“If you’re going to move halfway across the world, you’ve got to have more than one reason,” says James Ford. “If one of them isn’t going well, then you need another reason to be there.”
It is a remarkably clear-eyed philosophy for someone who had to apply it at 17. And for James, a rising third-year Commerce major and middle-distance runner on UVA’s Track and Field team, it has already been tested.
James grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, where he played rugby, the national sport, and ran track in the summer. A strong high school coach and a training group that sent older athletes to Oregon and Providence College opened his eyes to a path that he felt simply did not exist at home. “Track is a hard sport to continue to do through university in New Zealand,” he explains. “There’s just not really the competition. You’re kind of all by yourself, and it’s really hard to take that next step.” Even most professional Kiwi runners, he notes, end up training in Australia or the United States.
So James visited four American schools: UVA, Michigan, Boston University, and UConn. Charlottesville won on something harder to quantify than facilities or rankings. “Something about the feel of the place felt like I wasn’t too far from Auckland, even though I am,” he says. The team sealed it. “They felt like my friends at home. They just seemed like good blokes.”
Still, even knowing the leap carried risk, James had an innate sense that it would be an experience he would learn a lot from and an opportunity he knew he would not have if he stayed home in New Zealand. “Looking back on it, it’s the best decision I made.”
His multiple reasons proved to be both accurate and valuable in short order. A math and science student in high school, James began in the Engineering School before discovering McIntire, and applied to the School with an eye toward pursuing finance, the field his mother entered after earning her engineering degree. He is planning to double-major in Commerce and Math.
Meanwhile, the running side of the ledger hit unexpected turbulence. After a big first-year transition, James suffered two stress fractures, one in his ankle and one in his sacrum, one after the other. The injuries sidelined him for eight months. “I was just swimming for ages,” he says of his only exercise during the recovery period. “But it’s part of the sport. Builds up resilience, for sure.”
James Ford competing in the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru
That determination shapes his goals for the spring, when his 800-meter season begins. “I don’t want to think too far ahead, but building my fitness and putting myself in a position to make an ACC final and contribute to team points would be a good start. From there, I can keep building,” he says. “The first step is laying a strong foundation over the summer and into the fall.”
Meanwhile, his academic pursuits—his second reason for coming to UVA—are thriving. James is spending this summer back in New Zealand working alongside a global equities manager, and next summer he will be in New York, interning in capital solutions within investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
The appeal of working in the industry, for James, sounds a lot like the appeal that track holds for him. “Part of what drew me to finance is how competitive it is. It’s kind of like a sport, and I love that,” he says. “You surround yourself with really capable, competitive people and you’ll do better.” An international student’s perspective feeds it, too: “I love following markets and macro news, and I think that stems from being an international student. It’s interesting to see what’s happening around the world.”
Ask him about the long term, and the two reasons he came for finally merge into one. “Finance allows me to continue what I’m doing in sport,” James says. “That is, competing and challenging myself, whilst contributing to a team outcome and making lasting friendships along the way.”
James Ford at the New Zealand Nationals, 2023
