Investing in Duke’s Future: The Goodner Equity Project Turns 15

The 2025–2026 academic year marks the fifteenth anniversary of The Goodner Equity Project (ECON 472S).

What began as an experiment between Emma Rasiel, Richard Y. Li. Professor of the Practice of Economics, and hedge fund manager and Duke alumnus Blake Goodner (T ’96) has become one of the most distinctive learning experiences in the Department of Economics.

The course grew out of the Duke Financial Economics Center (DFE), founded in 2010 under Rasiel’s direction to give undergraduates structured opportunities to apply classroom theory to real-world financial problems. 

Funded by an endowment from Blake and Lois Goodner, the course was designed to offer students a first-hand look at how professional investors think and work.

“When Blake and I teamed up fifteen years ago, our initial idea was to give students money to invest and see what happened,” Rasiel said. “That didn’t fly, but what we did instead was something even better.”

She and Goodner reimagined the class as an exercise in training thoughtful investors, not fund managers. “We decided to leave money out of it but help students become better, more thoughtful investors,” Rasiel said. Their small half-credit pilot proved so successful that it evolved into a full seminar.

Each fall, ten senior economics majors enroll in the course. Working closely with both Goodner and Rasiel, they conduct in-depth equity research projects on public companies selected by Goodner. He typically proposes 18 to 20 companies he or his team know well, and the students form pairs, each of which picks one to analyze throughout the semester.

The course begins with fundamentals: financial modeling, analyzing company filings and building valuation frameworks. But what truly defines the course is the emphasis on proprietary, hands-on research. In the past, students have visited stores, conducted surveys and reached out through Duke’s alumni network to gather industry insight.

According to Rasiel, this process often leads students to think differently about the role of leadership in a company’s future. “Before taking the course, I don’t think the students had ever thought, for example, about the importance of management and whether you can trust them,” she said. “Those lessons only come from someone who’s been in the markets doing that work.”

The seminar stays intentionally small. “Word of mouth means there are always a lot of students who want to take it, but we keep it to ten students,” Rasiel said. With two larger lecture classes also on her schedule, she appreciates the chance to teach a tightly connected group in a setting where every student has a voice.

Each semester, Goodner attends several sessions in person and the rest via Zoom. “Whether Blake joins in person or on Zoom, he’s got a great personality for projecting himself and communicating with the students,” Rasiel said. “Not only do the students learn, but I also learn from him. We’re all getting incredible insights.”

Goodner initially approached Duke when he was 12 years out of school, eager to make a meaningful contribution to his alma mater. The class became his opportunity to give back while sharing his experience as a professional investor. 

“It’s a way for me to use my brain that’s not investing every day in the markets,” he said.

Over time, the relationships he’s built with students have become the lasting reward. Many of them stay in touch after graduation, meeting for coffee when they move to New York and seek career advice.

“A couple of them ended up working in investment areas similar to mine, and we’ve shared ideas — real, live ideas — after they graduated,” Goodner said.

He sees the course as a prototype for Duke’s broader goals in experiential education. “Emma and I talk about how this class is a blueprint for what Duke would like to create. It’s all about offering more applied learning opportunities that align with and augment the traditional academia,” Goodner said. “We have done it in public equities, but you can also do it in private equity, credit, crypto, or even in law, science or the humanities.”

Fifteen years in, the course continues to reflect Duke’s growing emphasis on applied, real-world learning, while strengthening ties among students, alumni and faculty. 

Looking back on its evolution, Goodner summed it up: “I didn’t know when we started whether it was going to be successful, but it’s worked really well. The best part of the class is that I have a relationship with all of these students. It’s incredible.”