Justin Cooper’s passion for the world of finance ignited when he was a high school senior interning abroad in London for Barclays Bank. This invaluable experience led him to the Whitman School as an undergraduate student, earning his bachelor’s degree in both finance and accounting.

Branching out further into the world of business, Justin interned again in 2006, as the assistant to the vice president of marketing at Glenmede Investment Management in Philadelphia, just 15 minutes away from his hometown of Bryn Mawr, Penn. Justin broadened his horizons with another internship in the summer of 2008 for Lubert-Adler, a prestigious real estate private equity firm in Philadelphia.

In the summer of 2009, Justin became the chief financial officer of the Real Estate Society (RES), a start-up nonprofit organization that links premier college real estate clubs on a national and international level. “The primary goal of the company is to strengthen the younger generations of real estate professionals and develop and expand undergraduate real estate education,” Justin says. Additionally, Justin used the business plan he created in one of his senior entrepreneur classes, Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management, to help start another company, developed by Intuit.

Justin’s most rewarding experience, however, came during the summer of 2009 when he spent five weeks in Israel volunteering at an orphanage, teaching math and English to children. “As much as I loved learning and working with my passion for finance,” Justin says. “Nothing has ever been more rewarding to me in my life than being like an older brother for these children who had no family.”

Justin believes that his classroom experiences, taught by excellent Whitman faculty, have enabled him to apply business strategies in real world situations. “I had such a phenomenally rewarding experience at SU during my undergraduate years, both academically and socially, that I capitalized immediately on the opportunity to return to The Hill for one more year.”