Karla Tadic ’16, a Master’s degree student at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), has been admitted to the prestigious European Central Bank’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) traineeship program in October 2018.
An International Economics with an emphasis in Political Economy major with a minor in Political Science at Franklin, Karla credited her courses at Franklin, as well her work experience as a Research Assistant for Professor Terzi and as an Academic Mentor in this year First Year Seminar, as factors both in developing a greater interest in EU public policy and in the institutional setup of the Eurozone, and in her acceptance to the SSM traineeship program. “I acquired a strong background in banking and banking processes in Professor Terzi’s ‘Money, Banking and Financial Markets’ course. It was definitely that class that developed my interest in banking analysis and financial regulation.”
After graduating magna cum laude from Franklin, she started working as an Accredited Parliamentary Assistant to a Croatian MEP in the European Parliament. “During the year that I spent working in Brussels, I gained invaluable work and life experience and had a chance to meet exciting people. On top of it, in 2017, I was also admitted to the LSE for a one-year Master’s program in EU Politics, specializing in Policy Making and Public Policy in the European Union.”
Acceptance to the SSM program was highly competitive - there were around 800 applicants and Karla was one of the few who made it into the group of selected candidates to start working in Germany this fall. As she remarked, “The traineeship program truly represents an exciting opportunity, and I can’t wait to start!” She will be assigned to one of the Joint Supervisory Teams (JSTs) in the Directorates General Microprudential Supervision I and II, which are responsible for the supervision of significant institutions within the scope of the SSM. “I will be working in Rome and Frankfurt for some time, at Banca d’Italia and the Bundesbank respectively. Much of my tasks will be related to analyzing financial accounts, monitoring market perceptions of supervised entities and assisting with the collection and analysis of data, as well as with the preparation of charts and reports.”
This means that she will not only gain practical knowledge about banking supervision while working in an international team responsible for supervising some of the biggest banks in Europe, but that she will also put into practice her language and multicultural skills. As she noted, “studying at Franklin in such a diverse and multicultural setting prepared me to work in a fluctuating, dynamic, and multilingual environment. I had no problem in adjusting to work in Brussels in the European Parliament nor at the LSE with students coming from 133 countries. Hence, I expect no problems in adjusting to the multicultural work environment at the ECB.”
In bocca al lupo, Karla!