After Adelphi helped him land a coveted internship at JetBlue Airways, MBA candidate Anthony Lettiere '23's career is taking flight.
What do you do when you’re ready for college and your intellectual curiosity makes it difficult to decide on a career path?
To find his niche, Anthony Lettiere ’23 evaluated everything Adelphi University has to offer. The former biology and history major decided to switch to studying business management in the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business, and then switched to business management. He earned his degree in May and began pursuing an MBA at Adelphi in September.
“I learned that business management offers a broad perspective concerning the various business disciplines—marketing, management, finance, analytics and human resources,” he said. “Adelphi’s business management program makes you a well-rounded candidate for various positions.”
His mother, Christine Lettiere ’93, graduated from Adelphi with a degree in secondary education. Anthony admits that she nudged him toward Adelphi with its many opportunities for networking and internships.
Reaching New Heights at JetBlue
A recommendation letter from David Machlis, PhD, associate professor offinance and economics, helped Lettiere land a coveted internship at JetBlue Airways’ Long Island City headquarters.
“Interning at JetBlue was an amazing experience,” said Lettiere, who worked on the financial planning and analysis team. “We communicated the financial status of the company to senior leadership—the chief executive officer, chief financial officer and vice presidents. We compared the results of where the organization landed to what was forecasted. It also involved working on monthly financial reviews and quarterly earnings preparation and communicating those results to senior leaders and investors.”
During the seven-month internship that ended in August, Lettiere also worked on JetBlue’s corporate programs team “for a financial analysis perspective,” he said. “We were tasked with finding ways for the company to generate additional revenue or reduce costs,” he added. “The team takes cues from flight crew members and sees if they can make those suggestions work.”
Lettiere drew inspiration from JetBlue CFOÂ Ursula Hurley, who began with the company as an intern. Her career arc in less than 20 years from intern, to analyst, to senior analyst, to manager, to director, to vice president, to CFO is one that Lettiere hopes to follow.
Lettiere Hits a Home Run
He’s well on his way. On September 5, he began a full-time job as a financial analyst at Integral Ad Science, a Manhattan-based company that analyzes the value of digital advertising placements.
“I’m doing many of the same tasks I did at JetBlue, and I’m very excited about it,” he said. “When they interviewed me for the position, they were very impressed with my experience at a large company such as JetBlue.”
For Lettiere, his third choice of an academic major has proven to be the charm. He used a baseball analogy to describe how Adelphi has set him on a winning path.
“Adelphi provides you with amazing opportunities—internships, networking and amazing professors,” he said. “But you have to take advantage of those opportunities. They provide the perfect pitch, but you have to swing to hit that home run.”