Senior accounting major Conor Mendelson visited Boston twice before he decided to intern there for three months this summer. 

Mendelson landed the internship with the help of his sister, who works in Boston’s biotechnology industry. She sent out Mendelson’s resume and within an hour he received an offer from Genocea Biosciences, a research company whose focus is curing cancer.  

Mendelson was excited to work in Genocea’s accounting department because it was a unique opportunity. 

“Just being in an industry other than tax and public accounting was really cool,” Mendelson said. “I got to be a part of something, a team that was working on cancer research and trying to find a cure.” 

The accounting department was small, so he had many different responsibilities and got to experience all aspects of the job.  

“It was really cool because they had a very small accounting department, so I was the fifth member of it,” Mendelson said. “So I got exposed to everything that they do.”

To Mendelson, one of the biggest differences between Boston and Pittsburgh was the traffic. 

“Living in Pittsburgh I always thought the traffic was kind of bad but [in] Boston there’s so many people,” Mendelson said. “I would drive like six miles to work every day and it would take like an hour. So it was a little rough but I loved the city at the end, it hurt to leave.”

Here on campus, Mendelson is entering his third year as a member of the rugby team. He hadn’t played rugby before he came to Point Park, but joined when his roommate suggested it. 

“I had played football so I was like ‘Sure, why not?’” Mendelson said. “And I came out and ended up being decent at it so I just kept with it.” 

In the future, Mendelson hopes to stay in the Pittsburgh area, and is considering getting a master’s degree in human resources, saying another goal of his is to open a clothing store. 

“It’s my dream to open a small business shop in Pittsburgh or just wherever I am so I can show off some cool clothes,” Mendelson said. 

Currently Mendelson works at Bonobos, a high end men’s retail store, and said the experience has helped him learn about the business. 

“It’s cool to get that understanding, and I get to look at clothes all day which is awesome,” Mendelson said. 

Mendelson became interested in fashion by watching a music video. 

“The earliest memory I can think of being into clothes was [when] I was watching a music video for Lil Wayne or something and I saw the way they were wearing their clothes and I thought: ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool,’” Mendelson said. “So I started looking up a lot of stuff and I started buying stuff that was a little more out there and then from there it just kind of took off.”

Mendelson visits other clothing companies in order to get inspiration for his future store. 

“I like to spend a lot of my time looking at different smaller companies that have clothing that, if I were to open a store, I could use those,” Mendelson said. “So that’s what I do a lot I search a lot of Instagram, Pinterest and all that.”

Although Mendelson recognizes it may be difficult to get a clothing store off the ground, he hopes to enter the field because of his passion for the fashion industry. 

“I just really enjoyed putting stuff together and making myself look really presentable,” Mendelson said. “I think it says a lot about someone.”