History of the Program

The Student Managed Investment Fund at Salem State University gives finance students experiential learning opportunities in portfolio management and the investment management process. It is made up of two endowed funds: the Rob and Rachel Lutts Student Investment Fund and the Mario J. Gabelli Student Investment Fund.

Founding donors, Rob and Rachel ’98 Lutts believe in the power of providing finance students with experiential learning opportunities in portfolio management and the investment management process. They created the first fund to be managed by students at Salem State providing annual scholarships for Bertolon School of Business students. We are thrilled that the first student investment fund scholarship has been awarded for Academic Year 2022-2023.

Joining that same vision, Mario Gabelli and his wife, Regina Pitaro grew the endowment substantially in 2021 when they created the Mario J. Gabelli Student Investment Fund with their generous $250,000 gift. Their support will make it possible for more students to get practical hands-on experience in investing and increase the number of student scholarships awarded each year in perpetuity. In their investment courses, offered through the AACSB-accredited Bertolon School of Business, students enrolled in the Advanced Financial Analysis course are given the responsibility of managing the Student Managed Investment Fund. They take on the roles of portfolio manager, chief analyst, student trustee, and analyst, analyzing and investing designated funds into a variety of securities. Students are trained in the use of Bloomberg Terminals to analyze financial and non-financial information and make recommendations for investment of the fund. Students write analyst reports and present their research and recommendations to an audience of community members. This experiential learning not only helps deepen student understanding of business and financial concepts but also sharpens their critical thinking, analytical, technical, and written and oral communication skills.

Since the endowment’s creation in 2019, student participation has evolved from a directed study course to a course required of all finance concentration students. Professor Sanjay Kudrimoti teaches students the concepts related to financial decision making and value creation and engages them in the use of Bloomberg terminals for information extraction and data analysis. Advanced Financial Analysis (Finance 468) has students use the Student Managed Investment Fund in real practice, helping to implement the process for investing the funds, guiding research and investment activities and enriching the student experience through active hands-on learning.

The idea for the course came from Bertolon School of Business alumnus, Joel Surette ’19, and his classmates in the university’s Finance Club, who took the lead on developing the framework for the fund.

The pilot innovation fund course, Individual Projects in Business Administration (Business 498), launched in the spring semester of 2019 with 10 business students enrolled and Salem State Accounting and Finance Professor Sanjay Kudrimoti leading the class. While the course was initially designed for students to discuss concepts and research business for investments, the goal of the new course is for students to create returns on the fund, therefore growing the assets to have more to invest and ultimately creating scholarships for students. Since it launched in 2019, more than 50 students have taken the course and have gone through the experience of managing a portfolio. While the intent is to invest with a growth mindset, students also make sure that there is always some cash for the next set of students to invest.