INTERN IN ACTION – NINA DIAZ
June 2002

Political economy and dance are not two studies normally pursued together, but Nina Diaz, who will be a junior next year, is doing just that. She is now spending her second summer interning with the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles. Diaz obtained her internship through Inroads, a non-profit organization dedicated to develop and place talented minority youth in business and industry and prepare them for corporate and community leadership. She works in the Cash Product Office where she works on the management of cash operations on the national level, analyzes the national checking system, and works with various federal agencies to ensure the safety of the cash system against bio-terrorist threats.

In 2001, she also interned with the Los Angeles Fed as a Checks Operations Intern. In that position, she worked to ensure the efficiency, integrity, and accessibility of the checks system and analyzed all West Coast office statistics and clarified accounting practices to enhance check operations and management.

Diaz was encouraged by a Columbia alumnus to look at Inroads while a senior ballet student at Orange County High School of the Arts in California.

"You may wonder what business a ballerina has in corporate America," she says. "But I say plenty. I think the hours of training instilled the discipline and drive necessary to pursue a business career."

Diaz has parlayed her experience at the Fed to help enhance her academic career in other ways. As vice-chairwoman of the Barnard/Columbia Fed Challenge Team, she helped coordinate the team’s first successful simulation of the Federal Open Market Committee.

In addition to her work at the Fed, Diaz has also just received the illustrious Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship for a future Foreign Service career. The fellowship is now in its tenth year and has successfully launched more than 80 Foreign Service careers. It is open to all sophomores committed to studying international studies and it will pay for Diaz’s tuition, room and board, and other expenses for her final two years at Barnard as well as her first year of graduate school. It will also help her with internships and secures a position with the State Department upon completing graduate school.

"It’s a great thing for all sophomores to know about," Diaz says. "This program was a godsend for me. My parents were considering taking out further loans to meet costs. But by a simple search on Fastweb.com, I found this fellowship. I applied in February, interviewed in late April, and was awarded the fellowship in May."

Diaz plans to combine her experience with the Fed and the fellowship to work for the Service Economics Core in the Foreign Service. "I hope to encourage Latin American and Southeast Asian economic development," she says.

Diaz has not forgotten her roots in dance, either. She is the founding director of a new organization, entitled Arts Alive, for which students from the dance, visual arts, and theater departments provide weekly workshops and events for children in Upper Manhattan who might not otherwise have access to such opportunities.

"As a future diplomat," Diaz says, "I hope to continue similar outreach activities in developing economies."