May/June 2009
Around the Quads
Student Spotlight: Anastasia Alt ’10 Promotes Women in Business
By Nathalie Alonso ’08
Anastasia Alt ’10 (left) with CNBC Closing Bell host Maria Bartiromo, a keynote speaker at the Fifth Annual Women’s Business Leadership Conference, hosted by the Columbia Women’s Business Society on February 28 in Low Library. PHOTO: Katherine BurkeThe current economic downturn may be discouraging for many business-oriented undergraduates, but Anastasia Alt ’10 betrays no anxiety at the thought of entering the business world — or of encouraging fellow women to do so — in the midst of a recession.
Bright and lively on a chilly Monday morning, Alt, who was president of the Columbia Women’s Business Society (CWBS) for the 2008–09 academic year, spoke ardently about her commitment to expanding opportunities for women in the business field.
“I was blessed growing up to have a strong female figure in my household — my mother,” she says. “I feel passionately about connecting women, I suppose because you can be impacted so positively by having those strong figures.
“Learning about [business] has never been more relevant,” Alt continues. “I think this recession will end, and when it does, there are going to be people left who still want to be in business, and those are the people who are going to do really well when the recovery happens.”
Alt, who dreams of owning her own hedge fund, became interested in business and finance in her first year in the College during an internship at UBS that required her to be familiar with The Wall Street Journal.
Her glass-half-full demeanor is no surprise, given her string of recent successes. As CWBS treasurer during her sophomore year, the native New Yorker was in charge of fundraising for the organization’s annual business leadership conference. Alt raised nearly $30,000 from companies such as Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. As president, she ran weekly board meetings and oversaw all the logistics of the 2009 conference, which featured CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo and Betsy Morgan, CEO of The Huffington Post, as keynote speakers.
In 2008, Alt also founded the Columbia chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a not-for-profit group started by two Harvard undergraduates that promotes financial literacy among women. That fall, SWS hosted a 10-week seminar series for undergraduate women at Columbia that addressed issues in personal and professional finance.
“Women often are not prepared for the kind of financial challenges that will come up in their lives,” says Alt, explaining her efforts to bring SWS to Columbia. “On average, we had about 50 women a week come to an 1½-hour seminar.”
Alt’s involvement with SWS led to an appearance on the “Ladies’ Night” episode of CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer in January 2008.
“It was really, really fun. You just roll with it. Jim was a nice guy. He’s not as crazy as he is on TV all the time,” says Alt.
In 2008, Alt received the Lehman Brothers Vision Scholarship, which is awarded to students from groups that are underrepresented in business, including women. She spent half the summer of 2008 as an analyst in Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking and Fixed Income Division and the other half as an equity research associate at Fidelity Investments.
Alt says her interest in business has strengthened her relationship with her father, who is treasurer and founding partner at Advanced Wealth Solutions Group, a private wealth management firm in Manhattan. Although staying in New York City allows her to see her parents several times a month, Alt had originally planned to attend college out of state. After visiting the Morningside Heights campus, however, she decided the College and the Core Curriculum were right for her. Her interests changed after matriculating — she arrived intending to follow a pre-law track — but Alt has no regrets about choosing to pursue a traditional liberal arts education.
“I think the genius of the Core is that you’re having dialogues on lots of different levels. It’s about understanding different perspectives, and I think that’s the key to business,” says Alt, who majors in economics and American studies.
Alt has developed a strong rapport with Andrew Delbanco, the Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities and director of the American Studies Program, who also is her adviser in the major.
“Anastasia has a public-spiritedness combined with a strong personal drive that I suspect will make her a leader in whatever field she chooses as well as in our broader civic life,” Delbanco says.
It is that public-spiritedness that led Alt, a former high school track runner, to become involved with the Achilles Track Club at 15. She has run two New York City marathons as a guide runner for the organization, which looks to pair disabled athletes with mainstream athletic events. On campus, she is Alumnae Relations Chair for her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta.
Alt, who describes herself as a “big foodie,” enjoys trying new restaurants with friends and going to concerts. She has recently attended performances by Natasha Bedingfield and Britney Spears.
“I try to be as intense about my fun as I am about my business,” she says.
Nathalie Alonso ’08, from Queens, majored in American studies. She is an editorial producer of Spanish sites for MLB.com.