Nathanio Bright ’25
Economics-Accounting Major
Financial Economics Sequence
In his third season with the CMS (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) Stags football team, Nathanio (Thanio) Bright ’25 experienced a win he’ll never forget.
“We saw Pomona-Pitzer at home and took back the Sixth Street Trophy,” said Bright, a Claremont McKenna College junior and free safety on the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team. “We had lost to them two games in a row before that game, and there were so many people that came out to show their support that it was just awesome!
“It really showed how great of a community CMC is. It just solidifies why I chose to come here. And it really made me proud of the school I belong to.”
A native of Austin, Texas, Bright came across CMC during his college search. “I was looking at places to play football,” he said, “and one of the coaches actually reached out to me.”
He decided to visit the campus—and was hooked.
“The moment I stepped on campus, I loved it,” he said. “I started to meet a lot of people, and they were amazing as well. I started understanding the kinds of opportunities and experiences that CMC offers, and it was very unique from a lot of schools I was looking at. I wanted the most fun and unique experience possible, so that’s why I chose CMC.”
An Economics-Accounting major following a Financial Economics sequence, Bright joined another team on campus when he served as comptroller for the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC).
“I ensured that our transactions and our funds were handled securely, basically overseeing the half-a-million-dollar budget that ASCMC gets every year to fund clubs and affinity groups and events around campus,” he said. “Being a part of that team was really fun and exciting.”
Last year, Bright completed an internship with EY, where he worked in both audit and tax. He also collaborated with other interns on a research project related to the asset management firm they were auditing and presented it to partners.
“I was able to gain valuable experience in the day-to-day lives of staff, seniors, and partners, to understand a potential future career path, and to apply my critical-thinking skills to solve real-life problems,” he said.
Bright signed up for another internship with EY, where he will focus on assurance and audit in the firm’s Austin office next summer. Meanwhile, he is considering a career in strategic consulting or investment banking, an interest sparked in a Money and Banking requirement taught by Jonathan B. Lovelace Professor of Economics Richard Burdekin.
“I feel like the classes that I’m taking at CMC are going to prepare me well for dealing with real-world problems and deriving real-world solutions for the projects that I’ll be working on in my career.”
Right now, he is networking and starting to build connections in the consulting field.
“I have been utilizing the Career Center and the Engage CMC alumni database. I have found CMC alumni are highly successful in the fields I’m interested in, and I am reaching out to them,” he said.
“I think that CMC does a great job in that aspect of making sure that they provide us with the most resources possible to get the job and to be successful in that job.”