Christa Cunningham ᾿10

Christa Cunningham attended UCLA as an out-of-state student from Wisconsin.  In 2010, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and Chinese and minors in accounting and Spanish. Her studies provided her with a general financial background and broad understanding of different cultures. Following graduation Cunninham worked as an analyst with Morgan Stanley’s real estate investing team in San Francisco and then moved to the United Arab Emirates to work for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority covering real estate investments throughout the United States. After three years in Abu Dhabi, Cunningham will be returning to the U.S. to pursue an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.

As a student at UCLA, Cunningham says being mentored by professionals and peers helped her to navigate the resources available to her and she was guided to think through career goals. Her mentors came from a variety of programs at UCLA including the Alumni Mentor Program, the Undergraduate Business Society’s Investment Banking Workshop, Sharpe Fellows Program, and Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Eta Sigma’s Peer Connect. Under the guidance of a UCLA alumnus in the investment banking industry, the importance of a strong G.P.A. was stressed to her and she learned to prioritize the areas in which she needed to improve. Cunningham credits having had sound career advice and encouragement to grow professionally and personally through the various mentors who guided, supported and encouraged her throughout college.

Despite the barriers of distance and time zones, Cunningham has mentored one or two students each year. She communicated with her students via email and phone to answer some of the same questions she herself had at their age. She guided them in résumé preparation, communication accomplishments and how to make introductions and connections with organizations and firms for potential internships.  This past year her mentee obtained his dream summer internship and she said, “it feels great to know that perhaps our phone conversations and emails helped him to achieve his goals.” Cunningham plans to continue as a mentor saying “it’s a very easy way for me to continue to be a part of UCLA and to give back to the UCLA community.  I find it rewarding to see my mentees succeed.”