As a precursor to today’s class – I came into Sauder as one of those, “Nooo numbers, keep them away from me” which leads into “Pfffft, of course I’m not going into Finance or Accounting!” people, so I wasn’t looking super forward to a class on Finance.
Luckily, Murray Carlson was a pretty good speaker. He kept us engaged throughout his presentation, and definitely incorporated non-embarrassing individual interaction. I think part of the problem was that before today, I honestly had no idea what “Finance” entailed, despite working as an assistant to a Financial Consultant at Investors Group for the past four summers (go figure). When we learned about the different parts of Finance (stocks, investing, loans, etc.), I still wasn’t overly thrilled. However, there was one portion that jumped out at me – microloans/microcredit.
Yunus receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006
In 2005, the “founder” of microcredit, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his microloans project, the Grameen Bank. The Nobel Prize Committee had this to say about Grameen Bank’s far-reaching effects:
Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty.
The Committee mentioned peace when talking about a Finance-rooted endeavor. We tend to think of businessmen as big, bad, money-hungry demons, but microloans have done a whole lot of good for millions of people. I hope that one day, I will find myself as a part of a similar organization that harnesses the power of business to create such immense social good.
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