Diversity Outreach Formerly Minority Outreach

27 January 2014 12:29PM

The Financial Education Partnership has hosted the Minority Reading Group for the past seven years and in doing so we have had the opportunity to meet students with varying backgrounds and knowledge of finance. It has been our pleasure to work with these students to help them gain a better understanding of the financial markets as well as educate and clarify the different aspects of finance.

 We are very proud of our participating graduating seniors who will now be going on to begin their careers with different firms in 2014, which include: Barclays, BNP, Citibank, Credit Suisse, McKinsey, RBS, Wells Fargo. In our effort to increase our reach with students we are expanding our Minority Outreach program to include women of all backgrounds, regardless of race, and renaming it the Diversity Outreach program to be more representative of our goal.  Racial minority groups are poorly represented on Wall Street as are women, which is why we gladly welcome all women to participate in our program this spring 2014.

Speaking with some of our graduating seniors gives us a better understanding of how and why the Diversity Outreach program is essential:

“When I first came to Duke, I did not have the slightest interest in finance. I don’t think I became interested until about midway through the second semester of my Junior year. I was almost positive that I would major in Public Policy or Political Science when I first arrived at Duke,” says graduating senior, Mischa Von Derek. “I first heard of FEP when talking to Dr. Rasiel about my potential interest in finance and she directed me to the program.”

 Getting students interested in finance and, at the very least, knowing what working in finance means is the goal of the Duke Financial Economics Center, the umbrella program under which FEP stems. For students serious about pursuing a career in finance, it is essential to start early, which makes advertising and reaching out to students as early as possible very important.

 “When I came do Duke I knew very little about Finance and even less about Wall Street, until I went to a FEP event hosted by a few upperclassmen and Dr. Rasiel my Freshman year,” Jerome Utley, “14. That even was part of our Minority Outreach program, now called Diversity Outreach. Jerome is now going to work in the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse.

 “FEP was definitely very helpful in terms of preparation and outreach. I would say definitely get involved in the [Diversity Outreach program] as it forces you to start reading important sources such as the WSJ daily. I believe that you learn the most about the ‘industry’ on a broader scale through doing this,” explains Mischa.  Mischa Von Derek received a returning offer at Barclays after his summer internship after his junior year and will be working on the Commodities Sales Desk after graduation.