Meet Our Iris, YK.

"'Oh that’s a nice flower.', but once you come closer and you see the white part that's something you didn't really expect. The love that I show everyone that appreciates me... I really feel & appreciate back."

Meet Kenechukwu Okoye. He was born in 2001 and attended Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria.

Who was YK in secondary school?

I feel like I was an underdeveloped leader. I feel like in high school, I was still looking for inspirations, looking for passions, and I had to look around me, I had to look at the people around me to find those inspirations and passions. I didn't really have one for myself, although I have always been charismatic, I feel that what made me in high school was a collection of all my friends still.

Who are you now?

I feel like I am a very independent, intelligent individual. I feel like I'm a person who cares about the people around me, cares about my friends. I love solving problems, and it does help my friendships. It helps the people around me. If they have a problem, we're going to sit down, we're going to crack it out. I'm a problem solver and a leader because people around me really appreciate the extra attention and detail I give into their friendships.

What dreams did you have when you were younger?

So my parents were entrepreneurs in Nigeria and how Nigeria is, it doesn't really support its entrepreneurs. It doesn't really support its people. But they have to make it work because the bills have to get paid. So I saw myself as someone who would free them from what was more than a nine to five, so they could relax, retire, have some money as a reward for all the countless hours of hard work they put into developing my siblings and I. The dreams I had were really centered around giving them freedom and how they changed over time. I mean, that is still the ultimate goal but now I've been able to develop other parts of the dream.

Have they changed over time?

I feel like it's changed in a way that now, in my dream, I also want success for myself. I want to make everyone better. I want to be able to give back, appreciate, because there are a lot of selfless people. I'm telling a person, I really appreciate feedback, and I work on it. Every single person who has given me constructive feedback deserves a bit of return. On investment from me, so pressure is on.

Talk to us about your other interests. What do you do for fun?

I love finance, as boring as it sounds. But before I talk about finance, soccer. Soccer is my red button, my everything. So wonderful to see the debates in high school. Who's better between Man. Utd and Man City now?

Did any of these interests influence your passion?

Yes. Consistent growth in the club I support, which is what I want for myself as well. I want to look back in ten years and say, 'Okay, I've seen how I've grown in this way and this way.' Most of these are very good inspirations. It shows that if a club is run properly with the right amount of investment, you can actually see growth. So that's my interest. But if I go closer towards what I do, like on the day to day, I'd say, yeah, finance. I love the fact that the world's capital can potentially be used to satisfy the greater good, but the people in charge of the world's capital don't see that as a priority.

When did you realize you were interested in Finance?

I realized I was interested in my freshman year moving to the sophomore year of my college career, during summer. I didn't really know much about finance, but I've taken a couple of classes. So last summer, a lot of people in Tech and CS were doing internships, and I didn't do an internship, but I really wanted to and I didn't know early enough that I had to apply a whole year before because I was in the Nigerian curriculum. So I spent a lot of time doing personal research on finance, learning how to stock trade, learning about asset management and what assets under management really meant. Reading case studies and selecting, trying to map out my college career, moving forward, what classes I'll take in each semester, how I will grow in each one, where I'll apply. So that's what I realized and that's why I studied Applied Economics and Management because it really goes beyond just plain economics. It really teaches a whole education.

What/Who inspired/helped you take Finance to the next level?

I'll say the fact that people around me were already going into their careers with their majors. They're already getting internships and I feel like I have to see people who are successful to tell me the way to go. In your sophomore year you'll find this. I can't see the road to success and just stay idle. I have to take it to the next level. How to start applying, start learning who I really am so I could tell interviewers who I really am. So, yeah, I say it was societal pressure, but all pressure isn't bad.

It's good pressure that made me take my passion to the next level.

Were there any discouraging factors in your process?

Yes, they were discouraging factors. Acceptance rates. Finance is a very segregated industry, and is predominantly white, so it's hard to break into the finance world as a black man.

First of all, to even get a job at a place like Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, you need to have two years of experience. How do you need years of experience for an entry level role out of college? How you do it is through clubs, professional business organizations in your school. But the problem with those in Cornell is that those are predominantly white. Like, it's very hard to break it as a black student and just seeing the discouraging numbers. When you walk into a professional club you see one or two black people and 200 white people. It's kind of discouraging when you just look at the racial makeup of the industry.

