April 01, 2019
The spring semester always brings a special energy. Seniors are finalizing their post-graduation positions, juniors are landing great internships and many sophomores are preparing to study abroad. Indeed, during the semester both faculty and students are hard at work, but it is important to us to take moments to celebrate great accomplishments.
And we have a lot to celebrate. Two of our seniors passed the first part—Level I—of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam. Sigmund Weis School of Business alumni who have passed all three levels of the exam—becoming CFAs—will attest that passing Level I while still in college is an incredible achievement.
Matthew Bershefsky ’19 and Ty Bricker ’19 each received a scholarship to take the exam through our new CFA affiliation agreement, which grants us seven per year. Five more senior finance majors who received scholarships are studying hard to take the exam in June. Matt and Ty’s success is further validation that the finance curriculum is in line with the top accrediting body—ensuring all our finance majors are learning the skills necessary to succeed after they graduate.
We are also celebrating a further expansion of international internship opportunities. This academic year, juniors studied and interned in Chester, England; London; and Barcelona, Spain. Next year, students will also intern in Hamburg, Germany, and Waikato, New Zealand. I recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong, where we are working to establish student internships over the January break and in the summer.
Our Center for Economics, Business, and Entrepreneurship Education has had a great second year. We trained more than 500 teachers and 1,500 students in 2018–19, all with the purpose of improving business education for K–12 students. Of course, a side goal is to develop better relationships with those teachers so that when their students think about studying business, they are excited to recommend Susquehanna University and the Sigmund Weis School.
And there is much more. A team of three business school students competed in the national e-Fest 2019 Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge, landing an April trip to Minnesota to pitch their business idea in the final competition that awards more than $250,000 to winners! Thanks in part to Susquehanna alumni, students continue to land impressive internships and jobs at leading firms around the world. Faculty and staff are working on innovative projects and have had their articles accepted at several prestigious journals.
As we near the end of this academic year, I am so proud of our students, faculty and alumni for their many achievements and look forward to seeing you back on campus soon!
Matthew C. Rousu
Dean, Sigmund Weis School of Business