How One Student Found Her Way In — and Came Back to Open the Door
Monica Melamud didn’t spend her first year at Baruch College thinking much about her career. She spent it adjusting, learning the pace of classes, figuring out how the school worked, assuming direction would come later.
By sophomore year, the idea that direction would simply arrive with time started to feel like a risk.
“I realized I didn’t really know anything yet,” she said. “Not about the field. Not about what I should be pursuing.”
She had been drawn to finance for years, with the interest taking shape in high school through an Academy of Finance program. It held her attention academically, and at home it carried a different meaning. Her parents immigrated from Ukraine and arrived in the United States without much financial footing. Growing up around that uncertainty, Monica came to see finance as a way to widen options for her family.
She knew why she wanted a career in finance. She didn’t yet know how people like her got in.
That search led her to The City Tutors, which she found on Baruch’s CUNY webpage. She signed up and was matched with Angie at Citi, who had worked in corporate finance and moved into corporate banking. Monica chose her because Angie’s career path was compelling, and corporate banking was a well-established and respected track at her college. Their conversations focused on what Monica needed most at that stage: roles, interviews, and how to turn a broad interest into a clear sequence of steps.
“She was someone I could reach out to for anything,” Monica said. “Career advice, life advice. She took the time.”
Angie encouraged Monica to apply to Citi’s Early-Insights program. Monica applied, was accepted, and leaned in. The experience led to an interview, then an offer, then an internship, and eventually a return offer.
City Tutors also gave Monica a second kind of access: the chance to see the work up close. She attended an event hosted at Citi, where professionals rotated through small-group conversations and spoke plainly about their work. She remembers talking with people in Treasury and noticing their energy—how clearly they could explain what they did, how specific the conversation felt compared with what students usually encounter in the classroom.
After graduating, Monica moved into commercial banking. She later found herself working closely with nonprofit institutions, colleges, hospitals, and international organizations—work that aligned with a long-running personal throughline for her.
Now she has returned as a City Mentor, meeting learners where she once was, and offering the kind of clarity she went looking for.
Looking back, Monica doesn’t describe a single turning point. She describes a sequence that gradually came into view, and City Tutors was the throughline: a relationship that held, a room that clarified what work could look like, and a set of conversations that made the next step visible.