inc. in their finance department at their corporate headquarters in New York City. For 175 years, Pfizer has been a trusted partner in healthcare – discovering, developing and delivering medical breakthroughs to prevent, treat and cure some of the world's most problematic conditions and diseases. Many people became more familiar with Pfizer after the Covid-19 pandemic, with the release of their life-saving vaccine.

I am working with the Chief Medical Affairs, Global Marketing and Global Access Value teams in assisting them in their internal financial reporting and Cost Center organization. At the end of every accounting period, expenses and revenues must be reported to client partners and financial leads so that their actuals can be reported for the public eye to see. I am helping with this reporting for clients to see the progress of Pfizer.

Cost Centers are important to every company because they keep track of expenses that are accrued over time so that money spent by the organization can be properly tracked. Pfizer acquired a new company in the last year, which means there has been movement of employees, money and more, and some employees may be assigned to the correct Cost Center, while others may not be. A lot of my job has been trying to help the team consolidate their Cost Centers, so they are organized and easier to use. Cost Centers could be considered a "general ledger," which in accounting terms means keeping track of financial information in a record.

This internship has taught me more than I ever imagined. I love how this experience has made me a more confident person in so many ways. I feel more comfortable talking and introducing myself to people I do not know and asking questions. Pfizer Inc. is an incredible environment to be a part of. The internship program at Pfizer holds discussions with executive leaders at the company to learn about their career journeys and offer guidance to the interns, as well as workshops for creating comprehensive resumes, interview skills, and building LinkedIn pages. This has proven to be very beneficial for me to understand what employers and recruiters are looking for in a candidate for a full-time position at a company.

I decided to apply for this internship because I wanted to get real-world experience that would ultimately help in a future career and the rest of my journey at Muhlenberg. Even though I am an accounting major, I wanted to branch out and see if I could envision myself working in finance in the future. I like what I am doing, but I think I am heading down the right path in accounting field. I have learned so much since I started working here, which I believe will be very beneficial in my future job. 

Putting yourself out there can be difficult, especially as a more introverted person, but I have learned that sometimes the only way to learn or be a part of new experiences is to be "comfortable being uncomfortable." This has been especially true for my internship. My accounting classes, especially Accounting Information Systems, have helped me significantly, as I have had to interact with different systems, such as SAP, which I am very grateful for. By understanding finance more this summer, I believe it will help set me up for success in the future, particularly for my next challenge – an internship in the tax department at Deloitte in summer 2025.

I am grateful for this experience and what it has taught me, and I am excited to see how these skills can help me in the future. 

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