Ep. 10 - Student Stories - John Kenney

WBS Podcast #10 - John Kenney

0:06
Welcome to the WPI Business Schools podcast, where we catch up with incredible students in the Business School and hear why they've chosen WPI, how they chose the program they are studying, how they're involved on campus, and what their WPI experience has been like.

0:28
I'm your host, Professor Kwame Dunbar, director of Financial Technology Programs here at WPI, and I'm excited to welcome John Kenny, a junior bachelors in Fintech student.

0:41
John, it's great to have you on with us today.

0:45
Yo, thank you so much for the introduction, Professor Dunbars.

0:48
You know, it's always great when I get to talk to you.

0:50
So, you know, hopefully we have a great discussion today.

0:53
Yes, yes.

0:54
So John, as we start off, tell us a little about yourself, you know, you coming to WPI, why did you think of Fintech and what's your experience so far?

1:03
When I was a senior in high school and I was starting where to go for college and all that stuff, what drew me to WPI was my counsellor told me about it.

1:11
She said that it's a really good school and it was on the smaller schools, which is what I was looking for at the time.

1:17
And it was something where I wanted to have a really good relationship with my professors, get to know my class better and really feel like I'm connected with the campus.

1:25
And so I think all those things really led me to WTI.

1:29
And I grew up in California, so it's from West Coast to East Coast.

1:33
You can imagine it's quite a transition my freshman year and I, I entered as a management engineer and I wanted to do that because I wanted to work with engineers, But I really want to work on the business side and I want to be able to speak the business language and help engineers be able to do what they need to do and help grow businesses.

1:49
And I took a couple business classes.

1:52
I was enjoying it.

1:52
I took an entrepreneurship class my first year, worked in teams and it didn't go that's great as I wanted it to.

1:58
I think that was really my first experience where I was like, wow, this project based learning that WPI has, but there's some ups and downs to and it's definitely a learning curve.

2:06
And so I think everybody at different points throughout WPI will come to that realization and learn how to work with people better.

2:13
And I was talking to one of my advisors at the time, her name is Professor HP.

2:18
And she told me that there was a conference going on in the fall in that I should attend that conference and that I should also reach out to Professor Dunbar because she thought that maybe I'd be interested in the in this fintech space because I'd mentioned to her about how I want to be more responsible with my finances, all other stuff like that.

2:35
And so then I sent an e-mail out to Dunbar.

2:37
I don't know if he still remembers it, but I was like, Hey, freshman would love to connect, you know, love to know more about what you're doing.

2:44
And then he came and he sat down, he talked to me.

2:47
And from there, I didn't turn back.

2:49
I think I attended that that conference, the first conference that Divvy I had that I was volunteering at the conference, showing people where to go, that kind of thing.

2:56
And I attended some of those meetings and I met some really, really cool people in the fintech space.

3:01
And I realized like, hey, finance is where it's at.

3:04
This is where we're going to see a big shift over the course of five, 615 years, right?

3:09
And that's where there is money to be made.

3:12
That's where it's worth investing in myself and learning more about that space and even building a major op.

3:18
And so I've heard of fintech before because I grew up in the Bay Area, but I didn't really give it much thought until coming to API and, and, and I was at that conference talking to all the different fintech leaders and professionals there.

3:29
Great, great, great.

3:30
John, so we have spoken about blockchain technology, right, And the potential for blockchain to revolutionize the finance space.

3:40
What's your thoughts?

3:41
I just want to put you on the record.

3:43
Yeah, see what you're thinking.

3:45
Yeah.

3:45
So that's a good one.

3:47
Blockchain, people always say it as a buzzword nowadays, but it's really it's more than that.

3:51
And that's I think one of the great things that you get out of taking some of these courses at the API is you get to learn about the underlying technology of why keeping a digital Ledger is important and how securitizing that Ledger on a digital platform or system is amazing, right?

4:06
And so the fact that it's an Ave.

4:08
for businesses to talk to each other, for consumers to work with businesses on the client side, right, or everything in between, for people to send transactions to each other.

4:18
And the fact that there's a secure way in order for people to do that.

4:21
And it can be accounted for, which is the big focus of blockchain is to be able to account for information.

