World-traveling Penn State student lands in Los Angeles

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — From the nation’s capital to the City of Angels, Kevin Mitra, a graduate of Penn State's class of 2016, has worked in some of the biggest and most exciting cities as a technology consultant for Deloitte.

He spent almost three years at Deloitte in Washington, D.C., before recently transferring his Deloitte Home office to Los Angeles, where Mitra moved with his wife, Nabihah, for her career in the fashion industry.

As a technology consultant, Mitra serves as a developer, an analyst and a project manager on any given day. He utilizes his Information Science and Technology (IST) degree every day on the job.

“I just worked on the implementation of the largest electronic health record system in the world for one of our defense clients. I guided them from an old in-house tool to something new,” Mitra said. “I also have clients that are large federal agencies, and I get to work on their financial data.”

Part of his job is to transform his clients’ finances so they can report and drive insights from their data and derive key financial metrics to drive the business forward.

Kevin Mitra, Penn State Lehigh Valley alumnus, spent almost three years at Deloitte in Washington, D.C., before recently transferring his Deloitte Home office to Los Angeles.

Credit: Babajide Ademulegun

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“I think my favorite part of my job is working with the data and presenting my findings to clients and working with them to figure out what business need they have and align the technology solutions with their needs,” Mitra said.

Mitra credits his time and experiences at Penn State Lehigh Valley with preparing him for his current role.

“I really valued the mentorship I experienced on campus. You really get to know your professors and I found my professors invested their time in students. They taught me the importance of networking, helped me build relationships and navigate landing professional roles,” Mitra said. “Getting to experience the short-term study abroad courses in Peru and the Netherlands was profound for me. They gave me a holistic view of the world from a business sense and helped prepare me for my current work life where I serve global customers.”

Mitra has always been a citizen of the world. He and his family came to the United States from the Philippines when he was 12 years old, living in Chicago for three years and then moving to Pennsylvania. Upon graduating from Parkland High School in 2011, Mitra served in the U.S. Army for four years.

“When I got out of the Army, I came to Lehigh Valley campus thinking I would transition to another Penn State campus after two years, but I fell in love with it and finished my degree here,” Mitra said. “I always had an interest in technology, which drove me to major in IST.”

“Kevin is a natural leader, often taking the time to help other students who needed assistance and always without being asked. If something needed to be done, he was the person to choose because you knew it would be done right and with excellence,” said Kermit Burley, IST program coordinator and IST lecturer, Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV). “On top of that, Kevin is a wonderful human being, trustworthy, dedicated, loyal and always willing to go the extra mile.”

Burley explained how the IST program can be crafted in a way that meets the specific needs of students.

“If a student wants to major in our Application and Integration option, they will take a set of core courses as well as choosing options and classes that meet their needs. The Design and Development option can help students learn how to not only code, but also how to do so in multiple authoring languages. The Integration and Application option provides our students with skills needed for integrating IT into different systems for the purpose of enhancing system performance in the workplace. IST is thriving, our internships and job opportunities continue to expand, and our students gain valuable, practical and hands-on skills to compete in today’s constantly evolving IT marketplace,” Burley said.

While at PSU-LV, Mitra served on Student Government Association and in the Veterans Club as well being a founding member of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of Omega Delta Sigma, a veterans fraternity. And now as a young alumnus, Mitra continues to strengthen his ties to Penn State.

“The Penn State network and community extends out everywhere. There is a group at Deloitte that is just for Penn Staters. I just participated in a presentation last fall to the first-year IST students at University Park. I introduced them to Deloitte and explained what consulting is,” Mitra said. “It’s important to give back to a place that gave so much to me.”