In the June 4, 2025, edition of TCNJ Magazine, Dr. Seung Hee Choi and alumni Sal Zotti ’25 and Tyler Rummel ’25 were featured in the magazine in an article titled “Market Moves”.
The Student Investment Fund was launched 25 years ago by finance professor Herbert “Buddy” Mayo. The article traces the history of the SIF, highlighting its role in equipping student participants with valuable real-world experience. Growing significantly from its initial $120,000 to surpass $850,000, the fund has also supported over 120 students with scholarships.
Both Tyler Rummel and Sal Zotti shared how participating in the SIF impacted them and their education. “There’s no classroom setting like this!” shared Rummel. When Mayo started the fund, he reasoned that real money would bring real stakes. And real lessons learned. Although students receive independent study credit for their work with the fund, Mayo and Choi don’t treat it as a class. There are no lectures and no textbooks. Instead, the advisors prod the fund’s members with questions that force them to consider every angle of the decisions they’re making.
“They learn to agree to disagree professionally”, says Dr. Seung Hee Choi, Chair of the Finance Department and Dr. Mayo’s successor in the role as advisor of the SIF. “This is a perfect place to fail,” says finance major Sal Zotti ’25, who was with the fund for a year. “We don’t want to fail the fund, but I’d be happy to fail in the way I’m approaching an analysis or presentation now, rather than when I’m at my job.”
Read the full TCNJ Magazine article here.
