Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Media Contact: Stephen Howard | Communications Manager | 405-744-4363 | stephen.howard@okstate.edu
To the average person, the worlds of golf and personal finance may seem completely unrelated, but Dr. Karina Kukliza, an assistant professor at the Spears School of Business, begs to differ.
“Whether it's finance or golf, you have to have a strategy, you have to have a plan, and you have to commit to that plan,” Kukliza said. “Adaptability is a very important skill because unexpected events always happen and you have to be prepared for them. You have to have confidence in your plans, but you also have to be aware that you may not always be able to execute them perfectly. need to be aware of.”
Executing plans has always been Kukriza's forte, and he has also coped well with unexpected situations. That skill set helped her develop from Managua, Nicaragua's only golf course, to one of the NCAA's top overall student-athletes at the University of Miami.
She clearly has plans for academia as well. Kukliza is in his first year as a faculty member at Oklahoma State University and is trying his hand at personal finance on the back nine of his home course.
“Golf is played by ear, and that's why Karina was so successful,” said Jorge Pariso, president of the Nicaraguan Golf Association and Kukuriza's mentor. “She was always so calm and focused. Her goal was to be the nicest person on and off the golf course, but she always had a killer instinct when competing. She was very She's beautiful. I think we should clone her.”
Kukrisa learned that attitude and killer instinct on the fairways of Nejapa Golf and Country Club in Managua, the first course to open in Nicaragua in 2001. Kukliza remembers that when she started the sport at age 11, the newly planted trees on the Nejapa course were almost as tall as her. She was never a long hitter off the tee, but her short game and her ability to think through the course made her a natural.
Talented and one of the few young female players in the country, Kukrisa attracted the attention of the Nicaraguan golf community. Her family and Pariso encouraged her to expand her horizons by traveling to tournaments throughout Central America and the United States. In 2009, she won the Junior Central American Tournament and the Central American Amateur Championship. She also shined as the Central American Amateur Champion in her 2010 year.
Kukliza was also the valedictorian of her high school, which made her resume stand out to American college coaches. But there was only one place she wanted to play: Miami. Her mother Teresa earned her MBA in Miami in the 1980s, and from that point on Miami became a summer vacation spot for the Kukliza family. UM's golf coach didn't have to do much recruiting to land the orange-and-green Kukriza.
“Miami is a second home in a way, because we spent a lot of time there growing up,” Kukliza said. “So when I enrolled in the school, it was just an extension of home. Plus, it's close to Nicaragua. It's only a two-and-a-half hour flight. My family is from Miami and has a combined eight degrees. We never imagined it would happen, but you can say we are one big “Kane family.” ”
Miami quickly recognized Kukliza's talent and drive. She finished in the top 10 twice in her first season and averaged 78.27 strokes, the 10th best among all freshmen in the Atlantic Coast Conference. She and the Hurricanes won the Edwin Watts/Kiawah Island Classic, the nation's largest tournament venue, that year, giving first-year head coach Patti Rizzo the first championship trophy of her tenure. personally delivered. Later that season, she helped Miami reach the NCAA postseason for the first time in eight seasons.
Kukliza would compete in 30 events in four years with the Hurricanes, but it was her work in the classroom that was most impressive. She was named Academic All-ACC in 2013 and was also selected as a Women's Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar. That same year, she was inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest honor bestowed on students at Miami. She was also named to the American University's student roster.
In recognition of these accomplishments, Miami's coaching staff renamed the team's annual academic award, now known as the “Carina Cuculiza Award for Academic Excellence.”
“My senior year was very rewarding because I studied hard for four years and started receiving all these awards about three weeks before graduation,” Kukliza said with a laugh. “It was one thing after another and I didn't know what was going on.
“But to be honest, I think golf is what got me where I am. I have always enjoyed the academic side of being a student-athlete, and those two aspects complement each other. I think they complement each other very well. I think golf teaches you a lot of skills that are useful in life: patience, withstanding pressure, and dealing with surprises. So they go hand in hand. I think that there.”
Kukliza didn’t go to Miami to pursue a career in academia, but that calling found her anyway. She quickly discovered that she enjoyed teaching golf lessons and counseling at summer camps. She also took a side job as a teaching assistant while pursuing her master's degree in finance, which allowed her to see what it's like to work with college students in such an environment. . She said her decision to pursue her Ph.D. couldn't have been easier.
“My mentors told me that once I got my Ph.D., “It's about teaching and research, and I said, “That's great,'''' Kukliza said with a bright smile. “I love teaching. Where can I register?”
She was drawn to personal finance, which examines how we all make financial decisions and the tools we use to achieve our goals. Cuculiza's research interests incorporate aspects of behavioral finance and the social, cultural, and psychological factors involved in economic decision-making. Ultimately, Cuculiza wants to guide individuals in making better financial decisions by developing tools that help them maximize their personal financial health.
After earning her doctorate in 2021, Kukliza bought the biggest winter coat she could find and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was appointed assistant professor of finance at Marquette University. Despite the chilly weather, Mr. Kukliza spent his two fulfilling years at Marquette, where he enjoyed teaching, living across from Lake Michigan, and experiencing four seasons for the first time in his life.
In the fall of 2023, she came to Stillwater to join the Spears School of Business faculty as an assistant professor of finance.
“I was immediately impressed by Karina's versatility and talent in many areas,” said Dr. Betty Simkins, Head of Finance at Spears Business. “Not only does she have positive energy and enthusiasm for being a finance professor, but she also has many talents and interests. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Despite arriving on campus just seven months ago, Kukliza has published some notable research in her short time at OSU. Her paper, “Sleep Disorders and Information Processing in Financial Markets,” co-authored with William Bazley and Kevin Pisciotta, was recently accepted in Management Science, one of the top journals in her field. . Before she joined OSU, she worked with Konstantinous Antoniou, Alok Kumar, and Anastasio Osmariklis in Management, where she published “Terrorist Attacks, Analyst Sentiment, and Earnings Forecasts” in Science magazine. announced. Additionally, she has a promising pipeline with four more of her papers being revised for publication in top journals.
All this research hasn't left much time for golf, but Kukliza hopes to change that when the weather warms up. She looks forward to playing at OSU's famous Karsten Her Creek Golf Club once construction of the course is complete.
Kukliza was enjoying the opportunity to live in a college town for the first time. She enjoys getting to know her students and her colleagues who have made her feel welcome despite the distance between Stillwater and Managua.
“They made me feel at home from day one,” she said. “Stillwater has been great. He feels like he belongs here, which is very special.”
