Where Are They Now: Sarah Spivey
The “Where Are They Now” series revisits students whose careers were shaped by the generosity of What Starts Here campaign donors.
Four years ago, Sarah Spivey, BBA ’23, looked into the camera for the What Starts Here campaign video and named her future out loud. New York. Investment banking. She was a student in the McCombs School of Business’ Canfield Business Honors Program at the time. She got there.
It started with a plan and a program that helped her execute it. “With my degree, I want to move to New York City to pursue a career in investment banking,” she said, crediting the honors program with something invaluable along the way: direct access to the people already doing the work.
“The Canfield Business Honors Program gave me the opportunity to connect directly with analysts who were at the firm I signed with. That access meant that by the time I went through recruiting, I knew exactly where I wanted to be.”
The plan led to Moelis & Company, where Spivey interned as a summer analyst in New York. She returned full time as an investment banking analyst after graduating in 2023 and has since moved to San Francisco, where she’s now an associate in the firm’s Healthcare Services Group.
The experience shaped her in ways that go beyond finance. “I think back to the thoughtfulness that the Canfield Business Honors Program encouraged through its case-based classes,” she says. “That’s very applicable in the professional world.”
It also gave her a network she still leans on. “The BHP people around me are often the first people I reach out to when I need a thought partner or second opinion,” she says. Along the way, she also received support from the Ray Nixon Endowed Award for Excellence in Finance.
Spivey’s path is exactly what the program was designed to make possible. Phil Canfield, BBA ’89, earned his own degree from McCombs three decades before he and his wife, Mary Beth, invested $20 million in the program now named for them, funding scholarships, expanding programming, and drawing top scholars to the Forty Acres. The Canfields have continued to support the program with scholarships for out-of-state students.
Since the Canfields’ investment, applications to the program have more than doubled. Enrollment has grown to include more than 200 additional students a year. With matching funds, the program created 28 new endowed scholarships. For students like Spivey, that support provided access to the world’s financial centers.
Spivey knew what she wanted and worked hard to get there. The Nixon’s and the Canfields’ generosity, along with the collective effort behind the What Starts Here campaign, helped ensure the door was open when she arrived.
“The impact Mary Beth and Phil Canfield have had on my life personally, professionally and socially has been everlasting,” Spivey says. “I’m deeply grateful for them.”
For more information on how you can support students like Spivey, reach out at changetheworld@utexas.edu.
