Finding People

Stephanie McDonnell has a newfound confidence and it didn’t come from her parents or boyfriend. Since she has been on her Drexel University co-op for the second time, she said she is finally seeing the payoff of her hard work at school and on the job.

“Work makes me a better problem solver and makes everything easier in comparison,” McDonnell said. It has really helped her grow and develop as a person, especially in dealing with her school work. McDonnell began noticing this when she saw how she was paid twice as much as some of the other co-ops she was working with. She now knows that she can survive in the working world.

Since she left her South Hampton, Bucks County home in September of 2004, McDonnell has noticed this change as well as others. She and her mother have been getting along better. Her mom saw that she could handle school and work responsibly and has since loosened up on her. McDonnell, a pre-junior, said she has taken more of friend role in her life.

This has helped McDonnell on her road to get her Bachelor of Science degree. As a five year student majoring in business administration with a concentration in accounting, she has already completed one co-op and is on her second of three. The first was at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, working as a financial analyst. Her job included processed legal invoices, mostly those from the Phen-Fen litigations.

Also, she verified the doctors and pharmacies with lawsuits from Phen-Fen before Wyeth paid their legal fees.
McDonnell’s current co-op is at PricewaterhouseCoopers where she performs industry auditing. This means that she verifies that the company has sufficient internal control to reduce fraud. McDonnell also said that she travels throughout the Tri-State area and completed training in Chicago.

Life with her boyfriend, Ken O’Driscoll, whom she has been dating for five years, has improved as well. He has cut back on partying and become more focused on his co-op and school work. McDonnell believes that occurred because he felt competitive with her for better co-ops and grades. In order to do so, he had to become more future oriented she said.

Besides work and class, McDonnell has been busy enjoying her hobbies, horseback riding and skiing. So far this ski season, she has been out once, to Bear Creek Trails, even thought only one trail was open due to the warmer weather. Since she has been living at home during her co-op, in her free time she also tries to visit friends when she goes Drexel with O’Driscoll on the weekends.

McDonnell hopes that her job experience continues to have a positive impact on her school work and that her confidence in herself continues to grow.

- Selina P.