Oct. 27, 2016

The second group of finance scholars got to apply their new finance knowledge in New York City over Fall Break. The Darla Moore School of Business’ Carolina Finance Scholars program is made up of 36 of the top finance students in the Moore School, 29 of whom went on this trip.

Katrina Escario, third-year finance, economics and international business major, enjoyed the Intercontinental Exchange site visit most, but she thinks the most beneficial part of the trip was meeting Moore School alumni and other finance professionals.

“Bringing a lot of people down from New York isn’t always an option,” she said. “I think people are more willing to meet with you if you’re already where they’re located. We wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much exposure if the events had been in South Carolina.”

With four site visits a day and an alumni networking event every evening, there was very little down time for these students, but Escario considers even that to be good practice for her future career in investment banking.

“No matter how tired we were, we had to be engaged,” she said.

The finance scholars who made the trip are part of the investment banking and evaluation practicum course, which is one of three or four practicum courses the scholars will take throughout the year as part of the program. Although the trip was beneficial for adding perspective to the information they’ve been learning, Escario and Colin Jones, director of the program, agree that it’s really just “the cherry on top.”

“You know that the work you’re doing, all the hours you’re putting in, how tired you are is actually going toward something that you’re kind of seeing the results of as you go through the process, so a lot of the benefit I’ve gotten is actually from the coursework,” Escario said.

Jones agreed, calling the coursework the “meat” of the scholars program. The coursework and the supplemental activities come together to meet the goal of making Moore School finance students nationally competitive.

“I think the more success we have, the more people are going to want to do it, and the more people will be willing to buckle down and work to accomplish what they want to accomplish, because that’s really what it’s about,” he said.

The Carolina Finance Scholars program is an intensive, two-year finance program funded by BB&T to better prepare Moore School finance students for internships between their junior and seniors years as well as improve their overall finance knowledge and experience to make them more attractive job candidates to recruiters. To do this, it provides students with direct exposure to well-placed industry professionals and develops their practical, analytical and technical skills through applied coursework

The first group of Carolina Finance Scholars made the New York trip in October of last year.

By Madeleine Vath