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Generous Gift to Smart Woman Securities Aims to Create More Impact for the Finance-Focused Student Org

A $50,000 challenge match donation from Kent Collier (McIntire ’03) through the Good Words Foundation is set to create significant impact for Smart Woman Securities, enhancing the student organization’s mission to provide equitable access to financial education for women, offer expanded learning experiences, and foster deeper alumni engagement.

Smart Woman Securities

When Gracie Gerhart (McIntire ’26) visited the offices of global credit intelligence, data, and analysis firm Reorg, she wasn’t expecting the opportunity to discuss her work as Chief Development Officer of Smart Woman Securities (SWS), a UVA student organization with more than 200 members on Grounds.

Gracie Gerhart

Gracie Gerhart

Gerhart was participating in McIntire’s Finance Academy trek, a program that brings students interested in finance to New York City to meet with industry leaders. After hearing from Kent Collier (McIntire ’03), Reorg’s Founder and CEO and McIntire AI Task Force Alumni Adviser, she had the chance to chat with him about what she was learning on the trek and how it would impact her work with SWS.

“I think that SWS initially sparked his interest because I explained how the club’s probationary series is an equitable access point for all girls at UVA to get the opportunity to learn about financial markets without prior experience,” Gerhart recalls, clarifying that if probationary members excel, interview well, and are selected to join one of SWS’s teams, they take on a host of vital learning experiences in equity research and portfolio management.

That day, Gerhart and Collier briefly spoke about how the barriers to entry—students required to have prior experience in some college extracurriculars—can often prevent the involvement of female students who demonstrate the potential to flourish in finance.

SWS’s approach, curriculum, and mission resonated with Collier.

He was so impressed with the student org’s efforts and vision that he was motivated to initiate a $50,000 challenge match donation through the Good Words Foundation to help SWS grow their portfolio and inspire others to join him in supporting the  UVA chapter of the national group.

“The Good Words Foundation is thrilled to support SWS’s mission to educate and prepare more women students to enter the finance industry, and more broadly, to inspire and increase the financial empowerment of women,” Collier says. “It is our hope that others will join us in contributing to this outstanding organization to advance the equitable access that it offers.”

Join Kent Collier in supporting the UVA Chapter of Smart Women Securities by making a gift today.

The generous support, according to Gerhart, will be added to the student org’s fund, providing members with a higher number and wider array of learning experiences related to investing and growing new capital. “SWS has pursued value investing, mostly through U.S. midcap equities since 2011. However, as the fund grows, SWS leadership wants to expand our strategy so that members can get exposure to global equities with different market caps encompassing a GARP (growth at a reasonable price) strategy,” she says. “This past semester, our Chief Investment Officers reconfigured our investment charter so that Research Analysts will pitch equities under these new guidelines.”

Sanchya Kansal

Sanchya Kansal

According to Sanchya Kansal (McIntire ’25, A&S ’25), the group’s Chief Executive Officer, the gift will drive positive impact and elevate SWS’s plans for the next academic year.

Part of those plans include restructuring and adding an additional Associate position. “The goal is to streamline our pitching process and produce high-quality stock pitches to the Investment Board, hoping to maximize our return potential and deploy Kent’s valuable donation to the fund,” says Kansal. “With the added Associate position, a group of members will be solely focused on developing a cohesive and strong pitch to the Investment Board.”

Kansal, who is concentrating in Finance and double-majoring in Economics, led efforts to ensure that the various branches of SWS work together more seamlessly. That resulted in instituting changes to facilitate better communication and nurture a feeling of unity among the more than 200 student members: “We introduced general body meetings into SWS last semester to bring together all the girls in one place–whether that be for a guest speaker or a networking event with a company–so that they got to know each other and find a network of women that will stay with them at UVA and beyond.”

Strengthening the Future

Having alumni and corporate representatives sharing experiences and providing input to SWS remains central to its mission to prepare young women at UVA for careers in financial services. “We truly believe that leveraging our alumni database to gain mentorship and to learn from their career paths is essential to our members’ success,” says Gerhart, who is concentrating in Finance and completing tracks in Real Estate and Global Commerce at the Commerce School. “SWS fosters a tight-knit community of women in McIntire, and we hope to extend that to our alumni network. SWS co-hosted networking events with firms like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs last year and would always love to expand our event partnerships to new firms.”

Kansal shares that SWS is focusing on creating additional pathways to attract more members: “We are hoping to provide more structure to girls who are interested in investment banking recruiting during the spring. By creating an investment banking boot camp for those interested, we look forward to training girls during the fall to be in good shape for technical and behavioral interviews during the spring,” she says, pointing out that the semesterlong boot camp will be instrumental for second-year students’ success throughout the recruiting process.

“Older SWS members who have been through these processes will share their advice, conduct tailored mock interviews, and more,” adds Gerhart. “We would be so grateful to receive alumni engagement in our hands-on seminars this fall and want to ensure that our members go into these application cycles confidently.”

Sharing student member knowledge has proven to be critical to group’s growth and accomplishments. “During the last three years I have been in SWS, I have found the mentorship to be most valuable,” Kansal insists. One such service is the sharing of knowledge that comes during the McIntire application season each year, when the group organizes a review to assist second-year members as they apply. “They have their applications individually reviewed by an SWS upperclassman in the Comm School who provides application advice, answers questions, and serves as a confidante to bounce ideas off of,” Kansal says. The service is representative of the org’s commitment to mentorship.

“When I came to UVA, I was unsure about exploring finance. After joining SWS, I quickly gained women mentors who guided me through the world of investment banking as they spoke of their own personal experiences,” she says. “Each year, the knowledge gets passed down to the new group of girls who join SWS as probationary members. It is rewarding and gets paid forward, as the learning never stops with one person.”

Gerhart agrees, crediting the group’s hands-on learning, guest speakers, and mentorship with encouraging her to pursue a career in investment banking “I have learned so much from my SWS mentors and friends. It has been a full-circle moment for me to step into the role of Chief Development Officer, where I get to guide the new probationary members through their initial learning experience.”

Beyond its work with UVA students and the University community, SWS’s community outreach event Girls in Finance hosts local junior and senior high school students at McIntire to learn about careers in finance each fall.

“The attendees engage in interactive games, panels, and workshops to teach them about the industry,” says Gerhart. “By the end of the day, SWS hopes that they see finance as an exciting field that they can each find success in. We cannot wait to see it grow in the coming years!”

Find out about all the exciting things happening in the McIntire community. Visit our news page for the latest updates.

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