Will Willoughby ’19 went to New York City in October with the Lacy School of Business, confident about pursuing a career in finance and banking. He came home convinced that he’s on the right career track.

“The trip had quite a significant impact on me,” the sophomore from Kalamazoo, Michigan, said. “After seeing all of the different financial positions, and their significance to every company we went to, I knew when I left New York that finance and banking was what I wanted to do.”

And then there’s Marissa Terando ’18, an accounting and finance double-major. She “learned so much at JPMorgan Chase about the investment banking industry and all the different sectors that make up the company” that she came away interested in working on the Foreign Exchange and Commodities desk. “Something I had never even heard of before this trip,” the junior from Carmel, Indiana, said.

Willoughby and Terando were among eight students who took the Wall Street Trek trip to get a good look at Wall Street—JPMorgan Chase, the Stock Exchange, Blue Mountain Capital—and Johnson & Johnson headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

At JPMorgan Chase, they met with Mike Bennett ’09, Vice President, Investment Specialist, and Eric Wiedelman, Managing Director, Global Securitized Products. Amy Wierenga ’01, Head of Risk Management, was their host at Blue Mountain Capital, and Francisco Miyares ’10, Senior Financial Analyst, met with the group at Johnson & Johnson.

The idea of the Wall Street Trek, said Kim Goad, Director of Career Development in Butler’s Lacy School of Business, is to provide students with a deeper awareness of different roles in finance and a bit of a taste of what it might be like to work in New York City.

“This is one of the best parts of my job—to be able to match students up and show them what a day in the life really looks like and to expose them to different opportunities,” said Goad, who chaperoned the trip along with Assistant Professor of Finance Bryan Foltice.

Goad said the students chosen to participate in the two-day trip were required to submit a resume and cover letter. They had to have attained a certain grade-point average and make a compelling argument why this trip aligned with their career goals.

Lacy School of Business donors have now paid for the trip for two consecutive years and have committed to continue funding an experiential fund. Goad said the Butler students made their benefactors proud.

“A comment I often get about Butler students is that they are very polished but not robotic,” Goad said. “They kept the conversation alive in every meeting that we had, yet they were still students and fun and relatable.”

And in January, the Lacy School of Business will be going back to New York—this time with students interested in the retail world. From January 12-15, 10 students and two faculty members will attend Retail’s The Big Show, which features thousands of retailers—big box stores, fashion, technology, online, and others. They’ll have an opportunity to network with people, to have their resumes reviewed, and hear some great keynote speakers.

 

Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822