Scholarship recognizes professor's work to teach, guide students

Fred Hoffman isn’t the sort of educator whose teaching is defined by a syllabus, and a lot of what he teaches doesn’t come from a textbook.

His lessons and lectures contain insights from his own career in the fixed income marketplace. His finance classes at Rutgers Business School are enriched by guest speakers who bring the industry to life with real-world experience and perspectives, and he regularly demonstrates his networking abilities – one of his superpowers – to students not only by the roster of visitors to his class but by the professional connections that help his students secure internships and jobs.

“I keep it real,” Hoffman said of his teaching. “I think that’s what students really appreciate.”

Hoffman’s impact became clear last year when Amy Wierenga, a friend from his days on Wall Street, and her husband started a scholarship in Hoffman’s name as a tribute to his teaching. The scholarship will be awarded to Rutgers Business School students who encounter financial difficulties that jeopardize their ability to graduate.

Within less than two months, the original funding target of $60,000 for the scholarship was reached, and then quickly surpassed, largely due to donations from alumni from Hoffman’s classes. The scholarship fund has now reached more than $100,000. 

“He is someone who is impacting students every day,” said Wierenga, who has worked alongside Hoffman and some of his students as a mentor with Rutgers Business School’s Road to Wall Street Program. 

“The thing I think is really special are the relationships he forms with his students.” 

Luke Merrill, one of Hoffman’s former students, is still benefiting from having Hoffman as an instructor. “I learned more in his classes and office hours than I could ever learn from a textbook or any other class,” Merrill said recently. “His guidance and mentorship in and out of the classroom prepared me for the early stages of my professional career at Goldman Sachs.”

Merrill said Hoffman offers students a deep understanding of the topics and math behind finance and how principles are applied to the real-world ecosystem of Wall Street. “He understands the different fields and careers that his students are perusing,” Merrill said, “and he tailors the curriculum of his classes in a way that positions his students to succeed within them.” 

Hoffman started teaching at Rutgers Business School in the spring of 2017. His ties to the university go back farther though. He graduated from Rutgers in 1986 with majors in computer science and economics. “I didn’t know it at the time, but it couldn’t have been a better mix,” he said.

After college, he started at Prudential where he wrote computer code for the bond department. When he left the company in 1992, he was working in fixed income portfolios. He said his computer skills were an asset in analyzing bonds. “Bonds are also mathematical,” he said. 

Hoffman grew up in a lower-middle income household in Ocean Township. He was an only child of a stay-at-home mom and a father who worked as a public-school teacher. When his father passed away, Hoffman worked with the Rutgers Foundation to create an endowed scholarship to honor his dad and help students subsidize the cost of attending college.

Hoffman’s reasons for giving back are driven by empathy for students whose opportunities may be limited by their family’s finances and an appreciation for his own good fortune and success.

He was headed to Rutgers in 1982 – it was the only college his parents could afford – and working a part-time job at a car wash when he struck up a conversation with someone who turned out to be a top administrator in the university’s financial aid office. Hoffman credits the conversation for a full scholarship he received later that summer.

“The ability to get an undergraduate degree and not go into debt was life-changing,” he said. “It left me believing that hard work creates connections. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been working in the car wash.”

The Fred Hoffman Scholarship is intended to help juniors and seniors who face financial hardships complete their college education. It is not merit-based and working students in good standing will be one of the main groups to receive the scholarship money.

In addition to teaching, Hoffman is faculty advisor to players on the Rutgers men’s basketball and wrestling teams, a role that requires him to meet athletes (and their parents) during the recruitment process. He takes some credit for helping to woo men's basketball player Zack Martini to Rutgers and to the master’s program at Rutgers Business School that allowed him to play.

Kimberly Hopely, president of the Rutgers Foundation, described the scholarship as a fitting recognition. "Observing Fred Hoffman with students, whether in his classroom or an athletic venue, is a testament to his commitment to creating opportunities for them to realize their potential at Rutgers and in life,” she said. “This scholarship is one of those opportunities."

-Susan Todd