Investment Research
How an idea becomes an investment thesis: research companies, examine assumptions, and learn to distinguish a strong argument from an unsupported opinion.
The Finance Program · First cohort 2026
Want to start smaller, with just finance?
A small offshoot of the institute, for Cathedral Catholic students who want one lane only: finance, investing, and markets — 25 students, a smaller classroom, and a year that ends with you defending an investment thesis to professionals.
Want the full suite — every function of a business, the Case Competition, and a company of your own on the Summit stage? That’s the Flagship Program. This page is the smaller start: finance only.
The classroom
Smaller by design.
Focused by choice.
The Flagship sweeps through every function of a business. This room does the opposite — 25 students, one subject, all year. Every session runs the same five-part discipline:
- ConceptsUnderstand the principles behind the day’s subject.
- AnalysisWork through financial information, calculations, markets, and real decisions.
- ApplicationUse what you learned instead of simply hearing about it.
- PresentationExplain your thinking clearly and defend your conclusions.
- DiscussionChallenge assumptions, and learn how financial professionals approach decisions.
The goal is not to learn financial terminology. It is to start thinking like someone who works in finance.
Semester one
Build your financial foundation.
Three sessions and a rehearsal — that’s the whole fall. Small on purpose: one lane, walked slowly enough to actually learn it.
Session 01 · Tue, Sep 29 · 2:30–4:15 PM
Personal Finance & Wealth Building
Finance starts with understanding money itself — saving, investing, compounding, risk, and the principles behind long-term wealth.
Session 02 · Wed, Oct 21 · 2:30–4:15 PM
Markets & Investing
Why does one investment rise while another falls? How markets operate, and how investors evaluate risk, return, and information over instinct.
Session 03 · Tue, Nov 17 · 2:30–4:15 PM
Investment Banking & Corporate Finance
Move from the investor’s perspective inside the company: raising capital, evaluating investments, allocating resources, analyzing performance.
Rehearsal · Wed, Nov 18 · 2:30–4:30 PM
Know it. Then communicate it.
A dedicated session to rehearse, receive feedback, refine your reasoning, and prepare for the capstone — turning financial knowledge into confident communication.
Semester one capstone · Friday, December 4
Financial Literacy Day
The first semester ends differently than it began. Instead of learning in the classroom, Finance Division students become the teachers — designing and running financial-literacy activities for younger students from Catholic elementary schools.
They must take concepts that seem complicated and make them understandable, practical, and engaging. All 25 participate.
Because one of the best tests of whether you understand something is whether you can teach it to someone else.
- Understand it.
- Apply it.
- Explain it.
- Teach it.
Semester two
From learning finance
to practicing it.
The lane stays narrow; the work gets real. Students stop asking “how does finance work?” and start asking “what would I do with this information?”
AI & Finance
AI is changing how financial information is researched and used. The question that matters: what should technology calculate — and where does human judgment still rule?
Analysis & Pitch Preparation
Bring the research together into a clear recommendation: what the company does, why the opportunity exists, how it’s valued, what could go wrong — and why your conclusion holds.
The final challenge
The DBI Finance Stock Pitch
Research a publicly traded company. Develop an investment thesis. Present your recommendation to professionals with experience evaluating investments — and answer their questions about every assumption behind your analysis.
This is not a presentation about a company. It is a recommendation — made in a small room, to a table of professionals, with no stage and no prize pool to hide behind. By the end, the question is no longer do you understand finance?
Would you put money behind your own analysis?
Is it for you?
Intentionally specialized.
You do not need investing experience, or to know how to value a company. But you should already have a genuine interest in finance — investing, markets, wealth management, investment banking, corporate finance, fintech, economics — and want to go significantly deeper into it.
This is deliberately the smaller path — 25 seats, one lane, no venture term. Want the full suite of business? That’s the Flagship Program.
- Cohort
- 25 students — half the Flagship
- Sessions
- Sep 29 · Oct 21 · Nov 17 · 2:30–4:15 PM
- Rehearsal
- Nov 18 · 2:30–4:30 PM
- Capstone
- Financial Literacy Day · Dec 4
- Finale
- The Stock Pitch · Spring
Where to next