Help Lenny's Debt-Free Internship Journey

Hello! I am Leonard (or Lenny), a rising sophomore at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. I am a low-income international student from Harare, Zimbabwe. I am also a Wesleyan African Scholars so I attend Wesleyan University on a full-ride scholarship. I am a prospective Computer Science and Economics double major, aspiring to work in the fintech industry after graduation. I got into the diiVe Summer 2024 Consulting internship program in Cape Town, South Africa. I had little knowledge of consulting prior to applying and this summer experience will give me a better understanding of how I want to plan out my career path in fintech. The program tuition costs US$5,100 and diiVe awarded me 25% financial aid. My financial need for the summer, including food, transport, round-trip flight tickets totalled to US$6,825. I successfully applied for the US$5,000 Wesleyan Summer Grant but I still need US$1,825 for me to participate in my summer internship program without taking out a loan. Given my position as an international student in the United States, I cannot take out a loan to cover the remaining expenses.

The funds are important to me because they allow me to complete my internship debt-free. diiVe offers an extensive alumni network I can connect with and a global corporate experience where I get to solve business problems, applying cultural contexts to boost business longevity for my clients. I plan on using part of the US$1,825 to purchase my return flight tickets to Wesleyan for my sophomore fall semester because Wesleyan does not offer flight tickets for low-income international students. I only get flight tickets from the university when I come for my freshman fall semester and after my graduation in my senior year. I project my flight expenses to be around US$1,200 by the time I get sufficient funds to purchase them. In addition to that, diiVe does not offer meals as part of the internship packages so I have to source local groceries to prepare for myself for the five weeks I will be living in Cape Town. Considering the relatively high living costs in Cape Town, I gathered that I will need roughly US$400 for my groceries for the entire program. The remaining funds–US$225–will go towards my travel expenses around Cape Town, mostly using public transit.