Pincus Set To Travel As GLOBE Scholar
July 6, 2015 | Wrestling, Academics
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – After two years on the UNC wrestling team, rising junior Jacob Pincus is leaving the mat in favor of seeing the world. Pincus, from Rochester, N.Y., is the first Carolina student-athlete selected to be part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School's GLOBE program and will spend all of the 2015-16 school year studying outside of the U.S.
As one of 18 UNC students in the program, Pincus will spend the fall semester in Denmark at the Copenhagen Business School and the spring at Chinese University of Hong Kong. The program also includes 18 students each from CBS and CUHK. The group of 54 students will spend the final two semesters of the four-semester program back in Chapel Hill at Kenan-Flagler.
While at each school, the group visits businesses and corporations in the area.
“I've talked to people who have done the program and have been to over 30 countries,” Pincus said. “It's a really unique opportunity.”
Pincus first heard about the program while he was applying for the Kenan-Flagler undergraduate business program in the fall of 2014. Intrigued, he also applied for GLOBE (which stands for “Global Learning Opportunities in Business Education”). The process was intense, with several interviews over the span of one day in October. “It was incredibly high pressured,” he said.
But as a life-long competitor, he knew all about pressure. A five-year letterwinner and two-time team captain in wrestling at Pittsford (N.Y.) Sutherland High School, he came to UNC unsure whether he wanted to focus on business or medicine. After internships in each field, he felt a pull toward business for its high-energy pace. After becoming involved with the UNC Finance Society, he's now leaning specifically in that direction, with a goal to work in investment banking.
Pincus, who earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average in the spring semester, is quick to give credit to his coaches and teammates for their support as he went through the application process and prepared for his year away. Yet, reaching his goal of a spot in the GLOBE program means he'll leave Carolina wrestling behind. He'll take a year-long leave from the team while he's in Copenhagen and Hong Kong, and he will make a decision about his future in the sport after he returns to campus in the fall of 2016. “We'll see how good of shape I'm in after being away from wrestling for a year,” he said. “It's going to be the first time since I was 7 years old that I don't have athletic commitments, which will be weird. But I've always been a student first and have prioritized my career goals ahead of my athletic goals.”
Before he travels to Denmark, Pincus is spending the summer in South Bend, Ind., working for a start-up biotechnology firm.
For more on the GLOBE Program, click here.
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