Lebanon Valley College has a wealth of students prepared for future success in the workforce.

Nate Dawson ’18 is a great example of a soon-to-be graduate of LVC primed to have success in the workforce. He is an accounting major with a specific interest in financial analysis.

Dawson is currently interning with the Hershey Company. This opportunity came about when a friend, who was interning with Hershey, recommended Dawson for a similar internship position. He was able to attain an interview and eventually was offered and accepted the position at Hershey.

Throughout Dawson’s internship, he has worked in a financial analysis position for the company.

“My work on a day-to-day basis typically includes a lot of analysis on different financial data like sales and waste, as well as managing a database,” Dawson said. “Other work includes helping my coworkers with anything they need such as sending money to customers, pulling raw data from Hershey’s data sources and cleaning up data.”

Dawson has used this internship as a learning experience to take in as much knowledge as possible. He has learned not only technical skills and workplace etiquette, but he has also learned skills that can be applied to everyday life.

“Aside from all of the technical things I have learned, I have learned that it will take a lot of hard work, dedication and persistence to be successful in the finance world,” Dawson said. “You can almost guarantee that something will go wrong every day you show up to work, and no matter how well you plan your day out it’s going to turn out differently than you thought, but you just have to make the most of it and move on.”

The overall experience has been extremely valuable for Dawson and his future career goals.

“This internship has given me a great base for any kind of job in financial work within a corporation,” Dawson said. “It has also helped me learn how to operate within a professional workplace, which I learned can be harder than it sounds.”

Dawson is still currently searching for a job after graduation, but hopes to be working in a financial analysis position for Hershey or another large company.

B. GILBERT beg005@lvc.edu