Investing in students’ futures

There’s something David Volkman, Ph.d., enjoys more than his students making a profit in the maverick investment Club program. making a difference in their lives.

Dr. Volkman, associate professor and chair of the Department of Finance, Banking and Law, has had a distinct impact on students and his department since arriving at UNO in 1989.

Under his guidance, the Maverick Investment Club, begun in 2000 when UNO alumnus Col. Guy Cloud donated $250,000 to create a student-managed investment fund, has grown from seven undergraduate students to more than 80 and has outperformed the S&P 500 every year – including 2008.

The University of Nebraska Foundation monitors the fund to ensure it follows the specifications established by Col. Cloud. Scholarships are awarded when the fund exceeds $500,000.

And though the fund dipped in value in 2008, it continues to be an exciting learning opportunity for the students who serve as general members, junior analysts and senior analysts.

“In 2001, when the markets reopened after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, our portfolio, because of its diversity, was actually up a bit when most others lost value,” Dr. Volkman says. “But in 2008, even diversification didn’t help because all asset classes dropped. So it’s a good learning tool, to learn from your losses as well as your gains.”

The portfolio has placed third in the large corporate portfolio management category of the annual R.I.S.E. (Redefining Investment Strategy Education) global student investment forum sponsored by the University of Dayton.

A separate, $2 million fixed income portfolio that graduate students manage for First National Bank has placed first in its category at R.I.S.E. A native of Hot Springs, S.D., Dr. Volkman earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and Ph.D. in finance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

At UNO, he has begun a 15-session Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examination review program on Saturdays for those seeking their CFA designation. He has traveled three times to the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration to teach, and has lectured in eastern Europe and Asia. He created the annual Investment Literacy Camp at UNO for high school students from across the state.

He has helped establish a specific major in investment science and create a way for undergraduates to triple major without taking extra classes. Students may major in corporate finance, commercial bank management, investment science and portfolio management—or a combination—by applying their electives to more than one major.

“We’ve even had quadruple majors,” he says, “with students adding accounting, or in one case, French.” Selected by his students as the EMBA Distinguished Professor six times since 1993, Dr. Volkman serves on the board of directors at several Omaha money management firms. He has published research in asset allocation, and the effect of macro economic factors on equity pricing.

Though his teaching emphasis is on finance, the biggest rewards of Dr. Volkman’s career haven’t been monetary. They’ve come in the form of the successes his students post while at UNO and in the business world after graduation.

He says the yield is a satisfaction similar to when he and his wife, Kathy, served at Boys Town as family teachers for a house full of troubled boys, “boys whose lives we helped turn around.” Like the boy who went from deliberately running into walls to one day asking Dr. Volkman to stand in for his father at his wedding.

“The feelings I get here are a lot like those we had at Boys Town. It’s quite fulfilling to help open doors for students who really want to make something of their lives.

“I know graduates who have moved directly into major portfolio management positions, and I believe they would not have obtained the jobs they did without UNO and the college providing them the ability to major in investment science and to triple major.” That’s an impact that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.