One of the most fulfilling aspects of my time at Villanova thus far has been the student run business societies. While they only meet once a week, I feel like I haven’t gotten so much more out of them than any class I have taken in the business school. They explain concepts, bring interesting speakers, provide mentorship to young students, and most importantly, they help you get an internship which will lead to a job.
At the activities fair on campus my freshman year I remember walking around and being so intrigued by all the options that were available that I think I wrote down my email and contact information with ten clubs. Once applications came around, I ended up joining three business clubs. The Equity Society, which is a student managed fund that invests $650,000 of the endowment in stocks through investment recommendations from freshman and sophomore analysts like myself, proved to be one of the clubs that enjoyed the most during my freshman year. Our weekly meetings covered the major events that were happening around the world and how they might affect the markets.
Next, was the Alternative Investments Society, in which an upperclassman taught a small group of freshman concepts and strategies in the Private Equity, Hedge Fund and alternative investing world. My biggest takeaway from this club was all the different strategies that firms employ to generate return for their investors. Lastly, was the M&A Society, which was my favorite club by far and through it I was able to meet with previous Blue and White Scholars.
The focus of the M&A Society is to introduce students to the financial services industry during their freshman year and familiarize them with some of the concepts, possible career options and the type of work they would do should they choose a path in the field. When sophomore year comes around, there is an intensive workshop style class where you get prepared for interviews by doing mock practices, exams and quizzes and further learn some of the concepts from an upperclassman that has interned in the field or gone through the interview process.
After my freshman year I applied to be on the executive board of the society and got a position as a content analyst, which meant I would work closely with the Vice President to create the presentations for the weekly meetings. Now, as a Junior, I am excited to be working with the freshman and serve as a resource to them. I want to make the meetings as engaging and interesting as possible, just as the people that taught me did. I am still in touch with the upperclassmen that taught me, and I consider them to be my good friends.
I want to motivate younger students to find something they are passionate about and pursue it to their fullest extent. It is actually through the M&A Society which I heard about the Blue and White Scholarship foundation. We had an event on campus and I was able to meet Ryan Mazzie who graduated in 2018 and was a Blue and White Scholar. I had a great conversation with him, and he ended up serving as mentor to me and helping me with applications and interviews. I want to be a mentor to younger students just like Ryan and countless others have been to me.