FINALIST - 2006

Maurice Bennett
 My Lafayette experience has included everything I could have asked for and 100 times more. From the very first moment I stepped onto Lafayette’s campus as a full-time student-athlete, I knew that history was in the making. The football team prior to the entry of the 2006 class, only managed a lackluster 4 victories in a two-year span. However, under the direction of head coach Frank Tavani the classes of 2005, 2006 and 2007, we managed to defeat Lehigh on our way to two consecutive Patriot League championships.

Academically, my Lafayette experience has been both challenging and rewarding, while stretching my imagination to the limit and beyond. My academic curriculum has included a variety of writing courses, independent studies, labs and economic courses, all of which have culminated into a senior thesis. Professors at Lafayette are highly qualified and capable educators that make their student’s best interest their number one priority. Under the direction of Susan Averett and Sheila Handy, I am currently preparing my senior thesis titled “Racial Wealth in America: Why Whites Build It and Blacks Don’t.” Upon concluding my research I hope to add to the field of wealth discrimination and poverty in America.

Off the field and out of the classroom, my experiences at Lafayette have been just as rewarding. I have had the opportunity to serve as a peer mentor, spend time at the Boys and Girls Club of Easton and volunteer as a tax preparer at the Easton Library. Lafayette’s career services department has also played a vital role in shaping my future, because with their help I’ve been able to participate in a number of externships and internships. One of which included a summer on Wall Street and a job offer, as an equity sales and trading analyst for Credit Suisse.

Looking back, Lafayette has taught me that a dream coupled with focus, persistence and passion is never too far away from fruition.

 

Major: Economics and Business
Thesis: “Racial Wealth in America: Why Whites Build It and Blacks Don’t.”
My thesis attempts to answer the following questions: what are the differences in asset allocation of blacks and whites; and why does a wealth gap exist between whites and blacks that have similar levels of income?

Academic Activities/Awards Campus Service Activities Community Service Activities Athletics
The ultimate student-athlete is a person that has the ability to perform on and off the field in an equally superb fashion. Therefore, upon arriving at Lafayette I made it a point not to simply compete against Lehigh’s star running back, but against their star economist as well.


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