Tag: Undergraduate

Richard Ryffel, a part-time professor of finance practice at Olin, wrote this for the Olin Blog.

It was in the early days of the pandemic’s work-from-home regimen in April when the other organizers of the Municipal Finance Conference and I convened to discuss whether to cancel, postpone or reconfigure the ninth annual Olin/Brookings/UChicago/Brandeis hosted event.

The conference, ordinarily held at Brookings’ headquarters in Washington, DC, is the preeminent municipal finance academic conference and its importance was all the greater given the rapidly evolving impact of the pandemic on state and local government finances.

Well before it was commonplace, the organizers pivoted to offer the conference virtually—becoming one of the early adopters of our “new normal” communication realities of Zoom, YouTube, screen sharing, virtual breakout rooms, curated backgrounds and the occasional cat intrusion.

In the same way state and local governments are adapting to their COVID-19 realities with what conference keynote speaker, Mayor Lilly Schaaf of Oakland, California, called “entrepreneurial bureaucrats,” conference organizers were able to quickly and effectively reinvent the conference.

The conference was held July 13-14 and was a considerable success, setting new attendance records and receiving strong survey feedback. With assistance from the exceptional Brookings staff, the online conference came off with no technical glitches whatsoever. Panelists, moderators and audience members alike transitioned flawlessly to the new virtual format, and the conversations and Q&A were lively and robust.

As a valuable field experiment for the effectiveness of distance learning, conference organizers found the new format lent itself to securing a broader group of speakers, more registrants and attendees from geographies that were underrepresented in the past.

Significant benefits in terms of financial and time costs accrued to all involved as well. So much so, that some type of virtual offering is likely to be a mainstay of future conferences.

Olin alumna Sarah Snyder, BSBA ’05, of Samuel A. Ramirez & Co., participated in a panel on the impact of COVID-19 on the municipal bond market and discussed how municipal bond issuers and investors are being impacted by the effects of the pandemic and the various policy responses thereto.  Other topics included pension funding holidays, climate change, legalized marijuana sales, infrastructure spending, tax incentives and shadow banking.

The conference organizers are planning a mid-year event also to be offered virtually and are looking forward to a return to a physical conference in 2021 to be augmented by a synchronous virtual program. But conference organizers will be ready to pivot once again, based on the then-existing pandemic realities.

https://www.brookings.edu/municipal-finance-conference/

Dora Greenwall, BSBA ’23, was inspired by Sadie Kurzban, the founder of 305 Fitness, and wrote this for the Olin Blog.

Sadie Kurzban created a company by envisioning a world she wants to live in, not the one she sees now. Every decision she makes is authentic and reflects her own moral values. And, that starting point animates and makes real her vision. There is a way to build a successful business on your own terms.

The takeaway from my interview is that Kurzban approaches her business with true leadership and a consistent sense of justice. Her advice for women in business follows that vision.

“We never do anything great when we are chasing after other people’s identity,” Kurzban said. Throughout entire conversation, I saw a woman who believes in herself and in her business as an extension of that personality.

She did not wait for somebody to help her create 305; nor for the network she needed to create this business. She says that there is no right time to start a business. It is always the wrong time—but do it anyway.

I asked how she had the courage to continue when things weren’t going the way they were supposed to. I wanted to know how she continued to believe in herself.

Kurzban flipped this question on its head: “The other question is: What does it benefit us to not trust ourselves or believe in ourselves?” She taught me that to make it in business there is no option but to believe in yourself.

Sadie and I then went on to speak about COVID-19. She explained that she shut her locations down early because it was the right thing to do. She wanted other boutique firms to follow suit.

She behaved ethically—as you would expect. She spoke about how most businesses look toward other businesses to see what steps to take. She wanted to set the correct example.

It seems that most of Sadie’s actions show direct care toward people rather than money. She told me money is not everything.

“I started the business not to make the maximum amount of money, but because I cared about people’s health, I wanted to inspire people,” she said.

This is what she does everyday day and in every dance class. She created a community in a time where even close connections feel distant. She lives her life empowering others to embrace who they are and celebrate our differences.

Kurzban taught me that it is OK to dance like nobody’s watching, and, more than this, celebrate the dance. Celebrate being able to think differently, look differently, and most of all believe in yourself always. There is no reason not to!

