Ellaina Lin

Year: Junior

Majors: Data Science

Internship: Summer Analyst for United Airlines loyalty program

What: Lin crunched numbers, researched, and brainstormed ideas for the MileagePlus program at the company’s Chicago headquarters.

Everything about Ellaina Lin’s internship at United Airlines felt big, from the size of the company to the scope of her work. The organization has more than 90,000 employees; she became one of them this summer at their Chicago headquarters, doing research and analyses as part of the MileagePlus team.

“One major thing for me was learning how complex and complicated the airline industry is,” Lin said. One project took her to Houston to launch a promotion she helped conceive for the debut of the airline’s newest aircraft; another to San Francisco to visit staff on the tarmac.

After finding the internship through the University Career Center, she helped offset the costs of living in a large city with the Opportunity Hub internship scholarship. Her advice for future interns? Remember that these opportunities are “essentially a trial. If you dislike it, it’s only three months; if you like it, you know what you want to pursue next.”