Chicago-native Graham Sheffer ’21 grew up assuming he would attend college at his father’s alma mater—Ohio State.

But right before he started high school, the family moved to Redmond, Washington, and something about that 2,200-mile adventure made Sheffer start looking at the world differently.

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This broader view of his possibilities inspired him to visit the University of Arizona his junior year, when he took a tour of the Eller College and was immediately impressed.

“Everyone I met was collaborative and group-oriented,” he said. “Plus I learned the college is highly ranked. I knew it would be a good fit for preparing myself for the business world.”

Upon enrolling, Sheffer got involved right away as an Eller Emerging Leader, and later joined the Sports Marketing Club, Investments Club and SPARK (an entrepreneurship program exclusively for pre-business sophomores). His involvement with the Wall Street Scholars Program has been his most significant focus and is setting the foundation for his future career path.

“I had a growing interest in finance, and Eller provided me the opportunity to learn about a variety of potential career paths,” he says. “Now I’m applying for one of the associate positions with the Wall Street Scholars, and I’ve learned about the different finance career paths.”

Although a few years are left before he graduates, Sheffer is already thinking about his dream job—he sees himself on Wall Street, either in investment banking or sales and trading.

And though not much time has passed since he left high school, he can already see positive changes in himself.

“Looking back on my freshmen year, I can see how much being part of the La Paz business-themed living community helped me,” he says. “I was surrounded by motivated people—high-performers—and it made me step-up my game.”

He credits Eller with teaching him the importance of working well with others and how fun and energizing it can be to brainstorm ideas toward a common goal.

“I’ve put in the work at Eller,” he says. “I have a GPA I’m very proud of. The University of Arizona has shown me what I’m capable of.”