Shannon Hagedorn, a career coach for the BSBA program in the Weston Career Center, wrote this for the Olin Blog.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes intention, coordination and time to create great things, whether they are architectural masterpieces that last centuries or an effective career pipeline.

We knew we had a lot of work to do to build up investment banking at WashU. About a year and a half ago, we received feedback from students, alumni and employers. We listened and acted accordingly. Now, we’re developing a program that has strong relationships with alumni and employers, thorough preparation resources for students and a more inclusive process of connecting students to available opportunities.

We (and I use that term very loosely and inclusively to refer to students, staff, employers and alumni!) have been very busy with the following initiatives:

• IB Interview Prep Sessions and Mock Superdays: Hosted prep sessions, collaborated with the WashU Career Center to conduct two rounds of IB mock superdays with 10 alumni and employers as interviewers, and processed feedback in additional interview prep sessions.
• Author Talk: Gleaned insights from Josh Rosenbaum, managing director and head of industrials & diversified services at RBC. He discussing his book, Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions.
• On-Campus Information Sessions: Connected with Lazard, Lincoln International, Moelis and RBC in person.
• 124-Page Trek Prep Binder and Prep Session: Compiled recent data from Market Line and Bloomberg into trek notebooks and discussed each student’s research on each firm’s strengths and news as well as questions to ask each firm individually during a prep session.
• Four-Part IB Essentials Spring Series: Launched a webinar series designed to equip sophomores with critical insight about accounting, the leveraged buyout, mergers and analyst expectations for interviews and internships.
• Organized Virtual Information Sessions and 28 Alumni Coffee Chats: Converted in-person trek sessions and networking activities cancelled due to COVID-19 into effective virtual experiences with alumni and contacts at PWP, Moelis, Centerview, Houlihan Lokey, RBC, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Cain Brothers, Citadel Investments, AWH Investments, Samuel A. Ramirez & Co., Inc., Wolf Hill Capital, NBC Universal, Eco Street Capital, Benefit Street Partners, and US Bank.
• 25 IB Mentor Matches: Paired first-years and sophomores with recent alumni for a four-session mentorship, in collaboration with the WashU Career Center.
• 20-Plus Mock Interviews with Senior Bankers at Goldman Sachs: Developed skills and gained insights from behavioral and technical questions.
• IB Insights Summer Series Podcasts: Engaged 10-plus alumni and industry experts to offer short, high-level, exploratory conversations for students early in their career discernment.
• Countless Coaching Sessions, Informational Interviews, Mock Interviews, Info Sessions, and Conversations with Students, Alumni and Employers: Appreciated that a lot of work happens behind the scenes and that this list only begins to scratch the surface of recognizing what we’re all doing to help students prepare for and secure their next steps.

We’ve still got a lot to do but we’re excited to start seeing results, including feedback from our team’s collective efforts, landing stories from students, and recognition from firms. You can take my word for it, or read some of the comments below:

• Matt Bauer, BSBA ’22, who accepted a 2021 internship at Lincoln International, “wanted to say thank you and express my gratitude for all the help and advice you’ve given me along the way. Going back to the beginning of the year when I didn’t even have a resume, I definitely couldn’t have done it without you.”
• Addison Liang, BSBA ’22, who accepted a 2021 internship at Credit Suisse, was grateful for “all [the] help throughout this process!”
• Ian Welsh, BSBA ’22, who accepted a 2021 internship at Morgan Stanley, “wanted to say thanks for helping me with so many aspects of this process. It is so helpful to have people like you at the career center that are so willing to help guide me through every step of the process.”

We know it takes time, but we’re laying the foundations for a self-perpetuating cycle and lasting impact, as we build investment banking at WashU.

Pictured at top: Alumni from Guggenheim, Lincoln International, Barclays, Lazard, Oppenheimer and Moelis offered insights in a superday of IB mock interviews. (Pictured left to right: Matt Bernstein, Vaios Kouvelis, Syed Ahsan, Colin McCune, Nikhil Angelo, Bill Reisner, Meg Stolberg and Calvin Works).

WashU alumni Noah Offenkrantz (LA ’20) and Ben Green (BSBA ’20), pictured above, recently launched Find Your Farmer, an online marketplace allowing consumers to order fresh produce, meats and cheese from local farmers.

While at Wash U, the CEO of our organization, Noah Offenkrantz, took several courses that analyzed the industrial agricultural system. Noah’s experience with the agricultural system transcended the classroom.

