The Gould Award

Often--too often, perhaps--student work has an audience of just the teacher. Many of my colleagues, however, look for ways to stretch students with bigger audiences. This past week, my colleage Dr. Brian Fitzpatrick attended the 2007 Robert L. Gould annual meeting to watch a former student accept the award for the top paper for the year. This competition has been going 16 years and involves three schools--Northeastern, University of Denver, and Rockhurst.

This year's winner--the second year in a row from Rockhurst--is Katie Hull. Each fall Dr. Fitzpatrick assigns the comprehensive research report for his Investments class; Katie was a student last fall, writing on the topic of how to make mutual fund fee reporting more transparent. Currently, Katie is in her first year of law school at Vanderbilt University.

Besides receiving a trip to Washington, D.C. to be recognized for the award, she received $1,000 -- something that should come in handy during law school. She majored in Finance/Economics and also got degrees in Spanish and Political Science. And if you notice her holding office years down the road--she has that as a goal--then remember you saw it here first.