Fall 2023 Update

Sophomore Year Fall Quarter Highlights:

School:

My Fall Quarter was a busy one!

• In terms of school, this quarter, I took four classes: Intro to Financial Accounting, Business Calculus, Intermediate French, and U.S. History. 

• I am the brotherhood chair of my professional co-ed business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, at SCU, and I organized many brotherhood events, my favorite being the TopGolf event, as I got to show off my subpar golf skills ;)

• I got an on-campus job in the Multi-Cultural Center, where I helped organize events, create fliers, and provide day-to-day help around the office.

• I submitted my study-abroad application for Paris through SCU's business program, and I am awaiting the news regarding whether or not I got in; fingers are crossed! 

• I also joined the Leavey Scholars Program at SCU. This program is offered to Leavey School of Business students who achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.9 or higher for their Freshman year, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to join! I get priority registration each quarter (which is an attractive benefit), and I also get pre-enrolled in 4 honors-level courses offered only to Leavey Scholars. 

• I TA'd for my Intermediate French Class and helped with writing and speaking for our online sessions. 

Professional:

• This quarter, I wanted to expand my professional network. To do this, I connected with various people on LinkedIn and cold-emailed people I was interested in meeting! Because of this, I was able to meet with 17 professionals. Due to my interest in wealth management, I reached out to people primarily in this field and was fortunate enough to connect with many wealth management and finance professionals. I received an immense amount of knowledge and advice that has already benefitted me, and I could not be more appreciative of the time they took to meet with me (many of whom are on this email string :))

• I also continued to market myself. After every informational meeting I had, I asked if the person would be willing to be added to this mailing list, and either out of kindness or genuine interest (I hope it is the latter), they were happy to be added to the list. 

• I set up a Roth IRA to take advantage of compound interest and set myself up for retirement, as it is never too early to start investing in your future! (This was one of the pieces of advice I have been given from my many meetings) 

• I applied and interviewed for dozens of summer internships and landed an internship! I will intern at Coldstream Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with offices in the greater Seattle area that has focused for more than 25 years on helping high net-worth clients craft investment strategies and guide them through the wealth management process. I am thrilled and very thankful to have this opportunity and for the generosity of Coldstream and the many people from the team I was fortunate enough to speak with. I want to thank Josh Harris, in particular, for his work in setting up the summer internship. 

Life:

• Right now, I am enjoying my month off from school for Winter Break. I am spending a lot of time with friends and family, and although I may be older now, I still am shaking Christmas presents. 

• I went on a ski trip with my family to Snowbird, Utah. The snow was great, especially considering how early in the season it was. It was amazing to get back out on the slopes, but I find myself getting increasingly sore after each trip. 

• I am also playing more golf, but it is hard to get to the course when it's 40 degrees and raining; oh, how I miss the warm Seattle summer...                 

What's Next?

• Next quarter, I am taking four classes: Intro to Managerial Accounting, Archaeology, Statistics and Data Analysis I, and Global and Cultural Environment of Business (through the Leavey Scholars Program).

• I will continue to work in the Multi-Cultural Center next quarter.

• I will continue meeting with business professionals (I aim to meet with at least one person weekly).

• I will continue to be active on campus and get involved with as many things as possible!

Recommendation:

After our informational meeting, I was recommended a YouTube video called "The Principles For Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio" by Jordan Graham. Jordan is a Certified Financial Planner and Advisor at Brighton Jones, a wealth management firm in Seattle. The video discusses 500 years of history in 45 minutes and talks about the rise and fall of world powers and the cycle behind it. Here was one of my key takeaways: A country (let's say Country A) will improve certain aspects that make it more popular (such as cheaper labor) with other nations, and these other countries invest in Country A as it has distinct advantages instead of the current world superpower. We can see this right now. Countries worldwide outsource their production to China because of the significantly cheaper production costs. This has given China a huge advantage over the U.S. and has allowed them to catch up because other countries are investing in the Chinese Yuan, and thus, the U.S. dollar continues to weaken as we keep printing more and more money. This was just one of my many takeaways, and I could not recommend this video enough, as it will give you a new perspective on the world. 

If you have any other book recommendations, podcasts, etc., please send them to me! 

Also, if you know anyone in finance (especially if they are in wealth management) who would be willing to chat, please tell me about them, and we can figure out the best way to get introduced.

If you've read this far, thank you for your interest in my development. 

Wishing you all warm regards and a very happy holidays!

Jenson