When Arshiya Verma pitched Tencent Holdings to her fellow student fund managers last year, she faced pushback on geopolitical concerns. The Chinese tech company looked solid on paper, but the voting members had questions. It was a real investment decision about real money—roughly $400,000 of the international equity portfolio she now manages as Chief Investment Officer—and the debate was serious.
"It's just like your decisions get tested in real time," says Verma, a graduate student in financial economics at Kent State University. Now, as trade tensions with China continue, that concern looks prescient. "So I still do believe in the company. I still think it's just a temporary thing," she says.
This is what sets the Golden Flash Asset Management Group apart. Founded in 2017, GFAM now manages more than $1.8 million in Kent State University assets. But the program isn't just about the dollar amount. It's about what happens when students sit across from each other twice a week, armed with financial models and Bloomberg terminal data, and make investment calls that will show up in actual portfolio performance.
"I want to emphasize that again, because a lot of people when I talk about it, assume that it's not real money, but it is real money," says Ketan Chaudhry, a senior finance major from Stow who serves as Chief Investment Officer of GFAM's equity portfolio.
Verma puts it even more bluntly: "It's real money. It's not a simulation."
Making Decisions Without Answers
William Billik, associate professor of finance and GFAM faculty advisor, explains the fundamental difference between this experience and traditional coursework. "When your supervisor gives you an assignment, it's not because they're waiting to see if you have the right answer or not, it's because nobody has an answer," he says.
"GFAM gives the students the opportunity to experience that tension," Billik continues. "I've got to make a decision. Nobody knows if it's right or wrong."
The fund operates like a professional asset management firm. "It's run like a proper fund, like a professional fund, just at a smaller scale," Verma says. Students use a top-down approach, starting with macroeconomic analysis—GDP growth, inflation trends, Federal Reserve policy—then narrowing to specific sectors and individual companies. Each week, a chief economist presents market conditions. Sector leads pitch stocks to the group. Portfolio managers weigh the recommendations.
For a stock to be added to the portfolio, 80 percent of voting members must approve it. Chaudhry describes the fund's investment philosophy: "We like to invest in value in strong companies that have been established and continue to have a lot of cash flow. We want to have the best in breed of the companies we own within their individual industries."
Even with careful analysis, outcomes remain uncertain. A chief risk officer enforces bylaws on concentration limits and portfolio balance, but the goal isn't perfection. "Our objective is to track our benchmarks," Billik explains. GFAM operates four separate funds, each with different strategies and benchmarks.
From Overwhelmed to Expert
David Pelleg, associate lecturer and GFAM coach, has watched the transformation happen many times. "Every student in their first meeting hears a bunch of stuff and they have no idea what they're talking about," he says. The ones who succeed are those who think: "Oh, I really wish I knew what that meant."
Within months, students are reading the Wall Street Journal daily, analyzing Bloomberg data, speaking the language. By senior year, Pelleg says, "they really know what's going on."
Verma, who worked five years in audit before returning to school, has advice for prospective members: "Don't get scared by the numbers and the terminology. It's not that tough." Her key insight: "If you really know your material, you should be able to explain it to anyone and everyone. You don't have to learn everything on day one. You just start somewhere."
The learning extends beyond financial analysis. Students present weekly, defend their recommendations, engage in real-time debate. "More than the presentation is the questions because you have to know your material," Verma says. "You need to be able to defend your decisions."
But unlike the professional world, there's room for error. "It's still school, so you can sort of fail," Verma notes.
Opening Doors
The experience translates directly to career opportunities. Chaudhry describes the pressure and payoff: "Managing real world money both adds a unique blend of both pressure, but also excitement."
When he interviewed for an internship at PNC last summer, the recruiter already knew about GFAM. "Seeing the reach that GFAM has through alumni, but also employers really establishes that credibility," Chaudhry says.
Pelleg shares a compelling example: A former GFAM member became the energy sector lead. Later, during an interview at Goldman Sachs in Miami, he met with a managing director who happened to be an energy banker. "He was talking upstream, midstream, downstream, and the banker was so blown away, he got a job offer," Pelleg recounts.
After eight years, GFAM alumni now work across the industry—investment banking, wealth management, private equity, credit analysis. This year alone, the program placed three students in investment banking roles. Jose Calderon, one of the fund's first students, now pitches seven- and eight-figure deals at a regional real estate private equity firm. Dan Volpe, GFAM's second president, works in strategy at KeyBank and actively mentors current members. Anne Ritz recently became a vice president at PNC.
Billik describes what employers tell him: "What we get from employers about our students is that they are very knowledgeable, very responsible. They come in ready to work, understanding the challenges that they'll face in the workplace and not need a lot of handholding."
Competing Globally
GFAM's competitive record backs up the claims. At the Global Asset Management Education Forum—the world's largest student fund conference, drawing 120 to 140 universities from around the globe—Kent State has won 10 awards (first, second, and third place finishes) in just seven years. That's more placements than any other university during that period.
This month, Chaudhry, Verma, and fellow student managers head to New York City for the GAME Forum, where they'll hear from industry leaders, network with Wall Street professionals, and tour the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. For Verma, who's applying for investment strategy and equity research roles from Ohio to Singapore to the UAE, it's critical networking.
Chaudhry knows what he'll emphasize in upcoming interviews: "Being able to learn those skills, technical, but also teamwork skills, collaboration skills, all of that really ties into an experience I like to highlight in my interviews."
Back on campus, the twice-weekly meetings continue. Students debate allocation strategies, scrutinize earnings reports, make calls on companies. The pressure is real. The learning is real. The outcomes prove it.
As Billik summarizes: "GFAM is the bridge for students to go from school into the profession in a more expedited fashion, less on the job struggling and failure, because they have those opportunities here while they're still in school."
Or as Verma puts it more simply: "GFAM is one of the best learning opportunities you'll have in school."