November 20, 2007
More than 30 St. John’s University students gathered before the
sun was up on November 15 to participate in the Sixth Annual Day on
Wall Street program. Students were transported from the
Queens campus to several stops in downtown Manhattan by bus
throughout the course of the day.
Photo Gallery
Attendees had an early start with breakfast at Standard &
Poors as well as a video presentation and a morning of lectures on
various financial industry topics including equity research,
mergers and acquisitions, index services, career opportunities and
more. St. John’s alumni, Steven Murphy ’81CBA, managing
director, public finance, Thomas Lupo ’70Ed, ’75MBA, vice president
and general manager, directory services and Owen Ruhnke ’89CBA,
vice president, finance at Standard & Poors were in
attendance. Lupo and Ruhnke also helped facilitate the
morning’s lectures and activities.
Lunch was then served at The Depository Trust & Clearing
Corporation (DTCC) and was followed by an afternoon of lectures,
practical advice and a tour of the securities processing area and
vault. Anthony Savarese ’82CBA, ’85MBA, managing director of
customer service, James Femia ’83CBA, ’88MBA, managing director of
product management, Thomas Joyce ’73CBA, ’77MBA, director of
securities processing, and Keri-Ann Fornito ’99C, senior developer
of Information Technology at DTCC were present to share their
insights with students.
The next stop was Fidelity Investments where the program
included panels, guest speakers, a cocktail reception and
dinner. Robert Adams ’84CBA, ’88MBA, executive vice president
and Michael Lyons ’86CBA, senior vice president and CFO were in
attendance. A cocktail reception was held during which
students were able to network with financial industry
professionals.
Charles Menges Jr., CFA, ’66MBA, principal, Bernstein Global
Health Management, addressed attendees during dinner. Menges
encouraged students to be persistent in their job searches.
“Don’t let roadblocks stop you,” he advised. “Know what your
skill set is and convey that to who you want to work for. Start
with the fundamentals. You need to have fun in your job.”
Students were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to gain
insight from alumni who have succeeded in the finance
industry. “This [experience] is invaluable; there are so many
networking opportunities to learn about careers that I didn’t even
know were available,” commented Steven Bua ’09TCB. “The three
Fidelity speakers were great; they talked to us about their
experiences getting into their positions in their careers and it
made me feel as though if I work hard enough I can also achieve
that.”
Danielle Connolley ’09TCB said, “For St. John’s to provide
events like these is very important because it gives you an
opportunity to gain experience in the field and to learn from
successful alumni in the field before you actually are in it. These
days having a college degree is very commonplace, so to have this
experience gives us an edge over other students. Prior to today I
thought I was more interested in trading or investment banking but
after going to S&P now I realize that I might be interested in
research.”
Sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, the exclusive
annual Day on Wall Street program, for which there is an extensive
application process, offers eligible students an inside look at the
finance industry, networking opportunities and straight talk from
industry professionals about obtaining a career in
finance.
Over the years, the program has been hailed by students, alumni
and faculty members as a banner event which is both relevant and
beneficial. Tommy Wasilowski ’09TCB said, “I think this is a
great event; we have been at three great companies today and it’s a
perfect opportunity to see how it is in the real world. It’s hard
in a classroom to visualize how it is in the real world, but today
we actually get to see and talk with alumni from St. John’s who
were in the same position we are today. It’s great to see how we
can take what we learned in the classroom and apply it to the real
world.”