A smiley, bubbly light often found in the depths of Farrell, Mairead Mederios is unique in her love for all things finance and mathematics. A senior Finance major, Mederios enjoys problem solving and analytical thinking more than her typical peers at Wake Forest.

Growing up outside Boston, MA, Mederios said she’s always been a math and numbers person. Once she arrived on campus, she knew that the finance major was the perfect way to continue this passion for problem solving.

“I have no siblings but three of my cousins, who are like my brothers, all ended up going into finance so I grew up listening to them talk about it, and thought it was really cool and a good way to apply my analytical skills,” Mederios said.

While she is exceptionally good at math and finance, Mederios also enjoys the challenge that comes with the discipline. Her favorite class at Wake Forest was the Fixed Income class because of the tricky problem sets that she had to solve for homework. While finance is known as a tough major in the business school, the work ethic required to succeed in the major is inherent to her.

“The most rewarding part is that finance isn’t about how much you can study, it’s how well you can problem solve in a way that not everyone can excel at it,” Mederios said.

Outside of the major, Mederios spends a lot of her free time tutoring other students in business classes. She tutors various courses for student-athletes and business school students, including some of the hardest classes in the major. Mederios admittedly enjoys tutoring because it’s an excuse for her to do more math and finance in her free time.

Some of her favorite memories at Wake Forest were spent during her time studying abroad in Barcelona. While Spain was home, she spent the fall semester of her junior year traveling to different cities in Europe with friends from Wake Forest and elsewhere.

She also enjoys running, exercising and spending time with her friends. Her experience at Wake Forest was mostly shaped by the moments shared with her closest friends, and will be the thing she misses the most once leaving campus in May.

“I’ll miss everything, but probably just that you get to do everything with your friends all the time,” Mederios said. “You get to live with and always spend time with all of your friends, but once you graduate everyone is all over the place and it’s harder to be close.”

Once graduated, Mederios is taking one of the most competitive post-graduate positions for young people in business, working as an investment banking analyst at Wells Fargo in New York City.

“I’m really excited to be in New York City,” she said. “I already interned with Wells Fargo and absolutely loved the group I was with over the summer, so I’m really excited to be back with them.”