The Missouri State University CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Research Challenge Team emerged victorious at the Kansas City CFA Society Regional Competition Feb. 8-9, 2025.
The team went up against Kansas State University (second place), University of Missouri-Kansas City and Northwest Missouri State University. This marks the fifth time in the last seven years the Missouri State team has claimed the regional title, finishing second in the other two years.
The winning team comprised:
- Senior Megan Leahy: finance
- Senior Juliette Robinson: finance
- Graduate student Kelly Sego: MBA
- Senior Cole Sunderland: finance
They delivered an outstanding performance under the guidance of their industry advisor, Bradley Wright, CFA (Wells Fargo) and mentor, Dr. Seth Hoelscher, head of the department of finance, economics and risk management at Missouri State.
For their achievement, each student received a $1,000 cash scholarship, a plaque and a CFA exam scholarship (valued at about $1,000).
Additionally, the KC CFA Society’s traveling trophy, introduced two years ago, will return to Missouri State.
With this victory, the team advances to the Americas Subregional Competition in March, where they will represent the university on a larger stage.
“Participation in this challenge allowed each of us the opportunity to take concepts and models that we learn from our classes and apply them to a real-life situation. This gives us exposure to the financial industry,” Robinson said.
“We also had multiple networking opportunities throughout this challenge, giving us new career prospects.”
About the CFA Institute Research Challenge
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that connects university students with investment professionals from within the CFA Society network.
The competition provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and ethics and tests participants’ analytical, valuation, reporting writing and presentation skills.