Our amazing crew at apartment U31 took a loss at the end of December with Artem An returning to Korea. Artem was an international exchange student who went to Pepperdine for a semester and then returned to study at Korean Business School.
Artem was replace by 23 year old Jerry Darko, who was raised in Botswana Africa. He was born in Zimbabwe, and later moved to Gaborone, Botswana. During high school, Jerry competed in the National Mathematics Problems Contest and placed 2nd in all of Botswana!
At the age of 16, he came to the United States to attend undergrad. Jerry attended Macalester College where he was a double major in Physics and Math. During undergrad, Jerry was involved in special event planning and many co-curricular activities.
After he graduated from Mccalester College he was accepted into USC’s PhD program in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Electro-Physics. When he was 2 1/2 years into the PhD program he decided to leave the program to enter the workforce. Jerry wanted to work with people and wasn’t enjoying the abstract theoretical teachings of the PhD program. He had accumulated enough credits to earn a Master’s in Electrical Engineering.
He left USC and took a position with Countrywide Capital Markets. He worked for them for a year as a quantitative analyst. While working for them, he built mathematical programs for mortgage models. Although he no longer works for them. they continue to use the models that Jerry created for them.
It was about this time when Jerry found his true purpose in life. His goal is to eventually go back to Botswana and start a private equity fund. This fund will have huge impacts on the country. A private equity fund will help bring outside capital investments into the country which will in turn stimulate the economy. With the improving economy, the standard of living will be able to rise, benefiting all who live there.
To gain experience and credibility in finance, Jerry is attending Pepperdine to get his Master’s in Applied Finance which is located in the same facility as my MBA program. At Pepperdine, he is active in both the finance club and the entrepreneurship club. Right now he is a finance intern at CallSource and is helping them transition into a new business model.
Of all of Jerry’s impressive accomplishments, the most impressive has to be the non-profit he started. Jerry founded “Just Like You” in 2008. Just Like You is an after-school program designed to promote international global awareness in the next generation by teaching kids games from all over the world. Once the idea was formulated and started, Jerry approached Nike for their support. Jerry and Nike formed a partnership and Nike now officially sponsors and provides funding to Just Like You. Currently, Just Like You is active at 180 schools in the LA area. Check it out, at: playjustlikeyou.com
Outside of the classroom, Jerry is an incredibly popular guy. Jerry loves socializing, dancing and most importantly music. I’m not sure how this is possible, but everyone seems to know Jerry. His 2009 New Year’s Resolution is to start lifting weights and “get massively huge”. Last week he cooked us some traditional food from Africa, and informed us it was “a little spicy”. While the food tasted great, it almost killed me! Jerry is a great addition to the U31 crew and we are glad to have him with us. It is refreshing to meet yet another young, accomplished, driven and focused individual.
