Marching Forward During COVID-19
Rob Carney, IRAM rock star who will be interning at Ford in the Treasury Leadership Program this summer, wrote a wonderful piece about how the Johnson and IRAM community have come together to support each other during our virtual learning period. Reposted with permission but please see the piece on LinkedIn here if you would like to share!
Just a few months ago, Johnson 1st-year MBA students in the Investment Research and Asset Management (“IRAM”) immersion were in the midst of balancing recruiting with a demanding course load, with the eager anticipation of warmer spring weather, celebrations with classmates and innumerable course assignments to prepare for the varied roles in equity research and asset management that many were in the process of securing. But the semester took a momentous twist when it became increasingly clear to the leaders at Cornell that the current strategy to keep the community safe from COVID-19 needed to be drastically altered. Effective Friday, March 13, Cornell paused all classes for three weeks to give faculty the time to transition to virtual instruction and to give students who feel more comfortable returning home (and possibly moving out of their apartments) the time to do so.
These tumultuous times have caused a heightened level of anxiety across the community, but Johnson’s collaborative and innovative community has continued to brightly shine. With respect to recruiting, nearly every first-year student in the IRAM immersion has secured a summer internship at a variety of companies and banks across the country such as Dimensional Fund Advisors, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Vanguard. Students who currently have secured internships are hearing largely positive news from companies, with many already announcing that they will be proceeding with the internship. However, in many cases, a virtual experience will be necessary. Students acknowledge the challenge this will pose, with the students I’ve corresponded with all saying that they are grateful that companies are taking health concerns seriously, but they acknowledge that this will cause them to need to work more strategically and actively to form connections across the work groups they’ll be in over the summer. For the students who are still recruiting, they are concerned that the internships that normally would open up at the end of the semester may diminish and have expressed frustrations about the new obstacles they now face in finding new opportunities and forming professional connections.
Despite all of these challenges, the inclusive and welcoming nature of the Johnson community has shone through. Last week, an internship for an equity research position was posted on Johnson’s internal job posting board for all students to see. Shortly after that posting, first-year IRAM student, Esha Vaish, aware that some students are still looking, relayed the announcement to everyone in the immersion that the position had been posted. Boris Huang, a Master’s in Engineering student who is also pursuing the IRAM immersion had the following to say about the community, “Everyone from IRAM is very, very friendly. I just got out of a meeting with Alex Hess and Ethan Everett [for a project in the IRAM practicum]. They have been very welcoming and helpful with being teammates. Even though there’s a pandemic spreading out, the IRAM students are still going above and beyond to help each other.”
As classes started this week, many expressed curiosity as to how instructors would offer the same experience in a virtual setting. If I’m honest, I was a little skeptical that we would be able to achieve a comparable level of engagement, but I am pleased to announce that my doubts have been blown out of the water. The three-week pause proved very useful as faculty adeptly ran discussions through Zoom (the standard online learning platform used at Johnson), sharing slides, writing on an electronic chalkboard, and even facilitating a stock debate in one class the first day back, with students heatedly contesting whether to buy or sell Disney and Tesla. As men and women around the world continue to hope, work and pray for an end to the horrific destruction the COVID-19 has inflicted upon so many, I am confident that the Johnson community will continue to be a strong example of the Johnson 4Cs of Courage, Competence, Character and Compassion!