Spotlight: Tigers on Wall Street

Fourteen University of Missouri students returned last fall from a trip to Wall Street that was simply “phenomenal!” according to Jon Jarvis, one of the MBA students in the group. The trip, that took place in late September, was conceived by Meredith Aslin, an alumnus of Mizzou who works for Apollo Management in New York City. Aslin had heard that there was a Jayhawks on Wall Street and enlisted her father, Mick Aslin, and Harvey Eisen, both alumni, to help create a similar opportunity for their beloved tigers. Mick Aslin and Eisen jumped on board and became financial backers for the trip working with Mary Beth Marrs, Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Pro-grams and Strategic Initiatives, and Mike Haggas, Director of Development at the Trulaske Col-lege of Business, to bring the trip to fruition. This support from tigers already working on Wall Street offered the Trulaske College of Business an opportunity “to prove that [it has] top students that could thrive on Wall Street and to give the students the chance to see what Wall Street is like at a very historic point in time,” says Jarvis.

The Students

In order to embark on this historic trip for the Trulaske College of Business, undergraduate stu-dents were required to be part of the Cornell Leadership Program and were selected based upon an application and accompanying essay. Out of the eighty students in the program, nine were chosen to represent their college. In addition, four MBA students and one doctoral student were selected to join the group. The students who attended the event include: Sarah Bradley, sophomore – Ac-countancy; Meagan Carrow, second year MBA; Kyle Cleeton, junior – Finance; Lindsay Durbin, junior – Marketing; Todd Jaros, second year MBA; Jon Jarvis, second year MBA; Andy Kern, doctoral candidate; Andy Kiehl, sophomore – Finance; Ann-Marie Lanza, second year MBA; Brenna Noble, junior – Finance; Geoff Schmitt, sophomore – Accountancy; Ian Smith, sophomore – Accountancy; Ryan Wenk, junior – Accountancy; Michelle Wright, junior – Finance.

Wall Street Boot Camp

Preparation for the trip to New York included five two-hour sessions covering current financial events, basic finance and professional development. These classes, lovingly referred to as Wall Street Boot Camp, were led by Jarvis and PhD student, Andy Kern. They assigned a lot of home-work, including reading several books. Jarvis maintains that “we wanted to do it right. We wanted to show [through our preparation] that we could be successful in New York. We wanted to create a strong impression that we are a top school and top students.” However, despite the ex-tra workload equating to an additional three credit hour class, the students attending the boot camp found the material “very interesting and beneficial,” according to sophomore Finance student Andy Kiehl.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

After weeks of groundwork, the group was finally ready to depart on their 4 day trip to New York City. Flying out of St. Louis on Tuesday, they arrived in New York Tuesday afternoon, ready to take on Wall Street. That night in their hotel near MadisonSquareGarden, the students enjoyed a pizza dinner during one last prep class, Manhattan 101, lead by Meredith Aslin and Ben Phillips. They covered what to expect in New York and their individual experiences in the city. With a Q&A session, students were able to get answers to any last minute questions they may have had before entering the fray the following day.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The day started visiting J.P. Morgan where they met with Eisen and attended a question and an-swer session with Alan “Ace” Greenberg, former Chairman and CEO Bear Sterns and current Vice President Emeritus of J.P. Morgan. The students gleaned a great deal from the opportunity to interact with a legend who started at Mizzou. After the session with Greenberg, the group met with Dan Temple, MBA Recruiter, and Mary Erdoes, CEO of Private Bank for J.P. Morgan. Temple and Erdoes spoke on how to make an impression, build a resume and succeed in an inter-view. The day continued with a tour of Wall Street and a visit to the New York Mercantile Exchange. At NYMEX, the students were able to witness the hustle and bustle of the close of business for the futures exchange. The next stop on Wednesday was the Bloomberg building where they toured the modern complex and watched the filming of a live broadcast. “It was one of my favorite things we did while we were there,” says Kiehl. “The building was incredible.” The busy first full day in New York ended with a great American tradition, a baseball game. In fact, the tigers attended one of the last Mets games at Shea Stadium and watched the Mets fall 6-9 to the Chicago Cubs.