When Darcie Gulick, junior finance major, walked into her Student Managed Fund I class, she counted the number of women in the room: a total of five.
Women remain underrepresented in finance nationally, holding only 24% of leadership roles in the broader financial services industry. Despite this gender gap, Gulick intends to pursue her strong passion for the field.
While Gulick takes pride in being a part of the female population of Trinity’s finance major, she shared that a majority of her upper-level finance classes lack an equal ratio of women and men. When asked if she felt the absence of women in business spaces, she said absolutely.
“I have felt that 100%,” Gulick said. “In my upper-level finance classes, you don’t run into too many women, or they have it more as a minor or as a double major … so I do notice there are less women in my classes.”
Despite this, Gulick is highly involved in Trinity’s finance community. As a member of the Investments Club, Gulick and her peers discuss market trends, create and manage portfolios, and engage in group discussions. She is also a junior senator and member of the finance committee for SGA, in which she allocates funds to organizations and oversees budgets. Through these roles and others, including being a Phonathon caller, Gulick helps shape Trinity’s finances, she said.
“A lot of the money that moves around Trinity I have some hand in, which I find really interesting, and a lot of fun and also a big responsibility,” Gulick said.
Gulick became introduced to finance at her early-college high school, where she first took accounting classes. While there, she discovered her passion for finding patterns in finance. Her main reason for pursuing the field in college was based on her experiences growing up and a desire to tackle economic-related issues in the future, she said.
“I grew up low-income, so I was around a lot of people that didn’t have opportunities to have financial literacy,” Gulick said. “I think a lot of people are lacking financial literacy skills, and if people knew about Roth IRAs, if people knew how to invest, if people knew not to get stuck in debt or if they knew how credit worked, individuals would not be struggling as much as they are.”
Gulick met her mentor, Heidi Malone, executive wealth manager for Genesis Wealth Management, at a Women in Finance panel in the spring semester of her sophomore year. After interviewing with Genesis, Gulick completed a mentoring based internship in the summer of 2025, helping with performance reports and day-to-day operations.
In getting this internship, Gulick noted the support she received from her finance classes at Trinity. She praised her professors’ knowledge and expertise, particularly highlighting Brian Korb, Prassel professor of professional practice in finance, who brought together the Women in Finance panel that introduced Gulick to her current mentor.
“Every professor that I’ve met, because they’re mostly male professors, have always been very pro-women in finance,” Gulick said. “I’ve heard every one of them that I named, like [Eugenio] Suarez, [Mauro] Olivera and Korb, go on at least one spiel about how there needs to be more women in finance.”
This coming summer, Gulick is interning with Sendero Wealth Management to gain more experience in the field. She aims to be a financial advisor and eventually manage her own financial advising firm. She also hopes to launch a financial literacy program one day. For now, though, Gulick wishes to get a job in wealth management and continue encouraging more women to go into finance.
*This article was updated on Thursday, March 19
