Smart Woman Securities is a national not-for profit that provides an introduction into financial investments for female students only. The Cavalier Daily sat down with one of the University chapter’s founding members and chapter head, fourth-year Commerce student Chuhan Wang, to discuss the University’s chapter of SWS.
Cavalier Daily: When was SWS founded and what drove you to found a club like this?
Chuhan Wang: It was founded in the spring semester of my second year. I was a manager for another investment club on Grounds, and gradually realized that the existing financial clubs on Grounds could not offer educational service, in other words, teach students. Students tended to feel stressed out with confusions about real world finance practices. Meanwhile, there were not many girls in the financial clubs. Also, I happened to know that there is a Smart Woman Securities at Harvard University, and after talking to the founder of that club, I decided to develop a U.Va. chapter of the SWS. It was kicked off in the fall semester of third year. After a whole year of education programs in the fall and research programs in the spring, we saw its potentials and decided to run another series of education and research.
CD: Is the University chapter of SWS completely independent or attached to the Harvard University SWS?
Wang: We are still a chapter of the SWS at Harvard. We have been using the same name, but other than it, we figured out other things ourselves. For example, our research program and education program were designed by ourselves. However, we share national sponsors like J.P. Morgan, and we also participate in national competitions like stock pitch competition and portfolio competition.
CD: Can you describe your education program in detail? Who are the speakers and how are they invited to come?
Wang: Education programs happen in the fall semesters and offer 10 lectures given by two groups of speakers — U.Va. professors and real world practitioners. When I had just started the club and talked to my professors about it, they were very happy to support it by coming and giving lectures. The real world practitioners are the interviewers and alumni that I have met. We choose speakers to give lectures based on whether their expertise matches our topics, or whether they will bring fresh and interesting perspectives from their own industries. We are so lucky to have all these people to support us, and especially grateful to see the practitioners pay out of their pocket and fly from New York to Charlottesville just to give lectures at U.Va. …Some of them even became our sponsors, and have been helping us in operation and in increasing our popularity.
CD: It is easier to understand why our U.Va. professors support this club so much. But why do you think the outside practitioners are willing to come and support this club?
Wang: I feel that the speakers and we share the same ideas and visions. Some of the speakers are female themselves and believe that the finance industry should include more and more females. Some male practitioners see the same problem of gender imbalance, and believe that women can be very good investors too. Meanwhile, they can get chances to popularize their own companies and get more potential applicants here, which is probably another reason why they would love to come.
CD: How do your members think of the lectures, especially the students who have barely been exposed to the finance world? Do they find it hard to understand the lectures?
Wang: I don’t think so. Our education seminar begins in the fall semester, and they will have professors as speakers first to gain a basic understanding before [talking] with the real world practitioners. The practitioner speakers also make big efforts to explain complicated and abstract ideas in simple ways and make themselves easy to be understood by the students.
CD: Can you describe the membership process for SWS?
Wang: Our members go through education programs in the fall semester, and thereby gain membership through attendance in both lectures and stock pitch research projects. In spring semesters, members can choose to stay within the research team as research analysts or move up to be senior analysts in our research board if they are interested in research. Or they can switch to other committees such as the marketing committee, which deals with info sessions, recruiting and activities like investment panels if they do not like doing research on investment that much. All activities like speaker sessions, industry talks, career panels, and interview workshops are open to all members regardless of which part of SWS they are involved in.
CD: What is the most impressive change that has happened among members?
Wang: Some girls tended to think that investment was something far away from them before they joined our club. After getting exposed to our education and research program, they found their new interest in finance and felt they could do something they did not even think of beforehand. In this way, SWS helped them explore new fields and build confidence.
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