Did your secondary school play any role in elevating/deterring this passion?

Secondary school for me wasn't really about defining my passion. It was about giving me inspiration, showing me the country that I was born in, its flaws, and motivating and inspiring me to want more for myself and the people around me. A good thing that my secondary school did in terms of preparing me to learn my passion was giving me discipline, solid discipline. Discipline is so hard to develop by yourself. It really doesn't have to be a boarding school, but a boarding school really helps in terms of learning discipline. So maybe if I didn't learn the discipline from my secondary school religiously, in college I wouldn't have been able to chase my passions as effectively as I have been doing. So I'm still grateful, but I don't think it really helped me define or find my passions.

Do you think secondary schools encourage students’ entrepreneurial minds?

No, it didn't really feel like that with Loyola Jesuit College. I felt like that's why most of the people who ended up graduating from my secondary school ended up going into tech and engineering, not liberal fields, communications or journalism. I don't think it encouraged students entrepreneurial minds, which is something that is equally as important as intellect, because what's the point of intellect if you don't know how to channel that into solving a problem around you?

What are the most difficult & most rewarding aspects of SoF?

A difficult part of working on this project has been, awareness; marketing is difficult. Although we're in an Instagram era is still requires a lot of effort, a lot of research, a lot of feedback intake and implementation, you know. So juggling that with trying to secure a full time job... juggling that with trying to get As in school and have a super GPA is difficult.

The most rewarding part is the people who were actually helping. It's so inspirational to hear from other people how a project you've worked on and you've developed has helped them professionally and intellectually. We have a speaker series event where we bring seasoned veterans in the industry to come and talk to us, inspire and mentor us. We have a leadership development training program where the National Board has gone and done immense research, brought seasoned professionals to come talk and help us discover the leaders within ourselves. So that's been really, really helpful.

Have you ever wanted to give up? Why?

No, I never wanted to give up yet, I'm still one year into it. I might have to pass the baton on as I'm leaving because I think Goldman won't let me work on a college club while I'm talking to clients. I think compliance reasons. But so far, I haven't wanted to give up yet. You know, the schools were very supportive. People really look up to Scholars of Finance around me and that inspires me to just keep pushing and bring out new ideas.

Where do you see SoF in 3 years?

Where I see the projects in three years? It'll be an established club in Cornell, maybe a general body of like 60 people. So maybe like a G body of 60 people or well-functioning E board. You know, I see different SoFs in multiple schools, national conferences... stuff like that as well.

Where do you see yourself in 3 years?

Hopefully, in three years I see myself as a consultant or regional consultant at Goldman Sachs with an ever-growing book of clients and successful investments. Maybe in three years, I hope that I would already be in position to start helping some people back home financially, supporting their own. To go to the village and bring people to America to go through school. I feel like America is a place where you could really chase your dreams. It is built in a way that if you work hard, you can be rewarded for your hard work. I feel like Nigeria has to be that but we have to come learn from here because we don't have enough history to learn from ourselves. A lot is still uncertain, but America has been established for over 200 years. So they've had their flaws in the past and they've been building, building, and building. Now it's a place that can reward you for effort. I feel like every country should be like that.

Whether you know it or not, we think you’re inspirational. With how you’ve gone about life so far, any words of advice to someone reading this?

Anything is possible. I mean, that is one thing that I know. And the fact that I do know it has really helped me go beyond average. If you do chase the goal religiously, with effort and passion, you will reach it. Everything is possible if you believe anything is possible. I didn't believe that I could. I didn't believe it was possible that I would be in a place like Goldman Sachs. And at some point, I wasn't able to even apply because I was like, 'Oh, look at that acceptance rate. There's no way my resume is high enough or I don't have what they're looking for.' So I had to sit down, think, believe and really talk to myself. And when I applied, I believed my application, and they could sense that belief. So that's my word of advice. Anything is possible... advice for anything you're trying to do.

Do you have any advice for IgeLead & what we’re trying to do?

You guys are trailblazers. You're really setting a path that a lot of people will have to join or follow. So thank you, IgeLead.

Thanks for growing with us.