Making money for UAF is what the Student Investment Fund is all about. Managed entirely by business majors taking the two-semester Student Investment Fund class, the student-endowed fund has gone from an initial investment of $100,000 in 1991 to more than $389,000 today.

"The students' job is to just manage the fund," said finance professor Craig Wisen, advisor to the SIF team. "The people at Butrovich decide how to dole it out, in scholarships or whatever. What we try to do is just value stocks better than the average person."

It appears Wisen's team has been extremely successful at picking the right stocks and securities. This, he said, was due to hard work, diligence, and good timing. While strategically building up the portfolio by diversifying investments and conducting intense market research, students have gained great insights into the workings of the finance industry, giving them real-world experience for future employment.

"I hope to get a job in the finance industry," said outgoing SIF President Letoya Ward, who said she wouldn't mind working for the World Trade Organization or the World Bank. "Maybe they're based in New York, but you'd have the opportunity to go all over the world."

Ward started out as a computer science student, but soon realized she wanted to get into business.

"I liked the math and I liked money," she said. "I took a couple investment classes, I really liked it and decided it was for me."

"My time working with SIF has been a great resume builder," Ward said in a university press release. "It has been more beneficial than any other work I've done as a student and an incredible opportunity."

Investing during a bear market has been a challenge, Wisen said, but has also given students a taste of the tension that they will get in day-to-day work as investors, as well as a sense of accomplishment from consistently coming out ahead of the S&P 500.

"It's been a horrible time to be in the market if you think about it," Wisen said, citing the ongoing recession, the attacks of Sept. 11, the war in Iraq, and the recent scandals involving companies like Enron, WorldCom and Tyco.

How bad has the market's downturn been?

"Through it all we've done OK," Wisen said. "You could've asked that question two years ago, and we would've had our heads in our knees."

Though students are graded on the thoroughness in their stock reports and not so much on the stocks' performance, the Student Investment Fund has had a greater return than the S&P 500 over the last 10 years. This is quite a feat considering Standard and Poor's Index reflects the performance of the 500 leading companies in the U.S.

But Wisen did not want to overstate the qualifications of the class members, because hard work and a range of experiences were also important, he said. Wisen pointed to former SIF student and fisherman Brian Tillotsen, who had gone on to work for McKinley Capital Management in Anchorage.

"He got that job," Wisen said, "because he had to knock ice off of a halibut boat with his bare hands."

Editor's Note: This article is the first in a month-long series on "real-life" experiences students get here at UAF. Because, after all, college isn't always real life.

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