For admissions readers
Ian Brogan, Prospective Student
Seventeen years old, curious about almost everything, and happiest when I'm in the middle of building something.
My story
I have ADHD, and for most of my life that's been the engine behind everything I do. My free time isn't spent being lazy, it's spent learning. If something interests me, I go all in on it until I understand how it actually works.
That's led me down a lot of different paths: markets and finance, film and production, graphics, building things in resin, woodworking, crochet, CAD, and cooking at a professional level. People sometimes assume that's scattered. It's not. It's just how my brain works, and I've learned to use it instead of fighting it.
My family has been a huge part of all of it. They're the reason I got my start in markets at ten, and they've supported every random rabbit hole since, whether that was a new hobby, a business idea, or a skill I decided I needed to learn that week.
That drive carries over into school too. I'm President of ENN Studios, our school's broadcast program, after starting as Vice President of the Dual Language Immersion Club my freshman year. Between leading ENN's rebrand and helping out at my old elementary school, I've put in well over a hundred hours of community service, and I've kept a 4.22 weighted GPA along the way, which earned me the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma.
Outside of school I've got a smaller circle that matters just as much: golf and skiing when I get the chance, fishing with my cousin, family trips through wine country, and Friday nights at Ohr Shalom Synagogue.
This site is a journal of all of it: who I am, what I've built, and where I'm headed. If you want the deep dive on how I think about markets specifically, that's the investing page. This page is everything else, the full picture of me.
Where I'm applying
- Cal Poly SLO Business Economics + Data Analytics Strong applied-learning culture. You build things here, you don't just study them.
- UC Davis Business Economics + Viticulture & Enology minor The only school where the finance track and the vineyard track live in the same building.
- UC Berkeley Business / Haas + Data Analytics Haas is one of the best direct pipelines into finance in the country. The ceiling is worth shooting for.
Experience
- Promoted to lead director overseeing broadcast-quality productions and the full digital media curriculum
- Directed, edited, and color-graded content using Premiere Pro, After Effects, and the full Adobe suite
- Mentored peers in production workflow, audio, and post-production
- Entrusted with a six-figure budget to overhaul and relaunch a CTE program from the ground up
- Responsible for curriculum design, equipment procurement, and brand identity
- Built and managed a personal investment account from age ten. Real capital, real decisions
- Early mentorship from family with finance backgrounds; deepened through primary research: financial statements, earnings calls, fund letters
- Focus on macro-informed fundamental analysis, long-term compounding, and sector thesis investing
Skills
Finance & Data: Investment analysis, financial statements, Excel modeling, data analytics
Design & Media: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, color grading, logo design, audio
Making & Craft: 3D design & printing, Fusion 360 / CAD, woodworking, resin casting, vinyl fabrication
Culinary: Advanced pastry, food styling & photography
Career vision
- Near term College Business Economics major with a Data Analytics focus. A Viticulture & Enology or Film/Production minor if the schedule allows. Both are part of the larger picture.
- Early career BlackRock internship I have a family connection that opens the door. What I bring through it is seven years of self-directed market study, a real portfolio, and a framework I've actually tested.
- Building Data analyst → senior analyst Learn how institutional capital moves at scale. Build the quantitative depth and pattern recognition that fund management actually requires, not just the title.
- The goal Fund manager Capital allocation at scale, with full conviction behind every position. That's the thing I've been working toward since I was ten years old.
- The endgame The vineyard Where the two worlds finally meet. The same patience it takes to hold a position through volatility is the patience it takes to wait for a vintage. I want to build something that outlasts a career.