Scoggins Award Launches KU Females into Investment Industry
Corina Scoggins and her husband, Willie, established the Award to encourage top performing female economics students pursuing internships in the investment industry.
The Corina Scoggins Award was established in recent years by a prominent KU alumnus, Corina D. Scoggins and her husband, Willie, as a catalyst to help top performing female economics students pursuing internships in the investment industry. The internship can be in any investment specialty, including quantitative analysis, fundamental analysis, asset management and investment banking. Corina said that the award was designed specifically to build awareness of investment career opportunities for KU female economics students.
Investment Finance Career
Corina, who received her undergraduate degree in Economics and French from KU in 1988 before moving on to the economics master’s program at the University of Illinois-Springfield, retired in 2017 as Vice President in Equity Research for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS of Texas). During her tenure with TRS of Texas, she performed fundamental analysis of consumer sectors, both in the US and internationally, as well as US portfolio management for such sectors.
“Studying and understanding macroeconomics and microeconomics had provided a solid foundation for my success in investment analysis and portfolio management,” Corina said. “And the scholarships I received from the KU Economics Department were crucial financially - as well as in building my confidence.”
Corina added that by the time she joined TRS of Texas, the companies she analyzed operated in multiple countries, so critical concepts from international economics were among the tools she worked with on a daily basis.
Memorable KU Experiences
A 1987 Phi Beta Kappa inductee, Corina said that many fond memories of her days at KU in general and in the Economics Department in particular played an important part in her decision to give back in such a significant way. Serving as a teaching assistant for (longtime KU economics professor) Dr. David Faurot turned out to be an important experience for Corina.
She said that she and her first husband, the late Jeff Bergschneider (KU Law, 1988) would arrive many hours before the doors would open at Allen Fieldhouse with textbooks in hand and try to get extra studying completed.
“Our funds were very limited, so those hours served as most of our dates,” she laughed.
An Ongoing Legacy
Corina said that she has been in touch with a number of the Scoggins Award recipients - and is extremely impressed with their backgrounds and accomplishments and the extent to which the award has functioned in launching more outstanding KU females into the industry. She has recently worked with KU Economics Chair Dr. Ric Steele in expanding eligibility for the award to also include business majors with a concentration in economics.
“Willie and I established the award so that women studying economics are specifically encouraged to look at the investment industry,” Corina explained. “For various reasons, women studying business, finance or economics have historically self-selected out of careers in this industry.”
Savannah Bowden receives the 2023 Scoggins Award recipient from Director of Undergraduate Studies Dr. Dietrich Earnhart.