Cristina Estrada ‘01 is a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, a company that she first worked with as an intern heading into her senior year at MIT.
Flash forward more than seventeen years later, and the course 14 (Economics) graduate and former women’s basketball captain has shared some insight into how her experience as a student-athlete at MIT informed both her career trajectory and her life outside the court.
If you can recall, why did you choose to attend MIT?
It runs in the family! My parents met in Boston while my dad was pursuing a master’s degree at MIT. My mom is Bolivian and went to Massachusetts as an exchange student to finish high school and attend college with my aunt, who was dating a Colombian MIT grad student at the time. This friend was my dad’s roommate at MIT! You can imagine all the stories I heard as I was growing up in Colombia of how my parents met while my dad was at MIT. They ended up in Bogota raising a family and I was always very interested in going to the same school as my dad’s… The day I received the acceptance letter was one of the happiest days of my life — it was the same day we won the high school basketball championship in Bogota, I will never forget it!
What is your current job title and what does that position entail?
I am a Managing Director in the Investment Banking division at Goldman Sachs. I run the derivatives business for the Latin America Financing Group. We work with corporations, governments and financial institutions in Latin America offering them hedges for some of the financial risks inherent in their businesses. I was a summer intern at Goldman the summer before my senior year at MIT and I returned as a full time analyst after graduation in 2001. Seventeen and a half years later…. I am still working with derivatives at GS!
How did your athletic involvement aid in the path that you chose following graduation?
Managing your academics at MIT while also excelling at a sport prepared me really well for the fast paced environment of Goldman. The problem solving capabilities, organizational skills, teamwork focus and resilience I developed as a student athlete are tools I use to this day.
What would you say were your greatest athletic and academic accomplishments during your time at MIT?
First of all, graduating from MIT and having the privilege of studying with some of the world’s greatest minds is an accomplishment in itself. And if you add playing college basketball in the United States on top of that, that made my 4 years in college that much more fun. I am very proud of receiving the Association of MIT Alumnae Senior Academic Award and the Malcom G Kispert Award (for female senior student athlete of the year) my senior year. But being the captain of the basketball team was also a great accomplishment: I then learned how to work in a team leading by example and leaving it all on the court. It also taught me how to stand up after defeat (we did not always win!), learn your lessons and move on.. great preparation for real life.
What is your most fond memory of MIT athletics?
I will always remember my sophomore season when we broke MIT’s women basketball record of most wins in a season (our record was actually broken this year after the team won their conference! Couldn’t be more proud)… that team was the most diverse, unique, funny and talented group of women I have ever met and somehow we all came together as a single team to have a great season. We used to joke we were the little United Nations. Few high caliber academic institutions can claim to be as diverse the way that MIT is.
What was your favorite non-athletics activity at MIT?
Well, I didn’t have much free time to spare! but I did enjoy hanging out and going out dancing with friends (during the off season of course!)
What piece of advice would you have for current MIT student-athletes?
Don’t be afraid to take chances. I didn’t have a clear career plan the day I enrolled at MIT: I came here for the love of the institution and for all the amazing stories my dad told me throughout the years. Back then, studying abroad was considered really adventurous in Colombia, I was the only one who did it in my class. Also, I wasn’t afraid to dedicate a good part of the precious free time I had to basketball: the sport was part of me; I never hesitated or thought it would distract me from my academic development. My dad used to joke that I was double majoring... first in basketball and second in economics. In the end I was able to reconcile both things and do well in both. Do what you love, give it your best and above all, have fun doing it.
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