Sophia Volvovsky, a sophomore majoring in Business, writes this guest blog post. Thank you to Strategic Investment Group for sponsoring our WIN Conference participation again this year.
Last month, Laura Null, Victoria Irizarry, Madison Bachmayer, and I, suitcases in tow, set off to Roosevelt Island, New York, to take the stage at Cornell’s Undergraduate Women in Investing (WIN) conference. We embraced the opportunity to make our mark on the future of the investment industry.
The cornerstone of this conference was the opportunity to pitch a stock of our choosing to a panel of judges, competing against other well-known universities around the country. The competitive nature of the conference added a layer of excitement and intensity; it pushed us to truly collaborate—to understand each of our strengths, what stumped us, and how we thrived. This emphasis on collaboration was not just a strategy but a powerful tool that we wielded to navigate the challenges and emerge as a stronger team.
We settled on pitching Zoetis (ZTS), a leader in the animal pharmaceutical industry that focuses on producing vaccines, veterinary hardware, and medications for companion animals and livestock. Driven by its firm hold on the global market and its R&D innovations, it is well-positioned for exponential growth. We spent weeks together honing our presentation, nitpicking our slides and scripts. This wasn’t just about presenting data but rather convincing the judges to believe in us – believe in our thesis. Seeing our work culminate at the front of the pitch room was incredibly rewarding; our efforts paid off – but not only in the way we were expecting.
Our growth was not limited to our roles as presenters and financial analysts but extended to our roles as students, professionals, and individuals. The time we spent together, late nights in the lobby of Duques Hall or our various hotel rooms running our presentation, forged us into a stronger team. It taught us the value of true collaboration, extending beyond our scripts and the figures we were presenting. It showed us how to conduct thorough research for a pitch – to delve into investor relations and financial statements and draw conclusions based on the most convincing facts and data.
This conference was my first real-life exposure to the investment industry. As a second-year student, most of my knowledge came from what I had learned in my classes and my internship experiences in unrelated industries. Thus, to me, the value of the conference was in the learning experience. I was pushed out of my comfort zone into the unfamiliar, genuinely preparing me for the harsh world of financial markets. With great challenge came significant growth, and throughout our preparation, I learned to think quicker, to see from other perspectives, and to see first-hand how the economic theories I had learned about in class interacted with a real, publicly traded company.
Perhaps, most importantly, this reinforced my passion for finance. It made it clear how much I enjoyed the challenges and opportunities that come with work like this: the chance to learn about other companies, understand and analyze what makes them healthy and strong, and influence others’ financial decisions. To persuade – convince a judge, an audience, a client.
Though I can’t speak for the entirety of the conference attendees, I can confidently say the George Washington University Investment Institute Team emerged from this journey feeling empowered, supported, and ready to make a significant impact – in our finance classes, in our business school community, and, by extension, in our industries, as a part of the new generation of female leaders in the investing world.