Paying Dividends
In 2000, with the philanthropic support of Tucson businessman Bill Estes, the UA Foundation allocated $600,000 to the Eller College of Management with the novel intention of having students run a portion of the endowment portfolio as part of their Applied Investment Management class.
That initial investment has since grown to $3 million. This year, Eller received additional funds to reach a greater range of students, offering a small pool to undergraduate students in the Investments Club, a larger pool for master’s in finance students, as well as a fund for Eller’s Commercial Real Estate Club.
“It’s a major expansion of the program,” says Lecturer Daniel Kinnear, who first taught the class in 2014.
“Not many students have the opportunity to manage real money based upon their own stock research,” says Cecelia Coburn ’24, now a sales and trading analyst at Barclays. “That was something that I did not take for granted.”
Coburn also cites the invaluable experience of having to use market research to make pitches to teammates and peers — a practice she brought directly to the workplace. “Most importantly, this course provided me with confidence to take risks, due to the wide variety of resources and knowledge Mr. Kinnear shared with us.”