"At 17, I created my own auto retail internship. Not because someone handed me an opportunity — because I needed to understand the business from the inside."
I'm Saviour Williams — a 21-year-old Finance student at Howard University with one clearly defined goal: to become a Dealer Principal. Most people find their way into automotive retail by accident. I chose it deliberately, early, and have been building toward it ever since.
At 17, I designed and pitched my own internship at an auto retail dealership. That wasn't a school project — it was a decision. Since then I've added an indirect auto lending internship at Chartway Credit Union, where I saw exactly how lenders evaluate a dealer's paper and what separates a fundable deal from one that dies at the desk.
I'm currently a Credit Risk Review Summer Analyst at BNY Mellon, studying risk at the institutional level. Three internships. Three vantage points on the same industry: the showroom, the lending desk, and the institutional portfolio.
That's the playbook I'm building — and I'm just getting started.
Designed and pitched a self-initiated internship at a franchised dealership. First hands-on exposure to retail operations, sales process, and customer workflow.
Learned how lenders evaluate dealer paper. Gained insight into credit decisioning, F&I deal structures, and the lender-dealer relationship from the bank's side.
Returned to retail with a sharper lens. Applied credit and lending knowledge to better understand how F&I, sales, and fixed ops interact at the store level.
Summer Analyst role reviewing credit risk at the institutional level. Building a macro understanding of portfolio exposure and risk framework analysis.
Graduating with a Finance degree and entering automotive retail full-time. The goal: bring immediate value to a dealership or dealer group on the path to ownership.