2019 Marcus graduate and Marty Kidd Memorial Scholarship recipient Jarrett Brown found that the transition from LISD to higher education wasn’t as jarring as he’d expected. His time in LISD equipped him to be successful as a student at Wake Forest University and now in his financial career in New York City.
“Teachers were super instrumental in promoting my growth and being encouraging to my learning and pushing me to be the best student that I could, so that when I got to college I could excel,” Brown said. “I had Mrs. Minich and Mrs. Jennings for humanities, and I think that was a good start for my higher academic pursuits. I could give them a lot of credit for building a strong foundation academically.”
This strong foundation opened doors for Brown to pursue his academic and athletic passions at Wake Forest University.
“Wake Forest had great academics and they offered me a walk on scholarship for the football team,” Brown said. “I decided that the opportunity to play football at a division one school coupled with great academics and a beautiful campus was an opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up.”
As a freshman at Wake Forest, Brown competed for a highly competitive position in the university’s Pre-Wall Street Career Track. While participating in this program, Brown had numerous opportunities to network within the industry, learn more about the wide range of employment options in the financial field, and develop skills necessary for success in finance.
“My dad always worked in finance, and I didn’t really know what that meant but it seemed like a good career path to do well in life,” Brown said. “In the business school [at Wake Forest], I started to figure out what finance actually was and that I was pretty good with numbers and understanding how they work together to tell a story.”
Brown arrived at Wake Forest with a strong foundation built during his time in LISD. He graduated from Wake Forest with that foundation heavily fortified, equipping him to move to New York City for a job in credit derivative sales with BNP Paribas.
“What we do is help facilitate transactions between hedge funds through a variety of different credit products, including investment grade bonds, high yield bonds, single name credit derivative swaps, options and tranches, bespoke products,” Brown said. “Our main clients are hedge funds…We just help to facilitate transactions between them and our own traders here at BNP.”
Though he traded football for finance, Brown’s notes the continued impact of his time as a division one football player.
“The fast-paced nature of sales was a lot more akin to my experience on the football team and just made sense with my personality and my work ethic,” Brown said. “It’s a very dynamic market that requires you to have that competitive bone in your body. I don’t think everyone is necessarily cut out for that, but I think football definitely prepared me for that.”
Brown finds working in such a dynamic atmosphere at BNP Paribas to be rewarding as it presents numerous opportunities.
“I got to go to London for training for a week. I was able to go to the Miami Grand Prix for a client event one time,” Brown said. “The opportunities here are really strong and you get a lot of trust from senior management.”
From his high school humanities class to traveling abroad for work, strong education has played a large role in where Brown is today.
“I just want to reiterate my thanks for the Marty Kidd Memorial Scholarship,” Brown said. “Any help towards academics is huge. All the money put towards [my time at Wake Forest] was much appreciated, both from the scholarship and my parents’ sacrifices for me during that time.”
LEF scholarships help students like Brown realize their full potential and achieve their goals as students and later professionals.
