Class Notes: Together for Rochester

Josh Richards ’12, ’14S (MS) has seen the power of internships as a student and now as the business planning and analysis director for North America at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals.

In 2011, the year before he graduated, Richards learned about an internship opportunity at Sandoz, a division of Novartis. “I discovered that Sandoz’s president at the time—Don DeGolyer—was a Rochester alumnus and former college athlete,” says Richards, who was on the soccer team for four years. “Because we had something in common, I felt comfortable reaching out to him directly. We ended up connecting a number of times over email, which helped me secure the internship that eventually turned into a full-time job.” Richards has been with Sandoz for 10 years.

During the past few years, Richards has worked closely with Sandoz’s human resources department on its internship program—and he lobbies for Rochester undergraduate and MBA-level interns whenever possible. This year, Sandoz and the Simon Business School’s Jay S. and Jeanne Benet Career Management Center formalized their internship partnership program, something Richards helped coordinate.

Richards says that alumni—in whatever fields they are in—are in a position to really help students, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic and the toll it has taken on employment and hiring, especially for undergraduates.

“With opportunities so limited right now, I feel it’s my responsibility to give back and help the next generation gain the experiences that will help them on their career paths,” he says. “We all can do something.”

Finding ways to improve career opportunities for Rochester graduates and students is a key aspect of the Together for Rochester campaign, a yearlong effort to strengthen engagement among the University community.

Joe Testani, assistant dean and executive director of the Greene Center for Career Education and Connections, says the campaign is an opportunity to reinforce what he says is critical for Rochester students—“gaining experience to explore different career paths and apply what they learn here.

“These valuable opportunities can lead to stronger networks, future job prospects, and an increased understanding of work and a students’ skill set. We hope we continue to have more alumni like Josh help current and future generations of students.”

Within Sandoz’s finance department this summer, more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students, including 30 from Roches-ter, applied for five internship spots. “We extended offers to two rising juniors from Rochester, and they both accepted,” says Richards. “And, one of our incoming MBA interns is from Simon.”

Nandini Joshi ’22, an international student with a double major of financial economics and business, is one of the undergraduate interns. She met Richards last summer via Zoom after posting her résumé to Handshake, a job networking platform offered through the Greene Center. Richards was intrigued by Joshi’s résumé, reached out to her, and then told her about the intern-ships at his company. She was struck with how interested he was in helping her.

Sandoz’s internships are paid, which makes them all the more competitive. “Internships give undergraduates great, real-world expe-rience,” Richards says. “The more we teach them, the more they get from the opportunity, and the more likely they will want to come back here next summer.”

Richards adds Sandoz expects a lot from its interns. “I’m a firm believer in throwing them into the fire and seeing what they can do,” he says, noting that Bryan Kim ’20, an undergraduate intern from two years ago was given an opportunity to present to the company’s chief financial officer in the first few weeks of his assignment.

“That internship was the starting point of my career,” says Kim. “Not only was I able to learn a lot about a complex industry like pharmaceuticals, but it also solidified my interest in finance. I was gaining real-life experience in projects that had significant impact while also developing my technical and analytical skills.”

“Even during the pandemic last summer, 100 percent of Simon’s MBA Class of 2021 had a corporate internship or pursued project work with tech start-ups or new ventures,” says Angela Petrucco ’01W (MS), assistant dean of the Benet Center. “Simon alumni like Josh and many others helped make these opportunities possible.”

Learn more about Together for Rochester.