4:27
And I think that's that's really a revolutionary thing.

4:30
Yeah.

4:31
And people try to do it for years.

4:32
OK, yes, yes, Great, great, great points.

4:36
So when it comes to money, right, we understand the use of money, but the area of payment systems is also important.

4:46
We talk about cryptocurrencies in some of our classes.

4:51
I just want to get a sense from you and your take at this point.

4:55
What's your thoughts of the role that digital assets like digital currencies can play in revolutionising or improving our current payment infrastructure?

5:07
Yeah, I think especially like the younger generations, my generation, we're carrying cash less, right?

5:13
I think I probably don't even have one dollar, $2.00 on me right now in cash.

5:17
I barely use it.

5:18
I think the only time I use cash when I go to the barbershop.

5:21
But everything is becoming digital now.

5:23
You're seeing less and less of people wanting to carry around even credit cards.

5:26
You're seeing contactless payments everywhere.

5:28
And so when even when you enter like the digital currency space, what you're seeing is that transition from people wanting to be able to trade with people without intermediaries.

5:37
And that's the whole purpose of digital currencies for the most part, is to be able to trade, buy and sell goods and services without having an intermediary.

5:45
So you're getting usually the best price.

5:47
And even on the level of transaction fees, transaction costs, there's a huge amount of politics surrounding Visa, MasterCard, Discovery and all the stuff that they're doing in their transaction on the business side that small businesses are complaining about the fees that are associated with those software transactions.

6:02
And so for the most part, a lot of digital currency, fintechs, PayPal, Cash App, they've been excluded from entering that and paid not to.

6:11
So it's where things of where now you're seeing governments, people wanting to see a shift and a change.

6:17
Hopefully we'll see that that come to fruition and we'll see better trade across the board.

6:22
And so that's where I see a lot of digital currencies right now.

6:26
Yeah, yeah, great, great.

6:28
Now I'll let you tell her, listenership, you just started a wonderful internship and just have you shed some light on how we prepared you for your internship and what you see in terms of how your experiences in your preparation in fintech has helped prepare you for this internship.

6:46
So give us your take, John.

6:49
Yeah, yeah.

6:49
I think the important thing is when you come in as a freshman to WPI is you have to be open to everything.

6:54
And it's one of those campuses where they really want you to be involved.

6:59
And so there's a lot of extracurricular activities you can do, a lot of interrelations that you can build with professors, research opportunities out there for young students.

7:08
And so I really thought I'm like my freshman year, I realized I fed the said the first semester pretty reserved, didn't really do very much.

7:15
And then I entered the new year and I realized, hey, I want to start being able to do stuff.

7:20
So I took on leadership roles within other activities, other extricular activities.

7:24
The best one I'm going to give, for example, is going to be Nesby.

7:28
And so I, I joined Nesby as a member my freshman year and then I took on an executive position as the treasurer my sophomore year.

7:36
And so this, that had been an, an incredible leadership experience, I will say, because it's one of those things of where you learn how to work with others to get an accomplished task and goals and they have real value, right?

7:47
And so the biggest one of courses for Nesby is to be able to send our our members to the conference that they host every year where there's career fairs, leadership opportunities, all that other stuff.

7:58
And so the planning, financing, budgeting that goes into that really taught me how to be a better leader, be become more accountable, be more proactive in terms of how I manage my time and how I work with people.

8:09
And so I think all those things really helped.

8:11
And then on the other end is that you have so many resources available to you as a fintech student.

8:15
You know, I think the first, the first class I took with Professor Dunbar, he was said, go to mass Fintech hub, apply to jobs to mass Fintech Hub, and that's a resource you can use if you're looking to get internships.

8:25
And so through that tool, I got an internship at Mass Mutual.

8:29
And so that was something where I was like, that's really cool.

8:31
I like Handshake, I like LinkedIn, they're great resources and tools, but using other tools that WPI provides is awesome.

8:39
And so that helped me secure an internship for my sophomore year and my first internship ever, which is going really well so far and getting my foot into the door in terms of having those conversations, building that network with people and growing my community.

8:52
Great, great.

