2020-21

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics assists individuals and organizations here at Santa Clara University, Silicon Valley, and around the world by providing useful resources to promote ethics in everyday life and equip individuals and institutions to act with integrity. The Center serves professionals in fields from business to health care, from government to the social sector, providing innovative approaches to problems from fake news to privacy protection. The Center’s website makes ethical decision-making resources available across the globe. Of particular interest to Santa Clara University students may be the Center’s Business Ethics Internship.

The Business Ethics Internship places SCU students in ethics and compliance positions at major companies in Silicon Valley. The program offers selected candidates a 9-12 month or summer-only internship, a collaborative mentorship, and the opportunity to combine classroom learning with occupational experience. 

The Undergraduate Business Program Office has interviewed Matthew DeSimone '21, Finance and Political Science Major, about his Business Ethics Internship with Intel.

How did you hear about the internship and how did you get involved with the Markkula Center? I learned about the Markkula Center's Applied Ethics Internship Programs through email. I interviewed with the Markkula Center for an internship with Adobe's Ethics & Compliance team in Winter 2020, but I wasn't selected for the position. When I saw that an opportunity was available to intern with Intel, I filled out another application. I ended up being selected by the Markkula Center to interview with Intel's Ethics & Legal Compliance team and got the position last spring quarter. The Markkula Center has done a great job of engaging with us -- we got to know the previous two interns pretty well, and everyone who's ever had an internship through the Markkula Center's program (including interns at Adobe and other companies that the Markkula Center partners with) is a member of a private LinkedIn group, so we stay connected.

How can students learn more and apply, if they are interested?  Students interested in this sort of opportunity/wanting to learn more should:

• Keep an eye on their email, because the email I saw regarding this opportunity went out to every SCU student
• Check out https://www.scu.edu/business-ethics-internship/, https://www.scu.edu/hire-a-business-ethics-intern/, or the Markkula Center's page
• Reach out to Ann Skeet, Senior Director of Leadership Ethics, at the Markkula Center
• Reach out to the current interns (me, I suppose, in this case)

What have your responsibilities been over the summer and what will you be doing throughout the year?  My primary responsibility has been maintaining Intel's Ask Ethics tool, which is basically a tool for employees to submit questions that they have about Intel's corporate policies. Common submissions are concerns about conflicts of interest when starting up a side business, seeking employment outside of Intel hours, questions relating to gift-giving and receiving, privacy, and intellectual property. I look up the relevant policy, draft a response, and run the draft by an Intel attorney, who either approves it or makes edits/tells me to make edits. I'm also assigned projects by members of the ELC team, such as updating the content on the ELC website, drafting scripts for our Chief Compliance Officer, filling out Ethisphere's Most Ethical Companies application, and running and analyzing reports on Intel's training completion metrics. I've also participated in a lot of virtual events with the other interns in Intel's legal department (many of whom are law students from schools like Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, and SCU law), which is how I was able to meet Steve Rodgers, Intel's General Counsel, and have a discussion with him about the legal challenges facing Intel, particularly those regarding trade and China.

How have you been able to apply the courses you took at SCU to your internship? Some of the classes that I've found applicable to my internship experience are: 

• BUSN 179S - Effective Communication in Business: I've applied a lot of the writing/communication skills that I learned in that class to my internship experience. That class also taught me how to network really well, and I've been successfully networking with Intel attorneys, all of whom have been really open to sharing their time with me.
• MGMT 6H - Business Ethics: It's been interesting to see how Intel applies Ed Freeman's stakeholder theory to its everyday business operations
• OMIS 15 - Introduction to Spreadsheets