2019 - 2021 FMA Magazine

GIRLS WHO INVEST
In 2021, FMA celebrated its 4th student
acceptance into the prestigious
Girls Who Invest (“GWI”) Summer
Intensive Program. GWI seeks to
address the gender imbalance in the
male-dominated asset management
sector by equipping women with the
necessary technical and behavioral
skills to succeed in a career in
investing. This 10-week program
entails four weeks of classroom
experience at Wharton and Notre
Dame, followed by a six-week
internship with a leading asset
manager. The training portion of the
program culminates into a capstone
project, where women have the
opportunity to consult with a Fortune
500 company’s investor relations team
and formulate a pitch to a committee
of investors.
Kennedy Jarvis, a rising senior and
2021-2022 co-president of FMA,
completed the program in summer
2020. Kennedy’s expectations were
based on the experiences of previous
GWI alumni, Jenny Herrell (’20) and
Emily Mills: lots of long days, hard
work, and late-night chats with new
friends. “Upon acceptance to the
program, I was informed I would
be spending the first portion of the
program, four weeks of intensive
training culminating in a final
presentation, in Philadelphia at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School. After that, I’d be continuing on
to Salt Lake City to join the developed
markets team at Wasatch Global
Investors as an equities analyst.”
The pandemic resulted in a virtual
program, but Kennedy said GWI
made a seamless transition. “I am
abundantly grateful to the GWI for not
even batting an eye before reassuring
us that our summer would proceed,
even if it looked a bit different. They
worked tirelessly to put together
a complete online curriculum,
consisting of live lectures, guest
speakers, and group presentations.
The team did their best to preserve
the overall experience and encourage
interaction between the scholars even
though we could not be together.
I am also thankful for the team at
Wasatch for putting together a training
program and looping me in on real,
team-benefitting projects in my short
and virtual time with them.” Kennedy
will intern with Moelis in NYC this
summer.
GWI’s goal is simple: Build a pipeline
of female asset managers so that 30
percent of global investable capital
is managed by women by 2030. FMA
shares in this vision. Former GWI
alum Jenny Herrell contends, “We
believe financial literacy offers women
and minorities the opportunity to
hold power over their future, pursue a
career with influence, and ultimately
better their communities and bring
about change in both political and
social spheres. Financial literacy
provides the opportunity to control
your own wealth, and wealth implies
power, which ultimately garners
influence.”
Throughout the summer, Kennedy,
like the women that participated in
the program before her, continuously
emailed IFLP director, Tracy Richard
with ideas for programing and
training, adding to the framework for
the Auburn Student Investment Fund,
which Kennedy oversaw during her
junior year.
34 FMA 2019-2021 MAGAZINE