Caroline Mazur-Sarocka

Rice University, Virani Undergraduate School of Business

“I’m a group-fitness-class-loving sourdough baker who enjoys hanging with friends at new restaurants.”

Fun fact about yourself: I grew up going to Polish school and can speak Polish.

Hometown: Buffalo Grove, IL

High School: Adlai E. Stevenson High School

Major: Business with a concentration in finance

Minor: N/A

Favorite Business Course: Financial Statement Analysis – It was very interesting to look at historic examples of financial reporting and learn how to parse through the information disclosed by public companies.

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:

Rice Business Society, President — I led the largest undergraduate business student organization of more than 500 members during my junior and senior year to help develop pre-professional resources for students at Rice.
Investment Banking Bootcamp, Founder — I started an investment banking bootcamp in 2023 to prepare sophomores for the investment banking recruiting process and created an upperclassman and alumni mentorship program. Over the last two years, we have had more than 100 students complete the IB Bootcamp curriculum and have had over 80% recruiting placements as well.
Rice Undergraduate Investment Fund, Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Training Program Director — I transitioned our Rice Finance Training Program onto a Canvas user interface and helped create a portfolio review segment of our undergraduate investment fund to support increasing membership as finance interest grew with Rice’s new undergraduate business program.
Rice Women’s Club Lacrosse, Captain and Vice President — I was part of the founding team of Rice’s Women’s Club Lacrosse team and served as a team captain during the 2024 season.

Where have you interned during your college career?

Bain Capital Private Equity, Boston, Consumer Summer Analyst
Crescent Energy (KKR Energy Real Assets), Houston, Energy Spring Intern
Sixth Street Growth, New York, Summer Analyst
Broadvail Capital Partners, Houston, Real Estate Private Equity Intern
LP Analyst, Dallas, Private Asset Summer Analyst
Rice Management Company, Houston, Operations Intern

Where will you be working after graduation? I will be working at Bain Capital Private Equity in Boston after graduation as an analyst.

Who is your favorite business professor? Professor Kevin Crotty is my favorite business professor at Rice Business. He served as the sponsor for Rice Business Society and enabled a lot of the work our students put into developing programming for undergraduate students. Prof. Crotty also taught me how to use Python to supplement Excel in valuation in his investments class.

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? Being an undergraduate at Rice Business has been such an exciting and valuable experience is because I witnessed the business program, and student interest in it, expand exponentially. By leading some of the largest student organizations while the undergraduate business school grew, I learned the importance of being scrappy and resourceful. Whether it be navigating new curriculums or adapting student organizations to support ten times the number of undergraduate majors, learning how to make do with the people and resources we had at the time was really helpful, and something that I will take forward into my career.

What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? I would recommend exploring as many of the different career opportunities and business offers as you can. There are so many different paths that you can take — more than most people think when they’re early in their career. Coming into Rice, I didn’t know about many of the business-related roles that I have since had the chance to participate in. Doing a variety of internships also helped pressure test whether a specific industry or role would be a good fit for me.

Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? I definitely would have taken more time to explore a broader set of internship experiences to learn and gain first-hand advice from industry professionals, especially regarding career trajectory. Along the same vein, I would have started talking to alumni earlier for general career advice and to learn about their job functions. It has been so helpful to have an alumni network that I could touch base with throughout my college experience, especially as my understanding of what I wanted to do developed.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? One way Rice Business has begun incorporating AI into our programming is through a new AI-focused course that was offered in the past year. Using AI across research projects, and within my internships, has also taught me how to use its tools for data aggregation to be efficient across my workstreams.

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I am most proud of starting the Rice Investment Banking Bootcamp. After going through the finance recruiting process myself, it allowed me to share all the resources I had accessed. When my peers and I were going through interview processes, I found a supportive and collaborative group of students to lean on. As the number of undergraduate students at Rice Business began to grow, I was worried that students would become competitive and the recruiting process would become more difficult for everyone. That inspired me to organize this event, bringing all students interested in investment banking together once a week over the course of a semester. Everyone bonded and quickly became friends, helping one another mock-interview and find the best internship opportunities. The bootcamp ran for the second time this past fall, and nearly all the students who participated the previous year helped out. Now, the bootcamp has a 10-person committee and will continue as an annual resource for students at Rice.

Which classmate do you most admire? One of the classmates that has most inspired me is Jacki Hatch — she was a big mentor to me throughout my time at Rice. She taught me how to lead with compassion and kindness when she served as president of a student organization that I was a part of. She is incredibly genuine and so welcoming when working with others, always making decisions that are in everyone’s best interests.

Who would you most want to thank for your success? I would like to thank my grandmother, Babcia. I grew up in a separated household, and my grandmother immigrated from Poland to support my mother with child care — providing an additional stream of income and working until she was 80 years old. She taught me how to be selfless and contribute to a family, which has shaped how I work within my teams here at Rice.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

Lead a team one day, whether at a larger organization or a business of my own.
Be able to give back philanthropically to a couple of causes that are close to home – I’d love to set up a scholarship at Rice similar to the financial aid that helped me afford college.

What made Caroline such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“I have had the pleasure of interacting with Caroline through my role as the faculty advisor of the Rice Business Society and also as her professor in my investments course. Caroline exemplifies the very best of leadership and scholarship at the Virani Undergraduate School of Business. Caroline serves as the president of the Rice Business Society (RBS), which is the largest undergraduate business student organization at Rice University. RBS runs a great deal of important student-led programming throughout the year, including a speaker series, various career information sessions, and professional development. The organization is so integral to the undergraduate experience that RBS always has its own booth for undergraduate orientation alongside the official booth staffed by faculty. Caroline also serves in leadership of the Rice Undergraduate Finance Club, which manages a live investment portfolio, and in the Rice Women’s Club Lacrosse team.

Let me provide an anecdote demonstrating Caroline’s leadership. Rice recently celebrated the naming of our undergraduate program, the Virani Undergraduate School of Business. As part of the celebratory reception for the new school, Caroline delivered remarks alongside the dean, the university president and the Virani family. I can’t tell you how nervous I would have been! My colleagues and I were incredibly impressed by the poise and eloquence with which Caroline spoke of her experience at Rice and what it meant to her and her classmates.

In addition to her leadership qualities, Caroline is an excellent student, as well. She has achieved a remarkable 3.97 GPA in her time at Rice, which is an outstanding achievement as a Rice business major. Caroline’s academic performance is simply exemplary. I expect great things from Caroline as she graduates from Rice and joins Bain Capital in Boston this year, and I look forward to her continuing her leadership as an alumna in future years. Caroline has my strongest possible recommendation for this honor.”

Kevin Crotty
Associate Professor of Finance
Rice Business, Rice University

DON’T MISS: 100 BEST & BRIGHTEST UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS MAJORS OF 2025