Andrew Daggon ’20

Andrew Daggon, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne with training as an Arabic linguist and background as a former professional Muay Thai fighter, was clear in what he wanted from a college: a community his young family could call home and learning environment in which he could make his “untraditional” path his own. He found all of that and more at Wesleyan in its unique student housing in the heart of campus, at the College of Social Studies, and as a walk-on member of the crew team. “I didn’t meet many other non-traditional students like me, but I’ve learned to embrace environments where I can stand out,” Andrew says. Both crew and CSS require intense investments of time and energy and Andrew managed to balance those intellectual and physical demands while raising two young children with his wife, Julieanne. His interdisciplinary CSS degree blended history, politics, and economics, and pushed him to form and defend his insights week after week in a grueling academic schedule. Alongside those efforts, he reached out to Wesleyan alumni and leveraged the Gordon Career Center to explore how his expanding knowledge could best translate into an impactful career—one that might let him help others navigate challenges. His drive paid off, first taking on an investing internship at the Wesleyan Endowment Office under Anne Martin and her team, and then, after graduating in 2020, as an investment banking analyst at Centerview Partners. After 3 years there, he joined Steadfast, an investment firm focused on public equities, where Andrew constantly leans on his CSS background, defending his insights on where they should invest and why. With his unique life journey so far, he is often the first person to whom classmates, friends, and others turn for mentorship and career advice. “I’m a first-generation college student, with life experiences many of my peers haven’t had,” he says, “and I want to invest in their success the same way they’ve invested in mine.”