Study Abroad Fair

Turnout was great for the fair last night. The spring application is October 3rd, and I will try to schedule one or two information sessions between now and then. Or feel free to contact me directly.

There was also quite a bit of interest in the Florence summer program, but there is a limit to the number of people who can participate. Between now and the spring semester, the School will try to arrange for one or two alternative summer programs. More information will be posted on the blog as the details are worked out. Remember that this will likely include the social entrepreneurship program in Guatemala.

Office of National Scholarships

The Office of National Scholarships (ONS) recruits and mentors high-achieving students to compete for prestigious national scholarships. The ONS currently targets eleven scholarships: the Goldwater (for math, science, and engineering students), Udall (for those interested in environmental studies), Madison (for students becoming social studies teachers), Truman (for students involved in public service), Carnegie Fellows (for those interested in international affairs), the Rhodes and Marshall (for future national leaders), Mitchell (for study in Ireland), Gates Cambridge (for study at Cambridge), Jack Kent Cooke, and the Javits (for arts, humanities, and social sciences). All of these competitions are for undergraduates or recent graduates with extremely strong academic records and depth of experience, as evidenced by consistent leadership experience, community engagement, or involvement in research throughout the undergraduate career. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Jill Deans, Director of the Office of National Scholarships at Jill.Deans@uconn.edu.

Social Entrepreneurship

The School and the Honors Program are working to establish a summer study abroad program in Guatemala in social entrepreneurship. The details are being worked out right now, but the program will likely be two months long and will include learning about the country and culture, as well as about micro-finance and micro-consignment. Students will also apply their learning to real projects in various locations in central Guatemala.

There will be more information on the blog, and also more information here.

Honors Thesis at the SS&C Financial Accelerator

Josh relates his experience finishing his honor's thesis at the Financial Accelerator:

I was accepted into the SS&C Financial Accelerator program for the summer of 2006 as an Undergraduate student pursuing degrees in Finance and Philosophy. I was a member of the UConn Honors Society and was affiliated with minor organization up until this point.

The initial project I was selected to work on was developing an ERM solution for a Pitney Bowes subsidiary software company in Maryland. After this project met with outstanding success, Pitney Bowes wanted the process expanded to the entire business – I stayed on as a member of the Financial Accelerator to accomplish this task, which culminated in a final tollgate presentation to Pitney Bowes CEO Michael Critelli.

During my final undergraduate semester, I was once again selected to work as a member of the Accelerator, working on a project for ING Asia Pacific Real Estate division. Again, our team met with great success as the stochastic real estate duration model we built for them is now being deployed and utilized for real estate investment in Europe.

These achievements were also recognized by the School of Business, as I was selected as an Outstanding Undergraduate in the Finance Department two years in a row, as well as inducted into the UConn School of Business Undergraduate Hall of Fame.

After three tours of duty and [finally] graduation, I was picked up by General Electric to work at GE Money as a member of the Quantitative Analytics Team. I build, customize, and analyze the results of a suite of stochastic risk assessment and decisioning models for use by the CEO of the business.

I consider my time working for the Financial Accelerator the most rewarding academic experience of my undergraduate career. The Accelerator provided a hands-on real life experience not found anywhere else at UConn – not even SMF offers the real world experience that the Accelerator does. No board regulates your actions – you work directly with corporate contacts to solve real problems in real time for real money. You are the consultant directing the actions of vice presidents of Fortune 500 companies.

If that wasn’t enough, as an undergraduate, you will be working with MBA and PhD students from different disciplines. No other class or experience can offer that interaction.

The Accelerator helped me to break my mind out of the hum-drum academic mindset that classroom learning creates. After all, members of the School of Business are not looking for academic jobs – we want to graduate, get jobs, and make money. If your experience is anything like mine, the Accelerator will prove to be your fast track to success.

Dr. Rich Dino definitely hits the nail on the head when he issues his trademark slogan: “Change the conversation at the recruiting table.” In my case, the knowledge I gained as a member of the SS&C Financial Accelerator gave me the leverage necessary to change that conversation in my favor.