After only four years of participation, the Janes Financial Center Residents won the local round of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, advancing to the America’s Regional round in Seattle, Washington. Here, they will be representing Chapman and the CFA Society Orange County, competing against teams from universities across North, Central and South America for the chance to be one of three teams to advance to the Global Final in Prague, Czech Republic.

For Chapman’s team members, Aayush Aggarwal, Dominique Yadegar, Valerie Chang and Orion Lawler, Friday’s win comes after weeks of hard work, and countless hours of research and preparation. As a part of the local competition, teams write a detailed report and present their research to a panel of judges, who are some of the foremost industry experts in Southern California. Each team is graded on the quality of their report, the soundness of their research, and the delivery of their presentation. The residents conducted an in-depth company and industry analysis, which they used to construct their own valuation model for the subject company – Opus Bank.

Argyros School professor Fadel Lawandy created the Residency Program in 2013 to leverage the technology in the Janes Financial Center, and give Chapman students practical experience in finance to help bridge the gap between the classroom and a career in the finance industry. The success of the program is hard to ignore, and the Research Challenge win adds another impressive accolade to their long list of accomplishments.

“I am extremely proud of this team. They have invested many hours of hard work for the past few months to ensure this win. This is a true testament to the caliber of students that chapman graduates every year by combining great hard working students with our brand of individualized education.” – Fadel Lawandy, Director of the Hoag Center for Real Estate and Finance,

Just a few months ago, Chapman’s residents brought home another victory in the CFAOC Portfolio Competition. For all of their success, and especially for the Research Challenge victory, we want to extend Aayush, Dominique, Valerie, Orion and Professor Lawandy big congratulations, and wish them luck for the next phase of competition. Follow their journey through Seattle on Facebook and with #CFAResearchChallenge.