Name: Cameron Horn
Student at University of Missouri – Columbia
Q: Why did you choose the college you are attending?
Cameron: It was the best best school I was accepted to that also provided the most amount of scholarship aid.
Q: What is your major?
Cameron: My majors are finance and marketing management but I am currently pursuing my JD.
Q: What has been your favorite core class and why?
Cameron: My favorite core class has been contracts. It is something that came naturally to me and I enjoy understanding the nuances that flow throughout a contract that shield the parties. I also found some cases to be interesting as sometimes judges don’t favor certain kinds of contracts and will dance around legal precedent to come to a more just solution. This typically happens when one party has a more of bargaining power and contracting experience than another.
Q: What are some of your favorite elective classes and why?
Cameron: I haven’t taken any elective courses in my JD program. First year law students have a pre-set course schedule. But I am looking forward to taking real estate finance law this year. I have a background in lending and underwriting and I look forward to seeing how the law interacts with real estate financing
Q: What surprised you most about college/campus life?
Cameron: I’d say the amount of time that is put in per class has been quite surprising. Taking classes towards a JD have required a substantial increase in time allotted to learning the material of each course compared to most classes I took in undergrad. I also have found how competitive law school is in comparison, which has been quite interesting.
Q: What are your plans after college?
Cameron: I hope to work for a law firm in the Texas area doing corporate law. I’d like to move to Texas because it is warm and I am not to fond of Missouri weather. And I’d like to do corporate law as I want to stay in touch with the business realm as I don’t know if I want to be a practicing attorney my whole life so I’d like to be able to go back to a business role.
Q: What do you hope to learn at CCDFI?
Cameron: I hope to learn more about the impact CCDFI’s lending has had on various communities. I have experience in the lending world, but we often didn’t look at the impact our lending had other than keeping business afloat or rolling. I’m stoked to see what kinds of long-term impact CCDFI has had on the communities and people it has lent to.
Q: How do you think an internship at Clearinghouse CDFI will help you in your future plans?
Cameron: I think understanding how a businesses practice impact it’s consumers directly and indirectly will help me identify the best ways to help businesses in the future. I think it will also help me better understand what data is important to keep track of and how to outline the correlative value certain data has and how the impacts business decisions..
Q: What department or area sounds most interesting to you?
Cameron: The data and lending department as I have a background in lending and I can’t wait to see the impact the lending has had by being a part of the impact data department.
Q: Name one challenge you’ve faced and explain how you overcame it.
Cameron: While working in a previous job, our general sales team had somewhat of an issue understanding how certain loan products work, one was the SBA. When I was hired on in the underwriting department, I had come with some experience in the area of issue. Our current underwriters at the time hadn’t had much experience with SBA products so I was able to come in and help coach/teach our sales team some of the nuances of the product. The biggest challenge was helping the team understand that the product had much more stringent requirements than most products they were use to finding for their customers. However, after a few training sessions, the team was able to better understand the SBA product (and other small business loan products better) and we started to receive a better offer rate than we had typically had in the past.
Q: What advice would you give your freshman self?
Cameron: I would tell my freshman self to network more. I was heavily involved in organizations in undergrad but did not reach out the the professionals who were tied to the organizations I was a part of. Connecting and maintaining relationships is an important professional skill but it is also an important personal skill to develop long-term.
Q: What do you do for fun outside of work and school?
Cameron: Outside of work and school I enjoy playing basketball, ball golf, and disc golf. I love staying competitive and improving in sports I enjoy.
Q: What are/have been role models for you?
Cameron: My role models in my life have been two family friends. They have continually poured their time and experience into me and are always there to help. They have also had huge impacts on their respective communities and work places.
Q: What social issues do you care about most?
Cameron: One of the social issues I care about most is financial literacy. I think this is knowledge and a skill that is lacking in most education systems as well as in the family home. I believe teaching people to be financially literate empowers them and gives them extreme control over a large part of their lives.
Q: Share something interesting or unusual about yourself.
Cameron: I am getting into and looking at starting a small side hustle of dyeing disc golf discs. Disc golf is a rapidly growing sport with an awesome community. Lots of players love having unique discs, and one of the ways to have those it to buy custom designed discs. I find the process of dyeing discs to be soothing and a great creative outlet!
