STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Margot Wentzel – Life after UConn

Margot Wentzel worked as an Administrative Specialist at UConn’s Center for Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2) up until graduation in May.  Margot has a very interesting background and found C2E2 through research with Professor Jasna Jankovic. She helped with the grant accounts and marketing but previously was an undergraduate researcher with a deep interest in biomimetic modelling in fuel cells.

Margot spent much of her childhood moving between South Africa and the United States until she and her family settled in Cape Town, South Africa when she was 11 years old. Margot then lived in Cape Town until she was 18 years old, at which point her family moved to the U.S. again and settled in Connecticut. Margot always knew that she wanted a tertiary education in the US where the learning opportunities are so vast and applied to UConn. Moving around so much made her want to be a part of a community and UConn provided just that.

Even though Margot speaks fondly of Cape Town and everything it means to her she also highlights how limited her education opportunities were. She attributes her major change to “not really knowing what was out there.” She enrolled as a Biomedical Engineering major but later realized that even though she loved research, she wanted to do equity research in the Finance industry.

Margot has always had a passion for the preservation of the environment and the different ways that could be achieved. Clean energy is something that Margot really emphasizes and believes that the clean energy revolution is what will save the environment. After being mentored by Professor Jankovic and learning so much about what clean energy technology is, Margot made her way to Wall Street for an Asset Management internship where she learned how powerful clean energy is on a corporate level. This truly served as a unifying turning point for Margot where all her interests truly meshed and she felt that she was where she was meant to be. Margot believes that through investment and Environmental, Social, and Governance, clean energy will become unstoppable and Wall Street thinks so too.

Margot’s technical background coupled with her investment knowledge helped her land her job at the investment company 337 Frontier Capital, where she will build financial models and valuations in order to pitch stocks based on growth over the next 10 years.

Margot has also recently adopted two puppies, pictured below. They have helped brighten her days during the busy school year. C2E2 wishes Margot good luck with all of her future endeavors!