After participating in three competitive internships, undergraduate Maddy Chen (English ’28) has discovered a field that combines her love for both business and storytelling.
Since childhood, Maddy Chen (English ’28) has been drawn to journalism, but she wouldn’t let herself seriously consider that path “because it felt impossible.” Instead, she entered BYU with plans to study English and business on her way to Wall Street, the cloud-nine career for many aspiring business students. Chen’s studies—and her immersion in several internships—has helped her lay a path to a new dream career, one that’s required her to embrace not only English and business but also her specific skills as a storyteller.
One Internship at a Time
Chen began her internship journey with her Wall Street goal in mind. In summer 2025, she made her way to a London nonprofit to work as a finance intern. While she started off nervous about adapting to the foreign workplace and her team’s expectations, Chen quickly discovered that the communication skills acquired in her English classes set her apart as a valuable asset on a primarily numbers-focused team. She even asked company leadership if she could use her specific skillset to improve the team’s training manual and spreadsheet readability. That project allowed her to combine her English major and finance background and “shine in my own way,” she says. “I found my footing and realized what my strengths were.”
Chen then went on to intern at an investment consulting agency in Lehi, Utah. While delving into the new learning curve of the investment industry, she also learned to use aspects of storytelling to pitch to clients in clear and personable ways. “Investing is a lot of being able to understand something and then explain it simply, being able to be human and reassure clients when things aren’t going well,” she says. “It’s about understanding people’s needs and then weaving finance through it.” Beyond crunching numbers, Chen learned the importance of language and stories in the business world.
Later during the winter 2026 semester, Chen says, “I was really struggling because I wasn’t getting any internships at all. I was getting a lot of rejections and feeling really down about it.” But soon she got a response from an unexpected company—the Utah Business magazine. “I got really lucky,” she says. “That was the only internship application I did for journalism.” On the new job, Chen found a rhythm conducting interviews and writing on industry trends and business founder stories. By leaning into the storytelling behind business, Chen has not only accessed a career she can imagine pursuing long term, but she’s also become passionate about normalizing the difficulties everyone experiences when working towards a career. She says, “Everyone struggles in the beginning, and that’s normal.”
Connections at the LAAC
For Chen, becoming career ready required initiative and risk-taking—but also a sought-out support system. At the Liberal Arts Advisement and Careers (LAAC), she’s had help from advisors Heidi Clark and Christian Sagers, who have “helped me show my skills as an English major to be applicable in business rooms.” She says, “I go to the LAAC when I need advice or when I need interview help. They’ve looked over my resume, and they’ve connected me to people I wouldn’t have known otherwise.”
Remarkably, Chen has applied to more than 100 internships during her undergraduate studies, and she attributes most of her success to luck and the mentorship she’s gained from others. “I don’t think it’s me,” she says. “It’s connections and BYU, talking to your right people. I’m so grateful for every opportunity I’ve ever had.”
Building Skills for the Future
Chen’s efforts and internships have reinforced her belief that the skills acquired as an English major are needed now more than ever. As artificial intelligence gains popularity, many worry that the humanities are dying, but Chen feels the “humanities are needed now because critical thinking is so underutilized.” Soft skills like communication, creative problem-solving, and cultural awareness, Chen says, “are what set us apart.”
After learning from dozens of applications, a series of internships, and countless connections, each stepping stone has led Chen to today’s promising career path. Chen’s dream nowadays is to work in a business journal on the East Coast, and while The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times feel lofty to her at times, she says, “It’s better to bet bigger, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Learn more about humanities majors and career paths at the Liberal Arts Advisement & Careers website.