Written for disABLEDperson.com

by Erin S. Laura

In 1996 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. This is a type of cancer that afflicts the lymphatic glandular system. I went into the course of treatment thinking that it would take one year out of my life, but it ended up taking twice that long.

As the treatment progressed, I became sicker from the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. The protocol weakened my immune system and lowered my resistance, as is the nature of most chemo-therapeutic and radiological agents. I contracted zoster and vericella somewhere along the way and began to experience vision loss.

After repeated complaints to my ophthalmologist went unattended, it was clear that something was devastatingly wrong and I looked for help from other sources. What I thought would be a difficult one-year off from school and life in general, became a two-year saga of trying to learn how to function again. I had been hospitalized as an inpatient for months during the course of my vision loss and by the time I was discharged, I could no longer even tie my shoelaces.

I had to start my life from square one at age 21 with only 10% vision. After going back to school at a local university in New York City in 1998, I decided to transfer to Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut. There, I met Doug Munson, Financial Advisor at Prudential Securities through the recommendation of a teacher at Albertus Magnus. I was doing research on the response of the equity markets to monetary policy for a database management class, and was in need of some historical data for my analysis.

My Finance teacher, Nancy Fallon, told me to talk to a Doug Munson. After contacting him, I found out that he was a portfolio manager. I was so excited to have established contact with a portfolio manager because that is what I have wanted to do professionally since I was a teenager. The first time I went to Doug's office to pick up that data, I brought my resume. He happened to mention that he needed an intern for the summer and I took the opportunity to show him my resume. He offered me a job and I started after the end of the semester.

It has been nothing short of a dream come true to work for The Andriole Investment Management Group a team at Prudential Securities. Not only do they give me the work that I want to be doing, but they are also a great group of people. The Andriole Group represents a unique combination of intelligent and kind people. The course of a day at work consists of a good deal of hard work and some lighthearted fun, as the people in the group have a great sense of humor and are very enjoyable to work with.

One of the highlights at work was the day my boss, Doug Munson, and I went to see Ralph Acampora, Chief Technical Analyst at Prudential Securities. We went to his office in New York and talked charts with him for about an hour and a half before he took us out. I had admired Ralph Acampora since I was a child, and it was a pleasure to meet him in person. He is a consummate technician and a truly nice man as well. He invited me to take his course at the Institute of Finance. It begins in two days and I have been eagerly awaiting its start for some time now.

While the day I met Ralph Acampora was an extraordinary day at work, an ordinary day consists of reviewing stocks already held in a portfolio as well as reviewing a watch list of stocks. The watch list consists of stocks that may or may not already be held in a portfolio. When I analyze stocks, I interpret them from a technical basis. I am always hunting for potential breakouts and potential breakdowns to alert my bosses before the fact.

Last summer, while helping my boss manage a small portfolio, one of my stock picks made it into the portfolio. Lately, I have been working on custom screening for our equity database. I created a custom screen that seeks to find stocks with superior earnings per share and sales numbers as well as some other financial criteria that we like to see in our holdings. This has been the most enjoyable work for me because, above all, a portfolio manager must know how to pick stocks and this gives me excellent practice.

Working with our equity database has dramatically enhanced my confidence in my ability as a stock picker. I am looking forward to staying with The Andriole Investment Management Group. They have extended me an offer to work for them on a permanent basis and it has made me that much more eager to graduate from college. I only have one more semester after this one, and I am looking forward to the day when I concentrate all my attention to developing my career as a portfolio manager.