Finance

Mason is a hole in one for this freshman golfer

Damian Cristodero — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:09:00 +0000

Mason is a hole in one for this freshman golfer Damian Cristodero Thu, 09/21/2023 - 14:09

J.J. Powell sat facing the door leading into the main floor of ��AV’s Johnson Center, and fixated on the steady stream of students entering the building.

“Just watching people coming through that door,” he said. “I’ve never seen the amount of different people in one setting. It’s really cool.”

Powell has a golf scholarship at Mason. He also is studying finance in the School of Business to supplement what he hopes will be a career as a professional golfer.

When considering where to attend college, the freshman from Richmond, Virginia, said Mason’s diversity—U.S. News & World Report ranks the university seventh among public institutions and No. 1 in Virginia—was a significant factor.

_{One hundred percent, without a doubt,” Powell said. “I want to learn about people’s cultures, meet new people, and just be more aware and mature.”}

“He’s just a great kid, a really high-character person,” said Greg Pieczynski, head coach of Mason men’s golf team. “That’s something we look for, as well as golf ability.”

Powell became interested in golf at age 6, he said, when he noticed his father playing a Tiger Woods video game. Eventually, his father took him out to a driving range to hit some balls.

Powell laughed recalling videos of himself swinging clubs at 9 and 10 years old. He could always make good contact, he said, and he knew how to think the game.

But his mechanics?

“Probably not,” he said, “My swing was terrible.”

Clearly that has been remedied as Powell, playing for St. Christopher’s School, was Virginia’s high school player of the year in 2022, and was all-state twice.

“We know the talent he has and the résumé he has,” Pieczynski said. “I think he was interested in us and heard about the benefits of playing for our team. We develop players and make them better. He was in a situation where he was looking for that.”

“We’ve also proudly built a reputation in a very short amount of time as a program that wants in-state talent,” Pieczynski added. “We have a diverse group on our team, which appealed to him as well.”

Powell said he took to heart the words Mason President Gregory Washington delivered at New Student Convocation about how Mason’s campus already looks the way the United States will look in 2060.

“If you’re so used to seeing one group of people and you get out into the world, it’s culture shock,” Powell said. “You don’t understand their background. So, it’s helpful, especially in the business world, to be able to work with different people.”

On the golf course, as well.

“I just hope to gain knowledge and maturity,” Powell said. “I’m only 19, so I’m bound to make plenty of mistakes. But I hope Mason is going to shape me to be a really good role model for other kids growing up, or even my kids when I get older. I think Mason is the place for me to achieve that.”

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Mason business students gain friendship and experience at CFA Ethics Challenge

Colleen Rich — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 21:17:24 +0000

Mason business students gain friendship and experience at CFA Ethics Challenge Colleen Rich Thu, 04/08/2021 - 17:17

Amber Wilkins, a junior at ��AV, transferred from Northern Virginia Community College in the middle of the pandemic. She wasn’t able to meet people and make friends or get involved in school activities the way she would normally.

And then came the CFA Washington Ethics Challenge. The opportunity, as Wilkins put it, allowed her to meet in a virtual environment with a group of four other students also interested in finance to work for a month on a competition. In the process, Wilkins said, she made friends and had fun in a subject that interests her.

Her team, which competed in a virtual environment in March, also came in first place over two challengers, another group from Mason and a group from Johns Hopkins University.

“I thought it would be a cool opportunity, and it really was,” said Wilkins, a School of Business student with a concentration in finance. “Overall, it was a fantastic experience. For some reason, our group was just all on the same page and wanted to work hard and really supported each other. And then when we won, we got to see that hard work really does pay off.”

Wilkins said she enjoyed the friendly working atmosphere, especially in a pandemic.

“We made a point of keeping our cameras on while we were working together so that we could see each other and have some interaction,” said Wilkins.

The CFA Washington Ethics Challenge, in its inaugural year, presented local finance students with the opportunity to examine a case containing several ethical dilemmas and then present their analysis and advice to a panel of judges. Steve Pilloff, associate professor of finance, mentioned the competition to his students hoping some of them would be interested in participating.

To his surprise, there was enough interest to create two teams—Mason Gold and Mason Green.

“I’m really proud that so many Mason students chose to participate,” said Pilloff. “Despite the pandemic, these students are moving forward with their lives. They saw an opportunity to do something challenging, and they seized upon that opportunity.”

For the competition, each student group presented their analysis for 10 minutes. During the week before, Pilloff sat in virtually on some of their practices. Pilloff added that all the students showed enthusiasm for the competition and dedicated their time to working as a group.

Summer Nasir, another finance student and member of the winning team, said she appreciated looking at ethical challenges she may face during her career.

“At Mason, we talk a lot about ethical questions, so it’s obviously really important to understand,” said Nasir. “I liked thinking about these questions and trying to answer them as a way to help me better understand what to do when I face ethical dilemmas in my career.”

The other members of the winning team were Valerie Mayer, Katherine Vargas Medina and Ama Obeng.

Mason finance students also competed in the CFA Research Challenge, which was sponsored by CFA Virginia. Pilloff said that competing in any of the challenges provides students with opportunities to further develop and showcase their skills to an audience of finance professionals.

Pilloff expects Mason students to participate in the ethics challenge again next year.

