As the College prepares to send the Class of 2019 across the Cistern Yard May 10-11, The College Today will highlight how some of our graduating seniors spent their time at CofC, and what the future holds.
Taylor Crawford likes a good challenge. She likes to understand all the factors that make something tick. And she’s not afraid to take risks if the numbers are on her side.
That’s why the Honors College student from Anderson, South Carolina, will trade the slower paced vibe of the Holy City for the electric energy of the Big Apple after she graduates on Saturday, May 11, 2019, with dual degrees in finance and economics. After completing an internship last summer with the asset management firm Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisors in New York City, Crawford immediately began searching for entry level jobs that would allow her to keep growing her investment skills. And by December 2018 – five months ahead of graduation – she had a job lined up for the following July as an associate analyst with the international financial services company Moody’s, also in NYC.
“I just love the complexity of it,” says Crawford of her interest in investing and the stock market. “It gives you the constant opportunity to continue to learn new things – you have to be constantly adapting and evolving to the changing market environment. And that’s something that I find really fascinating and motivating. It just made me want to continue to press further and do more.”
When she came to the College, Crawford was confident she wanted to pursue a career in finance and economics. But she wasn’t sure which career path she should take. She interned the summer after her freshman year with the Coastal Community Foundation, a Charleston-based organization that raises funds to distribute as grants. The following summer, she explored the world of banking as an intern for a Charleston-branch of CresCom Bank, where she worked in the bank’s finance and accounting department.
It was the internship at Weiss, however, that made Crawford realize her true calling was on Wall Street. But she already had an inkling the world of interest rates, securities and investment assets might be for her.
As a Market Process Scholar, a multi-year mentoring program through the College’s Center for Public Choice and Market Process, Crawford got to visit with business, community and academic leaders in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., to better understand market issues in their respective business or geographical areas. She, along with her Market Process Scholars colleagues, were also able to speak with some of the leading experts in economics, including Vernon Smith, a Nobel Prize winner in economics. And, during the two years she served as a private equity analyst and then performance analyst with the School of Business’ Investment Society, Crawford got to learn firsthand about the ins and outs of investing in the stock market as well as in private equities.
Crawford says one of the keys to her success in understanding and successfully navigating the fields of finance and economics was that she asked questions and maximized her networking opportunities.
“I didn’t have a lot of connections personally coming into College, so I just talked to as many professors as I could on campus, and they then would help connect me to people they knew outside of campus in the Charleston financial community – and, through them and through doing the internships, I was able to learn more about the field,” says Crawford, noting that Mark Pyles, finance professor and director of the Investment Society, was instrumental in encouraging her and connecting her to different opportunities, including her internship at Weiss.
The growth Crawford has shown in her time at the College, says Pyles, is gratifying and illustrates why programs such as the Investment Society and Market Process Scholars are important.
“The self-confidence she has obtained and her comfort in being among the best students at the College are rewarding to see and are evidence that specialty programs do indeed make a difference in the academic experience of exceptional young men and women,” says Pyles.
As she prepares to end her chapter at CofC, Crawford doesn’t plan to stop learning.
“I think it’s really important to understand that once you graduate – yes, it’s an accomplishment, but it’s not over,” she says, adding that she wants to begin studying to receive her certification as a chartered financial analyst. “It’s very important what you do in those years after you graduate. So, I plan on learning as much as I can in my job.”
That’s a smart investment.
Other notable Class of 2019 graduates from the Honors College and School of Business include: Sophia Emetu, Katie Duchinkski, John Cobb, William Blanchett, Haley Moore, Danya Firestone, Leanna Conti, Brandie Hawkesworth and Mackenzie Schaich.
