This winter the School of Business received a $1.2 million gift from an alumnus to help add an important element to the already strong investment curriculum at IC.

This contribution will be used, in part, to create and partially endow an investment track within the finance concentration. The school now has three undergraduate courses that give students the chance to manage real money in three separate funds—equity, fixed income, and hedge—something that no other school on Businessweek’s “best undergraduate schools” list can boast.

“We are very excited and grateful to have received this generous gift from an alumnus with the vision to build out this track and help our finance students get ahead of the curve when they enter the professional world,” said School of Business dean Mary Ellen Zuckerman.

Students had already been investing $200,000 between the fixed income and real-time portfolio management classes. With this gift, another $100,000 will be added to a hedge fund this year, and $100,000 will be added to the fund next year, bringing the total investment amount to $400,000.

The gift will also create an endowed scholarship for $100,000, which will be offered starting fall 2013 to a junior or senior in the School of Business with a demonstrated interest in the investment field and a minimum GPA of 3.0.

 The funds also provide the ability to upgrade software, develop the curriculum, and market the program to prospective students. Courses in the track include Security Analysis and Portfolio Management, Speculative Markets, Real-Time Portfolio Management I and II (Equity), Fixed Income Investment, and Hedge Fund I and II.