Andres Hernandez, ’25, is off and running with his finance background.

Cross-country and track & field athlete Andres Hernandez, ’25, never intended to attend La Salle University. In fact, he would have been a Miami Hurricane if not for the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID came, and that plan fell through. [Miami] told me I should reach out to another school and come back in a year,” Hernandez recalled. “I had a friend at La Salle from back home who told me the coaches were really nice people, and the team was like a family. I got here and absolutely loved it.”

Even in a program with a strong international presence, Hernandez has a unique background. Born in Santander, Spain, Hernandez spent much of his childhood there before his family made the decision to relocate over 12,000 miles to Christchurch, New Zealand. It was in Christchurch where Hernandez discovered a passion for sports, competing at a high level in both soccer and cross country.

It was also in Christchurch where Hernandez saw his high school teammate, Taonga Mbambo—who would later qualify for the NCAA Championships in both cross country and track & field for the Explorers—leave the island nation to join the La Salle program. After his plans with the Hurricanes fell through, Hernandez made the decision to follow Mbambo to La Salle and never looked back.

After spending his first three years on the Dean’s List with a near-perfect GPA, Hernandez was in class one day when a unique opportunity presented itself: a chance to visit NASDAQ Philadelphia, thanks to an invitation from Executive Vice President of North American Markets and La Salle graduate Kevin Kennedy, ’87. Hernandez was part of a small group selected for the visit, and he was immediately hooked. He connected with Kennedy via LinkedIn, asking to learn more, which eventually led to an interview for an internship with the company.

Though Hernandez didn’t know exactly what to expect during the interview, he was confident, citing his preparation in La Salle’s business school as key to developing the soft skills necessary for succeeding in interviews.

After passing the interview process, the challenges didn’t end for Hernandez. As an international student, Hernandez had a temporary phone plan that was set to expire at the end of the semester. So, when NASDAQ called that same day, his phone line had already been disconnected. Hernandez found out via email that the company had been trying to reach him. He quickly responded with a friend’s phone number and carried his teammate’s phone with him all day, waiting for the call that would confirm he would be spending the summer at the NASDAQ office.

Hernandez was given the freedom to choose how he wanted to spend his internship at NASDAQ. After some thought, he decided that the best way to showcase the skills he had learned—both at La Salle and on his own—was to build a database program to filter out client emails that bounced and to analyze why they were being returned. Over the course of three months, Hernandez worked tirelessly on the project, earning glowing reviews from his supervisors.

His NASDAQ experience culminated during the company’s “Intern Week,” when Hernandez had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see his headshot on a digital billboard in Times Square. The experience left his friends back home in disbelief. As Hernandez put it, “Not bad for a guy from a small island in the middle of nowhere.”

—Jordan Viener