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Finance

Three-Week Summer Business Program

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Jump into the world of finance and get a sneak peek into what financial analysts do on a day-to-day basis with the Boston Leadership Institute. Students will be exposed to the mathematical concepts and techniques used in finance and how to apply them to financial markets such as the stock market. This course may cover bond valuation, stock valuation, dividends, developing forecasts, spotting trends, options/pricing, cash flow, seasonality and trend. Boston is one of the top financial hubs and is home to major money managers such as Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments. Quantitative skills are in such a high demand in the financial field and lead to a variety of high paying career paths.

This three-week summer program is designed for teens interested in business & math.

 Note: this page represents our best expectations for the program we will deliver, but is subject to change. We will update this page as new information becomes available.

Student visits a stock trading room in the Investment Banking one-week summer program

Applications will open for Summer 2024 on November 1, 2023.

Session 1: June 24 – July 12, 2024 | Boston

Session 2: July 8 – 26, 2024 | Gann/Bentley, Waltham

More About: Awards – Research Programs – Sample Week 

New 2024 programs and dates will be announced soon! Join 

our mailing list to be the first to know. 

Wall Street

Students in this program learned about the different stock, bond, & option valuations – what they are, how they work, and when it is best to invest in each of them. The class covered the basics of macroeconomics and the role of the federal reserve has in changing interest rates. They studied the primary (IPO) and the secondary markets. They went through the basics of institutional trading as well as hedge funds and private equity funds. 

Session 1 Instructor: John Ashburn

John Ashburn holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College B.S., Magna Cum Laude, with concentrations in Management, Accounting, and Finance from Northeastern University. John has more than 30 years experience in corporate and project finance serving the global energy, power, minerals, and infrastructure sectors with senior-level positions at major Wall Street firms and in the Treasury and Controllers’ areas of multi-national diversified corporations. He is now an Adjunct Professor in Finance at Babson College.

Session 2 Instructor: Charles Smith

Charles Smith is an Adjunct Professor and Ph.D. candidate in Entrepreneurial Studies at UMass Lowell, a graduate of Texas Tech School of Law, Rawls College of Business and Texas and Prairie View A&M University. Mr. Smith is a successful SBA Lender with over 15 years of experience, including a Senior Vice President position at Eastern Bank and Head of SBA Lending at Northern Bank. 

Guest Lecturer: Jerry Porter

Jerry Porter earned his MBA from Babson College, the top Entrepreneurship school in the country for 21 years running. He went on to join Fidelity Investments, where his skill set lent itself to several roles. During his tenure, Jerry was an institutional block trader, manager, trainer, and company spokesperson. Following his time at Fidelity, Jerry became a full-time lecturer in Economics at Northeastern University and a part-time lecturer at Babson College. He is also a successful public speaker, focusing on current economic issues and institutional trading. 

Student Comments from Summer 2023

Overall, I like the program and the teachers. I thought that it was informative and gave me a good overview of the financial field in general. Our main teacher, Mr. Smith, had a good method of teaching and explained the concepts clearly. Our guest teacher Mr. Porter, raised up some interesting discussions on the topics and gave me a deeper understanding on how the financial markets work.’

I had learned so much in this course but at the same time had a lot of fun along the way. I enjoyed the course a lot and would definitely recommend.’

The thing I liked about this summer program is we actually practice in a stock game and students make day trades every day. Mr. Ashburne had great teaching ability and passion with students. He provides a wonderful teaching and learning environment for us. He had excellent knowledge and finance skills and taught us a lot during these 3 weeks.’

I liked how much I learned from the program. Finance gave me a really great outlook on how I view the financial world, with a really great professor teaching the programs. Mr. Ashburne was really kind and funny, and I really enjoyed partaking in his class.’

Students pose in front of a whiteboard in the Investment Banking one-week summer business program
Students pose in front of a whiteboard in the Investment Banking one-week summer business program

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