Wall Street is and always will be the financial capital of the world. Fortunately, Chapman students of the Argyros School of Business and Economics had the opportunity to visit this financial behemoth and get an inside look at one of the most important and influential industries in the world. Every year, Argyros School Dean Reginald Gilyard and Professor Terence Burnham team up to lead and teach Chapman’s infamous course: “Walk Down Wall Street.”

Chapman’s Argyros School students stand beneath, near and surround the Charging Bull Statue.

On Chapman’s main campus in Orange, California, Walk Down Wall Street students spent three weeks learning about various financial companies and life within New York City. After completing both a midterm and final, the Walk Down Wall Street group embarked on a unforgettable journey to what some may regard as one of the greatest cities in the world: New York.

To gain a deeper understanding of the interterm travel course, please watch the 2017 Walk Down Wall Street course video.

The New York City portion of the class mainly consisted of visiting financial institutions and meeting with various financial employees within these organizations. Students had the chance to connect with employees and gain more thorough knowledge of the company cultures and their values. This year, the class visited firms such as Nasdaq, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Quad Group, and more.

NASDAQ warmly welcomed Chapman University students to NYC Times Square in January 2017.

Highlights of 2017 Company Visits:

  • Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, shared insight on his decision to short Herbalife
  • Diane Garnick, TIAA-CREF’s chief income strategist, explained the U.S. retirement gap
  • Peter Borish, Quad Group’s chief strategist, demonstrated the importance of investment decision-making and choices
  • Brad Peterson, EVP and CIO, and Jim Dinan, CFO of global technology, shared NASDAQ’s company culture and their respective roles in the company

“Walk Down Wall Street was an unreal experience to say the least. I just want to thank Professor Burnham and Dean Reggie Gilyard for giving me [the Walk Down Wall Street course] opportunity, without which I would still be clueless as to my future career path,” says Johnny Bayeh, business administration senior with a finance emphasis.

City National Bank, JP Morgan, Bloomberg, and Brigade Capital Management also welcomed the Walk Down Wall Street group with open arms. With help from both Professor Terence Burnham and Dean Reginald Gilyard, students learned about hiring processes and were exposed to the knowledge and skills needed to break into the financial industry.

The Walk Down Wall Street group met with Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Chapman students also had the opportunity to network with Chapman alumni currently working and living in New York. These networking opportunities gave students a chance to communicate in a more relaxed environment, and connect with like-minded and established financial professionals.

“The experience I got from Walk Down Wall Street after spending a week in New York meeting and talking to professionals in Wall Street shook my core in understanding how the financial markets work in the real world,” says Sasha Mahmadov, business major with a finance emphasis and economics minor.

Dow Jones Industrial Average Hits 20,000 and Creates Historic Milestone

Dean Reginald Gilyard and Professor Terence Burnham also organized for the class to visit NYC financial landmarks. Students toured the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where they descended 80 feet below street level to see a vault containing 10% of the world’s official gold reserves. The Walk Down Wall Street group also visited the New York Stock Exchange.

Unique to this year’s visit, our Panthers witnessed the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 20,000 for the first time in history.

Our Walk Down Wall Street group witnessed the historic moment when the New York Stock exchange hit Dow 20,000! Students proudly wore the Dow 20,00 hats to celebrate.

In addition to the countless financial learning opportunities, this year’s agenda also included attending the Broadway musical “School of Rock”; watching the New York Rangers play the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden; and joining Dean Reginald Gilyard for dinner at restaurants hand-picked by the dean’s administrative assistant, Rita Desjardins.

“It was neat to see how close everyone became in such a short amount of time,” says Deepa Shah, business administration student with emphases in finance, marketing and real estate as well as a psychology minor.

Walk Down Wall Street 2017 Takeaways

As you can imagine, the class became very close as a result of these unique and impactful Walk Down Wall Street experiences. Chapman students learned the importance of growing interpersonal skills; developing critical knowledge to effectively break into the financial world; and overcoming adversity together successfully. Students also learned the importance of connections within the business world. Both Dean Reginald Gilyard and Professor Terence Burnham provided personalized insight and advice to students throughout the course.

The best part about this course is the fact that students learn about more than just finance. The Walk Down Wall Street course transcends a student’s impression of New York City’s financial industry. The course exposes Argyros School students to cultural experiences, networking opportunities, business connections, career projections, and much more. No textbook could ever come close to covering the variety of information taught in this course, either explicitly or implicitly taught in the course.

Walk Down Wall Street is not just a class. Current and previous Walk Down Wall Street attendees will be the first to encourage any Argyros School student to sign up for the academic benefits, networking capabilities and unforgettable experience as a result of this unique interterm course. There isn’t a textbook that exists that could ever come close to covering the variety of information implicitly or explicitly taught in the course.

Dean Reggie Gilyard (left) and Professor Terence Burnham (right) stop and smile while leading the New York City portion of Walk Down Wall Street.

All in all, we’re happy to continue to offer Walk Down Wall Street as an unparalleled travel course for our Chapman Argyros School business students.

Next stop: Walk Down Wall Street 2018!