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Two VSB Students Selected as Poets & Quants 2021 Best & Brightest Business Majors

Rohan Parikh ’21 VSB and Kelsea Wong ’21 VSB

Villanova, PA, April 20, 2021 - Two Villanova School of Business (VSB) students – Rohan Parikh ’21 VSB and Kelsea Wong ’21 VSB – were selected as Poets & Quants for Undergrads 2021 Best & Brightest Business Majors. Poets & Quants chose 100 students from around the nation who use their skills to impact business in creative ways and who are poised to be the future leaders of the business world.

From Marlboro, New Jersey, Rohan is an Applied Quantitative Finance major with a minor in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning. The Presidential Scholar serves as co-president of the Villanova Finance Group (VFG) and president of SAMOSA, Villanova’s South Asian multicultural organization. Most notably, he aided in developing best practices to educate and train VFG society members, and he is especially proud of his contribution to SAMOSA by creating a fundraising show that highlighted South Asian culture and celebrated diversity at Villanova. Over the course of his four years, he has interned with Fidelity Investments and Bank of America. After graduation, Rohan will be returning to Bank of America as a debt capital markets analyst. Rohan reflects that building relationships, especially with peers and teachers, has been integral to his success at VSB. “The conversations and relationships I have formed with peers, professors and professionals in the industry are where I have grown the most.”

Shelly Howton, PhD, Chair, Finance & Real Estate, told Poets & Quants, “Rohan is truly deserving of the distinction of the Best & Brightest. He is one of our most gifted scholars as well as an enthusiastic and committed leader at Villanova. What’s more, future VSB students will benefit from his efforts with VFG to build a solid foundation for a finance society that is inclusive and valuable to all students.”

Kelsea Wong, of Malvern, Pa., is a Finance & Real Estate major with a minor in Business Law & Corporate Governance. The Martin de Porres scholar is actively involved on campus in a variety of roles, including serving as vice president of the Real Estate Society, a student worker in the VSB Communication & Marketing office, and a VSB Peer Advisor. She has interned at XSQ in Singapore, CenterSquare Investment Management in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., and The Blackstone Group in NYC. She will be returning to The Blackstone Group as a finance analyst after graduation. She reflects that VSB “not only instilled the building blocks of business, but also the latest emerging components of business,” preparing her to take on real world challenges.

“Kelsea enhances the Villanova community with her presence,” said Charles J. Davidson, Professor of the Practice, Finance & Real Estate. He continued, “One of the things I most appreciate about her is that she actively seeks opportunities to develop herself in both areas of business and social issues. She is also an active member of the University community through her role as a Leadership Ambassador with the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership and Community Engagement Chair of the She’s The First Villanova Chapter. These experiences have made her well-rounded and well-prepared for the working world.”

“Congratulations to both Rohan and Kelsea for being recognized for their outstanding academic careers at VSB,” said Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD, The Helen and William O’Toole Dean of VSB. “We look forward to following their successes as they will undoubtedly grow into business leaders for a better world.”

The Villanova School of Business (VSB) undergraduate program is top-ranked among business schools in the nation. Its online graduate business programs are ranked #5, and its online MBA program is ranked #17 by U.S. News and World Report. VSB has been at the forefront of business education since it was founded in 1922. Serving over 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students, VSB is home to five Centers of Excellence – the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate, the Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership, the Center for Business Analytics, the Center for Marketing & Consumer Insights and the Center for Church Management – with each designed to foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research and applied opportunities for students. VSB is known for academic rigor; creativity and innovation; hands-on and service learning opportunities; a firm grounding in ethics; and an applied education that prepares students to become outstanding leaders and global citizens within the ever-changing, complex, and fast-paced world of business. For more, visit business.villanova.edu.