Tommy visits a famous church in Barcelona while studying abroad. Courtesy of Tommy Bannon
By Matt Rosenfeld
It feels like there are a million finance majors here at Fordham. In Business Week’s latest business school rankings, Gabelli placed 38th, not bad by any means, but certainly not elite. Tommy Bannon is a story that proves that sometimes rankings are not all they are cracked up to be.
Hailing from Lawrenceville, NJ, Tommy had a multitude of options coming out of college, but chose Fordham for a reason that many of us here in the Bronx will find very familiar.
“I knew I wanted to be near a major city,” Tommy said, reminiscing on his college choice. “I wanted a good business program, but I also wanted a campus. I didn’t like NYU because it was all city. I needed both: the city and a campus.”
But, it wasn’t just the combination of the city and a beautiful campus that brought Tommy up here from the center of New Jersey. The main reason was the Fordham community, something that the rankings cannot measure.
“When I visited [Fordham], I liked the people way better than I did at NYU. It felt a little preten- tious [at NYU]. I didn’t see myself having a good time with the people there. I loved the people at Fordham.”
It can be easy to get lost in the seemingly endless line of finance majors in Gabelli, but Tommy was able to stand out. As we all know, almost everybody’s goal at the end of college is to get a good job, and Bannon’s resume was able to accomplish just that.
In the summer between sophomore and junior year, Tommy dipped his toe into the working world, landing an internship at Yankee Stadium with Legends, the food and concessions provider.
“Working at Legends, even though it wasn’t the field I wanted to be in, taught me so much that helped me going forward. The long hours, reporting to manag- ers, being responsible for projects, it really showed me a lot.”Going forward for Tommy meant working at a major bank. With the experience he gained at Legends, along with a stellar academic junior year, Citi Bank came calling.
He landed a coveted internship at Citigroup, one of the toughest jobs to land in the financial industry.“I was ecstatic,” Tommy said about landing the job. “Those jobs usually go to Ivy League students or people with serious connections. When I got the call that said I had got the internship, it just felt like all my work paid off.”
It did pay off. After a summer with the prestigious bank, Tommy landed a full time job with Citi, another accomplishment that seemed so far off when he visited Fordham all the way back in the spring of 2010.
Now that he’s secured a good job out of college, Tommy is just focused on enjoying his last months at Fordham, which these days include copious amounts of Mario Kart, taking care of his apartment pet, a guinea pig named Waffles, and making sure he graduates come May.
“I feel like I got the best of both worlds in my choice with Ford- ham,” Tommy said. “I had tremendous professors, great work experience and met people that will be with me for the rest of my life.”
Matt Rosenfeld is the Sports Editor for The Fordham Ram.
