Harbert’s ongoing push for excellence drives the creation of our Financial Leadership Collaborative, which enhances the student experience and further engages alumni and business partners.
Auburn’s Financial Management Association has made incredible strides with the vested and engaged help of its student members, young alumni and backers.
As we send another class of graduates into the field and celebrate our seventh year, I find myself spending more time with FMA’s archived materials, especially those related to our first graduating class of 2015, and thinking about similarities and differences between that period and now.
The truth is, I often get so focused on getting where we are going that I don’t stop to absorb how far we have come. All FMA alumni who purposefully participated in our growth should share in the celebration of what we’ve been able to accomplish in just seven years. We now have three practical application courses built into the FMA curriculum, have integrated the Auburn Student Investment Fund, and have established a training and mentoring program that would be considered rigorous by any evaluating body.
I often hear graduates, or even seniors, say, “I wish I could go back and have that (additional training) experience of the younger FMA members.” Our first-year students did not have a designated space; there were no alumni connections in top companies helping to prepare them. There was no new member program, no leadership training, no financial modeling course, no financial summit, and little available marketing.
But today’s members nonetheless share some key characteristics with the classes that have graduated before them: a fearless commitment to learning, a deep-seated sense of intellectual curiosity, a determined push for self-improvement, and an impatience for results. The benefits reaped by each year’s members have been undeniably sown by the deliberate and uncompromising efforts of those who have gone before them.
This year, Dean Ranft and the Harbert College will continue to support our push for excellence, with the construction of a state-of-the art financial leadership collaborative that will include renovated Tiger Lab instruction space, as well as a student financial center that will serve as the new home for our program.
Our emphasis on excellence and preparation is not new work for FMA; you see that clearly in the trajectory and stewardship of our most established alumni. After seven years, however, this focus remains our most pressing and highest priority. Working to achieve a truly engaged and prepared graduate not only deepens our members’ educational experience, but also offers a model of pride for our alumni to stay involved and invested.
Tracy Richard Director
Integrated Financial
Leadership Program
