Spotlight on…

The Scott L. Carmona College of Business

Luke Rambo

Finance Major

Some people run away from the possibility of writing; Luke Rambo, however, runs towardsthe challenge. As a member of SVSU’s Cross-Country team, Rambo understands the dedication it takes to accomplish long-range goals

A finance major from Marquette, Michigan, Rambo graduated in May 2022. His essay, “The 4% Difference: Investigating the Effect of the Nike Vaporfly 4% on Distance Running?” not only combined his passion for writing and finance, but also won him the 2022 Braun Award for Writing Excellence for The Scott L. Carmona College of Business.

But Rambo didn’t stop there he is a long-distance runner, after all. A member of SVSU’s Honors Program, Rambo submitted for his Honors Thesis a piece called “Are GDP and Market Capitalization Correlated?” a thirty-nine-page research essay written under the guidance of his faculty adviser, Associate Professor of Economics Kevin Meyer Rambo is grateful to Dr. Meyer, noting how influential he has been as a mentor and a writing coach.

Rambo conducted original research using panel regression analysis and arrived at a conclusion quite different than one he was anticipating, which is not dissimilar to his development as a writer.

When he was in high school, Rambo claims he was never really a good writer. With the help of some good high school teachers, eventually his skills improved, and he came to enjoy writing. For Rambo, his experiences “highlight that I just was never that great at writing, but it just takes a lot of just repeated doing it and doing it again. And then in college I kept writing more papers.” That continued practice led Rambo to notable success, as a writer and as a runner.

Hisinspirationforbeinginterestedinbusiness,however,hitsalittleclosertohome. Rambo recalls watching his mom, who was an accountant for the middle school he attended. Although she didn’t graduate as an accountant, Rambo notes, “She was just always really good with budgeting and finance. And it kind of seemed like a superpower to me. Anything she does is kind of an inspiration.”

Combininginspiration from his mother and his personal interest in finance, Rambo was off to the races. In his lower-level Honors classes, Rambo honed his endurance for writing longer papers. Remembering some of the essays he wrote during his sophomore and junior courses, he says, “I think both of them were around twenty pages. With those, I would start an outline and it was good work, but eventually when I got down to writing, I’d end up being short.” He realized that finding a topic he was interested in was key because he was not satisfied just adding pages to meet the length requirement.

Knowing the Honors Thesis would be his largest project to date, he had to come up with a different tactic. To prepare for it, Rambo thought about the bigger picture. Knowing he’d have to present his research as a requirement of the Honors Program, Rambo worked on the PowerPoint slides (all thirty-eight of them) and his research simultaneously. By thinking of his audiences, both his readers and those listening to his presentation, he was able to visualize the finish line more easily.

After conducting his research, Rambo discovered “GDP moved market capitalization as a percentage of GDP less in developing countries. What that means is pretty much the stock markets of developed countries are less able to allocate funds that they received from investors to their economy.”

Since graduation, Rambo hasn’t slowed down. He has accepted a position as a credit analysis for Mercantile Bank of Michigan in Lansing, where he plans to relocate, eager to run towards his next challenge.