Donn Boddie

Donn is currently a junior and Joseph Wharton Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a BS in Economics from the Wharton School. He is concentrating in Behavioral Economics and Finance. He leads corporate sponsorships for First Generation Investors (FGI), a nonprofit now in over 10 chapters across the Ivy League and beyond that teaches high school students in underserved communities about investing and provides students real money to invest. He is also the Chief Operating Officer of Quaker Finance Group, a brother of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and involved with the startup accelerator of Ideas For Action where he consults with the World Bank Group to identify and fund promising international ventures. Donn will intern as a private equity analyst this summer where he plans to continue full time after graduation next year.

At Pace Donn was a Peer Leader, was elected to serve on the Honor Council, and was selected to be an Isdell Global Leader where he traveled across the United States to research conservation and implement findings with peers. He participated in the social entrepreneurship challenge as well as Model United Nations each year. He also played the Cello on the strings ensemble and competed on the Varsity Men’s Track team. Donn graduated with High Honors and received the Dean’s Award for Character, Headmaster’s Award, and was an Orkin Scholar.

My time at Heritage was marked by the community around me. Beyond the formative relationships I built – with peers, teachers, and faculty – looking back it was really the principles of everyone that stuck with me. We repeated so many times “think with excellence, believe with confidence, live with character” that it became core, consciously or otherwise, to how I framed my decisions and went about my goals.

Heritage’s impact is still really strong in my studies. I’m continuing to learn Latin in college. I recently took a ‘1000 years of Musical Listening’ course and found myself remembering much of what we were taught about composers and time periods in Heritage’s own music class. These same trends appear in much else too: what I study in art, math, science, history, and English are all derivations of what Heritage originally instilled. Because Heritage’s curriculum touched so much, I recognize how important gaining a well rounded and classical education was to my achievement later on.

The truth is Heritage pushed me like no other institution has. Whether it was with athletics and me signing up for cross country not knowing what it was, or whether it was with performances on Fine Arts Day or History Day to a full chapel. I credit my faith, scholarship, appreciation for others, and work ethic all to Heritage.