Learning from the Journal

To keep his students up-to-date with the business world, Bryant U. prof Peter Nigro's main text is the world's most widely read financial daily

by John Peabody

Peter Nigro
Associate Professor of Finance, Sarkisian Chair in Financial Services
Bryant University

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BusinessWeek asked business undergrads to tell us about their favorite professors. Here's another installment in the series.

Although Professor Peter Nigro uses a few textbooks to teach his finance classes at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., he features The Wall Street Journal as the primary text. Students say they grasp the concepts more firmly when they look at them through the lens of current events. There's an added bonus when students apply for jobs after graduation—they're up to date on business issues.

By helping students connect textbook concepts with practical experience, Nigro has won a few followers along the way and has helped his students land jobs. Matt Zewinski, who graduated from Bryant in the spring of 2004, credits Nigro's use of the Journal with helping him land a job as a fixed-income analyst.

Lending a hand

He says Nigro also helped him prep for interviews."I can say that his class was the one that prepared me for interviews with top firms," says Zewinski. "I learned in class about what I'm actually experiencing today."

Lending a hand is part of Nigro's charm. And it's probably why students from Bryant University's College of Business, who responded to the 2007 BusinessWeek survey, rated him among the top B-school professors for undergraduates.

Nigro teaches introductory financial management, financial markets and institutions, and commercial bank management. With a doctorate in economics and 12 years of experience at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency writing policy briefs and researching and evaluating risk models, Nigro is distinctly qualified to introduce students to the real world.

A Hands-On Approach

The bulk of Nigro's classes focus on The Wall Street Journal readings and PowerPoint lectures, but Nigro also regularly invites guest speakers. In addition, he uses a computer program, ProBanker, in some classes, so students can get the hang of making banking decisions in various economic climates and situations. "The kids form their own bank management group," he says. "The ones who don't do well get embarrassed, and their competitive spirits come into play." A proponent of experiential learning, he cooperated with Fidelity to put together a student-managed investment fund.

The professor's attention to practical, hands-on learning prepares people for the real world, say students. Communication and writing skills are often overlooked in business schools, but Nigro says it's important to know what you're talking about and how to communicate that to your audience. "Being able to present yourself in a clear and concise manner is key," says Nigro, who often asks students to debrief the class spontaneously on a newspaper article they have read.

What's the most rewarding challenge for Nigro? "I love teaching," he says. "The best is getting the kids who are being forced to take the Financial Markets Institutions class interested in the material."

Inspiring Students to Achieve

Many of his pupils say he's successful. "I learned more in his two classes than in any of my other classes combined," says one student, Lisa Lullo. "He was very dedicated and very excited about what he was teaching."

Students describe Nigro as a fair grader and add that he does demand a lot of his students. But they say it's work they want to do. "He really expected a lot, in a good way," says Becker. "It made you want to do well." That's all any professor can ask for.