Southwestern Magazine | Fall 2019

41 SOUTHWESTERN When the school year began again, shewent back to the CCPD, where she found out about a di”erent internship, this onewith theRoundRockExpress. Boone didn’t have a connection with the team but was hired nonetheless. “It was pretty amazing that Southwesternwas able to set that up,” says Boone. “Notmany people can say that, espe- cially in sports, because it’s really about who you know.” Boone did everything related tomarketing at the Round Rock Express, including the aforementioned role of being themascot. Meanwhile, shemaintained a full class schedule, played golf, and participated in her sorority, Delta Delta Delta. She double majored in business and Spanish and graduated a semester early, in the winter of 2014. After Boone graduated, she contacted the Texans’ human-resourcesmanager, who suggested she apply for a yearlong ticketing internship. After her year finished, the Texans had an opening for a position in the department runningmarketing for college football and international soccer. Her internship experiences made them take her seriously, and the Texans entrusted her—at the age of 23—with the enormous job of coordinating the entire marketing department. The job was time consuming. She often worked more than 80 hours a week and didn’t get weekends o”, but Boone says she enjoyed the work and her colleagues. Her experience came full circle when she needed to hire her own interns for the Texans. She picked three fromSouthwestern. “My boss went to UT, and everyone in the o«ce went to A&M,” Boone said. “We had to get some Southwestern in there.” After three years with the Texans, where she learned every facet of marketing, Boone wanted to specialize in a single area. She is now back in Austin, working part- time as amarketing and research project coordinator for an executive recruiting agency and going to school at the University of Texas to get her certification in the UX/UI (User Experience/User Interface) Boot Camp, which is focused on web and app design. Trading up Boone’s contemporary, NickSivon ’15, was a first-year student at Southwestern during the era of reckoning that followed the 2008 recession. “Wewere at the peak of hindsight being 20/20,” he says. “It was so obvious what went wrong in 2008.” Focused initially on playing lacrosse, Sivon became more interested in the recession, inspired by professors at Southwestern who had compelling insights into how to avoid such a catastrophe in the future. His coursework, in turn, piqued his curiosity in finance. At Southwestern, he participated in the Financial Analyst Program, which allows SUeconomics and businessmajors to collectively manage $600,000 of the University’s financial portfolio. Sivon shares that every week, a member would prepare a pitch recommending the University invest in certain stocks or industries. The presentationwas followed by a grilling fromthe group as they debatedwhether the stock was a smart investment. Sivon took economics courses from professors like PatrickVanHorn, a financial historianwith a reputation of being intensely challenging. Sivon says his corporate finance class was “the first class that business majors would fail out of.” Duringthespringof2014,SivonwasVanHorn’sresearch assistant, which set the stage for his economics capstone on depositor behavior during the Panics of 1854 and 1857. Itwas a busy spring. Sivon also interned at AvalonAdvi- sors, aHouston-based investmentmanagement firm. He took his résumé to the CCPD and did mock interviews. He then got his foot in the door with the help of Board of Trustees member Steve Raben ’63. Raben is a “super alumnus,” in Sivon’swords, of the Pi KappaAlpha frater- nity, ofwhichSivonwas president. The internshipallowed Sivon to break into the competitive financial field.When he graduated, he took a job in Dallas at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. It was pretty amazing that Southwestern was able to set that up… It's very much taking me outside of my comfort zone…