Lena Dimmer is Aces On and Off the Court

NYIT student Madison Strippoli interviews classmate Lena Dimmer about studying in the United States, Dimmer's love of “crunching numbers,” and her successes on the tennis court.

Tennis ace Lena Dimmer is an international student from Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries in Europe. So, what then brought her to one of the biggest cities in the world? “As a finance major you would not want to study anywhere else than in New York and since Long Island is a short train ride from Manhattan, the financial capital of the world, NYIT was the perfect fit,” says Dimmer. She adds the school has given her the perfect mix of both city and suburban life and advises all incoming students to take full advantage of everything NYIT has to offer.

“[For instance], NYIT professors have connections to companies in the financial sector, which makes it easier to get an internship. And a lot of alumni work in finance as well,” Dimmer says.

It was through these connections that Dimmer was able to get into the finance internship program last summer with Millennium Management, a global investment management firm based in New York City.

“One of the greatest rewards I can take from my college career is that I have become an educated and diverse woman,” she says. “When I first came to the United States, the language was one of the greatest barriers for me and I was really shy.” But that changed once Dimmer settled in at NYIT. “The School of Management offers great extracurricular workshops, such as guest speaker series, experiential education like the Fed Challenge and Corporate Challenge, and field trips to the Museum of Finance.” Participating in these programs and activties has helped Dimmer break out of her shell. “I accepted the challenge of coming to the United States. I had to be responsible for my own actions. I did not have my parents to tell me what to do and how to do it. But I figured it out and it helped me to leave my comfort zone and to become more independent,” she says.

Outside of the classroom, Dimmer is a member of the NYIT women’s tennis team and she is anything but shy on the court. This past fall, she won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association East Region titles in both singles and doubles and qualified for the Oracle Cup in Georgia where she placed fourth in the nation in singles and number two in doubles with her partner Alessia Rossetti.

Post-graduation, she will be going back to work with Millennium Management. “My dream job would be to work as a financial analyst. I love the number crunching part in finance,” she says. But while she’s busy crunching numbers, this self-proclaimed foodie hopes to enjoy munching on all of the different types of cuisines in and around New York City. “I love food and I am secretly writing my bucket list of restaurants to visit.“