From rollerblading on the Quad with Professor Heath Greene of the psychology department to spontaneous hikes at Pilot Mountain, senior Mathematical Business major Guha Rajan will miss the Wake Forest community and all of its quirks the most.
“My friend and I got rollerblades as a joke to rollerblade around school and one day we were rollerblading past Farrell and this guy yelled at us and he asked if we bladed,” Rajan said. “We figured out it was Dr. Greene in the psychology department; he’s the man. He came back in these tiny runner shorts, a bro tank, old Ray Bans and his blades. This was on LDOC last year so we bladed around the Quad and everyone was out there. People would look over at us and Dr. Greene would see students and he’d just say ‘sup’ and keep blading.”
Also one of the co-founders of Wake Forest’s Climbing Club, Rajan loved to experience everything that Wake Forest and the surrounding area had to offer in terms out outdoor adventures.
Rajan originally founded the club with the small rock wall of the former gym and was very stressed when it was announced that the gym would be knocked down in order to build the new one. Where would the newly founded club continue to practice? As it turns out, in one of his fraternity brother’s garages.
“The whole thing isn’t very big, it’s obviously inside a garage,” Rajan said. “All the people who wanted to get into climbing would go to his house. I remember sophomore year, someone would call me at 11 p.m. and ask if I wanted to go climb. I’d just get in the car with random people that all just wanted to climb and meet everyone. It’d be like 20 of us just packed into this little garage, taking turns on this wall.”
In addition to various outdoor pursuits, Rajan’s experience in the Deacon Fund and Finance Club have helped him expand his professional knowledge and network. He thought it was a great way to connect with people, particularly Wake Forest alumni. It was memorable for him to be the youthful connection to campus that many of the young finance alumni desired.
Professor Benjamin King taught Rajan in a negotiations class that Rajan felt was one of the most impactful classes he has taken at Wake Forest. It gave him skills to deal with things ranging from negotiating a job contract to planning out activities with friends.
“Guha is the quintessential Wake Forest student: Bright, hardworking and intellectually curious,” King said. “Guha brightened my classes with his provocative insights and his pleasant demeanor.”
Ultimately, Rajan said he thinks Wake Forest did a great job in maturing him socially. He feels much more equipped to communicate and work with people with all different trains of thought. He credits the business school’s team project dynamic for much of this experience and the confidence he has for the future.
After graduation, Rajan will be going to New York City to work with Goldman Sachs. He worked with them the previous summer and is looking forward to returning to the company and reconnecting with coworkers. Given the whole web of Wake Forest connections both in his graduating class that are heading to New York City and those already there, Rajan will never be too far from a piece of the Wake Forest community.
