By Liz Coffin-KarlinThe Daily Northwestern
About 45 Northwestern students will grab their laptops, calculators and notepads this weekend and head over to the Donald P. Jacobs Center for a two-day Wall Street “boot camp.”
The training company Wall Street Prep, in partnership with NU’s Institute for Student Business Education, will offer an intensive course aimed at giving liberal arts majors a hands-on introduction to the business world.
“(The program) bridges the gap between what students can learn in school and what they’ll actually be doing on the job,” said Arkady Libman, managing director of Wall Street Prep.
All instructors for the financial trading seminar are former Wall Street professionals, and classes include material on accounting, Microsoft Excel for finance, financial statement analysis, financial modeling and introductory valuation.
The advanced seminar has no prerequisites and is open to all students.
“We don’t assume you need a certain major in order to participate,” Libman said.
If this year’s program goes well, Wall Street Prep hopes to make the seminar an annual event, Libman said.
Although the Wall Street Prep program premiered last year at NU, this is the first year the company has worked with ISBE, which worked to market the event to undergraduates. The extra marketing could account for the rise from last year’s enrollment of 25 students, said Weinberg sophomore Katherine O’Koniewski, an ISBE member.
“Students gain experience and a business education that they can’t receive at Northwestern,” O’Koniewski said. “This provides an outlet and insight into the business world.”
Because NU does not offer either a finance or an accounting major for undergraduates, some students say this type of program has a larger impact here than at schools offering these majors.
Weinberg sophomore Danny Westen, an economics major, signed up for the program to better prepare for experienced competition for summer internships.
“This would get me up on their level,” Westen said.
The seminar “might give context to the sorts of things I’ve learned in class,” he said.
Weinberg senior Eric Cannon, also an economics major, worked for New York financial trading company UBS this summer and attended a training camp that featured a three-day Wall Street Prep seminar.
“It was a great program for the amount they were able to teach you in a short period,” said Cannon. “There were great teachers who had actual experience with finance and banking.
