After completing his coursework in just three and a half years, Cadet Corey Ibrahim, ’26, found himself ahead of schedule. Rather than coast toward graduation, he used the extra time to complete externships, short-term professional experiences that allowed him to work on real projects for companies while still in school.
The experience proved valuable. Working with TrueBridge Healthcare and Pfizer, Ibrahim learned the Python programming language and gained experience working with raw data— skills that later helped him stand out during internship interviews.
Ibrahim arrived at The Citadel after a gap year at Myrtle Beach Collegiate Academy, where he enrolled following disruptions to the football recruiting process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, he expected to follow his father into medicine. But as a student in the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business, he found himself increasingly drawn to analytics and problem solving.
In classes with faculty members such as Mark Rosenbaum, Ph.D., a professor of marketing, Ibrahim enjoyed using data to evaluate problems and develop solutions. As graduation approached, he wanted to gain experience applying those skills outside the classroom.
The externships provided exactly that opportunity. Though the work was largely self- paced and required only a few hours each week, it gave him practical experience working with industry tools and real-world data sets.
Ibrahim believes the experience played a significant role in helping him secure a revenue operations internship with One Source Communications.
This fall, he will continue building those skills in the STEM MBA program at North Carolina State University, with long-term goals in analytics, operations and healthcare administration.
For Ibrahim, the data sets and methods may change, but the goal remains the same: making the most informed decision possible.