My teaching is built around applied decision-making. Students learn finance by making decisions under uncertainty, seeing what happens, and then connecting the outcome back to the concept. I use games, simulations, real firm data, and case discussion to create those moments, and I design courses so that each concept lands on a decision a student actually has to make. 

I also run financial literacy workshops with community organizations. [see Financial Literacy Workshops]  

FIN 3312 – Principles of Finance

Introduces core concepts in corporate finance and investment decision-making, including time value of money, risk and return, and valuation.

FIN 4331 – International Finance

Focuses on exchange rates, currency markets, and global financial systems. The course emphasizes real-world applications such as currency risk management, purchasing power parity, and international investment decisions.

FIN 5352 – Corporate Finance (Graduate)

Covers advanced topics in corporate finance, including firm valuation, capital structure, and investment decisions, with an emphasis on analytical tools and real-world applications.

Independent Study (Graduate)

Supervised student-led research project using real-world financial data, focusing on empirical analysis and applied financial decision-making, culminating in formal presentations.

FIN 4331 uses a spiral learning approach: Students first work through a financial decision in class, debrief the reasoning together, complete an individual exit ticket, and then apply the same concept to a real multinational firm.

One example is FX Desk Day. Student teams act as spot banks, cross-rate banks, customers, and traders. They choose the correct side of bid-ask quotes, compute cross rates, identify arbitrage opportunities, and settle forward contracts against a maturity spot rate revealed only at the end. Individual trading sheets and desk-to-desk transactions make each student responsible for participating and explaining their reasoning.

The design was introduced in Summer 2026 after I found that students could often perform the calculations but still struggled to interpret quotes, distinguish hedging from speculation, or connect market information to the choice of financial instrument.

Beginning in Fall 2026, students also complete a semester-long analysis of one multinational firm. Chapter submissions build toward a final poster presentation, peer evaluation, and revision. Generative AI is permitted, but students must submit the AI conversation and remain responsible for the accuracy and quality of their analysis.

I would like to bring more practitioners into the classroom: guest discussions, feedback on student projects, and judging the end-of-semester poster session.

If you work on currency exposure, supply-chain risk, financing decisions, or country risk and would spend an hour with students, in person or online, I would like to hear from you.

Email: ishitha@txstate.edu