Abigail Bridges sits down at her desk to finish her reports in the large, open ground floor of the two story building. On her desk are two computer screens, from which her mouse moves back and forth, as she transfers information from one window to another.

The senior finance major is one of the four USI interns at SS&C Technologies, a hedge fund management company, where they work alongside SS&C employees. She uses an accounting system called Total Return.

“It generates reports based on the daily trades and the stock market when it closes,” Bridges said. “It generates reports from that, and so we kind of do all of the accounting for certain hedge funds.”

Bridges works for the New York team, but there are over 250 employees at SS&C that are divided into separate departments. She explained to me the other interns work in different departments.

Chris Courvelle, accounting and finance major, also interns at SS&C implementing clients’ records into SS&C’s system. He works with cash reconciliations as well. Courvelle finds the differences in the bank and personal records of clients and tries to find where the problem is. He says that the records should match, but they never do.

Clay Scarafia is the head of the internship program at SS&C. He said they like to treat interns no different than new hires, yet they are very supportive.

“No one is going to be left behind,” said Scarafia.

Bridges said SS&C has been helpful and supportive with USI students who intern through the company.

“There’s no pressure,” she said.

“SS&C has always been a huge supporter of USI, and I think that is really important,” Bridges said. “They do a grant for their interns, basically, where you take a class at USI for internship credit and this grant pays for part of your salary as well. So that’s nice.”

Bridges also interns at Victoria National Golf Club as an assistant to the private accountant. Though SS&C has been an enriching and eye-opening experience, in her future career she plans to do something more in line with the work she does at Victoria National.

“I don’t know if hedge fund management is something that I’m going to pursue in my career, but it’s definitely something that I never would have seen any other way,” Bridges said. “It’s the perfect mix of the finance and the accounting, and you don’t really get that in your classes, really.”