John Trieste ’16, a double major in economics and finance, is Manhattan College’s undergraduate valedictorian and will receive the Donald J. Carty Valedictory Medal at the College's Spring Honors Convocation on Thursday, May 19. Trieste will represent his classmates as the student speaker at the 174th Undergraduate Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 22.
Hailing from Monroe, N.Y., Trieste will graduate as a two-time member of the College’s record-breaking Fed Challenge team. In 2014, the team advanced to the semifinals of the competition held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In 2015, the team made it to the finals of the competition. Each year, the team advanced further than any previous Manhattan College team.
“John is a very hard worker, very responsible and someone who really wants to learn and doesn’t think about grades,” said Hany Guirguis, Ph.D., chair of the economics and finance department and advisor to the College Fed Challenge team. “He’s very bright and very humble and has lots of great things waiting for him.”
Trieste is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an international honor society that provides the highest recognition a business student can receive; Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honor society in economics; and the Financial Management Association. He credits his opportunities at Manhattan College to his parents and mentors such as Guirguis, Amira Annabi, Ph.D., and Jordi Visser ’92, who offered him an internship at Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, LLC, last summer.
“Dr. Guirguis has taught us things that are really valuable in the marketplace like econometrics and financial modeling,” Trieste said. “And Jordi Visser has been a personal mentor. He has given great advice to me and many other Manhattan College students, and proven how successful a Manhattan College student can be.”
An avid oil painter in his spare time, Trieste will start a year-long master’s program in finance at London’s Imperial College in September. After he receives his master’s degree, Trieste aspires to continue to work in macroeconomics and eventually pursue a doctorate to work in academia or in a policy-making position.
Manhattan College will award approximately 780 undergraduates with degrees in 40 major fields of study from its Schools of Liberal Arts, Business, Education and Health, Engineering and Science on May 22.
Brother Robert Schieler, FSC, Superior General of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, will deliver the keynote address at the College’s Undergraduate Commencement. Brother Robert will also be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the ceremony.
For more information on Commencement 2016, visit manhattan.edu/commencement.