Anya Schmidt

Poverty plagued the early life of Ghana native Anya Schmidt.  When she was six years old, her father died. To help her family, as an 8-year-old, she learned to sell and extend credit in her sister’s store. It was then she first saw how hard work and education would help her overcome life’s greatest challenges.

When she was 12, her grandmother gave her an opportunity to study in Germany.  As the only black girl in her community, she fought back against prejudice with a determined attitude and persistent commitment to success, learning the language and succeeding in school. The experience transformed her into a global citizen, eager to immerse herself in different cultures and build bridges between them.

FIU provided the global community she was looking for. Anya combined her studies with a series of co-curricular activities and international business challenges. In Beijing, she interned at CSoft International, where she developed a social media marketing strategy and participated in the Hua Dan event, China’s first social enterprise, helping the children of Chinese migrant workers reach their full potential. At FIU, she served as a teaching assistant, competed on two case competition teams, and held leadership roles at the International Business Honor Society and the Student Managed Investment Fund.

Anya’s next stop: a prestigious job on Wall Street. After successfully completing an internship program within the Corporate and Investment Bank at J.P. Morgan this summer, she will be joining the firm full-time in New York.