Balancing Ice and Insight: How Wake Forest SPS Fuels Greg Terentiev’s Drive

Every Wednesday, Greg Terentiev starts his day well before sunrise. By 4 a.m., he’s up and on the road from Raleigh to Winston-Salem, where Wake Forest’s D3 club hockey team hits the ice for practice at 6:30 a.m. 

While the team works as one on the ice, off the ice, Greg’s life looks a little different from his teammates. Instead of balancing hockey and undergraduate studies, he’s balancing graduate school and a full-time job. 

“Balancing it all comes down to planning and consistency,” he explained. “I definitely have a lot of calendars.”

That passion and commitment captures the determination and discipline that defines Greg’s experience at Wake Forest School of Professional Studies (SPS).

Finding the Right Program

A 2023 graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, Greg earned his undergraduate degree in management before beginning his career in project management and sales for a company that sells commercial and industrial cooking equipment. 

While he enjoys the work, Greg found himself increasingly drawn to the world of finance and technology. That interest led him to Wake the Master of Financial Technology and Analytics program at Wake Forest SPS because it offered the right mix of flexibility, challenge, and reputation.

“You can tell the program was designed for working adults,” Greg said. “The flexibility while still maintaining the rigor that Wake Forest is known for is what really drew me in.” 

Wake Forest SPS programs are 100% online; however, all students are still part of the Wake Forest community and can enjoy the benefits that in-person students do as well. Living in Raleigh, Greg is able to do just that.

“I love going on campus whenever I can,” he says. “It’s a very welcoming environment.”

Gaining Practical Experience 

Though his current role doesn’t directly involve finance, Greg’s coursework has opened his eyes to how financial technology is reshaping industries, including his own. 

“We work with a lot of manufacturers, and a lot of those companies are implementing financial technology and AI,” he explains. “Even inside the equipment itself, there’s more technology. It’s cool to see how those concepts I’m learning are playing out in real-world applications.”

The courses have also exposed him to brand new technologies, such as Structured Query Language (SQL). 

“I really enjoyed that course because I’d never had exposure to that before,” Greg said. “Being able to practice firsthand and understand data entry and analysis was a huge learning experience.”

Finding Community on the Ice

Throughout his journey before and at Wake Forest SPS, hockey has remained a constant. This lifelong passion has helped him stay connected and balanced through the demands of graduate school and work. Greg started playing at age eight and competed for more than a decade before taking a break during college. When he joined Wake Forest SPS, he saw a chance to get back on the ice.

“I knew a little bit about the hockey program, reached out to the coach, went through training camp and tryouts, and was fortunate enough to make the team,” he says. “It’s definitely hard juggling everything, but it keeps me busy.”

He plays goalie for the university’s Division III club team, a backbone for the Division II team, which collectively practices three times a week and plays 20–30 games per season.

Being on the team has also helped Greg feel part of the larger Wake Forest community. 

“It’s nice to have that in-person connection while doing a lot of my program online,” he says. “Between hockey and events like Wake360 or the SPS meetups, I’ve been able to meet people and get involved. It helps get over that ‘just being on a screen’ factor of being a student.”

Whether on the ice or in the classroom, Greg embodies the Wake Forest SPS spirit—driven, engaged, and eager to grow.

Check out the schedule for Wake Forest’s hockey team or follow them on Instagram.