Students in the NIU College of Business are all phenomenal individuals who we love to celebrate. As commencement approaches, it’s our great pleasure to share a couple examples of the many outstanding students who make up the Class of 2022. These individuals were nominated by their faculty and academic advisors to be spotlighted by President Freeman during Spring commencement. All told, more than 20 NIU College of Business students were nominated by college faculty and staff throughout the college. We were asked to submit only one nomination. We submitted all 20-plus.
In celebration of the ever stellar NIU College of Business students, here’s our first entry, written by Chenfang Su, NIU finance academic advisor and NIU finance alumna.
Nolan O’Rear
It is my pleasure to strongly recommend Nolan O’Rear as an excellent nominee for Spring Commencement 2022.
As the academic advisor in the Department of Finance, I work closely with students and have seen many outstanding individuals within our department. Nolan is one I have worked with who uniquely stands out.
Nolan has a background both in finance and accounting. He is one of the most intelligent, diligent, disciplined, and ambitious students I have ever seen. By managing his time efficiently and appropriately, he was able to complete 150 credit hours in four years and as an undergraduate, sit for the CPA exam. He has already passed the financial accounting and reporting section of the CPA exam and is currently working on the other three parts of the exam — all before he graduates.
Nolan has consistently displayed curiosity and creativity by never passing up an opportunity to broaden his knowledge of finance, accounting, and business in general. He’s also highly involved in various research opportunities on campus. He was selected as one of the three CFA Research Challenge Team participants; the CFA Research Challenge is an annual global event which welcomes in thousands of student teams from universities around the world. He spent countless hours researching and preparing for the valuation. With an accounting background, he has been instrumental in assisting the team with keeping to a more rigorous standard for the company’s financial evaluation. His contributions helped advance the team’s efforts, which scored first place in the CFA Research Challenge in the Chicago region for the first time since NIU’s six years of participation.
Nolan also served as a junior consultant for a biotech startup company through the college’s Experimental Learning Center. Through extensive outreach and research, he successfully helped the company to develop strategic partnerships with contract research labs, create financial projections for the company and contribute to the long-term growth of the company. Moreover, Nolan is also a TMAC Student Managed Portfolio Analyst. He analyzes market growth rates and competitive landscapes for real estate and materials sectors and contributes to the overall growth of the portfolio.
In addition to his active school involvement, he also gained internship experience and maintains excellent academic standing. He somehow managed to work excessive hours to complete reviews and compilations during tax season while simultaneously being a full-time student and performing in his role for his audit internship. Not only was he able to meet clients’ expectations but Nolan went above and beyond by creating a more efficient audit procedure on a publicly-traded client’s financial statements, which resulted in reduced testing time by 25% compared to the firm’s prior-year engagement.
Nolan values the experiences he’s gained through his four years at NIU, and even as he reaches the important milestone of graduation, Nolan remains intent upon passing on his knowledge by serving as a mentor to younger students to help them excel during their time at NIU.
I am absolutely confident that Nolan O’Rear would be a great fit as one of the nominees for the Spring Commencement.
by Chenfang Su, academic advisor in the Department of Finance; posted by Michelle De Jean, director of marketing, NIU College of Business
