Finance and economics major Jacob Peifer ’25 has figured out how to utilize his passion to serve others.

That passion is investing. Co-founder of the SJU Investing Club, Peifer has been interested in the stock market since he himself began investing in 2019.

Peifer’s realization that he possessed more investing knowledge and experience than most of his peers led him to design a three-part course for the club’s members to use to educate themselves.

Peifer said he and the SJU Investing Club co-founder Joseph Vigliotta ’24 wanted to target beginners in the guides that make use of the course material.

“The only way that I could think of to make it effective for beginners was to offer a comprehensive, actionable and concise guide that even a busy college student could use to get jump started into the investing world,” Peifer said.

While the guides are free to SJU Investing Club members, others can pay to take the course as part of Peifer’s business, Jacob’s Investing Center.

“I’m definitely still in the early innings of gaining that viewership base for the course, but just as [with] the Investing Club there, there seems to be a lot of interest in the course and investments as a whole,” Peifer said. “There’s not a comparable ‘investment for beginners’ course out there on the market, so I’m confident that once we find that strategy that connects us with our target viewer, then there’ll be huge success.”

Peifer attributes much of his personal and professional growth to his mentor, Rich Carroll, chief financial officer of ParetoHealth, a Philadelphia-based business that helps businesses fight the rising costs of employee health benefits. Carroll believes the most important aspect of his guidance has been encouraging Peifer to pursue his ambitions and to believe in himself.

“I think all I did through the process was give him confidence to take those big leaps,” Carroll said. “Because he would have an idea, would come to me and I would say, ‘Yeah, absolutely. What’s stopping you? What are you afraid of? Why don’t you give it a shot?’ And so it allowed him to go take a leap with starting that investment club which then led to him starting this business.”

Jonathan Adams, assistant professor of practice and faculty advisor to the SJU Investing Club, said he is inspired by how Peifer’s work has impacted others during his time on campus.

“He talks about mistakes that he’s made, and successes,” Adams said. “That’s someone who has learned from experience and was able to translate that into something that can be beneficial for others.”