Spring 2021:
Jason Michael Howard is the Rotary Club of Cleveland's Excellence in Finance. Jason graduated from Avon High School in 2018 and has spent his last three years at CSU studying Finance and Economics. An active member of several student organizations, he is the President of the Financial Management Association and Finance Director of the Student Government Association (SGA). He has also been active in the CFA Society of Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Real Estate Investors Association.
After his first semester at CSU, Jason worked as a Tax Accounting Intern for Austin Powder Company, one of the oldest manufacturing enterprises in Greater Cleveland. He described his second internship with Quicken Loans and his experience during COVID-19 in our Fall profile below.
Jason will graduate on May 15th with a 4.0 GPA. He has accepted an offer to join the team at Quicken Loans as a mortgage banker. He plans on continuing to learn, grow and pursue excellence. His most memorable CSU experience remains the trip to New York City he and other officers of the Financial Management Association organized to attend the FMA International Finance Leaders' Conference in March 2020.
The Rotary Club of Cleveland congratulated Jason on his excellence in Finance on April 22nd 2021.
Fall 2020:
Senior Jason Howard offers the following advice to his fellow CSU students “get involved and be flexible.”
This past summer, Finance Major and Economics Minor Jason Howard was a mortgage banking intern at Quicken Loans working 100% remotely.
“The internship was pushed back by 2 weeks. And it used to be 100% in-person prior to COVID-19,” he said. “It was a fantastic experience although I did feel a little isolated at times based on my previous internship, which was 100% in person.”
“It was awkward at first, but I was able to connect with the other employees at Quicken through a number of different virtual experiences. At the end of the internship at Quicken Loans, I was offered a full-time position when I graduate in May of 2021,” said Jason.
Jason is the current president of the Financial Management Association. Last year he was the secretary and enjoyed attending the Finance Leaders Conference in New York City with his fellow board members.
“I switched from Accounting to Finance because I wanted to learn how to manage money and learn more about financial markets and institutions,” he said. “Professors Blaise Roncalgi and Roger Klee’s courses greatly influenced my decision.”
He also credits the Cleveland CFA Society networking and events in helping him decide to major in Finance and for providing additional opportunities to network with professionals in different areas of Finance.
Jason chose Cleveland State because of the location after earning college credit through the College Credit Plus program at Lorain County Community College.
“I knew I wanted to be a business major after taking personal finance in high school. To be in business, I wanted to be near businesses,” he said. “Because of Cleveland’s financial resurgence, it seems like the place to be.”
When he first started at CSU, Jason became a member of the Accounting Association. He attended Meet The Accountants Night and credits the event with how he was able to get his first internship (in tax) at the Austin Powder Company, an industrial explosive company.
He remembers meeting Quicken Loans representatives at Meet The Accountants Night and then again at a Business Internship & Career Expo event which led to his internship at Quicken.
“Mortgage Banking is interesting, but so is real estate and I would eventually like to become an investor myself,” he said.