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Canisius High School Today
F
or those of us who have difficulty figuring out the tip for the server, Jonathan Dobson’s facility
with finance will seema bit mysterious.
He always had a fascination with finance, an
attraction that grew during his collegiate days
as a finance/entrepreneurship major at Xavier
University. Courses there piqued his interest and
helped propel him after graduation to the inter-
estingly named Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati,
later transferring to St. Louis. He started out in
commercial lending but quickly moved into
a more fast-paced area: currency trading and
strategy. Dobson began working with corpo-
rate customers to help them lessen the impact
ever-changing currency values can have on ev-
erything from expenses to mergers and acqui-
sitions. About four years ago, Wells Fargo Bank
recruited Dobson, and he’s been there since.
The world of currency trading and strategy
suits Dobson. “Currency is the largest market in
the world, so you get to be involved in the mar-
kets every day,” he explains. “You have to pay at-
tention to a little bit of everything.”
The attention he paid while at Canisius seems
to have helped his professional growth, but not
necessarily because he aced math class. Dobson
says Canisius gave him a solid grounding as a
person: “I still feel the effects of what Canisius
tried to instill, like the courage to do the right
and new things, and continue to try and grow.
The way I grew as a person, student and individ-
ual, and the way they focused on the whole per-
son gave me a lot of direction inmy life.”
Yet Canisius’s academic rigor clearly stuck
with him, as well. His several hours of night-
ly high school homework resulted in a surpris-
ing conclusion during his first week of college: “I
thought the professors were taking it easy on the
freshmen at first with the assignments they gave,
but then I realized this is how it is! Canisius really
preparedme for college and the working world.”
Dobson credits Canisius (andhis parents)with
instilling an impulse toward “helping others
when you’re able. Canisius High School always
stressed being a man for others.” To that end, he
has worked for a number of years with an orga-
nization, the Fathers Support Center, that boosts
parenting and relationship skills, financial liter-
acy and more in inner city fathers who haven’t
been involved in their kids’ lives. “Statistics show
that social ills are exaggerated when dad isn’t in-
volved in the family,” Dobson says. “Kids are 20
times more likely to use drugs or alcohol when
no father is there. So we’re trying to stop the cy-
cle of not being involved in their children’s lives.”
Dobson and his wife have contributed to the
Canisius annual fund for similar reasons. “I bene-
fited by attending Canisius High School. That has
stuck with me and is important to me. By mak-
ing a contribution back, I hope to help someone
else have good experience.”
✠
“A number of teachers and coaches at Canisius infuenced me, pushed
me to do better even when I thought I had done well enough.”
Jonathan Dobson ‘97
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