Connecting and collaborating with the quantitative finance network in the Twin Cities was a great element of the MFM program. It’s a small world, and getting to know both current practitioners as well as future practitioners is extremely valuable. Learning the basics and fundamental theory and backbone of capital markets and derivatives markets, more specifically was useful for me.  I have an economics background and my role within the Ameriprise hedging team is more middle office, derivatives policies and procedures so the practical applications resonated with me.  The teachers were predominantly practitioners themselves, who could provide real world examples of how they used what they were teaching, as well as networking opportunities. Plus there were  people in the program with me who were also working in the industry and it was great to get to know what kinds of jobs others were doing and how the courses could be applicable to them.