During an internship experience at a local STL nonprofit, Noah learned about issues of food access while managing a community garden. During his tenure abroad in India, Noah worked on a farm while studying the impact of the Green Revolution on a small, rural village. These experiences bolstered a notion that was introduced by his teachers and furthered by his observations of the world.

This notion, the one that inspired FYF, goes like this: our agricultural system is broken. Grocery stores are stocked with artificially colored, synthetically ripened vegetables that travel thousands of miles and touch countless hands before ending up on crowded shelves. We have no idea where this food comes from or how it was raised but we add it to our cart because it’s cheaper. Cheaper in nutrients and cheaper in taste. The answer to these problems is simple. Find your farmer. Find out who they are and what they grow. We wanted to give people an easy outlet to do just that.

We plan to start off in St. Louis to understand how the market works and what people want out of a service like ours, and then move into other cities throughout the United States, employing the lessons we learn along the way. 

Our team consists of five Washington University students and one Washington University professor (our mentor). At WashU, Noah was in the College of Arts & Sciences and studied Global Health and Environment, while Ben was in the Olin Business School and studied Finance and Accounting. The rest of our team members are Anish Naik, who studied Computer Science; Spencer Stewart, who studied Political Science; Francis Serrano, who studied biology and Peter Boumgarden, who has experience in strategic management and serves as the director of the Center for Experiential Learning. 

Our company has taken Olin’s pillars of excellence into great consideration. We are a values-based company that strives to foster community, protect the planet and promote the health and wellbeing of our clients. Our pro-social mission—to create a world where every person knows their farmer by name and story—is an extension of the Olin philosophy. As we learned at Wash U, every company has an ethical obligation to the planet and society. FYF intends to consider this obligation at every stop along our journey. And this isn’t the only Olin teaching that we apply in our business philosophy.

FYF is a data-driven company.

We use data to show people how their purchases can impact themselves and the world around them. In addition, we leverage experimental testing to develop and adapt an ideal user experience. 

FYF is globally oriented.

We analyze best practices from many different services and offer a variety of features to ensure that our service meets the demands of our target population. 

FYF is experiential.

We strive to offer people a better idea of our farmers’ practices and motivations by providing videos and interviews that provoke customer engagement. In addition, we are committed to developing strong, personal relationships with our partnering farms. 

FYF is entrepreneurial.

We studied trends and took advantage of a perceived opportunity. For example, we noticed that COVID has pushed more and more people to shop online. The disease also demonstrated to farmers the vulnerability of wholesale revenue streams.

Our goal is to leverage the lessons that we learned through our academic studies to create a service that supports local farmers, builds farmer-consumer relationships, provides individuals with healthier, tastier food products and cuts down on carbon emissions. Every order made through our platform serves to further these goals.

Check us out at www.find-your-farmer.com.

Katherine Spencer’s spring semester went nothing like she’d planned. She was supposed to spend the semester in Madrid as her junior year study-abroad experience.

When plans changed, she didn’t slow down. Within days of returning to the US, Katherine created the Crested Butte Tip Jar. Using her network—and lessons from her WashU Olin classes—she launched an online giving platform that raised $68,000 to keep her town’s restaurant workers from going homeless or hungry. 

“It was remarkable,” said Katherine, BSBA ’21. “We got these texts back from people saying things like, ‘I was able to buy my kids an Easter gift.’ Or, ‘you helped me pay my rent.’”

And it all started with a trip to a taco shop.

A town ravaged by a pandemic

On the afternoon of Monday, March 16, Katherine and her mom, Haden, walked through the streets of Crested Butte, Colorado. It was a gorgeous, warm day, “perfect for spring skiing,” Katherine remembered.

But as they passed through Elk Avenue, the main street in town, the streets were empty.

When they stopped in their favorite taco shop, Tacos Local, they learned they were the first customers of the day—a drastic difference for a town that had been preparing for cars and planes full of spring breakers. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders, spring break was canceled.

Wanting to do something to help this local business, they left a significant tip and went on their way.

Spreading the wealth

Both Katherine and Haden loved this town, where they’d spent much of Katherine’s childhood. And they realized there were plenty of people like them, who wanted to help the restaurants in this tourism-dependent town, but had no real way of doing so from afar.

That night, the Spencers sat at their kitchen table and got to work. “I called a friend who’s an engineer, and asked him to put a website together in 48 hours. We started calling every restaurant owner,” Katherine said. “It was a real startup mentality.”

