As a first-year student in U.Va.’s McIntire School of Commerce, McPartland joined CASH — Creating Assets, Savings and Hope — a tax preparation club that is part of the Madison House, a student volunteer nonprofit in Charlottesville. The club helps low-income families in Albemarle County file their taxes, and McPartland began meeting with strangers to discuss their finances every week.

He eventually became the program director for CASH during his final year, overseeing a program with 250 student volunteers who complete thousands of tax returns for millions in tax refunds each year.

The “shy kid” was now dealing with clients who wanted to fudge the numbers on their returns, confronting absentee volunteers and selling the club’s mission to hundreds of potential recruits. During the pandemic, he had to reorganize CASH’s entire operations to go virtual. With the social element gone, McPartland also had to keep his team motivated as they slogged away at their parents’ homes, working on tax returns for people they would never meet.

And that experience also helped him land a job this summer as a proprietary trader for New York-based investment firm Apex Capital Holdings LLC. McPartland is confident that his four years in CASH equipped him with vital skills for a career working on a team that makes rapid-fire stock market decisions.

“It gives you so many soft skills — teamwork, communication, talking to people,” he says. “A lot of growth comes from that.”

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