If someone asked Chelsea Landreau ’24 about her future, the underclassman version of herself would have answered that a position with a leading global financial services firm was her dream job.
She says, “In a field where women are underrepresented, I wanted to prove I could hold my own. Originally, I felt like accepting a role at Morgan Stanley would be the pinnacle of this proof.”
However, real-world experiences in her senior year pushed her to reevaluate that career choice. One of Chelsea’s first campus work positions involved managing the budget in the college’s enrollment office. Under the guidance of Alisa Elmore, the project manager, she began to rethink the way she looked at leadership.
“Alisa was efficient while modeling how to treat people in all circumstances,” says Chelsea. “Her relationship-first methods were a strength in her position, something I had thought of as a weakness before working with her. She also taught me how to bring my full self to work and see that I could add value to other companies.”
Chelsea then accepted a 10-week summer internship position as a consumer banking intern with Synovus Bank in Columbus, Georgia. She interacted with a variety of teams and learned about their different business lines.
After the internship ended, Chelsea took a remote co-op position with the Synovus retail sales support team. At the same time, she took advantage of the Berry College Integrity and Leadership program. She discussed business hypotheticals with mentors and benefited from different viewpoints as people shared their stories across kitchen tables and in leadership exercises.
Chelsea picked up more work with Synovus, but her team knew her ultimate goal was to work with a financial firm. Soon after graduation, an offer from Morgan Stanley came. Although Chelsea was grateful, another opportunity turned her head when she networked with a group of female investors in Savannah, Georgia, who had broken off from larger firms to build Sound View Wealth Advisors. They soon asked Chelsea to join their team.
“Morgan Stanley may sound more impressive to some and likely would have been a good fit, but I was inspired by what they were building at Sound View,” she reflects. “It felt more relational, independent, holistic and truly fiduciary. Having experienced the value of a similar inspiring work environment at Berry, it was an inevitable ‘yes’ for me.”
Chelsea urges students to capitalize on Berry’s small college environment and mentoring opportunities: “Get to know as many people as possible and get to know their stories. Hearing from others has been the most impactful part of my college experience. Strong relationships changed me and the direction of my life — shifting my viewpoints, connecting me with all kinds of people and bringing me joy in the process.”
