This summer Edouard worked for Arkema in Philadelphia, PA. He received this internship through Gamma’s Internship Reception. His manager ended up becoming his mentor there. While there, Edouard was directly under Arkema’s Risk Manager’s orders. Arkema mainly produces chemical products, although they do not have a lot if product liability exposure, they still faces a lot of other normal chemical company risks such as business interruption, property loss, cargo loss, etc. The risk management department at Arkema only had one person (his manager), who reports directly to the General Counsel of the company. Edouard’s task was to help the Risk Manager in everything she did, such as writing “tons” of emails, attending many meetings (with legal department, insurance companies, accountants, loss adjusters, and brokers), calling people, and writing letters. Each day was different from the next. The only thing he was sure about was that work started around 8:30am and he could leave at 5:00pm. RMI classes helped him knowing the basic insurance words such as deductibles, premium allocation, and captives, which he would have never known if it wasn’t for Temple.
He did not work on any special projects because his day was busy helping the Risk Manager, which allowed her to focus on the big issues involving lots of money/knowledge. While there, Edouard enjoyed several baseball games, lunches with the manager for the first two weeks, dinners, and even traveled to New York City two times. What he liked the most about his internship was his manager. She made it very interesting and he learned a lot thanks to her. He also loved the location of the office which was in the heart of center city so he could walk to work every day. Finally, he also enjoyed meeting and having a great time with several other interns who were from France (because Arkema is a subsidiary of French Company). He would have liked if there was more structure to the internship. He also didn’t really get a clear idea of what kind of company Arkema was, and also the atmosphere could have been better. However, during his time there the company was going through drastic changes in order to save costs so it was understandable. However, he would still definitely recommend this company to other students.
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