Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
Grand Canyon University, get ready to ring the bell.
In a seismic development, students from the Colangelo College of Business and College of Theology will get hands-on investment experience by contributing research to a Christian financial firm's stock exchange-traded fund.
Students will conduct research for Faith Investor Services' Faith Income exchange-traded fund, which was officially listed this morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
“This is probably the biggest external event the Colangelo College of Business has ever done,” said John Kaites, the business college dean, from inside GCU's Charles Schwab Foundation Finance Center. About 40 members of GCU's student-managed investment fund, which is a separate fund from the ETF, as well as members of the ETF team and students in GCU's Finance and Economics Club, gathered there to celebrate the official listing this morning.
Registered under the stock exchange ticker symbol FTHB, the fund is believed to be the first ETF – a tradeable fund containing a mix of investments organized around a strategy – that provides educational opportunities to students. It will allow them to develop the skills to evaluate and research potential real-life investments through a Christian lens.
The student research is reviewed and subject to final determination by the fund’s subadvisor, Asterozoa Management.
Selected business and theology students, under faculty supervision, will perform research for the fund, which mainly involves high-quality bonds. They will examine publicly traded, available company disclosures and analyze organizations based on four theological pillars: faith-driven stewardship, moral alignment, promoting social good and long-term impact. This framework will produce a composite faith-alignment score that Asterozoa can apply in its evaluation process.
These research findings will be forwarded to Asterozoa’s chief investment officer, Joe Hegener, for a final decision on the proposed investment and strategies surrounding it.
“There's been a ginormous push for the last 10 years for biblically responsible investing,” said Scout Sneller, a member of the student theology team. “... When we heard news that this was going to be a faith-based credit ETF, that was my first question: What does it mean to be faith-based?
“... It's been a great journey for our team, but also for the ETF as a whole, through different prayers and different theologians that we've been able to talk to around the country. It's just been an amazing experience. And then to build something that can glorify and honor the Lord while still giving a great return, that's something that we just think is amazing. It really shows how faith can make finance within the financial markets.”
In addition, GCU marketing students will contribute to communications and outreach efforts related to the initiative.
Finance student Ansley Heibult has seen this partnership come together firsthand, from last summer as an intern for Faith Investor Services to serving last fall on the Finance and Economics Club's mortgage-backed securities team to running the club's marketing team this spring.
“It's extremely important as a Christian to understand where your money's going, and that's exactly what my internship was about, exactly what the ETF goal is,” Heibult said. “A lot of Christians just don't understand what they're investing in and where their money is going, and their money is going toward things that don't technically align with the Bible."
With this ETF, she said, Christians will know "100% that their money is going to align with the Bible."
Through the research process, GCU students will receive hands-on experience in credit analysis and financial and theological research while upholding the university’s mission of integrating faith, learning and service. All investment decisions and portfolio management will be made by Asterozoa. GCU students will not receive compensation or share in FTHB profits.
This announcement is destined to resonate throughout the GCU community. About 1,200 registered investment advisors have graduated from GCU in the last 10 years.
“I didn't know how long this would take or where it would lead,” said Dominic Bejar, student director of technology. “And then when I started hearing about the opportunity to integrate AI and the faith-based part of it, I thought it was an incredible initiative, and I thought it'd be really innovative and something that's never been done before.”
Asterozoa is a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment adviser and subadviser to the fund, whose investment adviser is Faith Investor Services. Vident Asset Management is the trading subadviser, and the fund is distributed by Foreside Fund Services.
Asterozoa focuses on credit and alternative fixed-income strategies and uses a disciplined, research-driven investment approach. FIS provides investment solutions that align investors’ financial decisions with their spiritual values.
“We’re excited to collaborate with Asterozoa and students from Grand Canyon University to offer the strategy within an ETF structure,” financial analyst Steve Nelson, chairman and CEO of FIS, said in a statement.
Student portfolio manager Jaron Castellanos believed this mission started to crystallize in August when the original ETF team met to perform research and “form the foundation for what you see here today.”
“I am still blown away that something like this is possible, not only from an institutional side, but also from the side of getting students into the markets and incorporating faith-based principles into investment,” Castellanos said.
It is expected that a select group of GCU students will participate this spring in the traditional ringing of the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, signaling the start or end of that day’s trading while reinforcing that no trades occur before the opening or after the closing.
“It hasn't been discussed who's going, but I've definitely been really vocal about going,” Heibult said.
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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