A team of Rhodes College students won the local final of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, which guarantees their spot at the regional competition in Boston later this month.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a competiton that allows teams to experience the responsibility and competitive nature of the investment management profession.
Students from 427 universities participated in local competitions, and the Rhodes team is among 54 local winners advancing.
Kristen Munson '19, Neil Li '18, Grant Ramey '18, and team captain Yui Zhao '18 will represent Rhodes at the regional competition, along with faculty adviser Jade Planchon.
“The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a rigorous global competition that tests our students’ knowledge and application of investment management principles, ethics, and professional standards,” says Department of Business Chair Pam Church. “To be among the 54 teams who are moving on to the regional challenge is an incredible honor for our students, and a testament to their hard work and commitment to the competition and their futures in the investment management profession.”
The CFA’s annual global competition provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Rhodes’ focus on liberal arts has equipped the team with a unique set of tools.
“The inter-disciplinary learning I gained from the liberal arts allows me to think broadly and critically about real-life problems,” says Zhao. “It has trained me to have an intellectually curious mindset and to have an approach to the CFA Research Challenge from the perspectives of finance, marketing, and social sciences.”
"Finance, and this competition itself, is much more than numbers, and they require necessary qualitative assumptions. The curriculum at Rhodes helped us prepare the arguments behind those assumptions," Li explains. "I personally used skills gained from both my history and business majors."
Winners of the Americas Regional Challenge will advance to the Global Final on April 27 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they will compete against the winners of the EMEA and APAC regional competitions. CFA Institute will livestream the Americas Regional and Global Finals.