“We got a big trophy, but we only get it for a year, so next year, we’re going to have to defend it,” said Pilloff.

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On second-and-short, NFL teams play it safe (and shouldn't), a Mason professor says

Damian Cristodero — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:35:00 +0000

On second-and-short, NFL teams play it safe (and shouldn't), a Mason professor says Damian Cristodero Thu, 12/19/2019 - 05:35

In This Story

Derek Horstmeyer

The conventional wisdom says NFL teams facing second-and-short yardage situations during a game should take a chance on a big play. But an evaluation of play calling from 2013 to 2018 by a ��AV professor shows teams in those situations actually play more conservatively than in any other circumstance.

“It doesn’t make sense to just move the chains when you have what is basically a free play,” assistant professor of finance Derek Horstmeyer said. “You’re basically in the same position on the field. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Using data from the website NFLsavant.com, Horstmeyer found that teams facing second down and needing either one or two yards to achieve a first down, run the ball up the middle more than in any of other situation and generate fewer positive yards (an average 4.1) than in any other first, second or third down scenario.

What doesn’t make sense for Horstmeyer, who has never worked in football and is a huge San Francisco 49ers fan, is that a second-and-short situation provides an opportunity for an aggressive play call. If that fails, there is one and possibly two more downs available to gain the necessary first-down yardage, he said.

To avoid biases in the data, Horstmeyer’s analysis excluded certain situations, such as plays inside the 10-yard-line during the last two minutes of a half.

“I’m not saying there’s no room for a coach’s intuition, but there’s more and more evidence that NFL coaches play too risk-averse,” Horstmeyer said. “But increasing risk has its benefits.”

Horstmeyer points to the Green Bay Packers, who this year were 11-3 through Dec. 15 while averaging a league-best 14.2 yards on second-and-short situations.

His analysis also showed that teams that are more aggressive in second-and-short situations score more points.

For example, by using a shotgun (passing) formation on second-and-short between midfield and an opponent’s 40-yard line, teams can expect .439 more points in the drive as compared to a risk-averse formation in which the quarterback is under center. If the second-and-short situation is between an opponent’s 40- and 30-yard lines, the expectation is .587 more points in the drive.

Interestingly, Horstmeyer said he began his research after watching teams play on television and noting their conservative play calling on second-and-short situations.

“It was really infuriating why they were playing the opposite of what I was expecting,” he said.

Derek Horstmeyer can be reached at 703-993-9761 or dhorstme@gmu.edu.

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On TV and in the classroom: Star finance student reaps great returns at Mason

Melanie Balog — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:09:19 +0000

On TV and in the classroom: Star finance student reaps great returns at Mason Melanie Balog Wed, 04/24/2019 - 13:09

During his freshman year, Ali Kahil told his professor he’d be late to his 3 p.m. class, but he didn’t specify the reason. When he arrived 30 minutes later, he sent the professor a link: It was Kahil speaking on CNBC just an hour earlier, giving stock recommendations.

It’s no surprise that Kahil, now a senior majoring in finance at ��AV, was selected to give stock advice when CNBC reached out on Twitter asking investors to come on the show.

Ali Kahil. Photo by Lathan Goumas.

“I’ve always had a natural interest in finance,” said Kahil, who recently earned a scholarship for a finance essay he wrote for the Motley Fool.

The Northern Virginia native started reading the Wall Street Journal when he was in middle school and gave successful stock predictions to family members. He went to his local brokerage firm the day before he was legally allowed to trade to get his paperwork ready, he said.

“What’s rewarding about finance is being able to see what you can do with it—being able to create not just wealth, but success, and to be able to enable other people’s dreams and aspirations to come true,” Kahil said.

As for his own aspirations, Kahil is still deciding which area of finance to go into after graduation. Whatever he chooses, he believes his professors and classes at Mason have helped him expand his knowledge and leadership skills.

“I was so taken by how [accounting professor Eugenia Tsirigotis] approached her learning style,” Kahil said. He had previously dropped out of an accounting course, but he said that Tsirigotis made sure her students understood the material. “I went from not being able to take accounting at all to getting [a high grade] in the class.”

Some of his other influential professors include Shelly Canterbury, who further sparked his interest in firm valuation; Jay Jayamohan, who guided Kahil and his classmates in Mason’s business case competition, where they won second place; and Derek Horstmeyer, who recognized Kahil’s ability in finance and chose him to be the vice president of the investment committee for Mason’s Student Managed Investment Fund, he said.

“[Kahil] is an incredibly earnest and hardworking individual,” Horstmeyer said. “He genuinely loves learning about finance, and not just as a prerequisite for a job.”

Mason’s location near the Washington, D.C., area, with a high concentration of financial firms and institutions, has also prepared Kahil for the workforce. He worked part time as a financial analyst at a nonprofit in Alexandria, Virginia, and landed an internship at Buckingham Strategic Wealth, a nationally ranked wealth management firm.

“[Kahil] has a strong future in finance in whatever capacity he does,” Horstmeyer said. “I keep hearing good things from his current boss for his internship.”

During the summer, Kahil will collaborate with Horstmeyer to come up with future guest speakers for a Mason finance course. The opportunity to contribute to something that directly helps other Mason students is “the ‘cherry on top’ of my academic career,” he said.

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