The Institute for Contemporary Financial Studies at Ashland University
The Institute for Contemporary Financial Studies (ICFS) is the name of our Finance Department here at Ashland. We focus on educating undergraduate students and preparing them for the real-life work place after they graduate. We firmly believe in a behavioral approach to investing and analyzing the various markets. At Ashland we focus on educating students to their full potential through core classes in all areas of business and through real life experiences such as the Eagle Investment Group and internships. Students are encouraged to take initiative to find an internship between their junior and senior year so that they have a good idea whether or not they should choose to pursue their major into the final level. Under ICFS there is the Conard Center, which is the part of our program where students trade real stocks using an endowment fund.
Conard Center for Financial Education
The mission of the Center for Financial Education is to provide students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in financial instrument and commodity trading systems, risk management and financial analysis. The Center’s objective is to link the classroom and the boardroom by combining practical learning and theoretical knowledge.
Today’s increasingly fast-paced and complicated financial markets have unleashed a growing demand for individuals who can understand, design and trade complex, as well as routine, securities for financial institutions, portfolio management firms, investment banking companies or multinational corporations.
To meet this demand, Ashland University has opened The Conard Foundation Center for Financial Education that prepares students for careers in the financial services industry. Ashland’s program is one of only a few undergraduate finance programs in the United States that includes the study of investment theory, management of a portion of the University’s Endowment Portfolio, and study for the NASD Series Seven (stock broker licensing) examination.
Ashland’s new Richard E. and Sandra J. Dauch College of Business and Economics has incorporated state-of-the-art technology which is essential for preparing finance students for the increasingly electronic global capital and money markets shaping business decisions.
The University has created a real-life trading room environment that functions as a classroom as well as a laboratory facility. Through a large screen television offering access to live coverage of CNBC and CNNfn, Bloomberg and other financial networks, and tickers and data walls which update security prices and exchange rates continuously, students experience the challenges of an actual trading environment, real time market information and a vast amount of research data.
Dual-screen workstations include computers with software for simulated trading, settlement, analytics, pricing, portfolio management, research and derivative pricing.
The Center is an ambitious step designed to push the technological frontier of financial education, differentiating Ashland’s students in the highly competitive financial services employment environment. It is a critical link between classroom learning and business practice, giving students access to the dynamic world of trading and risk management and experience that will enhance their future.
Below are links to pages within the Institute for Contemporary Financial Studies: