His senior year did not play out the way he imagined it, but Mitchell Mroczkowski ’20 believes the new job he starts this month will help to start 2021 off in the right direction.

After recently passing the 6-hour exam to become a certified financial planner, Mitchell was hired by Commonwealth Advisory Group in Greentree in a financial advisor support and operations role.

Mitchell is one of the first RMU graduates to earn his B.S.B.A. in financial planning, the newest major in the School of Business. It was introduced in the fall of 2019 and includes all necessary instruction and coursework to be prepared to sit for the state CFP exam.

A transfer student who came to RMU his junior year, Mitchell started out as a dual business major in sport management and finance. He switched to the new major as soon as it was offered once he realized he had the academic credits completed to make it work and still graduate on time.

“My friend who graduated the year before was kind of jealous of me that the school offered that,” Mitchell says.

Finishing the classes and getting ready for professional licensure exams turned out to be the easy part of his senior year, as coronavirus disrupted educational plans for Mitchell and students across the country and the world. Instead of getting their diplomas on stage and hearing family and friends cheer, the Class of ’20 had a virtual commencement ceremony.

Mitchell’s last fond memory of campus life with his friends and Alpha Chi Rho fraternity brothers was the NEC men’s basketball championship game at the Peoples Court at UPMC Events Center in March. The Colonials defeated the St. Francis Red Flash 77-67 for their ninth Northeast Conference title.

“My whole fraternity was there and we all stormed the court after we won,” he says. “There already had been talk of canceling it, and we knew this was going to be the last game and the last time probably at RMU with all my friends together. I think it made it extra special.”

Mitchell is from Forest Hills and was captain of his high school soccer team. He originally was interested in engineering, but after some job shadowing experiences found that he wanted a career with more face-to-face interaction with clients.

“I’ve seen a lot of people who struggled financially, and I’ve always loved the idea of helping people to reach their financial goals so they don’t have the struggle and worry of managing their finances hanging over them,” he says.