SC Student Investment Club Helping Developing World Entrepreneurs

By Mike Switzer

Published December 9, 2020 at 5:30 AM EST

A great way to learn about investing in a real-world environment is to be involved in an investment club. So why not start while in college? In fact, there are approximately 40 university-sponsored investment funds across the country that are managed by undergraduate students. And one is located in the Upstate.

Mike Switzer interviews Maggie Adcock, a senior at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, and managing partner of their James-Atkins fund, which has a unique additional mission of using the profits to make micro loans to entrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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