Learning Soft Skills with Hard Cash: Putting $16 million into the Due Diligence of Students
Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash
Recently, we were able to sit down with Steven Diedrich to discuss how the Baylor Angel Network is preparing future Faith Driven Investors and Entrepreneurs (listen to the podcast here). Amanda Lawson captured more of their story below.
“There is real money, real business on the table, it’s not just a capstone course for class credit.”
The Baylor Angel Network (BAN) began in 2009—intersecting the academy with the marketplace—with a desire to engage students in real-world financial analysis and give them hands-on experience in entrepreneurship. To say it was successful is an understatement. One of its alum commented, “BAN was the most real-world experience I had during my time as an undergraduate student and it prepared me for the workplace more than I even knew at the time.”
But realistically, what can an 18-month stint as an undergraduate financial analyst produce in the long-run?
According to its alumni, a lot. During their time as BAN analysts, students become proficient in a variety of skills related to the field, gain valuable experience that transfers to their professional careers, and develop soft skills for use both in and out of the conference room.
Over a decade later, BAN boasts 71 alumni now thriving in a variety of fields and has become a model for other undergraduate institutions seeking to enhance their entrepreneurship offerings. Steven Diedrich, the executive director of the Baylor Angel Network, participated as a student before returning to his alma mater to lead the program. Diedrich noted the value of BAN as being better than an internship because of the real-world experience its students gain over the course of their 18-month tenure as BAN Analysts—on average, each student engages with 90 different companies and leads the analysis of 10-12. A deeply connected and dedicated network of angels provides students with hands-on opportunity, as well as valuable mentorship throughout the program.
We asked several BAN alumni about their experience in the program and how it translated to their lives after graduation. Their responses left no doubt: the Baylor Angel Network is a game-changer.
What was the most valuable lesson you learned as a part of BAN?
Alumni explained that among the top lessons learned as BAN analysts was how to evaluate organizations and teams through qualitative due diligence practices in addition to quantitative facts and figures. As a part of the well-rounded training and experience, two respondents mentioned their substantial growth in leadership and communication: learning to speak with confidence, to ask good questions, and to do thorough research. One alumnus explained that he learned to manage ambiguity and filter out the noise in order to best understand an organization and its needs. On a personal note, one shared, “BAN helped show me how to align my priorities to be a person of my word and commit to things that are important to me.”
How did your experience prepare you for your future professional career?
The alumni unanimously pointed to better interpersonal skills and teamwork as one of the most significant influences of BAN on their careers. Whether referring to learning from others through observation (one described it as a “caught-not-taught” method), valuing diverse opinions, or simply growing in maturity and professionalism, it was clear that BAN enables its analysts to grow in practices that translate into nearly any career or field. Discussing working as a team of analysts, one mentioned the importance of time management as key to team effectiveness, as well as building a network that will “exist even beyond graduation.”
What skills/values from your tenure with BAN have impacted your life outside of your career?
Each respondent connected BAN’s influence on life outside of work to their relationships with the angels who served as mentors. Two drew a direct line between mentorship and learning both humility and confidence. Learning from mentors taught analysts to be “humble in knowledge and confident in asking questions,” and encouraged them to pursue big aspirations and the vocations they felt called to. The teamwork and mentorship of the Baylor Angel Network “set a high bar for [future] company culture” and demonstrated “authentic living and purposeful leadership.”
Becoming a BAN analyst is not an easy process nor does it come with a light workload but is clearly worth the time and effort, both professionally and personally. Whether through working with angel mentors or peer analysts, students gain valuable and transferable skills while remaining rooted in a gospel-driven mission.
Or as one former BAN analyst said, “You don’t have to keep these things separate or compromise your ethics and what’s truly important just to fit into the business world or to be successful.”