8:53
So for our listeners, our students in finance with deeply integrated technology leading to our Fintech degree, our students are allowed to take classes in the math department, in computer science, in data science.

9:09
As they compile and put together the courses required for their Fintech degree.

9:16
Starting this fall, our students will be actively managing money.

9:22
We'll be developing our student LED investment fund, getting it off the ground this summer and the students will start off by doing deep research into investments and then eventually deciding on determining their investment choices.

9:40
Students kept off that experience with a trip to the New York Stock Exchange each year where they actually see trading of money in practice.

9:50
And then of course, students get an immersion into courses and investments.

9:57
So John, were you able to participate in our NYC Triples yet?

10:01
And if you did, what was your experience?

10:04
Yeah, Yeah.

10:05
So I'll speak on those two parts, right.

10:07
You mentioned the student LED investment fund, which I really wanted to provide as well.

10:10
And then you mentioned the New York Stock Exchange, and that's all through extra circular clubs, which I was talking about earlier.

10:15
So you get access to those sort of clubs and you join those sort of things and then the school helps you and those clubs be able to take in places that you wouldn't normally be able to go to.

10:24
And so my favorite trip so far this year has been the New York Stock Exchange, being able to see the trading floor and all those analysts and traders passing papers, talking.

10:34
And a lot of it's digital now too, which I was really surprised.

10:37
And so it was really cool and an awesome experience to have because I wouldn't have gotten that anywhere.

10:43
I wouldn't have gotten that anywhere else.

10:44
So that that was really, really awesome.

10:46
And then even speaking, the student LED investment, but I'm also taking a leadership position on that role, right where I'm going to be the accountant for that and making sure that we're keeping track of the trade that are happening that that we're planning on doing.

10:59
It's going to be a really, really good experience because we're really interested in investing.

11:02
That's a really great way to get hands on experience and learn about the field.

11:06
And the fact that the school's enabling us to learn about that stuff and to apply those skills, which is the only thing I get is all about application, which is why I wanted to go there, is that they're there to help to to teach you those things, but then help you apply them.

11:19
And so that level of being able to apply it on your own free time and with people who share your interests is very, very cool.

11:26
Great, great.

11:27
So for our listeners, as you have been listening to John, we love this.

11:32
We have a passion for fintech and that's why we do it.

11:35
But outside of this passion that keeps us going in fintech, what do you do outside of your fintech activities to relax?

11:43
You know what other extracurricular activities you're involved in here on campus?

11:49
Yeah, so I mentioned one of them, which was.

11:51
And so I think I've had a lot of fun on that side of it because it's a lot of opportunities for you to do some career development work on your resume, learn how to talk to people, learn how to talk to business professionals, learn how to network with people.

12:04
And there's a lot of those simple things that they don't teach you, right?

12:08
You get that experience, you get to talk to people, you get to learn, you get to do mock interviews, that kind of stuff.

12:13
And that's a really good way where you can build your own skills.

12:16
On the other hand, of like extracurricular is some other fun stuff that I do outside of investing is going to be, I play soccer.

12:22
So there's intramural stuff all the time.

12:24
There's interview, volleyball, pickleball, There's so much stuff going on any point of the year.

12:29
And so you join those things, you get to grow, to build friends, that kind of stuff.

12:33
And it's great and it's really awesome.

12:35
And I'm a big soccer player.

12:36
I've been playing soccer for, gosh, 17 years, I'm 20.

12:40
It feels like it feels very long.

12:42
And whenever I was able to stand, I was kicking a soccer ball around.

12:45
And so I love soccer, getting the chance to be able to play with friends, joke around, even if it's for a couple hours.

12:51
It's awesome.

12:52
It really is.

12:52
And I enjoy that part.

12:54
And so I'm excited because one of the things I'm trying to do this summer is get back into refereeing and helping the younger kids and all that stuff.

13:00
So I'm really excited to do that this year.

13:02
OK, great.

13:02
John, thank you so much for joining us for this exciting edition of our podcast.

13:09
Thank you so much for having me and thank you to our listeners.

13:14
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and share it with someone who might be considering a WPI Business School program for the next step in their learning journey.

13:26
Until next time, remember STEM plus business equals impact.