Student Stories: Aaron Greenstein, 2022 Konrad Group Award Winner

Aaron Greenstein received the 2022 Konrad Group Digital Innovation Award to support his internship with Mastercard and his technology startup company, Ice, this past summer. He is currently a senior (Class of 2023) in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service (SFS) and is majoring in Global Business. Check out what he has to share about his experience and advice to Georgetown students in their career development journey here.

Tell us a little bit about any professional development/internship opportunities you had this summer.

This summer I worked at Mastercard on the Bank of America account management team. This was primarily a sales and customer relationship management role. On the side, I was working on building my technology startup company, Ice, aimed at reshaping the way young adults meet one another post high-school and college graduation.

How did the Konrad Group Award help to support your summer activities?

The Konrad Award was incredibly helpful at providing me with enough funding to begin our marketing initiatives for Ice. We are still deploying the capital, however now, we have a strong marketing strategy, which we cannot wait to begin executing this fall.

What is your advice to students interested in applying for the Konrad Group Award?

My advice is to absolutely apply. I have found the grant incredibly helpful at helping me pursue my dreams of bettering the mental health of young adults and creating a new industry for people to meet their new best friends. I would recommend having some sense of how you plan to use the funding prior to applying as that will help you throughout the application and help you figure out the best way to use the funding.

What is your advice to students who want to pursue a certain opportunity but may not have the financial resources to do so?

I think the most important thing to do is look for ways to make that opportunity financially feasible for you. Whether it is applying for grants or Georgetown’s stipends, there are lots of resources out there to help finance students as they kick start their professional careers in their desired industry. Speak with people at the career center and ask them what resources are available, but I am a firm believer in when you find something you really want to pursue, and you pretend like that is your only option, you will do everything in your power to figure out a way to make it work.

Do you have any career development advice or other information that could be helpful to Georgetown undergraduate students?

The best career advice I can give is don’t feel any pressure from friends or peers to be in a certain industry or company just because of the status or name. While I don’t think there is a wrong industry to be in by any means, I believe in pursuing your interests and passions, and that the money will follow. The hardest thing for me throughout college was deciding what I genuinely wanted to do as I was surrounded by kids who knew exactly what they wanted to do, which made me apply to things I knew I wouldn’t enjoy. When I came to this realization, I began looking for jobs in the industries that I know I would love, doing work that would be intellectually stimulating, and something I would look forward to every morning.