Albina Haque ’24 participated in the Break Through Tech internship at Cornell, gaining invaluable STEM experience during her time at St. Joseph’s University, New York.
The recent graduate spent her senior year immersed in the highly selective program, strengthening her skills while preparing for her future career.
“I was ecstatic and relieved (to be accepted) because not only did it decrease the insecurities and the imposter syndrome I had being in this field, but it also gave me a chance to get myself job-ready as soon as I graduate,” said Haque, who earned a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Brooklyn Campus in May.
STEM Internship Experience
The internship program, partially funded by Melinda Gates, lasted from May 2023 through March 2024, exposing Haque to such areas as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).
“After passing the training, they divided us in groups and randomly assigned projects from different companies,” she said. “I got to work with people from Accenture on a project that utilized 100,000 credit-related data of customers to build an ML model that can predict the credit score of an individual based on the data.
“My teammates and I successfully built the model and gave a presentation,” Haque continued. “After that, we were assigned to different groups with whom we worked on a Kaggle project for the New York Botanical Garden.”
Her favorite part? Working on real-life assignments and problems, helping to solve them while learning how to work as part of a team.
“The experience provided me with technical skills as well as how to navigate myself in the corporate world, especially regarding collaboration within a team, understanding client’s requirements, and scheduling the deliverables,” Haque said. “I worked with a career adviser — who worked at IBM for five years and now works at Salesforce.”
Haque’s adviser helped her develop interview skills and prepare for her future job.
“Now I am in the process of securing a job,” she said. “My ideal plan is to work for two-three years and then go for a master’s and Ph.D., as I have a huge knack for research.”
