Mathematics major puts classroom knowledge to work in the field

Financial mathematics undergraduate Sophia Rybnik was fortunate enough to figure out her passions early and then smart enough to pursue opportunities that would help confirm those instincts. “I was originally thinking about applying for an engineering program, but then I realized that I don't really like systems or systems design at all. What I really liked was the challenge of solving problems, which is why I landed on math.”

She has turned that certainty into a very focused undergraduate career that has involved interning at Scotiabank and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, as well as subsequent summers in the San Francisco and New York offices of US-based investment company BlackRock. Set to graduate and continue her education with a master’s degree, Rybnik plans to work in industry afterward. 

Receiving the President’s Entrance Scholarship to fund her studies at TMU, Rybnik says she found the financial mathematics program to be a good fit. “It's a very small program, but I really like that, because my profs all know me by name. I know my classmates, it's a nice community,” she says. She adds that the courses also made her feel very well prepared to enter industry conversations. “Whenever I was in a meeting during an internship and they were talking about very complex math topics, I had already received exposure to that in my classes at TMU,” she says. 

She has also sought out extracurricular activities that boost her skill set. As VP of Finance in the Enactus social entrepreneurship incubator, she manages the budgets for all the startups. She’s also ascended to co-president of the Ted Rogers Investment Council. “That's been a really good experience. We work on building stock pitches within our sectors. At the end of the semester, you present your stock pitch to a panel of industry judges,” she explains. 

In her final year, Rybnik is working on her undergraduate thesis with mathematics professor Wei (David) Xu, researching the mispricing of derivatives in the market. “I really like that because it's the culmination of all the math courses I've taken. And the thesis work is very applicable to industry,” she says. 

Clearly, Rybnik has maximized her time at TMU to gain even more clarity for her future. “Doing all these internships helped me realize what I like, but also, most importantly, what I don't like. I like working with financial data a lot more than internal static data. It’s the most dynamic part of the industry, and it reinforced my conviction that I want to be a quantitative researcher within the asset management space.”

Rybnik has interned at both the San Francisco and the New York offices of US-based investment firm BlackRock.