Soon after Dr. Michael Melton came to Roger Williams University in 2003, he secured a grant of $240,000 to set up the Center for Advanced Financial Education—CAFE for short.

Now, as the director of CAFE and assistant professor of finance, Dr. Melton has created the Student Investment Management Fund. Through the fund, students enrolled in Portfolio Management are given the opportunity to manage real money—$100,000, to be exact.

“I love what I do,” he says. “Truly why I’m here is to introduce the real world experience into the classroom. I want to see my students be extremely successful, expand knowledge and help students learn.”

“I love what I do,” he says. “Truly why I’m here is to introduce the real world experience into the classroom."

At Roger Williams, the small class sizes allow Dr. Melton to get to know his students personally. “The reason Roger Williams is so special is because the teachers care,” he says. “And the view! When you walk through Bristol, you capture a feeling like you’ve just stepped out of Europe.”

The Gabelli School of Business recently earned accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and Dr. Melton played a major part in the process. “We are one of a dozen schools of our size and scope that is AACSB accredited in the world,” he says.

But what the former investor, stockbroker and financial analyst is most proud of is CAFE. “It’s my baby, and I treat it as such,” Dr. Melton says. “My favorite class is Finance 450—the portfolio management class. There are only a handful of schools that have a class like this in the U.S. It’s taught in a graduate setting, so I’m teaching them like they’re getting a master’s of finance.”