Challenge Accepted: UNK Finance Students Make an Impression at the CFA Challenge

Dr. Tim Jares, Dean of UNK’s College of Business and Technology, understands the rigor associated with the Chartered Financial Analysis (CFA) Institute Research Challenge. Jares earned a Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute and, at his prior school, took several groups of students to competition. He explains that the challenge, where students present to a group of CFA professionals, is “incredibly rigorous.” It comes as no surprise to him that CBT Professor, Dr. Nam Le, and his students competed with other schools well at their first-ever CFA Equity Research Challenge.

As an assistant professor of finance, Dr. Le, who is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, is impressed by his team of five seniors who represented the University of Nebraska at Kearney at the school’s first-ever CFA Challenge. Le works with students in his classes to help them select and manage investments in class to gain the type of real-world investment experience they will need when they graduate college and begin their professional lives. 

Ethan Knust, one of Dr. Le’s students who participated in the CFA Challenge, explains the significance of his education as he shares the “multiple instances” when has been given the opportunity in class to “evaluate a company on various metrics to analyze their performance and the trends (seen) over a period.” Knust and his fellow students used this analysis to find their own intrinsic price to compare to the current market. This type of real-world application to their lessons helped these students to perform well at the CFA Challenge where they needed to be able to “recommend a buy, sell, or hold position” for Union Pacific stock. He enjoyed having the chance to take what he learned in class and apply it in a real-world situation.

Knust is not the only one who appreciates the significance of UNK’s first-ever experience with the CFA Institute. Dr. Jares explains how “the experience is absolutely tremendous for these students.” He appreciates how they spent “countless hours to do the analysis” for which he is quick to point out they “do not get paid or earn a grade.” Like Dr. Le and his students, Dr. Jares knows the CFA Challenge allows students an opportunity where they will also get to “network with professionals and students from other campuses with similar passions and interests.”

Although Knust is used to working hard in his classes, his workload increased as he, along with his team, prepared for competition. They vigorously researched and wrote a detailed report on Union Pacific to show exactly how they came up with the company value before, as Dr. Le explains, traveling to Omaha to share a 10-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute Q/A session. 

Dr. Le shares how his team “received pretty positive feedback” and were commended on the obvious “tremendous time and effort” they put into this challenge. Considering the fact that the CFA Challenge is a global competition which occurs every year, Dr. Le’s students rose to the occasion and put on a strong performance with the talented competition between the schools in their region. 

UNK’S College of Business and Technology is determined to give every student the opportunity to succeed in their future careers. The new financial labs with Bloomberg stations allow students to have real-time access to global financial news. This is a worthwhile investment for students who, along with the experiential learning they are experiencing in their finance classes, are being prepared for a successful professional future. Both Dr. Jares and Dr. Le, who have received the CFA certification which they share is the“worldwide gold standard” in the investment industry, understand that CBT students need more than what they can learn from a textbook. In addition to the degree students will receive upon graduation, their participation in the CFA Challenge will, according to Dr. Le, let future employers “immediately know this student is serious about this career path.” He adds that students, such as Ethan Knust, are creating a resume which will help them be seen as a “full package” candidate.  

Knust appreciates how the path to his future career was aided by the “great feedback” he and his team received after their presentation. He hopes that his team has started “a tradition for UNK to continue to participate” with this challenge. Considering the fact that there are more than 190,000 investment professionals involved with the CFA Institute, Dr. Le’s decision to take a team of students proved what UNK has known all along. Professionals are made at UNK’s College of Business of Technology thanks to the authentic use of the Bloomberg stations in the finance labs and opportunities for students to take what is learned in the classroom out into the real world. 

For this team of students, it doesn’t get more real than competing with other students as they assume the role of research analysts at the CFA Challenge. Although this was their first time competing, it certainly won’t be their last. These students, along with those who will follow in their footsteps, have accepted the challenge to learn all they can in order to make an impact on the world, one investment at a time.