Finance: Sarah Kate Massey
If Sarah Kate Massey is anything, it’s balanced. This can be a difficult feat to accomplish at Wake Forest, where unique opportunities to involve yourself in university life abound. As a senior graduating with majors in finance and psychology, Massey is the picture of a student who used her time at Wake Forest to pursue her interests in all aspects of academics.
Although Massey will graduate with both majors, her career will undoubtedly be in finance. And when she arrived at Wake Forest from Dallas, TX, she knew it for sure.
“I was really enticed by the Business School when I visited on accepted students day,” Massey said. “I remember Betsy Hoppe was the executive director of the Business School when I visited. I knew that she was a woman I would like to be when I grew up. She was one of the strong women in finance that kind of turned my decision towards finance.”
Hoppe complimented Massey and her proficiency in business.
“Sarah made an immediate impression on me,” Hoppe said. “Sarah has a personality that just draws people to her. She is incredibly intelligent, but it is her spirit of optimism and incredible enthusiasm that drew me to her.”
As Massey began her college career, she found the Pre-Wall Street Career Track, which provides early and focused professional preparation for qualified students intending to pursue careers in investment banking. This preparation was “instrumental” in the beginning of Massey’s freshman year. In the second half of her freshman year, Massey took accounting classes, which solidified her confidence in her choice of a career.
Later on, Massey was accepted into the Wake Forest School of Business. Among the many courses offered in the business school, Massey grew to enjoy Equity Investments (FIN 233).
“It was a good experience to be able to present a company to a class and have them select it and see if it was worth investing in,” Massey said. “The fact that it was real money made it all the more worthwhile. I found myself looking at my personal finances, thinking about how I should invest in different stocks that I had heard about.”
However, success in the Business School and in her studies at Wake Forest was not always unencumbered. Fortunately, Massey’s obstacles were in the form of other accolades and academic pursuits.
“One of the biggest challenges of being a finance major was that it’s just so many hours,” Massey said. “I definitely wanted to be a part of other organizations and not just be a person in finance.”
Massey is a member of the Wake Forest chapter of Chi Omega and has served as a student director for Wake and Shake, working with the corporate sponsorship side of the executive team.
“It was so nice to be a part of something that’s beyond your major and classwork,” Massey said. “It was amazing actually seeing the tangible effects that [Wake N’ Shake] had on Wake Forest Baptist right down the street.”
Massey’s career is already off to a good start. After an internship with Redbird Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Dallas, Massey found her start in investment banking at Barclays. In this work experience, she realized her passion for healthcare investment.
“I thought of it as an opportunity to merge my psych and finance focuses with behavioral health,” said Massey.
As she leaves Wake Forest, Massey will remember and miss both her time in finance and her time spent outside of finance.
“I’m really proud of what I’ve done on campus, but I think that I forgot there is like a city and a state beyond that,” Massey said. “I’m looking forward to living in New York, and to get outside of the Dallas bubble and expand my horizons.”