I am pursuing a dual master’s degree with Columbia Business School and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). I am currently in the second year of the three-year program. Prior to graduate school, I worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on the open markets trading desk. It was an amazing opportunity to work on policy objectives, like the implementation of Quantitative Easing (QE3) and the Taper, and to work toward effecting economic change. Through my work, I saw the importance of the private sector serving as the Federal Reserve’s counterpart, and realized how change requires both the public and private sector. It is with this realization in mind that I enrolled at Columbia—my intention being to better understand this partnership and its role in driving meaningful change.
After starting at Columbia, a friend who works at Morgan Stanley reached out and told me about the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Fellowship. Having worked with one of the inaugural fellows, she learned about the program and felt it would be perfect for me. After speaking to people from the program, I quickly realized she was right.
As a Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Fellow, my goal was to build the Firm’s presence in the green bond market. I joined the Public Finance team to help state and local governments structure and issue bonds that will finance projects related to sustainable housing, clean drinking water, and energy conservation. I also spent a portion of my summer working with individuals from across Global Capital Markets, Institutional Equities, and Global Sustainable Finance, to develop a strategy for growing Morgan Stanley’s presence in the sustainable fixed income market as well as the broader Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) market.
Through my work, I learned how much potential there is for private capital in the fight against climate change, and I felt grateful for helping connect private capital with public needs. The fellowship really taught me how to scale impact and opened my eyes to the positive role a firm like Morgan Stanley can have on the world. I am eager to see the continued impact that Morgan Stanley will have, as well as what the future fellows will work toward.