He doesn't save babies in Africa or serve meals to the elderly. Lev Slootsky, valedictorian for the College of Human Ecology's January 2006 class, helps criminals. That is, he helps them bake to get back on their feet.

Slootsky, who has a B.S. in policy analysis and management, will complete his M.Eng. in operations research and industrial engineering, with a concentration in financial engineering, this spring. Slootsky hopes that an engineering degree will help him apply his undergraduate major that combined public policy, economics and finance.

"My idea is to use this diversity of disciplines to be able to approach any business problem and come up with a solution," says Slootsky, the only Cornell student selected last summer for Harvard Business School's Summer Venture in Management, a competitive program that identifies high-potential future MBA candidates.

After graduation, Slootsky will work at Goldman Sachs in New York City as an investment banker, after which he plans to pursue an MBA. Ultimately, he aspires to become an "angel investor," a financier who invests his own funds into young companies.

Slootsky, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., has shown other signs of a glimmering future in business: He is finalizing a business plan to start a bakery at the MacCormick Secure Center, a maximum-security detention center for convicted juvenile felons, ages 14 to 21, in Brooktondale, N.Y. With money donated from Youth Venture, a national organization that encourages teen entrepreneurship, the MacCormick youths will sell baked goods to staff, volunteers and security guards in the facility.

"These are kids who have committed serious crimes but are going to be released eventually because they were children when they committed the crimes," Slootsky says. "It's important to help them develop the entrepreneurial tools to survive in the real world. Many may not be able to find jobs due to their criminal record."

Working at MacCormick has been what Slootsky sees as an important step in applying all he has learned at Cornell. "I've done business plans in class before but to go through it in real life is different. To see kids get excited about this stuff when they're never excited about anything academic is great," says Slootsky. "They know this is their way to break the cycle."

Although he has accomplished much in his academic endeavors -- including receiving a Merrill Presidential Scholarship this year, which is awarded to only 1 percent of Cornell seniors -- he sees the best as yet to come.

"There are some things you can't achieve in undergrad or grad school; certain goals can only be attained in the real world. I don't know what I will be doing in 10 years, and that's the greatest thing about a career in finance. There are no boundaries," Slootsky says.

Graduate student Sara Ball is a writer intern at the Cornell News Service.