October Edition: Welcome to ABSA's blog!

✨ Hi ABSA fam! ✨ We're glad you're here!

In our very first ABSA blog post, we’re so excited to present our first alumni interview, featuring Ryan Zheng! :)

❗P.S. Connect with Ryan here❗

Ryan is a 4th year finance major at the Ohio State University from Lima, OH. On campus, he was involved in the Buckeye Undergraduate Consulting Club, Honors Cohort Program, President’s Buckeye Accelerator and ABSA

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When we first asked Ryan how his definition of success has changed, he said the following: “Be fulfilled but not complacent.” Ryan emphasized the importance of being ambitious, but also being mindful of affairs aside from your goals like prioritizing personal and family relationships. Balancing all of these factors is the key to success. 

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Early in his freshman year, ABSA’s back to school boba event piqued Ryan’s interest (like many of us):

“The moment I stepped into the room, I realized it was a pretty good fit for me. This was a really cool club that I thought had a lot of people that had a shared background and wanted something that I could potentially commit to in the future.”

Ryan initially started as a general member but soon joined Leadership Committee. With this experience under his belt, the following year, he stepped into the membership role on e-board where he was able to set the direction of Leadership Committee, witness personal growth, and act as an advisor and mentor. Progressing in his positions, he became president where he took on full responsibility. Although challenging, he learned how to take ownership of his work and tackle a variety of hurdles such as making uncomfortable decisions and monitoring the growth of ABSA through and through. 

With the help of ABSA’s environment, in his freshman year, Ryan took initiative and landed a remote internship at a startup in Columbus. Upon his first in person meeting, he was introduced to the world of the venture capital and the startup ecosystem in the Midwest. From then on, consulting piqued his interest and with the support of the ABSA e-board, he was able to land his first corporate internship at Crowe in Chicago as a financial crime intern. Learning that he wanted his work to be on a broader spectrum, he proceeded to land a management consulting internship at Teneo his junior year in New York where he gained real working experiences and has the ambitions of staying in New York post grad and hopes to continue his work in consulting. 

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Since then, Ryan has continued his involvement in ABSA by working, maintaining and nurturing alumni connections.  Ever since summer, he has worked on building an alumni database to connect current students with alumni, meeting with older alumni such as the previous founder and fourth president:

“Being able to connect with them and seeing how much progress they made in their own career but still wanting to give back and contribute to a club that they were in maybe 10 to 20 years ago inspired me to do the same in the future one day.”

Ryan positively acknowledges the new engagements and events that this year of ABSA brings. However, in the future he hopes for the club to establish connections with other ABSAs from different state schools, adding a trip in a major city with company visits, and building onto connections to build to a national chapter level.

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As Ryan reflects on his journey, he would give his younger self the following advice:

• Push yourself to grow, but remember to not overwork yourself.

• Try your best; remember that things will work out!

In addition, he would encourage finding value in spontaneous connections and informal networking. He emphasizes making lasting connections through speaking at recurring meetings or grabbing food with others, especially with other members at ABSA.

“You don't have to be afraid to go out and talk to someone. Even if you’ve seen them, but don’t formally know each other. Just go up and talk to them and some sort of relationship could come out.”

So, at the next ABSA event, challenge yourself to talk to someone new (maybe even Ryan)! We learned so much from him, appreciate his involvement in ABSA, and can’t wait to see all that he accomplishes. 

Until the next blog…

Media Committee