Ethan Venoit ’23, M'24 is a finance major who is making the most of his four years on campus. He is currently enrolled in Barney’s 3+1 accelerated business program and is on schedule to graduate with an MBA in 2024. Along with this achievement, he is involved in the Barney ambassador program, serves as the finance chair of the Barney Leadership Council, and is a member of Q^2 Project. Venoit is planning to become an investment banking analyst with a focus on structured debt or merger and acquisition activity.
When asked how the Barney School has assisted him, he explains, “The Barney School helped me excel through the use of small class sizes. I was able to build a bond with my professors, both inside and outside the classroom. The formation of these connections allowed me to seek other project and professional opportunities, such as Q^2.” This led to his involvement in Q^2, which proved to be a huge success.
Through Q^2, Venoit and four other students competed in the Bloomberg Stock Trading Competition against 500 teams around the world. Through this competition, Venoit worked with Bloomberg terminals and chose to invest based on a high beta strategy that was partially hedged, and then bought more stable stocks to include in their portfolio. By the end of the competition, Venoit and his team placed in the top 20 percent of all teams and outperformed their target goal by 11 percent. This experience showed outstanding performance both internationally and professionally. Venoit learned from this experience that there is always room for improvement. Patience is necessary when determining the perfect time to trade, and teamwork shows its importance as each member has different levels of knowledge within specific industries. Venoit hopes that there will be more competitions in the future so he can expand his knowledge and experience.
Ethan Venoit ’23, Finance, Barney School of BusinessThe Barney School helped me excel through the use of small class sizes. I was able to build a bond with my professors, both inside and outside the classroom. The formation of these connections allowed me to seek other project and professional opportunities, such as Q^2.
This opportunity with the Bloomberg Trading Competition helped Venoit to prepare for his summer internship opportunity. “It also got me more familiar with using the Bloomberg Terminal and how to quickly pull up information from the various command functions. This experience also helped me to work with different people with different investment strategies and bring them into one cohesive strategy,” he says. This competition was great for Venoit’s resume and was a main talking point during his internship interview for Ziegler in the summer of 2022. He attributes his success and knowledge gained from this intern experience to his ability to land an interview with this company.
Professors at the University are a key factor in Venoit’s success. Specifically, Professor Goldstein positively impacted his experience at the University of Hartford. “He is a charismatic teacher who cares about his students—how their week is going and also how their other classes are going. He made participation an integral part of his classes, which made me, as well as other classmates, interact and solve problems with each other.” Venoit also expresses his gratitude to Professor Stec, who is “a great professor who integrates a host of practical applications in his classes through Excel as well as real-world exercises.” His professors are always there to look out for him and are an integral factor in his academic success, as well as his personal endeavors.
Before Venoit graduates with his MBA in finance, he hopes to take part in choosing stocks for the University of Hartford investment fund, as well as involve himself in a large research project based on the stock market. When asked if he would change anything about his experience, he says he would love to have met more new people, interact with more professors, and explore the variety of classes that Barney has to offer. What advice would he give to current students? “Take new chances and try things you never thought you would try. I would also strongly encourage students to put themselves out there and to not be afraid.”