Banking internship provides dual major inside look into local economics

The junior economics and political science dual major spent the summer interning with Centric Bank — headquartered in Harrisburg with seven financial centers located throughout central Pennsylvania. Kraus worked with multiple teams in finance, credit, and compliance.

“This internship was fantastic at exposing me to the intricacies of the Paycheck Protection Program and how capable banks were one of the major determinants of success for the program by efficiently issuing numerous PPP loans to their communities,” Kraus said. “I was interested to know how a bank and its customers were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the protocols brought forth by it.”

He added, “Specifically, the Paycheck Protection Program, which helped many businesses stay afloat during the worst of the pandemic by applying for an SBA-backed loan allowing their employees to keep receiving paychecks.”

According to Kraus, some of the projects he was involved in included conducting annual reviews of outstanding loans, manipulating data into useful spreadsheets for accounting and analysis purposes, and researching legislation that may affect one or many of Centric Bank’s financial services.

Kraus was also given the opportunity to work on and present a case study based on a hypothetical loan request to a local dentist.

“My partner and I were tasked with analyzing the request, then doing a presentation on our findings and providing a recommendation on whether to move forward with the loan or not,” Kraus said. “This included reviewing financial statements for the business and its owner, the individual’s credit worthiness, details about the loan package itself, and the current state of the economy.”

Kraus said the internship exposed him to a lot of aspects of banking and finance. All of which he was ready for.

“Taking economics courses helped prepare me for this internship by introducing me to basic terms and concepts related to the financial services sector,” Kraus said. “The theories allowed me to have a foundation of understanding why certain aspects of the economy behave a certain way.”

He added, “The accounting courses in the business economics track also helped prepare me through learning the meaning of different parts of financial statements, the different parts of each type of financial statement, and the basic ratios for them too.”

Overall, Kraus said he came away with not only a valuable learning experience with Centric Bank but also got more clarity on his future career pursuits.

“The part of this internship that spoke to me was being able to work and learn at a respected community bank in Pennsylvania,” Kraus said. “Also, knowing you get to be a part of work that’s essential for your community’s wellbeing, as well as working on projects that are important to local entrepreneur’s operations made this internship opportunity fulfilling.”