Most Duke students with summer internships at New York investment banks spend their free time on the job pondering important questions such as “Which bar am I going to tonight?” or “How did I get lucky enough to land an internship in New York City?”
For Duke forward Lee Melchionni, a summer intern at Credit Suisse First Boston, thoughts are a little different.
“Everyday, I’m sitting at my desk thinking I should be working out,” Melchionni said, adding that when he took the job he worried he would not be able to find time to play basketball. “But it’s the best of both worlds: I’ve been able to work and maintain my fitness level.”
Melchionni and Lindsey Harding—a guard on the women’s basketball team and summer intern for CBS Sports—have eschewed the traditional summer plans of their high profile teammates. Rather than work out and take summer classes at Duke or play in the USA Basketball program, the two have opted for on-the-job training.
For his part, head coach Mike Krzyzewski has been true to his American Express commercial pledge to “arm his players for life”—just like he was when former Duke All-Americans Shane Battier and Elton Brand took advantage of summer internships.
“You don’t have to play basketball all the time. In fact, it’s better to take a little bit of a break,” Krzyzewski said. “Sometimes working in these internships, too, they have to handle themselves well. You have to show up on time; you have to dress well. It’s a business. I think they grow up; it’s not just us making them. It’s the situation making them grow up.”
In addition to the real-world values an internship like Melchionni’s can teach a young man, Krzyzewski also said players destined for professional basketball can benefit from an experience in the working world. The Hall-of-Fame coach said Battier’s NBA earning potential has been increased greatly by the confidence he gained working with marketing firms during his Duke summers.
Melchionni, a senior, works nearly 11 hours a day as a summer analyst in the fixed-income department of CSFB, showing up for work at 6:30 a.m. and leaving after 5 p.m. His program lasts 10 weeks—one week of training followed by three, three-week rotations. He shadows established investment bankers, sits at different desks and tries to learn as much as possible.
When he leaves CSFB’s Manhattan offices, Melchionni’s day is far from over.
The sharpshooting forward promised Krzyzewski he would maintain his training regimen and play basketball while away for the summer.
“It’s definitely a big time commitment,” Melchionni said. “Between working and working out, it doesn’t leave a lot of time to do anything else.
“First, I want to play basketball after graduation, but I can’t do that forever.... I know I can’t eat basketball. This is only going to benefit me when it comes time to get a real job.”
Along with the additional time commitments after work, Melchionni’s basketball prowess has created a few interesting moments around the office.
“Like from the first time I met the other interns, going around the room introducing ourselves to the group, there were some big basketball fans who said, ‘Hey, I know you.’
“It helps you in the world of business to have your name known like that, but at the same time you have to make sure everyone knows that you’re not there because you’re an athlete—you’re there to work and learn.”
Harding has also had her share of recognition at work. As a part of her job she met with WNBA President Donna Orender and Renee Brown, the league’s director of player personnel. Harding said Brown “could tell me everything about me.” The junior point guard also introduced herself to a graphic designer who had worked at a Duke women’s basketball game, and he promptly pulled up a computer file with all of her information in it.
Still, Harding said, the best part of her six-week internship has been everything she has learned working in the production department editing stories about athletes.
“I’ve always wanted to stay in sports after graduation,” Harding said. “It would be great to be a producer, and this experience will definitely help in the long run.”
Harding, like Melchionni, is participating in the internship while working hard to maintain her basketball skills. She has been able to play basketball and work out at New York University every day after she leaves her job at CBS.
Both players said their coaches were extremely supportive of their decisions to spend part of their summers away from Durham and their teammates—as long as they kept themselves in basketball shape while they were at it.
Harding, who was suspended from the team last season for undisclosed reasons, was given a stringent directive by her head coach, Gail Goestenkors.
“I told Lindsey she’d better do a good job so that companies would continue to hire women’s basketball players,” joked Goestenkors, who has supported forward Monique Currie and former player Michele Matyasovsky in their summer internships. “I’m glad that she’s taking advantage of the opportunity.”
Though demanding summer internships remain the road less traveled among Duke’s better-known athletes, both Melchionni and Harding know that they are better off for choosing to pursue the paths they have taken.
“When I was looking at schools to attend, some school’s students were working at the mall or at restaurants during the summer,” Harding said. “A lot of Duke students were going to Wall Street internships and other jobs that are hard to get. I wanted to do something that is hard to get, that would look good on a resume and help me in the future.”
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