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The latest speaker in the Office of Career Advisement�s series of career talks was a former banker and the current editor of , Beverly Stevens, who on Sunday offered students an overview of the financial industry and advice about how they can best break into it.

�I would, in my summers, go get temp jobs with banks, and learn the skill,� Mrs. Stevens advised her audience �Don�t be proud. Go in and tell them, �I want to learn this.� You will be unusual, because most young people, you know, they want to talk the talk, and they want to be cool. But just go in and say, �I really, really want to learn this, and what do I have to learn? Just show me how to do it.�

Having recently returned to the U.S. after a seven-year stint in Europe, where she taught finance and business strategy at the undergraduate and MBA level to military officers on NATO bases, Mrs. Stevens currently edits Regina, which reaches over 3 million people a month on Facebook. Previously she was a consultant to JP Morgan for several years, following her 25-year career in banking and on Wall Street. She holds and MBA in finance from Tuck School at Dartmouth College and has worked in both line and staff positions at Citigroup and Bear Stearns, including spokesperson, branch manager, senior vice president for marketing, and managing director.

�You guys have an extremely strong education. You haven�t got an education-lite, like what takes place at so many other universities,� she said. �You�ve actually had to read first sources and think � and that, in and of itself, is a skill that is rare in the U.S.�

A Brooklyn native, Mrs. Stevens spoke in a direct, casual style, eliciting much laughter with her frank assessments and anecdotes drawn from her professional experience. When listing the advantages of 91����� Aquinas College students in the workplace, for example, she remarked, �The other thing that�s good about you guys is that you�re not drug addicts!�

The comment elicited chuckles and guffaws, but Mrs. Stevens was quick to explain that it was not entirely a joke. �How many people here have friends at state universities or private schools, and what�s going on?� she asked knowingly. �You know what? You get periodically drug-tested when you go to work in a bank, because the No. 1 source of loss in banks is defalcations, which is a fancy word for employees� stealing. And employees steal mainly when they have drug issues. You guys come from an institution that�s known for being straight, and that�s a good thing when going into the banking business.�

The challenge for the College�s graduates, Mrs. Stevens said, is �to understand how to present that to people.� Her advice: �Tell them, �I went to a Christian school. Responsibility was important, and so were ethics and integrity.� That is the kind of thing that bank recruiters like to hear, especially these days, with cheating being such a big deal.�

Among this year�s other career events have been presentations about engineering, mental health, and  nursing,   as well as a career strategies workshop.