Pallak Bhandari '18

At Bryant Pallak Bhandari ’18 became more than just an accounting and finance student. She grew into a next-level problem solver who understands that numbers often don’t tell the whole story. Today, she is a Digital Risk Solutions Associate with PwC in Boston.

From the start, Bhandari learned the value of thinking outside the box to solve real-world business problems. Beginning with Bryant’s innovative First-Year Gateway experience, which all students take, she learned creativity and collaboration skills, as well as a brainstorming pioneered by some of the world's most creative companies.

Through her International Business concentrations in finance and accounting, she’s continued to focus on new ways to solve problems. At Bryant, that means looking beyond the hard numbers to the bigger picture.

In courses associated with the Archway Investment Fund (AIF) — Bryant’s investment portfolio managed by Bryant finance students — she explores impact investing alongside traditional investing. Impact investing is a new area of finance that aims to create social and environmental impact along with an investment return. “It’s the idea that we can use business to resolve problems, which is what attracted me,” says Bhandari, who is a portfolio manager for the fund.

Along the way, she’s relied on her finance mentors. “Professor Ascioglu — she spearheads the impact investing movement for us within the AIF. Professor Derderian, she makes sure that everyone understands finance in the simplest terms possible.”

For accounting, a focus on solutions drew her into the field. Discussions with Professor Lynch and Bryant’s PwC Challenge, an annual case competition, created the spark. “I realized accounting is not just taxes. There's so much more you can do with it,” says Bhandari. “So I ended up interning with PwC in their risk assurance group, working to prevent another incident like Enron.”

Real World Experience