TCU’s endowment investment office was recently featured in Pensions & Investments for its work developing early-career talent through a competitive internship program. Jason Safran ’01, chief investment officer, along with Demi Fritz ’18 (MAc ’19), associate portfolio manager, and Sean Payne ’23, senior investment analyst, shared insight into how TCU’s endowment office uses the program to give students a window into institutional investing.

The article explores how endowments, foundations and pensions are increasingly turning to internship programs to build in-house investment teams, with TCU’s program drawing roughly 100 applications for a single spot each cycle.

“To have success, you need an internal champion — and that’s Demi and Summer — but also need to have support from the very top, so I’m involved,” Safran said.

Safran also spoke to the broader value of the experience for students, noting that interns gain a “mountaintop perspective” on the scale and pace of institutional investing that classwork alone can’t provide. Fritz and Payne are both TCU Neeley alumni who double-majored in accounting and finance and are also alumni of the John V. Roach Honors College. Fritz returned to TCU for her master’s in accounting. The two interned in the endowment office and are now helping train new classes of recruits.

Read the full story in Pensions & Investments.