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Voices of ACES Blog

Junior Year Decisions

Zachary Kahley

As junior year is coming to an end, I can appreciate the opportunities of growth and direction that The University of Illinois and the ACE department have provided me through my course work alone. I feel that the concentration of Finance in Agribusiness within the ACE major is one of the best majors to have as a student. Its diversification within the course work coupled with the opportunities the department presents within business industries to propel students' future career paths.

The ACE department has some phenomenal people running the show and once you get to know them you will realize why this school is top notch. After going through your business core classes with the rest of the BUS majors; for example, all of your ECON and ACCY classes, (102, 103, 202, 203, 302, and, 201, 202 respectively) you really get to choose from a variety of courses based on your preference. Within the 400 level international course requirements, I am currently taking ACE 436 International Business Immersion, and we are traveling to Europe for a two-week project on supply chain management within agribusiness. I would have never imagined being able to get a professional international experience like this within my first three years of college, but apparently UIUC can prove me wrong.

I honestly believe that Junior year is where you start to find or do find what niche you want to take on within the finance industry. ACE assists in that process by granting students the choice to take the classes that they want to scope in focus on. All of the required course work for the Finance in Agribusiness Concentration works either right alongside or deeply within Excel; therefore, learn to love Excel. ACE 444 – Financial Services for Individuals & Small Businesses and ACE 446 – Modeling Applications for Financial Planning have been my favorite excel courses, but also my most challenging. If you invest your time into the professors that teach these courses they will make sure you get the most that you can out of the class; that is why I can look back on the past thirteen weeks and appreciate structured course work within the ACE department.