Tucked away in Dunton Tower, 16 Carleton business students are learning first-hand how to manage investments.
This is the team running The Fund @ Sprott, an extracurricular investment fund started in 2007 that gives a small group of Sprott students the chance to practice investing with money, according to The Fund’s website.
Third-year commerce student Yumun Sisalem said she joined The Fund in March on the advice of a friend.
“[The Fund] means the world to me and it is how I got my co-op job,” she says. “Interacting and talking with upper-year students as well as [faculty director] Howard Nemiroff is invaluable.”
The Fund is broken down into four levels, with new members starting as basic analysts, which can lead to a sector manager position, according to The Fund’s website. The portfolio manager and the macro and special project analyst are at the top of the chain.
Carleton’s business school originally gave The Fund a start-up investment of $50,000. By April 2011, that amount had grown by 25 per cent, according to the group’s website.
“[It’s] a conservative fund. Because we are here for a learning experience, our goal is to preserve the capital and grow it moderately,” says Greg Sharpe, a fourth-year commerce student in his third year with The Fund.
Carleton’s business school invested an additional $1 million into The Fund this spring, giving them half the money in April and saving the rest for winter 2012.
“[It] allows us to further diversify our portfolio and therefore spread the risk across more holdings,” Sharpe says.
Not only does The Fund give students a chance to apply their knowledge, it’s “a warm group that creates a comfortable learning environment,” says Zhihao Aaron Chen, a third-year commerce student working with The Fund for the first time this year.
Sisalem also says she finds the experience invaluable.
“[The Fund] is probably the best decision I made in my undergrad,” she says.
