International Graduate Learns the Value of Education

International student Ion Gumeniuc says he always feels like he’s running out of time.

“Sometimes I can’t sleep at night because I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, there’s so much stuff to do!’ I just turn the light back on and start doing something,” Gumeniuc laughs. “I have so many plans, and I feel like there’s not enough time to realize them. I have this huge battle, like World War III—me versus time.”

His class schedule for the spring 2006 semester was a testament to that—he took a total of 33 class hours. Gumeniuc graduated from The University of Texas at Austin this May with three degrees—in finance, mathematics and economics—and a minor in accounting.

As a Romanian citizen who was born and raised in the Republic of Moldova and attended a Turkish high school, it is no surprise that Gumeniuc is fluent in four languages (Romanian, Russian, Turkish and English). After graduation, he followed the lead of some of his friends who were pursuing an education in the United States, and he ended up at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minn.

From the beginning, Gumeniuc planned to transfer to another university and knew he had to maintain excellent grades to do so. Gumeniuc kept himself extremely busy, taking no less than 24 hours per semester and maintaining a 4.0 GPA at Bemidji.

In addition to the staggering class load, Gumeniuc worked full time to pay for his tuition. There were times when he could only afford one meal a day, despite the many hours he worked at a variety of jobs, from working in a casino and computer proctoring to food service work and being a resident assistant at the university, just to name a few.

After three years of strenuous work at Bemidji, Gumeniuc saved enough money to transfer to The University of Texas at Austin. He says he made the move for a simple reason—to attend the McCombs School of Business.

“I knew that eventually I wanted to be in New York, and I knew that a lot of recruiters came to UT because of the Ford Career Center,” he says. “I have definitely learned a lot in Austin. I got much more out of Austin, McCombs and UT because of the curriculum and the professors who have become my advisors and good friends.”

Gumeniuc worked as a teaching assistant for the EDS Financial Trading Center, helping undergraduates and MBA students with their finance assignments and tutoring students on using several financial database platforms, including Bloomberg, FactSet, StockVal and Reuters.

Last summer, he completed an investment banking internship at Merrill Lynch in New York City, which extended into the fall. He also co-founded an investment fund called K&G Investors Group, which he operates with an MBA student at Syracuse University. During the little free time he has available, Gumeniuc fuels his obsession with cars—specifically BMWs—by test-driving them frequently. He also enjoys playing tennis and spending time with his girlfriend, Rie.

According to Gumeniuc, there is little incentive to pursue a college degree at home in Eastern Europe where education is expensive, unemployment is high and college graduates often earn the same salary as those without an advanced degree. But he credits his time in the U.S. with strengthening his work ethic and increasing the value of education in his eyes.

“In high school, I couldn’t see the purpose of education because I couldn’t see where it was going to lead me,” he says. “But when I came to the U.S., I really saw that a strong, broad education is critical. That is why I’m taking all these majors and I’m trying to do the best that I can.”

His parents have always offered Gumeniuc all the support they could. “I was raised in a middle-class family, and Moldova is not a wealthy country. We couldn’t afford a lot of things,” he says. “But since my childhood, my parents told me that only hard work could bring me success. I was raised with the belief that success is 95 percent hard work and 5 percent talent. Therefore, I give it all I have.”

All the hard work has paid off. Ion recently accepted a prestigious job offer from Citigroup Investment Bank and returned to New York City to begin work in June. Ever ambitious, he plans to start a business on the side soon after moving to New York and to pursue his MBA at Harvard in a few years. Eventually, he would like to return to Europe.

“Overall, I would say that since I came to the U.S., I’ve become very familiar with coffee,” Gumeniuc adds. “I have my coffee mug that I carry around all the time.” —Laura Griffin