After a few weeks of work, Katherine and Haden had raised and distributed $48,000 through the virtual tip jar. They felt shocked—and accomplished. By April 5, certain they’d kept the “jar” open long enough and raised far more than they’d intended, the Spencers shut down the fundraiser.

Over the next five days, they were bombarded with emails, texts and messages from people who still wanted to donate—so they reopened the jar, but set a final closing date of May 5.

In the end, when they closed the jar for good, the Spencers had raised $68,000 for the restaurant workers of Crested Butte. They saved family holiday celebrations, helped people keep their homes and kept countless restaurants from going under for good.

Putting it all into practice

For Katherine, this was a chance to make something meaningful happen in a semester that was nothing like she’d expected—but it also gave her the opportunity to put into practice what she’d learned in the classroom.

“We do so many Excel models in class,” she said—but like most students, Katherine wondered whether her coursework would really matter in the “real world.”

“Olin really focuses on teaching us how to use tools strategically,” she said. “I saw how that can really make a difference.” When their system of tracking donations and where they should go quickly became unsustainable, Katherine quickly pivoted and created a systematic Excel file that could manage the distribution of funds to restaurants and employees—just like she’d done in class.

“You’re sitting in class, going over Excel stuff, wondering if it’ll ever really be useful,” she said. “But I started to see how everything we do in the classroom has a real effect.”  

Katherine also credits Olin for giving her the courage to embrace her entrepreneurial spirit. “Olin is a very innovative place,” she says. “I’m naturally very entrepreneurial. The ability to innovate and think on my feet is something that’s always been a part of me. But Olin gave me the confidence to do that.”

Katherine hopes her example can show other people that you don’t have to be a hero, or an expert, to make a real impact. “We had no idea what we were doing,” she says. “I hope people can imagine a mother and daughter team sitting at the kitchen table, with 36 hours to make this live, and think, ‘I could do the same thing.’ It doesn’t have to be something huge—but we can all do something.”   

To learn more about the ways Washington University students, faculty, staff and alumni are caring for one another and our communities, visit #WashUtogether.

A combined effort from WashU Olin Business School’s Center for Research in Economics and Strategy, Koch Center for Family business and the St. Louis Small Business Task Force aims to provide support for small businesses in a trying time while providing experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate students.

According to a press release published on PRWeb on May 26, the partnership, headed by Glenn MacDonald, Olin professor of economics and strategy, paired groups of students with seven local businesses. Each business represents an industry that’s been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders.

The businesses involved include:

• Arco & Associates
• Chill-Pak
• Core Properties
• Diba Imports L.P.
• Eckert’s
• Shanti Yoga
• So Hospitality Group

“I think this is a great opportunity to bring together top-notch minds to help our business community and the regional economy,” Glenn MacDonald said in the PRWeb press release. “Our students are some of the brightest and most motivated individuals in the country, and I am excited to involve them in this effort. It is a win-win—the students will learn from this unique experiential learning opportunity and the business owners will come away with a fresh perspective and innovative solutions.”

In addition to helping small businesses and getting real-world experience, the top three teams  received a cash prize.

Alivia Kaplan, BSBA ’22, acted as the program manager for the endeavor—so she got to see every aspect of students’ presentations and recommendations play out.

“It’s giving us the opportunity to use the skills we learn in class to help local business owners navigate their way through this particularly difficult time,” she said. “Supporting local entrepreneurs by helping them address the challenges presented by COVID-19 is an amazing way to support our community.”

And the project gave Kaplan the experience of being a consultant—and an entrepreneur. “This project gave me the opportunity to learn more about the day-to-day challenges of running a business. Working with these entrepreneurs to understand their approaches to problem solving and change management has given me insight into the approaches I want to take, both in work and in my personal life.”

Teams of undergraduate students presented their final recommendations to the business owners in a series of publicly-streamed Zoom presentations on June 3 and 5.

Judges presented the first-place win to the student team representing So Hospitality Group, followed by Chill Pak in second place and Diba Imports in third.

For Kaplan, this experience has meant helping her community while honing her own business skills. “It’s exciting to see how the skills I’m learning at Olin can be applied to help real people and real businesses,” she said. “And I feel like the project we’re doing is going to have a positive impact and help local companies adapt as they approach new challenges.”