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About the Fund
The Minutemen Equity Fund was established in 2007 by Isenberg students who wanted to supplement their classroom education with hands-on learning. With the help and support of alumni and faculty, the Fund secured $25,000 from the UMass Endowment to invest in public companies. The goal of MEF is to provide students practical experience in asset management and research to increase their marketability for internship and full-time roles. Our members generally recruit for positions in Equity Research, Investment Banking, Sales & Trading, Commercial Banking, and Corporate Finance. However, our members come from a variety of majors and have gone on to pursue roles in computer science, engineering, economics, and other fields. (Please see our website for a list of firms where our analysts are typically placed).
Since 2007, the Fund has increased both the number of members involved and the size of its portfolio, achieving the latter through capital appreciation and alumni donations. MEF has also introduced networking trips and workshops with prominent UMass alumni, which take place throughout the semester. Initially, the Fund invested only in ETFs, but has since transitioned to taking long positions in SMID cap equities using a value investment strategy. Over the years, the Minutemen Equity Fund has grown to recruit students of all majors across the University. Today, the portfolio holds over $360,000 in assets under management (AUM), and MEF continues to provide UMass students with invaluable learning and networking opportunities.
The fund’s analysts work in a junior/senior analyst pair to cover each sector of our portfolio, continually monitoring our existing holdings and presenting new investment ideas. Analysts learn equity research, financial modeling, and other skills related to successful coverage of their sector, as well as networking and recruiting skills to pursue their desired internship roles. See below for a description of the two types of analysts within the fund.
Structure
Our Analysts
Senior Analysts: Our senior analysts are the heads of each sector team. After serving as a junior analyst, and sometimes a co-analyst, fund members are promoted to a senior analyst when they demonstrate readiness to effectively cover a sector and serve as a teacher to a junior analyst. As much of the teaching and mentorship in the fund is found in the senior/junior relationship, it is pivotal that senior analysts are able to lead and educate their junior. This mentorship also includes assisting a junior through recruiting, networking, and more. The responsibility for a sector ultimately falls on the senior analyst, who must ensure their team and sector’s success.
Junior Analysts: Junior analysts are the other component to the sector pairing, who work under their senior analyst on an assigned sector to develop their skills as an analyst and produce high-quality research to present to the fund. These members take advantage of workshops led by leadership and other upperclassmen, lessons with their senior analyst, and other mentors in the fund to learn about financial markets, modeling, research, pitching, and the career skills necessary to pursue a career in high finance. Junior analysts also perform a JA pitch at the end of each semester, which is a solo pitch where they demonstrate everything they have learned over the course of their semester.
Curriculum
Throughout each semester, aside from our pitches, we provide workshops and programs for our analysts to develop them as research analysts and young professionals. Our workshops cover financial modeling, understanding other asset classes, analyzing financial markets, interview skills, and more. We also run the Alumni Mentorship Program (AMP), during which we pair our analysts with alumni in various firms and roles across the industry. Over the course of the semester, AMP enables our analysts to develop a relationship, learn about their mentor’s career, and expand their network.
Placement
Applications
The Minutemen Equity Fund’s Junior Analyst program is open to freshmen and sophomore undergraduates at UMass Amherst. Junior Analysts join the fund and generate investment ideas alongside their Senior Analyst in their sector of coverage. For more information, please see our website. Students of all majors and backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Junior Analyst applications now live! Applications close April 21st at 11:59pm.
We also offer a diversity program in the fall, known as our Diversity Development Program (DDP). This is open to freshman and sophomore undergraduates of diverse backgrounds. If accepted into the program, DDP program participants learn equity research through hands-on integration in the fund’s operations throughout the fall semester. They are paired with a mentor throughout the course of the program and are able to experience what it is like to be one of our analysts. For more information on the program details, see our website. DDP applications are closed at this time. Applications will reopen at the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester for the program that will run that semester.
Contact Us
Please see our website or contact our team at minutemen.equity@gmail.com for more information. Also feel free to follow or reach out to our LinkedIn page to stay in touch with our organization. We would love to connect with anyone about our experiences in the fund, our internships, and more.
