By Brigid Burke, Guest Writer

For students interested in finance at Xavier, the class Finance 200, Financial Industry Exploration, provides a unique setting for students, specifically first-year and sophomore students, to learn about the opportunities available to them within the broad field of finance. 

“What sparked the idea is actually my prior chair, Julie Cagle,” Professor Kim Renners said. “Teach young people about different career paths, because there’s so many, also teach them about Excel and Fintech.”

This class focuses on career paths and internship opportunities, allowing students to not only learn valuable information about finance but also prepare for life after graduation. Finance 200 educates Xavier finance students about what possible careers in finance could look like. 

From specific industry trends to the details of various finance professions, the material learned in this class seeks to help students be informed about the options available to them post-graduation.

“This class is special because it is not as many technical skills but more the soft skills you need to succeed in a finance career,” junior finance major Josie Jurek said.“Learn how to properly network and get connections that help you with finding internships.”

The profession of finance covers a broad range of categories, such as banking, investing and real estate. Students taking Finance 200 learn about many of the professions mentioned above as well as the financial skills necessary for the professions through listening to guest speakers, using Edgar, capIQ and Bloomberg, along with participating in group projects. 

Students engage directly with finance through the avenues mentioned previously, actively learning through experience as opposed to solely listening to lectures. These experiential learning activities provide invaluable experiences to undergraduates that can shape their careers and help guide them into the area of finance they are most interested in.

“We’ll have lectures from eight or nine professors in finance, as well as speakers in areas such as healthcare, finance, and real estate as students are getting exposure to the Cincinnati community business professionals is huge,” Renners said.

Both Renners and Jurek emphasized this experiential learning aspect of the course. 

“A bunch of speakers, normally once a week, would come in and after each one we would do an activity. My favorite event was a wealth management event where they gave us mock clients and scenarios where we created investments for the situation,” Jurek said. 

“Every finance major needs two finance electives, and this counts as a finance elective,” Jurek said. 

“People looking for internships get connections from this class, and this class can give the connections to get internships. As a freshman or sophomore, it is the perfect time to build these connections.”          Xavier has a robust offering of finance courses, and as course registration approaches, students can consider registering for Finance 200, a class focused not only on learning in the classroom but also preparing students for what happens after they graduate.