DU in the Big Apple: Students Take on Wall Street

For the 33rd year, Daniels College of Business students in the class, “An Organized Walk Down Wall Street” recently spent five days immersed in the epicenter of the financial world: Wall Street, New York City.

The students—who are both undergrads and grads—toured brokerage firms, investment banks, commercial banks and asset management companies, visited the New York Stock Exchange, and got opportunities to meet and learn from alumni and professionals working across the financial industry. 

While the course brings students to the finance capital of the world, “It's not just a course for people who want to work in New York,” says Mac Clouse, the Sorenson Distinguished Professor of Finance, who has run the course and trip since 1991. “It's a course for people who want to learn about finance at the level that goes on in New York and then come back and apply it to wherever they may end up.”

Whether students want to work in New York, Denver, London or elsewhere, Clouse says, “They're seeing finance at the highest level, and it lets them see the wide variety of different kinds of opportunities there are in finance: big firms, small firms, the investment side, investment banking side, wealth management side, other variety of opportunities that might interest them from a career standpoint.” 

Reflecting and networking

The trip gives students an up-close look at different specializations and the day-to-day operations of the financial sector. Talking with numerous professionals about their career paths and working in the field helps students reflect on their own academic and professional goals when they return from the trip. 

“Finance is such a broad term, but getting into the actual businesses and seeing how different finance can be really helped me figure out what I want and don’t want to do,” says Selma Andersen, a third-year finance major who is also a member of the DU Nordic ski team. “It was super beneficial because you don't always understand what they’re doing on a daily basis.”

For Sydney Fairbairn, a senior finance student, the trip also provided unexpected and useful career insights. “The trip really helped realign my future goals in finance by showing me the different roles at various financial institutions,” she says. “The institutions I resonated most with were those I was initially least excited to see.”

The class also emphasizes the importance of networking and relationship building—skills critical to success in the business world—which was reiterated by the professionals that students met throughout the trip.

“One professional said, ‘Business gets business,’ which means maintaining every relationship you can, talking to people and being open to learning,” Andersen says.

Students also gained insight into how to tailor their academic and professional efforts to achieve their career goals. Fairbairn, who wants to work in private equity, says, “I got a lot of advice to start with a foundation in investment banking, which wasn’t something I had considered before.”

Another highlight of the trip, Fairbairn says, was a panel and meet and greet with DU alumni, who shared their experiences living and working in New York. “They were very encouraging about us looking for jobs and that they'd help us figure it out,” she says. 

What’s more, some of the institutions that the class visited are home to alumni. Lu Wang (MS ’10), director at Silver Point Finance in Greenwich, Connecticut, is one of the hosts students visit on their trip. Wang says the class, which he took twice as a graduate student, provided him with mentorship, skills and confidence that have carried with him throughout his career. 

The class taught him how to approach a new business or investment opportunity, which, he says, “is valuable whether you want to do finance or technology or business You learn how you manage your own personal finances, how you value a company, how you value your behavior, how you find opportunities. I think that is tremendous.”