Hofstra’s Zarb School of Business and Department of Finance offer students the opportunity to obtain Bloomberg Essentials designation by completing a self-study designed and provided by Bloomberg in the Martin B. Greenberg Trading Room which is equipped with 34 Bloomberg Professional terminals. For the last 10 years, Hofstra students are trained in the state of the art trading room utilizing the resources of the facility which include various finance databases and analytical applications in addition to its centerpiece Bloomberg system.
During the 2013-2014 academic year, record number of students participated in Bloomberg workshops. Undergraduate and graduate Hofstra students from BBA, MBA and MS in Finance programs as well as from the Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program successfully completed the BESS program.
As a reward for those Hofstra students’ dedication and performance, at the end of every academic year in the Spring Dr. Ahmet Karagozoglu arranges a visit to the Bloomberg Headquarters in New York City which includes a tour of the Bloomberg’s high-tech building and the BESS Ceremony. Students who successfully completed their Bloomberg Essentials Program receive the acknowledgement of their designation during the ceremony from Bloomberg staff.
This year the ceremony took place on Wednesday May 21, 2014 and Alexandra Huber, Global Head of Training for both Sales and Analytics at Bloomberg, spoke to Hofstra students and handed out their BESS designations. Following the ceremony Megan Walsh from Bloomberg Analytics arranged the tour of Bloomberg Headquarters during which students learned about the technology and operational efficiency behind Bloomberg terminals as well as Bloomberg Television and news networks.
During their visit to the Bloomberg Headquarters in New York City, Hofstra students were accompanied by Dr. Ahmet K. Karagozoglu who is a finance professor and Academic Director of Hofstra’s Martin B. Greenberg Trading Room. Dr. Karagozoglu has been organizing these ceremony visits during the last year 10 years and knows first-hand that students view visiting Bloomberg and receiving their BESS designations from Bloomberg staff as one of the most memorable highlights of their educational experience at Hofstra’s Zarb School of Business. Majority of students obtain Bloomberg Essentials designation by completing the Bloomberg administered courses and exams in more than one market segment, i.e. Equity, Fixed Income, FX, and Commodities, displaying their motivation and commitment to learn as much about the vast functionality of Bloomberg Professional system.
Hofstra’s Martin B. Greenberg Trading Room is one of the largest in the country and finance faculty integrate its resources, including the Bloomberg Professional into both graduate and undergraduate curriculum and encourage students to complete the Bloomberg Essentials Program (BESS). For this purpose, every semester finance professor Dr. Ahmet Karagozoglu who is the Academic Director of the trading room conducts several introductory workshops for students that kick-start the BESS. Finance Department Chairpersons, currently Dr. K.G. Viswanathan, create classroom schedules to maximize the available trading room hours for students to use the facility for BESS and research purposes. Martin B. Greenberg Trading Room is staffed with two trading room assistants on average 20 hours per week providing access to students ample time to make full use of the resources, especially the Bloomberg terminals.
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