UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Benjamin Burlovic is pursuing his passion for consulting through an internship with Deloitte Consulting this summer. Thanks to funding he received through the Virginia Todd Chapel Executive Internship Program in the College of the Liberal Arts, Burlovic is living in New York City and strengthening his connections within the industry.
The Chapel Executive Internship Program supports internship experiences for Liberal Arts students who achieve academic success and who seek top-level career development opportunities in the private sector. The program was established by Virginia "Jinnie" Todd Chapel and her husband, John, with leadership gifts creating an endowment now valued at $2.5 million. Virginia Todd Chapel graduated from Penn State in 1965 as an English major.
This year, the program offered 22 high-performing students a stipend of $5,000 for their internship experience.
Burlovic, a fourth-year Schreyer Scholar double majoring in economics and mechanical engineering, works as a strategy and analytics consulting intern at Deloitte. He credits his Liberal Arts education for preparing him for the broad challenges he faces in his role.
“The projects for a strategy consultant can vary so much,” he said. “I think that my educational background of having to go from very different classrooms helped me stay on my toes, learn quickly, and learn very different things, which is what you have to do with consulting.”
Having a diverse internship experience has allowed Burlovic to practice balancing a busy workload with various niche clientele demands. Burlovic explained that as a Deloitte intern, he can work in a multitude of fields from life sciences and health care to marketing and sports media.
Being involved in such a varied environment is one of Burlovic’s passions in consulting, one he found through Schreyer Consulting, a student organization housed in the Schreyer Honors College. Burlovic attended one of the organization’s meetings on a whim as a first-year student and has been back every semester since.
“I joined Schreyer Consulting pretty randomly. One of the first people I met at Penn State was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to this club meeting,’ and I was like, ‘Oh okay, I might as well come,’ and I’ve been a part of it ever since. It’s been one of the most formative experiences I’ve had at Penn State.”
Today, Burlovic is the organization’s president. He explained that Schreyer Consulting's focus is to help students connect to a field within consulting and further their own professional abilities.
“We’re trying to connect you to the right people and help you prepare for the interview and internship to get you into consulting,” he said. “In past years, we’ve had alumni panels, most notably a speaker from McKinsey & Company who’s an alum of Penn State. He’s come to talk to us every semester, so he’s been a good way for our club members to flesh out their actual interests in consulting.”
Burlovic’s time at Deloitte has allowed him to help similar students interested in what he called the “Big 4” of consulting — Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and EY. It’s also cemented his passion for consulting, especially within strategy consultation. Burlovic hopes to bring this passion to his fellow students through the Schreyer Consulting club.
“I’m definitely very fortunate for all of the Schreyer upperclassmen who helped me when I was in my first and second year at Penn State. I’m trying to do the best I can to give that back my senior year.”
One of Burlovic’s favorite insights into interning with Deloitte was how “people-first” the company has been. Burlovic recalled a pivotal experience of his summer internship being a work trip to Texas with his fellow interns.
“There’s about 55 of us that are summer consulting interns in New York — we’re a very close group,” he said. “Recently, Deloitte sent us to their training program in Dallas for a three-day learning seminar, and after, we all hopped on a bus down to Austin and spent the weekend there. To automatically have people at the office — friends that I know — and have that sense of community especially in a city as big as New York was awesome.”
Burlovic said receiving funding from the Chapel Executive Internship Program has been crucial to his experience with the other Deloitte interns, as well as his overall internship living experience in New York.
“I was really grateful and lucky to get the Chapel Internship funding,” Burlovic said. “It covered all of my housing this summer, so I’ve been able to be a little more financially free and a little more financially-stress free in that regard, not hesitant to go on any extra out-of-office things. That Austin trip was the highlight of my summer — it really allowed me to form rich connections and friendships with people and just be able to develop that networking more.”
Burlovic looks forward to the rest of his time at Deloitte and the business experiences he will have while doing so.
“As of now, I think I’m set on strategy consulting and have loved my time at Deloitte,” he said. “I have a few weeks left, which is sad but exciting because I get to come back to Penn State and share my experience.”
This is the third in a series of stories about Liberal Arts students participating in Chapel Executive Internships this summer. Students interested in applying for a Chapel Executive Internship for fall should apply by the Sept. 1 deadline through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network.