A few years ago, Palmer Moore was a contestant on the Food Network show Guy’s Grocery Games. After the taping, he thanked host Guy Fieri for the opportunity. “Make sure you pay it forward,” Fieri told him.

That message informed what Moore, now a senior finance major, has strived to do in a variety of leadership roles. He’s the vice president of first-year development for the Sapphire Leadership Academy, for which he has overseen a “professional boot camp” that gives first-year students tips on how to network. He’s captain of the Business Ethics Case Competition team in the Tarriff Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. And as a member of the Presidential Leadership Academy, he recently hosted sessions for first- and second-year students about leadership values. “I was honored to be put into the organizations that I'm part of,” says Moore. “And then I hit this point where I said, I’ve learned a lot, now what can I give back, and how can I continue to grow?”

As a sophomore, Moore participated in a Business and Economics of Italian Food and Wine study abroad program in Siena, Italy, which inspired him to write his honors thesis about Parmesan cheese as a marketable security and how it might be an alternative investment opportunity. He’s also a nominee for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships; if he’s chosen, he plans to spend two years studying public policy at the University of Oxford. If not, he has a full-time position as a strategist waiting for him at Capital One.

Passing on what he has learned is a long-term goal for Moore, too: “I know that when I get into a [senior] position, I can continue that culture of giving back and bringing other people up with me.”