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Pathway to success

10 September 2008

Allan Lam Tat Cheong and Keefe Chie Ziyang

First year accounting and finance students Allan Lam Tat Cheong and Keefe Chie Ziyang have won Best First Year Entrant in the 2008 UBS Investment Banking Challenge, proving pathways to university study lead to success.

Impressed by its reputation and success rate, the international students chose to study at Monash College as a direct entry route to Monash University.

Conducted Australia wide for undergraduate and postgraduate university students, the UBS Investment Banking Challenge began in 2005 and in 2008 expanded to seven universities, including Monash.

The students said the competition gave them the opportunity to meet people in the industry.

"The competition presented a rare chance for us to get some basic ideas of what life would be like working at an investment company," Allan said.

"We got an idea of what highly regarded companies like UBS would expect from university graduates and had the chance of learning from the excellent performance of the overall winners," Keefe added.

Monash College accounting teacher, Andrew Phillips, who taught both students, said he was very impressed by their efforts.

"The competition helped them to further develop their confidence, communication skills, and teamwork," Mr Phillips said.

"They even taught themselves some of the finance components needed for the competition, content you don't normally learn until second or third year."

"Obviously the strong foundations they received from Monash College have served them well for the transition into Monash University, hopefully resulting in more success in the future, at university and beyond."