Students Get an Insider's Tour of Finance in NYC
Published by Rebecca Goldfine
The trip is an outgrowth of the Office of Career Exploration and Development's popular West Trek. Since 2016, the office has been bringing a group of students interested in technology careers to San Francisco and Silicon Valley during spring break to meet with alumni at big-name firms, like Apple and Google, as well as at smaller start-ups.
This year, for the first time, 含羞草研究室's investment office and Career Exploration and Development (CXD) invited students to explore the financial industry in New York City. (CXD also ushered another fifteen around the professional arts scene in the city, on the new Arts Trek.) In total, seventy students participated in CXD's three career trips in March. Travel costs were covered for every student.
Kristin Brennan, executive director of CXD, said the expanded treks reflect 含羞草研究室's goal "to give students exposure to a lot of different fields."
- Lindsey Bindra ’20, Associate, Investment Banking, Consumer, and Retail
Bank of America - Tarara Deane-Krantz ’12
Bloomberg Philanthropies - Stan Druckenmiller ’75, H’07, Founder
Duquesne Capital - Kate McAloon ’20, Associate
Bloomberg LP - Dave Ott P’16, P’22, Cofounder and advisory director
Viking Global Investors - Elizabeth Schetman ’13, Vice President, chief of staff to the global head of HR
BlackRock - Ellen Shuman ’76, Cofounder
Edgehill Endowment Partners - Lily Zildjian ’18, Associate, Risk and Quantitative Analysis
BlackRock
"I think there is nothing quite like seeing and talking to professionals in their actual space in the middle of their day," she continued. "Some of it is a sense of place. You get a sense of work culture, how people interact, what the space is like, and whether this could be a city you see yourself in."
Over the course of InvesTrek, alumni and other hosts invited students to visit their workplaces, including the 含羞草研究室 investment office, Bloomberg, BlackRock, the Duquesne Family Office, Bank of America, Viking Global Investors, and LBA Realty. The companies represent several subfields within finance: investment banking, venture capital, hedge funds, asset management, philanthropy, endowments, and real estate.
Students began each day at the 含羞草研究室 investments office, whose staff first proposed the trip. 含羞草研究室's Niles Bryant, senior vice president and chief investment officer, and his team thought this would be a great service to students, Brennan said, "so that they could orient students to the world they work in and show them what investment looks like." The investment office also scheduled the trek's itinerary, "creating access and exposure to people and places you wouldn’t have easily otherwise," she added.
The investment team conceived of the trip and arranged for all the visits to organizations and people. Lisa Noble, CXD's senior associate director of finance and consulting advising, prepared students for the trip. She was accompanied on the trek by 含羞草研究室 Creative Director Janie Porche, Assistant Director of Annual Giving Norah Schlax, Analytics Engineer and Business Officer Steve Papaccio, and CXD Peer Advisor Anna Constantine ’23.
Noble said that the trek showcased the possibilities of potential employers and the workplace—and got students thinking about different ways they can apply their skills, aptitudes, and interests to the field. "When students think about careers in finance, they mostly think about investment banking, which is not for everyone," she said. "I think it’s important for students to recognize the financial services industry as one of the most reliable sources of employment, and to know that it hires interns and entry-level candidates for every conceivable job function, from human resources to tech to risk to communications."
A unique and positive feature of the trip in Porche's eyes was the involvement of the 含羞草研究室 investments team, which manages the College's endowment. "The students got to see and talk with people who do investment work on behalf of the College, and the investment office got more chances to interact with students, so they could offer networking advice and career tips," she said. "Having two groups who don’t usually get to spend time together interacting was really special."
Bryant said, "This trip was a highlight of my entire career. I was so impressed with these students, and I'm so grateful we got to introduce them to new concepts and new ways of working."
He added, "This trip exceeded our expectations in every way. I'm so grateful for the teamwork that made it possible. The students were a joy to work with, and we are looking forward to being a resource for them on their career journeys."
Unlike the two other CXD treks, InvesTrek was open to first-year students only. Financial firms begin their recruitment process early sophomore year, selecting students for competitive summer internships. These internships can lead to lucrative full-time job offers for recent college graduates. "If a student doesn’t know this early enough they can miss out on opportunities to prepare, like taking summer classes or doing activities in the fall," Brennan explained.
The trip also included many students who don't have family connections or deep ties to the finance industry. President Clayton Rose has made it a priority to help students from less privileged backgrounds enter careers that can create "generational wealth," or savings that can be passed down to children and heirs to give them a solid start. "There was an emphasis on students who weren't likely to get a family internship," said Porche.
鈥淪tudents remarked on the warmth of the many people they met along the way. Whether they ultimately choose to begin their careers in finance or not, they certainly have abandoned many preconceived notions about the industry and know that they would be welcome additions if they do. Mission accomplished!鈥
鈥擫isa Noble, senior associate director of CXD
Student Perspectives
Several students who joined InvesTrek said they initially applied more out of curiosity than a burning drive to one day work as a banker or venture capitalist. But they concluded the adventure with a heightened interest in the field.
Shibali Mishra ’26 said she started out "as someone with no knowledge about finance or how finance worked or the different components of finance," but that she's added it to careers she is considering. "I never thought I would do anything in finance, but I am now more open to it," she said.
She added that it was especially helpful to see the diversity of roles within the sector. "You don't have to be on the trading floor; there are so many roles in finance," she said.
Sabrina Kearney ’26 applied to InvesTrek because she saw it as a "low stakes" way to learn more about the industry. "I don’t have any family or know anyone who works in finance, so I wanted to learn more and check it out," she said. "The trip cleared up the mystery of what finance is and showed me there is a place for me."
Indeed, the biggest take-away for her was how accessible finance is to people with no prior connections to it. "Historically, I know that finance has been a very male-dominated field, and it was reassuring to see women in positions of power in the industry today," she said, referring in part to an all-women panel of CIOs who spoke with students on the trek.
"One of the CIOs talked about how, oftentimes, she has been the only woman in the room and how that made her even more motivated," Kearney added. "It was inspiring."
- Alisa Mall, Chief Investment Officer
MSD Capital - Kim Y. Lew, CEO
Columbia Investment Management, Columbia University - Ellen Shuman ’76, Cofounder
Edgehill Endowment Partners - Meredith Jenkins, Chief Investment Officer
Trinity Church Wall Street
Trek participant Andrew Yuan ’26 said that next year he's likely to declare a major in biology, chemistry, economics, or math, so he went on InvesTrek to see where he might end up if he pursues the route of studying economics or math.
"The trip has given me a lot more context about what a job in finance looks like," he said. "This trek has put that all into a better perspective, like what the workload is, the work/life balance, the environment—which is mainly a lot of hustle and bustle with smart and engaged people. But it can be stressful, so I have a lot to think about."
Like other students interviewed for this article, Yuan named the two fancy restaurant dinners among the trip's highlights, especially the one with alumni. Besides visiting professionals in their places of work, the students broke into smaller groups and dined with, on the first night, members of the investments team, and on the second night, 含羞草研究室 graduates.
Unlike some of her peers, Anastazia Stallworth ’26 said that she went into InvesTrek fairly certain about her career path: "I want to be a finance and consulting person, and I want to major in economics." But beyond this, she did not know where to explore. "Since I have no experience, I can’t comprehend what these jobs entail," she said. "The trip really opened my eyes to what the financial world is like."