UTM students discuss finance with Jackson’s Rotary Club

JACKSON, Tenn. – University of Tennessee at Martin finance students had the opportunity to present their hard work to the Rotary Club Wednesday afternoon.

UT Martin is one of the first schools that have benefited from the Tennessee Valley Authority Investments Challenge program. 

“TVA funds this program with money out of their retirement trust. They fund the investing. So all the purchases we make, all that comes from the fund that the TVA gives us. TVA also sends us to two conferences a year where they get to check in with the students, touch base with them, and then also kind of introduce them to professionals in the field,” said Brittany Cole, Assistant Professor in Finance at UT Martin.

These conferences allow them to have opportunities to network and learn from real-life scenarios.

Some of these conferences are in the state and others are across the nation. 

“We went there and we had a few projects that we had to work on. One was to work on a poster board to detail all of the decisions and performance. Another one was just making a mock portfolio, and we were also judge based off of that,” said Alex Bowker, a finance student at UT Martin.

Students are learning about the tech that is used, future career paths, communication skills, and more. 

This course can be taken as many times as the student wants and they are also given the chance to become peer leaders.

“So we have several students who this is their third semester in the course. They have a lot more responsibility this go around than they did their first time taking this course. They are responsible for their management team, they are responsible for reports and building presentations. So they keep building on those leadership skills from day one,” Cole said.

Cole says the opportunity to speak with the community is a great example of UT Martin’s mission statement.

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