Monica Alonso Soria began with an early interest in finance and worked in transfer pricing at KPMG and later in investment banking. After several years she sought greater alignment with environmental and social values and moved to the Nature Conservancy, serving as a financial specialist in Mexico City and then as a sustainable debt financial analyst in Washington, D.C. She received a Stanley Park Scholarship to join Columbia's inaugural M.S. in Climate Finance class. The scholarship provides access to advanced training and supports knowledge transfer so she can share nine years of finance experience and six years in environmental finance to address global climate finance challenges.
I was super happy when I received the news. It was so unexpected because I knew that so many people were applying since it was the first M.S. in Climate Finance in the U.S. It was good news, not only for me, but also for the nonprofit sector. We don't have these two topics together in many universities. I'm working for an NGO that does worldwide conservation.
The award made it possible for me to access this kind of top-notch education. For me, this is a long-term commitment. It's about knowledge transferring. I know as a financial practitioner, I have a mission of sharing what I have learned from my nine years in the finance space and six years in environmental finance, and also sharing the challenges we face in the global architecture of climate finance.
"I wanted to have a long-lasting impact on society and the environment," she remembers thinking. Soria decided to switch her career focus and joined the Nature Conservancy (TNC), first as a financial specialist in Mexico City and then as a sustainable debt financial analyst in Washington, D.C. This fall, Soria joins Columbia's inaugural class of the M.S. in Climate Finance as one of three recipients of the Stanley Park Scholarship.
Collection
[
|
...
]