Author: Lucy Feickert
Benjamin Finser
Economics major Benjamin Finser (senior) will be leaving sunny Los Angeles for Chicago after graduation where he has a job as an analyst at Kabouter Management. Kabouter Management is a small international investment fund that invests in undiscovered companies in long term growth industries overseas, according to Finser. Finser interned at Kabouter Management over the summer and received an offer last fall to join the team after graduation.
“Out of multiple offers, this was the best opportunity for growth,” Finser said. “My criteria for finding a job was two-fold: I wanted to work with people I really respect and could learn a lot from and I wanted to be challenged. In addition, I really like the work that I’ll be doing.”
Finser points to Occidental’s liberal arts curriculum for preparing him for this job.
“Oxy classes like Behavioral Economics, Econometrics, and Managerial Economics taught me how to think in unique ways that many companies value,” Finser said. “They look for somebody who can think outside the box to find investment opportunities around the world and someone who can think critically. So I think a liberal arts education was ideal.”
While at Occidental, Finser had the opportunity to work one on one with Occidental economics Professor Woody Studenmund in the study of advanced econometrics.
Finser initially became interested in economics in high school when he first took classes during the summer at Harvard University.
“It made sense of so much around me, and I think that’s what really hooked me,” he said.
Finser joined the Board of Directors for the Charles Blyth Fund his sophomore year at Occidental College. He has been part of the Board for the past two years, and became president for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
“My experience on the Blyth Fund has been a truly formative one and has defined my time at Oxy,” he said.
Jennifer Wang
Psychology and Spanish double major Jennifer Wang (senior) will spend the next year in Columbia on a Fulbright Scholarship. She will be working in an English Teaching Assistantship program and doing research.
“I’m hoping to do a research project related to public housing and its influence on education and the accessibility of it,” Wang said. “But it really depends on where exactly I’m placed and the resources I have accessible to me.”
Wang chose to apply to the program in Columbia because of her interest in mastering Columbian culture and Spanish.
“Columbia’s culture fascinates me, especially their love of Salsa dancing, and that’s hopefully something that I will learn while I’m there,” she said. “I dance, and Salsa’s something that I think it would be really fun.”
For Wang, the Fulbright will be an opportunity to decide what to do next without financial burden for the next year, though she does plan to attend graduate school.
“I wanted to take a little time off before applying to grad school because I’m not entirely sure whether I want to be a teacher or a psychologist or even work within education reform, so working within education through the Fulbright would give me cross cultural experience as well as expose me to different educational systems and just experience in education in general,” she said.
Wang did not think she would get into the program but is ecstatic that she did.
“It’s definitely something I’m looking forward to,” Wang said. “It’s a dream come true and something that I’ve wanted for so long.”
While at Occidental and through her application process to Fulbright, Wang’s mentors and professors have had a great impact on her.
“My mentors offered me an incredible amount of support when applying. I never thought that a Fulbright was something doable,” Wang said. “All my mentors and professors really helped me through every step, and I attribute a lot of this to them.”
Kevin Furlanetto
Japanese Studies and Biology double major Kevin Furlanetto is headed to Japan to teach English after leaving Occidental. Furlanetto was accepted to the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and will be teaching in Japan for up to five years.
Furlanetto has been interested in the JET program ever since his first year at Occidental when he saw a flyer for an information session at the Career Development Center.
“I went, and I got a lecture on it for an hour and then kind of got really scared because the lady was like you have to apply everything on time, you have to have everything right, and I learned about it then, and I thought wow that’s something I really want to do,” he said. “It has been my plan since my freshman year so really getting into it was a big thing for me, really big.”
Furlanetto became interested in Japanese back in seventh grade when he did a project on the language for school. At that time, he also learned the syllabary of the language and greatly enjoyed the sounds of the language. In his senior year of high school, Furlanetto started teaching himself Japanese.
“I just bought a book off Amazon and just kind of taught myself, and then I came to Oxy and started to take it up at the 202 level here,” Furlanetto said.
Last Spring Furlanetto studied abroad in Japan and deepened his interest in the culture its people.
“I studied abroad there last spring, and I really loved it. I had a great time with my host family and made a ton of friends. I’m looking forward to doing it for at least one year, if not two and maybe up to five, I don’t know,” he said.
Aside from Japanese, Furlanetto is also interested in science, which prompted him to major in biology as well as Japanese.
“I actually went to high school at the L.A. Zoo, which is really weird, but it’s a biological science magnet school,” he said. “I just was taking science here so I ended up with biology.”
Although he hopes to stay with the JET program beyond the first year, Furlanetto has considered teaching or using his biology degree after five years with the program.
“Because I will have a biology degree too, I was thinking maybe translating biological research could be something that I could do in the future,” he said. “I feel like there are these possibilities that have been set up through my time here at Oxy, so I have a lot of opportunities.”
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