Clifford Swan’s wealth management internship program reached a major milestone this year, with Meghan Garrity and Michael Dunn completing our tenth annual program. Over six weeks, they immersed themselves in learning across our firm, from investment research and financial planning to compliance and operations.
The rising college juniors brought impressive credentials. A Finance and Spanish major at the University of Notre Dame, Meghan serves on the board of her university’s student investment club. Michael is majoring in Economics and minoring in Public Policy at UC Berkeley, where he participates in a finance and consulting club and serves on his fraternity’s executive board.
Both valued the comprehensive exposure to wealth management and the opportunity to build relationships across the firm. A highlight for both was evaluating a company from our watchlist. Working with equity analysts, they applied our quality metrics and valuation tools to develop and present an investment thesis to the entire team. Meghan also enjoyed creating municipal bond credit reports, while Michael liked working on financial plans with an investment counselor.
Alumni Success Stories
Michael and Meghan interviewed our former interns to understand their experiences’ lasting impact. The responses revealed exciting career paths spanning private equity, investment banking, corporate finance, technology, and entrepreneurship at firms including Goldman Sachs, Apple, Bain & Company, Piper Sandler, and Harris Williams.
Alumni consistently cited our program’s emphasis on relationship-building and mentorship as transformational, with many maintaining connections years later. The skills they developed have proven transferable across diverse industries.
Advice to future interns centers on three themes: maintain genuine curiosity and ask thoughtful questions, build authentic relationships with team members, and approach every task with full effort. They also emphasize using the internship as a training ground not just for technical skills, but for navigating professional environments and discovering career preferences.
