Penn Abroad Ambassador Krutin Devesh

Program:

• GRIP: FinTech in Medellin

Ask me about...

• Meeting people and making friends while abroad

• Studying in a different language. 

• Traveling on a budget.

My Experience Abroad:

For my study abroad program, I researched the peer-to-peer lending platform industry extensively, working on competitor analyses for the first two weeks of the internship to better understand the global and Latin American fintech market and calculate TAM for Givemefive (host company). Alongside my research, I also worked on whitepaper for credit lending, learning about how financial institutions including bank and credit agencies (eg. FICO) apply financial metrics to determine credit. I researched strategies for how Latin American countries that have been empirically devoid of credit can continue to resurrect loans and create alternative community-based investments. As a result, I learned how institutions and consumers can utilize credit to achieve goals such as create profit or pay off large payments. I wrote a proposal for how fintech companies can determine the risk of a user, specifically how likely they are to pay back loans in a P2P fintech model, and what specific questions can gauge financial risk for a multitude of factors. These factors include risk tolerance, decision-making, money management, social networks, and attitudes towards debt. 

In addition to my internship, the cultural exchange of ideas with locals, from the staff at my hostel to service workers wherever I went, introduced me to the value of the US Dollar and how US investments can drastically affect economic flow, specifically for capital assets such as warehouses for restaurants.

Other Highlights:

• Getting to immerse myself in the cultural and natural beauty of Latin America, especially in places solemn discussed by the West 

• Camping in the Amazon underneath the clear night sky

• Visiting a private island for under $200 for three nights

• Living with students from Princeton, Michigan, Gonzaga, University of Bristol, University of New Zealand, a German Student, and more

• Driving an ATV through the Andes