This article was originally reported in April 2025.
In April 2025 Fordham University‘s Gabelli School of Business announced a $500,000 investment fund to be managed and invested exclusively by the Fordham chapter of Smart Woman Securities (SWS), a student club whose mission is to educate undergraduate women about finance through weekly seminars, mentoring and exposure to successful professionals and businesses. The Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis set up the fund with the Fordham investment office, and the money comes from a gift to the university’s endowment by Mario Gabelli, a 1965 graduate of the business school that now bears his name (Fordham Now, April 24, 2025).
How the new fund differs from Fordham’s SMIF
The Smart Woman Securities Value Fund is separate from Fordham’s Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF), a global fund that holds stocks, bonds and alternative assets and is run as a two-semester undergraduate course. The new fund is an equity fund managed through the SWS club rather than a class. Both complement the Gabelli School’s academic concentration in value investing. SMIF has been running since 2010 and, according to Fordham, has helped many graduates launch careers in finance (Fordham Now).
What the school and students said
“By entrusting our undergraduate students with real investment decisions, this fund enhances our value investing program and empowers future women leaders in finance,” said Lerzan Aksoy, dean of the Gabelli School of Business. Paul Johnson, a faculty member and executive director of the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, said he chose SWS because its members “are completely bootstrapped, completely self-managed, with almost no outside support.” Raimy Little, the club’s chief executive officer, noted that while other SWS chapters nationwide have funds, “the significance for the club at Fordham is profound” (Fordham Now).
The fund was introduced at an April 1, 2025 reception at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus for students and alumni of SMIF and SWS. For spring 2025, SWS leaders planned to draft an investment memorandum with guidance from the investment office and faculty advisors, finalize investment criteria, select analysts and portfolio managers, and train members to source and pitch investment ideas, with a training curriculum to be completed over the summer and money invested by the end of 2025. Fordham has not published a later update on the fund’s portfolio.
Why student-managed funds matter
Student-managed investment funds let students research companies, pitch stocks, defend their ideas to peers and advisors, and make real decisions with real money, usually under an investment policy set with the university’s endowment office. For finance majors, a role as an analyst or portfolio manager is a concrete line on a resume and a source of stories for interviews in asset management, equity research and investment banking. Many U.S. business schools run such funds, either as credit-bearing courses (like SMIF) or through student clubs (like the SWS fund).
Notes for international students
- Getting involved: course-based funds such as SMIF are part of the curriculum and generally open to admitted students who meet the course requirements; club-run funds like the SWS fund follow the club’s own selection process. Ask the Gabelli School or the club how analysts are chosen.
- No work authorization needed for unpaid club or class roles: managing a university fund as a student club member or in a course is part of your studies, not employment. Paid internships off campus during your degree require CPT, and work after graduation requires OPT.
- STEM status: whether a finance degree qualifies for the 24-month STEM OPT extension depends on the program’s CIP code. Check before you choose between a general finance major and a quantitative or analytics track.
- Fordham at a glance: in Forward Pathway’s ranking database Fordham is No. 85 in the 2027 U.S. News National Universities ranking, and the Gabelli School is No. 58 among undergraduate business programs and No. 14 in undergraduate finance (2027). The school has campuses at Rose Hill in the Bronx and Lincoln Center in Manhattan. See our Fordham school page for admissions, costs and international student data.
References
- Fordham Now: Empowering Women in Finance: Fordham Launches Student-Managed Value Investing Fund (April 24, 2025) (read via the Wayback Machine snapshot of March 15, 2026)
- Forward Pathway: Fordham University