BOZEMAN — Last summer, Montana State University student Ryan Senitte found himself presenting to C-suite members of U.S. Bank in the company’s executive board room.

He had made the finals of the company’s intern case competition and traveled from the office in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his internship was located, to the company’s headquarters in Minneapolis.

“We were the first to go, at 9 in the morning,” he recalled. “We pitched and we were like, ‘OK, that was awesome.’” 

Senitte ended up in the expansive conference room after seizing opportunities provided to him by the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Now in his third year at MSU, Senitte has excelled in the classroom, participated in three internships (so far), benefited from multiple scholarships and taken advantage of on-campus resources and events. He has visited the Bracken Center for help securing internships and participated in the annual Meet the Recruiters event to connect with potential employers. He gives back on campus by working as a volunteer tour guide, highlighting available resources to potential MSU students.

Even before enrolling at MSU, Senitte pounced on opportunities provided to high school students. He received a tuition waiver from the Montana University System for earning a 4.0 GPA at Skyview High School in Billings. He was president of Skyview’s Business Professionals of America chapter, which led to a BPA scholarship – one of many available to incoming business students.

This fall, the business college distributed about $75,000 in scholarships to new first-year and transfer students, according to Brenda Truman, assistant dean at the business college. Last fall the college awarded about $50,000 in scholarships to those first-time MSU students, who were able to apply for everything in the scholarship pool by writing a single essay, she said. Next year there will be about $100,000 in the scholarship pool, according to Truman.

The scholarships and MUS tuition waiver reinforced Senitte’s desire to attend MSU. As a young high school student, he visited the Bozeman campus with his older brother. Jabs Hall and the stock ticker that winds around the building’s atrium was pretty much the only thing he remembered from that visit, he said.

“Jabs is awesome. I love this building. It's probably one of the main reasons I came to MSU,” Senitte said, adding that after a follow-up visit during his senior year of high school, he thought, “This feels like it could be home.”

Growing up in Billings, Senitte was attracted to business at a young age.

“When I played football as a kid, I sold the most magazines out of anyone” to raise funds for the team, he said. “I liked to play football, but I liked the reward of winning prizes. I won tickets to the Cat-Griz football game from that.”

Because he enrolled in AP classes in high school, Senitte could graduate after the upcoming spring semester. However, he plans to do one more internship in the summer of 2024 and then study abroad that fall before finishing his undergraduate degree.

Business college administrators encourage students to participate in at least one internship while enrolled, though multiple are ideal, according to Truman. Internships offer a wide range of benefits, including possible job offers, but they also allow students to figure out what they don’t want to do, “which is cool. Let’s start there,” Truman said.

To that, Senitte can attest. He first interned at a U.S. Bank branch in Billings after his first year at MSU, performing credit analyses. He enjoyed learning that foundational skill and helping small businesses but strived to find work with a larger focus. Then, during the spring 2023 semester, he interned at an accounting firm, and that helped him conclude that he prefers finance over accounting.

Heading into this past summer, Senitte worked with U.S. Bank to find a program that best suited him. He landed an internship in Charlotte, working in capital markets. He enjoyed the work and learned about his associates’ career paths as he bonded with them over coffee.

He also teamed up with three other interns to compete in the company’s intern case competition. Senitte’s team, Project INTERNational, advanced through multiple rounds and was one of five teams invited to Minneapolis to present to company executives.

“We won — which was really awesome — had a little photo opp and then we went back to the airport and flew back to Charlotte,” Senitte said.

As Senitte looks ahead to next summer, he is looking into other internship opportunities with U.S. Bank in Charlotte and in New York. He thinks he has a good shot at landing a full-time job with the company after he spends his final semester as an undergraduate in Europe.

He said he has learned a tremendous amount from his internships, including technical skills, like learning the Bloomberg Terminal, and soft skills, including interviewing, communicating with clients and working with a team.

When asked about his experiences at MSU and at the internships, the genial Senitte sums them up in one word: “Awesome.”