Student Spotlight

Dylan Benson

Dylan Benson graduated magna cum laude in December of 2023 and received The George Leland Leffler Scholarship (outstanding Finance major). Dylan earned a B.S. degree with a major in Finance and a minor in Chinese Language. His student involvement included the Nittany Lion Fund and Happy Valley Venture Capital and he received the Smeal Student Leadership Award and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. Dylan had internships with Heritage Point Partners, Goldman Sachs, and GoBuyside. After graduation, Dylan will be an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Dylan is from Blairstown, NJ where he first became interested in Finance as a co-president of his high school investment club. There, he had the opportunity to manage $10,000 with the goal of achieving the highest returns possible. This led him to Penn State, where in his first semester, he interviewed and joined the Nittany Lion Fund (NLF), Penn State's student-managed investment fund, and Happy Valley VC (HVVC), Penn State's venture capital organization. In the NLF, he started as an associate analyst in the Consumer Staples sector while also serving as a co-director of the Portfolio Analytics Group; meanwhile, he began as an analyst in HVVC with a focus on due diligence for startups in the Penn State community.

These experiences helped Dylan find an internship during his freshman summer, where he worked for Heritage Point Partners (formerly known as Gelman Brothers Family Investment Office) as a private equity intern. During his internship, he learned fundamental financial skills including sourcing, due diligence, and financial analysis. The experience and skills gained working with Heritage Point Partners helped him obtain an internship for the following summer at Goldman Sachs in the Firmwide Strategy division in New York City.

At Penn State, Dylan participated in more than 5 external pitch competitions, most notably as a Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) global finalist, and 2nd place in the 2022 CFA Investment Research Competition. Along with his co-managers, he outperformed both the Consumer Staples and Heathcare sector benchmarks in the Nittany Lion Fund. This led him to become the Director of NLF Education, where he redesigned the Nittany Lion Fund's internal education program to be more intensive to better help students succeed in their summer internships. At the same time, he became a Partner at Happy Valley VC, assisting in teaching students about venture capital while also working with student-run startups to better develop their business plans. He later became president of the NLF and managing partner of HVVC, where in these roles, Dylan made an effort to collaborate with other organizations to better enhance the student experience for as many students as possible.

Following his second year at Penn State, Dylan began his internship in Firmwide Strategy at Goldman Sachs, where the group is focused on corporate M&A, strategic investments, and executing on the firm's strategy. He made the most of the opportunity by networking with PSU alumni, and taking on every project he could. After completing a successful summer internship at Goldman Sachs, he accepted a return offer for the following summer in the London, UK office. During this internship, he learned even more about the firm and financial markets. Once again completing a successful summer internship, Dylan received a return offer to the firm, to begin as an investment banking analyst in the NYC office within the Financial Institutions Group. Following group placements in July, Dylan will begin covering financial companies in the insurance, banks and specialty finance, and or fintech and asset management sub-verticals,where he will learn about a variety of financial transactions including M&A, divestitures, private placements, and more.

Dylan attributes his successful internship experiences to the experiential learning opportunities at Penn State within the Nittany Lion Fund and Happy Valley VC. In particular, he attributes his success to professors such as Dr. Christoph Hinkelmann, Dr. Jeannette Miller, Dr. Randall Woolridge, and Mr. Gregory Pierce, as they would always make an effort to go out of their way to help Dylan and other students pursue their passions.