Smart Woman Securities

A new organization has been launched on the campus of Duke University that will change the way female undergraduates prepare to enter the real world. Smart Woman Securities (SWS), a not-for-profit organization focused on investment education for undergraduate women, will provide resources upon which women can build greater knowledge of the financial markets through instructive seminars, mentoring initiatives, and meetings with successful investors. MORE

Interview with Stephanie Downey: Leader and Founder of the Duke Chapter of Smart Woman Securities MORE

This March, three members of the Boston College Chapter of Smart Woman Securities (SWS) visited Nebraska to meet notable American investor and industrialist Warren Buffett. MORE

Amy Hinz is a sophomore and a hard-core “CSOM-er.” In addition to being in the CSOM honors program and working in the Business Law Office, she also co-founded a new organization on campus called Smart Woman Securities. MORE

Two Fordham students had the opportunity to meet Buffett at a conference in Omaha, Neb. from March 31 through April 2. Rebecca Horne and Nicole D'Souza, both GSB '13, served as Fordham's representatives for an annual event that marks the only time Buffett meets with undergraduate students each year. MORE

In 2005 Tracy Britt and Teresa Hsiao were juniors studying economics at Harvard when they discovered that while women want to manage money and make money, there were few ways in which they could learn how to do the managing part. Though there were lots of investment clubs on campus, most of them included people who already knew about investing, and therefore many women were too intimidated to join. MORE

SWS, or Smart Woman Securities, is coming to the University. From its start at Harvard in 2006, SWS quickly expanded into several other Ivy League schools. It seeks to accomplish a number of goals. First and foremost, SWS educates women about investing, as junior members assume the roles of analysts while senior members act as portfolio managers. Additionally, SWS provides networking opportunities to assist them in breaking into Wall Street, a realm traditionally dominated by men from white shoe backgrounds. MORE

For Smart Woman Securities, one of Fordham's newest clubs, last Friday marked a new beginning in the organization's professional development. Four representatives from the SWS Fordham chapter joined almost 100 delegates from SWS National at J.P. Morgan's Manhattan offices for a day of personal attention from banking professionals. MORE

New “Senior Legacy” awards were given to those who helped create new paths for future CBA students to follow, and those who developed new clubs or revitalized existing programs at Fordham. Among those honorees were: Angela Luongo and Anu Joseph, who helped found the Fordham chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a club that focuses on investment education for undergraduate women. MORE

Carroll School of Management sophomores Laura Travers and Sayoko Kumamaru traveled to Omaha, Nebraska last month to participate in the annual Warren Buffett Trip sponsored by Smart Woman Securities (SWS), a national not-for-profit organization focused on investment education for undergraduate women. MORE

Tuesday evening, Smart Woman Securities hosted a panel entitled “Is Investing the New Shopping?” as a way to soft launch their group that has the goal of educating undergraduate women about investing. The panel, which included members of the Boston College administration, as well as students from the Carroll Graduate School of Management, led a discussion on a broad range of investment and financial topics. MORE

When he graduated as a history major from Dartmouth, Doug Peabody ’74 said he did not know a stock from a bond. Years later, he became a founding investor in America Online and served as vice chairman of the company. Peabody shared his investment insight and perspective on the nation’s current financial situation in a presentation at the Rockefeller Center hosted by Smart Woman Securities on Monday. MORE

In 2008, Alt also founded the Columbia chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a not-for-profit group started by two Harvard undergraduates that promotes financial literacy among women. That fall, SWS hosted a 10-week seminar series for undergraduate women at Columbia that addressed issues in personal and professional finance.

“Women often are not prepared for the kind of financial challenges that will come up in their lives,” says Alt, explaining her efforts to bring SWS to Columbia. “On average, we had about 50 women a week come to an 1½-hour seminar.” MORE

Last year, a group of female Fordham students enlisted the help of Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of College of Business Administration (CBA), to join with the Ivy League colleges Harvard, Yale and Columbia in opening campus chapters of a group that promotes women in business.

The non-profit group, Smart Woman Securities (SWS), was created three years ago to help build a new generation of women with greater investment knowledge, fiscal responsibility and financial influence. MORE

As the markets dither seven miles to the south, Columbia students are just beginning to feel the impact of America’s economic crisis. MORE

Currently [Anastasia Alt]'s launching a Columbia chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a club started in 2005 at Harvard to give women a crash course in investing. MORE

Though finance has historically been a male-dominated career path, four Columbia students intend to reverse that trend through Smart Woman Securities, a not-for-profit organization which aims to improve investment education for college women. MORE

A few weeks ago on Mad Money's Ladies Night edition, a few stocks were pitched by Harvard's Smart Woman Securities, and after doing research, Cramer has reached his conclusions on the stocks. FLO was "right" two weeks ago, but now that it has risen 13% on earnings, its rising costs are a reason to use the spike as a selling opportunity. Pharmerica may look good, but it is not tried and true enough for Cramer to get behind it. While Clorox was recommended as a great defensive play, Cramer sees rising raw costs and says the Lehman downgrade of CLX was "dead right." EnerNoc, which provides insurance for electric companies, is the best pick of the bunch, said Cramer, because it will improve energy efficiency, is a strong speculative play and has backing from top venture capital fund, Draper Fisher Jurveston as a backer. Cramer would buy EnerNoc.

From the Mad Money website: "Cramer goes head-to-head with Harvard's Smart Woman Securities Investment Club, a group of women whose investments beat the market by 10% last year." Click here to see the video!

Like the ancient Greeks who traveled hundreds of miles to hear the Oracle of Delphi, so went 98 Harvard students this weekend in search of business wisdom from the Oracle of Omaha—Warren Buffett. MORE

Three years ago I met a truly amazing person who changed the way I thought about my future. Who was she? A famous actress? An accomplished politician? A celebrity featured in a magazine? Nope. She was a finance professional and her job was to manage other people’s money. What exactly did that mean? Well, on a daily basis she looked after about $70 million dollars and invested it in the stock market. Growing up on a family farm in Kansas, I wasn’t exposed to the stock market much and her world baffled me. Sitting in a room with her as she explained the industry and her role in it, I was perplexed. How could a person be paid to invest other’s people money and what exactly did investing even mean? Well, over the next few hours, she walked me through her experiences, the industry, and more importantly the power of investing, and hopefully this article will provide you with a bit of insight on this amazing concept that continues to baffle so many people. MORE

For Harvard women in the workforce, starting salaries lag behind by $10K

Male Harvard College graduates who are entering the workforce next year will command substantially higher starting salaries than their female classmates, according to results of a survey of 901 seniors conducted by The Crimson. MORE

Imagine that you’ve found the perfect buy. It’s down more than it should be, and you’re perfectly poised to strike and make a couple of percentage points when the market adjusts. Suddenly, your computer clock jolts you back to reality. Rather than cashing in, you have to rush to class. MORE

Tracy Britt may be on the fast track to Wall Street, but her roots are firmly planted in Manhattan—Kansas—where she grew up on Britt’s Garden Acres, her family’s farm. She has since held internships at Bank of America, at Lehman Brothers, and also at 85 Broads—and served as president of Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business (HUWIB). But it is her modest background, she says, that formed the high-achiever she is today. MORE

While Dorothy left the Midwest to find her wizard, 85 Harvard students will travel to heartland America in early October to meet the man Time Magazine named the “Wizard of Nebraska”—the legendary investor Warren Buffett. MORE