As an active student in Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, sophomore Sam Hirsch is capitalizing on the opportunities thrown his way.

Hirsch is a double major in finance and accounting and is looking to declare a minor in either economics or global political economy. He serves as a Whitman peer mentor. He is from Long Island, and explained how last year as a first-year student, his mentor was not very helpful and that he wanted to be different than that.

“Being a peer mentor is more about giving back,” Hirsch said. “I want to actually help the freshmen and show them around Whitman, answer their questions and help them with their transition into their freshman year.”

Additionally, Hirsch is a member of SU’s Investment Club, a campus group that invests in both debt and equity instruments and holds weekly meetings to discuss how financial markets work and how to effectively invest and speculate. He described how the club is very informative on what is going on with global macroeconomic trends.

He recently went on the “Whitman on Wall Street” trip where he had a networking opportunity to visit several investment banks in New York City, including Morgan Stanley, Citibank and JPMorgan.

Hirsch, who is also a brother in the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, said he plans on running for the chapter’s treasurer position once he gains more experience. He explained that this position is in charge of the fraternity’s dues and budgeting for all activities: philanthropy, social, formal and brotherhood events. He is also exploring community service opportunities at the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living where he wants to volunteer with administrative and accounting tasks.

Because Hirsh is involved and interested in banking, finance and investments, he is looking forward to how Donald Trump’s presidency will strengthen the U.S. economy, referring to how the Dow hit 20,000 recently.

“It is really good that he is pro-American and that he is trying to bring jobs back into this country. Although there might be a lot of social issues, I think overall while Trump is president, the general well-being of the average American citizen will increase because there will be more jobs available,” he said.

Hirsch is thankful SU’s business school has provided him the resources and opportunities he needs in order to excel with his career later in life.

“Whitman always has the Wall Street Journal out every day for (students) to keep up with the news,” he said. “All the professors here have prior experience with the classes they’re teaching, which is really helpful because they can bring relevant industry experience to the table and not just read off a textbook, and also share their experience on what went on when they were in the business world.”

Published on January 29, 2017 at 8:02 pm

Contact Caroline: caschagr@syr.edu