By Dr. Jason Noble, Alumnus in the M.P.S. in Wealth Management Program (’26SPS), School of Professional Studies
I was 46 years old and well established in my field when I began to crave change. For 25 years, I had worked as a teacher and professor of music and teacher education. I knew my values. I knew my strengths. I knew what I contributed to the world.
And yet persistent questions surfaced. What is next? What else can I become? I had a longstanding family interest in investing and wealth management that had never moved beyond informed conversation and armchair passion. Could I transform my interest into a second act? SPS graduate Michael Clinton spoke to me, quite literally and metaphorically, in our first residency: Could I say “yes, and” to a completely new field while continuing the work I loved?
Now, after completing the M.P.S. in Wealth Management program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies (SPS), I can say without hesitation that my life is forever changed for the better.
Where Practitioners Teach
My doctorate from Teachers College taught me that intellectual community matters more than institutional prestige. What matters is who teaches you. So I searched for faculty who were producing meaningful work in wealth management.
My search led me to Stephen Bodurtha, co-creator of the Sector SPDR exchange-traded funds with assets of more than $100 billion. I then found Dr. Meghaan Lurtz, whose research on financial psychology I’d been reading on kitces.com and in the Journal of Financial Therapy. And my research finally carried me to Matthias Kuhlmey, my spirit twin. A musician turned investor turned internationally renowned wealth management strategist. A person who has become what I hope that I can someday be. Kuhlmey refused to choose between the intellectual worlds he inhabited.
Designed for Real Life
The program is asynchronous and part-time, which proved necessary. During those 16 months, I maintained my conducting schedule for bands and orchestras, my full teaching load, my academic writing projects, and my responsibilities as a husband and father. I also underwent two brain surgeries and another surgical intervention for a chronic health condition. Anything that life could toss my way came. I mention my surgeries and health struggles to address a practical concern: If you wonder whether this program is manageable given the complexities of your life, the answer is yes. Tracy Schwartz designed it for professionals whose lives and commitments don’t pause for graduate school. She built infrastructure that supports serious academic rigor, inspiring people to study, reflect, act, and build community within the unique asynchronous format punctuated by two intensive in-person residencies.
However, I nearly withdrew during the first two weeks.
Craig Lyman, who teaches the retirement course and completed the program himself, helped me understand what I was experiencing. Dr. Michael Kothakota organized a meeting with Craig and me that provided some of the best academic advising and forward-looking, inspirational work I’ve seen in my quarter-century as an educator. I learned how to be a better professor, advisor, and mentor that day. And thankfully, I stayed. My SPS Wealth Management alumni mentor, Giuseppe Robalino, became another lifeline and source of inspiration as this incredible program evolved. And the sense of community, passion, and purpose grounding this exceptional program grew stronger in me with every passing day.
The Art and Science of Wealth Management
The problem-based learning model forces genuine collaboration. You work through complex scenarios with your cohort, and the structure prevents superficial engagement. Your colleagues depend on your thinking, your questions, and your ability to wrestle with problems that don’t have clean solutions or yes/no “answers.”
The magic of this program lies in the constant engagement and collaboration across the cohort. People who have built RIAs from the ground up. Shrewd businesspeople who have built and scaled empires. They were “conductors” of different metaphorical “orchestras.” We all learned so much from one another. The reciprocal learning was extraordinary.
Wide-Awake Thinking
Something shifted in how my brain processes information.
For decades, I had operated with my analytical and creative faculties in separate channels. Music required one cognitive approach. Scholarship and teaching required another. This program required these systems to work simultaneously. The analytical precision of investment planning had to coexist with the interpretive flexibility required to understand human behavior around money.
This is what [influential philosopher of education and longtime Teachers College professor] Maxine Greene meant when she wrote about wide-awakeness. This is what it looks like to practice that concept rather than merely think about or reflect on it. It’s praxialism in action.
As a result, my conducting became more precise. My teaching became more responsive. I found myself comfortable with ambiguity in ways I hadn’t been before.
The Beauty of the Program’s Rigor
In Kuhlmey's course on Disruptive Trends, we studied the collapse of traditional boundaries between social media, algorithmic advice, human judgment, and financial expertise. Kuhlmey taught us about hybrid intelligence and the future of advisory relationships. He made clear that the disruption reshaping wealth management is already here, already changing how people relate to money and advice.
The cohort became an intellectual community. The rigor was intensely beautiful. The creative problem-solving was constant. Risk-taking was built into the design. Tracy Schwartz has created a program that looks forward, builds on nonnegotiable foundations, and simultaneously prepares you for a profession that’s transforming as you study it. It’s very much like a beautifully constructed four-movement symphony. As with a movie or great dream that you don’t want to end, I just wish it had lasted even longer.
A “Yes, And” Philosophy for a Second Act
I am now pursuing the Certified Financial Therapist credential, studying to bring a therapeutic dimension to financial education, which can—and will—live in beautiful harmony with my existing musical and teacher-training passions. I’m living the disruption! The M.P.S. in Wealth Management program taught me (and Maxine Greene also taught me years ago) that synthesis matters more than specialization. It’s “yes, and” rather than “either/or.” I learned that I don’t have to immediately abandon one passion to pursue another. Yes, I can teach music, and yes, I can help people with their financial lives. I can conduct ensembles worldwide while expanding into financial education and therapy. Yes, I can build a polymath practice and reach people through social media, where these domains strengthen each other.
This is a yes, we can program.
This program gave me permission to do things differently.
And it taught me how to do them well.
Views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Columbia School of Professional Studies or Columbia University.
About the Program
Columbia University’s Master of Professional Studies in Wealth Management program is a 16-month online program with asynchronous instruction specially designed to accommodate working professionals. It is taught by distinguished faculty with deep applied experience in their respective fields. Additionally, it is a CFP Board Registered Program designed to help students meet the educational requirement for CFP® certification.
The application deadline for the M.P.S. in Wealth Management program is May 1. Learn more about the program here.
