|
Larry Perez always had a wide variety of professional interests, from business to theater to law. But it was only when he got to Fordham that he saw an opportunity to satisfy all of these passions by interning at top financial firms and studying theater overseas.
“I always heard Fordham had an excellent law school and, in general, an excellent undergraduate program,” said Perez, 22, who spent part of his childhood near the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. “But Fordham does a great job of making students well rounded, which is what I associate with a Jesuit education.”
Perez majored in business administration with a concentration in finance and a minor in economics. As a freshman, he immediately took advantage of the guidance of the business school faculty, with whom he created a plan to graduate in three years. “They were completely supportive, and I got great advice,” he said.
|
Larry Perez
Photo: Bruce Gilbert
|
|
“Larry didn’t wait for people to seek him out,” said Bert Binder, an assistant dean in the Fordham College of Business Administration. “He stopped in within the first 10 days after orientation. He reached out to different people at the University, took the information and ran with it.”
The relationships Perez developed with his professors and faculty advisers paid off when one of Perez’s deans helped him land a four-month internship at the Department of Commerce as a sophomore. He also worked as an international tax intern at Morgan Stanley and as a global risk analyst intern for Smith Barney.
Perez did finish his degree requirements in three years last spring, just as he’d planned, but he felt something was missing from his experience. He wanted to learn more before he traded the academic life for the world of finance. So he decided to study abroad for a year.
"I decided that I’d done finance, I’d done economics. What can I do simply to expand my horizons?” said Perez. “I immediately thought, theater.”
Not what you might expect from a buttoned-down economics major, but theater had been a lifelong hobby for Perez, who performed in productions as a child. Perez headed to Oxford University in England, where he learned the basics of theater and the art of playwriting.
“The experience definitely helped me realize that I don’t have limitations,” said Perez. “I pushed myself beyond any limitations I had.”
Perez, who graduated with a 3.8 grade-point average, is working in mergers and acquisitions at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In the future, he hopes to pursue a combined law-M.B.A. degree.
“When I look back on my Fordham experience, I’m a completely different person,” said Perez. “Fordham allowed me to grow in ways that I didn't even know I needed to grow.”
Back to top
Return to FACES IN THE CLASS OF 2004
More Top Stories in this issue:
Return to Top Stories index
Return to Inside Fordham home page
Copyright © 2004, Fordham University.
|
