Who Knew This Could Happen To Me

Written By Miguel Gomez

My name is Miguel Gomez, and I am a rising senior at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I am an Economics Major who has always had the interest to work within the financial industry. The biggest challenge that I faced through my college career was that I did not have the network and support to be introduced into that industry. I met Bevon Joseph through a colleague of mine who was a member of the Greenwood Projects Class of 2018. When I sat down to interview with Bevon, I realized that I was not the only student who was facing this problem. I am a minority who has never been exposed to the world of Financial Services.

Here was an organization that was started by Bevon and his wife, Elois, who both have had numerous amounts of successful years in this industry and are dedicating their time, capital, and life to ensuring that students like myself, are given the opportunity to not only experience financial services through internships but more importantly, to help us create secure and successful futures for ourselves. This summer, thanks to Bevon and Elois, I am an intern at Matrix Execution Technology, where I am learning about the execution side of trading. I work very closely with my mentors at Matrix and have been given many opportunities to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone. A day to day workday for me includes performing tasks related to Exchange research such as researching price protections, order types, fee schedules, and fix specifications that the various exchange partners we had offered.

I also had the opportunity to work both independently with various team members on Salesforce integration into the company. The most amazing experience for me was the open arms I am receiving since I walked in the door. I can ask anyone for help and can turn to anyone to simply pick their brain about the many questions I have or simply, what they do daily. The amount of support from both my mentors and other staff members helps create a productive and positive work environment. The biggest thing that should be taken away from this is that without the Greenwood Project, this opportunity would have never become a reality for me. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of work that is required of us as Greenwood Scholars and that work does help develop us into motivated, hardworking, and determined individuals. My eagerness and determination to learn everything I can in an environment that is new to me has given me the opportunity to attend Greenwood Project annual Wall Street Tour with twelve other scholars. I will forever be thankful for the Greenwood Project, the amazing mentors I have met and the Greenwood Scholars class of 2019, who I will continue to look at as a family for the rest of my life.