Grant Ebenger

I knew I had an interest in investing, but I did not anticipate how Notre Dame's eager student body would help develop and cultivate this interest into a passion and eventually into an identity. Now, as a leader of many of the groups that once inspired me, I look forward to helping others follow a similar path.

Learning is best done through experience. This adage first resonated with me as a member of the Student International Business Council (SIBC), where I worked on a leveraged buyout recommendation for GTCR, a leading global private equity firm. The recommended company was later acquired by TPG. While I was initially upset our suggestion was not acted upon, I later realized that the experience gave me both a skill set to value companies and a desire to learn more about investing. And that is what mattered.

At Notre Dame, these opportunities present themselves every day. For instance, in the NDIGI's Global Portfolio Management (GPM) class, we met with speakers at the forefront of the investing world each week. By keeping in touch with many of these business leaders, I continue to learn about investing and develop my own investing philosophy. I know the opportunities Notre Dame has provided me in the investing field will enable me to meaningfully contribute to the NDIGI's Applied Investment Management (AIM) class this coming semester. What Notre Dame has given me in education, I hope to give back in returns.

The Notre Dame approach depends on collaboration. Each year, top juniors and seniors reach out and mentor business-oriented underclassmen to help them better understand the world of investing. This phenomenon creates Notre Dame's one-of-a-kind global network. In my experience, mentors pushed me to join SIBC as a freshman, motivating me to pursue other opportunities like GPM as a junior. Grateful for this community, I hope to inspire and empower future like-minded students as others at Notre Dame did for me.