New York City Students

ACTING DIRECTOR OF HUNTER COLLEGE CAMPUS SCHOOLS

“In the after school sessions (held on campus), the students were absolutely enraptured by the mentors who came and spoke with them each week. I found it both engaging and fascinating in listening to the students talk amongst themselves. The fact that they were talking about finance was spectacular!

As we rode the subway down today to visit our field trip location to Nasdaq, the students were saying this is the first time they could really talk about money and financial planning. It was too hard and embarrassing to talk about with their parents, so this is the first time they had the opportunity. It was an amazing moment.

Budgeting and finance discussions, and really taking ownership of personal finance, isn’t something that is included in the standard high school curriculum and to do so in the company of other young women with female mentors, it’s an extraordinary opportunity. It will serve them all their lives.”

– Lisa Siegmann, Acting Director, Hunter College Campus Schools, NY

We needed two field trip sites!

So many students from Hunter College High School enrolled in RTSWS this year, that we had to split the class in half to accommodate all 57 students at two field trip locations!

NASDAQ

First up, Nasdaq. One set of students went on their semester end RTSWS field trip to the Nasdaq offices on Lower Broadway to get a glimpse of real-time market action. There, they had the opportunity to meet with women from various firms to hear about investing in the stock market as well as the varied job opportunities across the financial services spectrum.

The women who made a difference in these girls’ lives on this day included:

Alice Wang, Managing Director, Global Head of CIB Operational Risk, JPMorgan
Jill Malandrino, Global Markets Reporter, Nasdaq
Farah Sodhi, AVP, Business Unit CFO, Nasdaq
Yulia Oleynik, CTP, Treasury Specialist, Nasdaq
Yordanka llieva, Senior Strategic Investment Associate, Nasdaq Ventures
Angela Matheny, Head of Diverse Manager Equity, Colonial Consulting

FIDUCIARY TRUST INTERNATIONAL

Further uptown, our second set of students were hosted by Fiduciary Trust International at their Park Avenue offices. Here, the girls heard about the benefits of being a financially independent woman, capital raising, portfolio management, business management and how to navigate internship opportunities.

Our career sherpas at this field trip site included:

Kristin Mott, Managing Director, Seamax Capital Management
May Tong, Portfolio Manager, Franklin Templeton Investments
Mandy McClung, Vice President, Associate Complex Manager, Morgan Stanley
Charlotte Beyer, Founder, Institute for Private Investors
Stephanie Weiss, Client Advisor, Bernstein Global Wealth Management
Charmaine Chin, Managing Director, K2 Advisors, Franklin Templeton Investments
Amanda Vardi, Vice President, Relationship Manager at Fiduciary Trust Company International
Meredith Johnson, Estate Settlement Associate, Franklin Trust Company

Principal Quest Foundation (PQF)

Some of the most often questions PQF hears from its members and guests are the following:

Do I dare?
Where does money figure in my values?
How closely aligned are my values to my behavior?

Led by Charlotte Beyer, (above), PQF attempts to address these deep-seated inquiries. PQF supports innovative education and creative mentoring programs for girls and women. Rock The Street, Wall Street is fortunate to be sponsored by PQF this academic year at Hunter College High School. We are honored to have been chosen by them to lead the way to girls’ better understanding of how finance fits into a lifetime of freedom.

Thanks Principle Quest Foundation!

Our students have started an unofficial PQF fan club.

Thanks, too, to the CFP Board, Abacus Planning Group, Douglass Winthrop Advisors, Wealthstream Advisors, Morgan Stanley and March Altus Capital Management whose female financial professionals gave so generously of their time and talent this past semester in the Hunter College High School classrooms to teach our students the importance of owning their financial lives!