Ten years ago, Whit Wagner '78 brought his idea to enhance the experience of Grossman School of Business students into existence. With a generous donation, the Green Mountain Investment Fund was created and since then students have managed this endowment with tremendous success. 

The Need for Hands-On Experiences in Finance

Whit got the idea for the Green Mountain Investment Fund around 2010 by observing the opportunities afforded to his children at other universities. He noticed that other universities were allowing their business school students to get the first-hand experience in the finance world by managing a portion of the endowment.

As someone who spent his entire career in the investment and finance business, Whit thought: "It would make some sense for UVM to offer the same opportunity of experiential learning."

He went to the Dean of the Grossman School of Business, Dr. Sanjay Sharma, and pitched the idea. Whit offered to put up the seed money to create a new endowed fund and have students manage it as part of UVM's overall endowment.

Sanjay said yes and after working out the logistics of establishing a new course and finding an instructor, the students were off and running.  

Along the way, other donors have contributed to the endowment and, when all the investment returns over 10 years are included, the Green Mountain Investment Fund is now valued at more than $400,000. 

Wait, do students really manage real money?

Yes, they really do!

Of course, there's a lot more to it than just picking stocks. 

Juniors and seniors can enroll in a specific course that focuses exclusively on investing this endowment. The course description reads: "This course involves practical and real time operation of an investment fund. Covers the steps necessary to fill a role as an analyst or portfolio manager of a traditional long-only money management operation." 

The course is taught by UVM alumnus and Champlain Investment Partners Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Corey Bronner '07. 

Corey's philosophy for the course is "less is more." He lets the market and the portfolio dictate what they are talking about week-to-week because investing is always evolving and changing. And because the investments are truly student-led, no semester is the same.

The decision-making process for which investments are selected is very organic. Students present their ideas for investment based on research, the ideas fleshed out and debated, and it goes to a majority-rules vote. 

Corey says "In many ways, it's like the culmination of everything you kind of learn. I love to work in other disciplines from the business school. Like, like why does the marketing work for one company and not work for another company? Or what is it about the message of one company that works with another? It's not just numbers. It's not just the finance aspect of it. It really wraps in all the curriculum of a business school degree into our conversations."

And that holistic, student-driven approach is paying dividends.

For example, last year the Green Mountain Investment Fund significantly outperformed the long-term endowment (19.2% return for the GMIF vs. 10.8% for the long term pooled endowment).

When I asked Corey how the students are so successful with their investments, he summarized it this way:

"I think the beauty of that is that sometimes the professionals overthink things. But the students, taking a relatively simplistic approach - investing in what they like and what they know, with a few parameters that I put around the conversation - have picked a really good portfolio of stocks that's performed extremely well."

"It deepened my understanding of everything."

As Victoria Powers '25 was picking courses last academic year, she was intrigued by Corey's class:

"I had no idea going into it. I knew it was required and I knew that I really wanted to go into Finance and I thought this seems like a really interesting course. I had no idea that it was real money. So, it was way better than what I expected. I think it's a course that everyone should take."

Victoria's experience is echoed by the two other students I interviewed - Jackson Jewell '25 and Will Stadelmann '24. All three students got an enormous amount of practical experience in the course and found a mentor in Corey. 

They all found that the experiences in this course bridge the gap between what they learned academically and what people do in the professional investing field. It's a course that teaches you to think. It teaches you how to ask questions. It teaches you to do research. 

Will said "I would stay after class many times and have great conversations with him just about stocks, ideas, current things going on in environment."

Jackson added that he felt the class "Gave me the confidence to explore more on my own. I don't want to put my own money at risk because I don't have the tools and I don't have the knowledge. It kind of just got the ball rolling for me and made me more excited to learn."

For Victoria, the course gave her "Practical application of financial theories and put those concepts into real world investment decisions. So then being in Corey's class and seeing the analysis and process he goes through to acquire a stock helped me and I was able to then do my own research to build out my portfolio. It deepened my understanding of everything."

With the practical skills they learned managing the Green Mountain Investment Fund, they were well-prepared to dip their toes into the big world of finance and investing.

Gratitude and Inspiration

In speaking with Corey, Victoria, Will, and Jackson, they each expressed deep gratitude to Whit for his investment in them. Because of Whit's deep belief that UVM students should have the same opportunities as any student in any business school across the country, students get the chance to gain valuable investing skills each semester. 

And because of Whit's foresight to establish a permanent endowment, generation upon generation of students will get the chance to do the same.

Victoria put it the best when she said: "I would like to say thank you so much, Whit. Your class inspired me and brought me a mentor through Corey and an amazing internship. I'm super grateful for you. All the students are very grateful."

And Will found inspiration from Whit's actions as an alum and would love to pay it forward in the future: "I want to do the same thing - it kind of inspired me. I want to be able to give back to the school that taught me everything I know and help the other students coming up. I know it's hard to get into finance and I want to be a resource to all other students."

Learn More

If you are interested in learning more about the Green Mountain Investment Fund or other ways to support students and faculty at the Grossman School of Business, please be in touch with Alex Brady at alex.brady@uvm.edu or (770) 842-1510 (c).