Shannon Harman graduated from the Gabelli School of Business on May 20, just like two of her sisters before her. Abigail (Abby) Harman earned her Gabelli diploma in 2016, and Emily Harman graduated from the school in 2015.

Having her two older sisters on campus with her was helpful, said Shannon, standing outside the Rose Hill Gym with her family just before the Gabelli ceremony, where Abby and Emily joined her on stage as she received her diploma.

“I got to know a lot of people over the years, especially having two sisters [here] before me,” Shannon said, adding that watching her siblings navigate Fordham’s classes and extracurriculars helped her pursue her own path toward a career in finance.

Shannon followed in her sisters’ footsteps in some key activities during her Gabelli career. She was CEO of Smart Woman Securities, where Emily had also served as CEO and Abby was chief development officer, hosting weekly seminars with finance professionals who shared advice and career perspectives. The nonprofit organization, with chapters on several college campuses, aims to educate undergraduate women on finance and investing through networking events and mentoring. Each of the Harman sisters attended the organization’s annual trip to Omaha, Nebraska, where they were among a group of students who met and dined with Warren Buffett.

“One of my favorite things here was being in Smart Woman Securities. That really helped me grow,” Shannon said. “And it actually helped me get my job, because of one of the events they helped me attend.” In July, she’ll be starting a rotational finance program at JPMorgan Chase, where she interned as a student.

All three sisters studied abroad with Gabelli at Fordham’s London Centre. Emily said that learning what it was like to work in finance in London, as well as connecting with Fordham’s alumni network there, gave them each valuable international perspective. “It had a huge impact on my Fordham experience,” she said.

Emily started her career in BNY Mellon’s Emerging Leaders Program before moving last summer to Blackstone, where she is an analyst in the Private Wealth Group. Abby is also currently at Blackstone in the rotational finance program, a position she landed after completing the summer internship there in 2015.

Though the three sisters ended up together at Fordham, they went their own ways in high school. The family lives in Brielle, New Jersey, and they each went to a different specialized high school in the Monmouth County Vocational School District. The fact that they attended separate high schools gave them a greater appreciation for the time they spent together at Fordham. Their youngest sibling, Gracie, is currently a junior in Manasquan High School, where she is part of the finance academy. The family affectionately refers to her as a potential Fordham Ram.

“I’d love to see her come to Fordham and have a great experience like we did,” Emily said.

To the women of the Gabelli School, though, it’s business as usual.

“The environment is open here,” said Rosa Romeo, a clinical assistant professor of accounting and taxation, who is the faculty moderator of Fordham’s chapter of Smart Woman Securities (SWS).

“There’s a tone at the top that as long as you do the work and you get the grades, you can accomplish what you want. There is no ‘you can’t do this because you’re a girl’ sentiment. You want this role—go for it. You want this internship—go for it.”

One needn’t look further than SWS to see this attitude in play, Romeo said. A nonprofit organization with chapters on 21 campuses around the country, SWS focuses on investment education for undergraduate women. The Gabelli School’s chapter is among the oldest—Fordham and Yale, which launched in January 2009, were the third and fourth colleges to form chapters following Harvard, where SWS originated, and Columbia.

“SWS is definitely shaping my experience at Fordham,” said Lauren Kelly, a sophomore finance major who joined SWS during her freshman year. “It’s about mentorship, building networks, and educating others. Basically, it’s an environment of women helping women.”

With more than 50 active members, SWS is one of the largest clubs on campus. Each new recruit is paired with an upperclassman member, who serves as a mentor in anything from club activities to classes to internships to interviewing.

“We encourage people to go for coffee with their mentors, to not be afraid to ask questions,” said Erika Schwartz, a junior accounting major and the chief operating officer of Fordham SWS. “The business world is competitive, so we emphasize supportiveness and being there for one another.”

Throughout the year, the group offers numerous educational seminars for its attendees, covering themes from résumé building to investment minutiae. Their cornerstone activity is an investment project, in which the students learn to research and analyze stocks and present their recommendations to a panel of judges.

In December, a group that included Elizabeth Fonger, a junior at Fordham College Rose Hill, Lorem Basile, a sophomore at the Gabelli School, and Kelly took their stock skills to Boston for the national SWS stock pitching competition. The group pitched Lululemon, and came in second place, behind Harvard.

“I think I’ve gotten a lot opportunities [from SWS]and have been the beneficiary of good mentorship. And I’ve been able to then pass that on to younger members,” Kelly said.

As chief development officer for SWS, Kelly recruits speakers for the group’s annual Women in Leadership Conference, which takes place this year on April 8. In past years, the group has hosted speakers such as Barbara Desoer, CEO of Citibank, N.A., and Andrea Jung, former CEO of Avon Products, as well as Fordham alumnae MaryAnne Gilmartin, FCRH ’86, president and CEO of Forest City Ratner, and Patricia David, GABELLI ’81, global head of diversity for J.P. Morgan Chase.

Their talks—which draw both male and female students—are reliably empowering, Kelly said. Last year, Liz Ann Sonders, GABELLI ’90, the senior vice president and chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, spoke about her business education at Fordham and the successful career that followed.

“Someone asked her why she wanted to go into finance, and she said to us, ‘I just thought it was the coolest thing ever to be a woman on Wall Street.’ We all loved that!” Kelly said.

“[SWS] isn’t only about education and building a network. It’s about smashing the perception that there aren’t women in senior-level positions in the business world.”

“Business is, in many ways, still a man’s world. So, if you’re a woman, it is more important to project knowledge, to be curious and confident,” said Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, dean of the Gabelli School. “To this end, there are opportunities around every corner at the Gabelli School for women to learn and to take on leadership roles.”

The business world has come a long way in working toward gender equality, Rapaccioli said. Still, in many areas there remains a “subtle bias” both about women’s ability to fulfill high-level roles and their interest in pursuing such roles in these male-dominated, high-intensity environments.

“What will finally eliminate this bias is a critical mass of extraordinarily talented women surprising the field—planting a stake in the ground in areas where people expect to see men,” Rapaccioli said.

“Our female students are these women. They are making me extraordinarily proud now, and I cannot wait to see what they are accomplishing when they are 25, 35, or 50.”

Sponsored by Ernst & Young, and organized by the Gabelli School of Business, the event–titled 2015 Women in Leadership Conference: Strength in Numbers–takes place at Walsh Library from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is open to recruiters and non-Fordham students; a registration form is posted online. The speakers, in order, are:

• Barbara Desoer, CEO of Citibank, North America;
• MaryAnne Gilmartin, CEO and president of Forest City Ratner Companies;
• Danielle Sherwood, board president of 180 Turning Lives Around;
• Andrea Jung, CEO of Grameen America;
• Elaine Pouliot, CEO of Image by Elaine Pouliot; and
• Patricia David, global head of diversity at JPMorgan Chase.

The annual conference is meant to show young women the importance of networking, help them make connections, and allow them to hear from women who have achieved both personal and professional success. The event is organized by the Gabelli School’s chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a nonprofit devoted to advancing investment-related education among undergraduate women via seminars, mentoring, and meetings with industry leaders–including, in the past, Warren Buffett.