Week Nine - End of the Quarter!

This Week

This was an exciting week as students were invited to visit the Raj Soin College of Business trading room. They saw the trading room up close and heard from current students about what the college of business has to offer. They also sat in a lecture with two finance professors who explained to them things like the benefits of diversification, how to interpret financial data, and much more. Students even met the Dean of the college, Dr. Li, who thanked them personally for being there, which is quite an honor! Many thanks to Franchesca Alford and D.R. Fannin for arranging to have the college sponsor the students' trip and organizing the event. The pizza was delicious as well!

Students hear about career options from College of Business professors

Dean Li addresses the students

Students were given the star treatment as they were welcomed to the Raj Soin trade room

Also this week, students started participating in the actual stock market simulation, so they are now competing with over 350 teams across Ohio to earn the highest returns on investment. They have 9 more weeks, and with the stock market's wild fluctuations this week it should be anyone's game at this point. The students have been given an incentive whereby I will buy donuts for any students who beat me, so good luck to them!

This was a good quarter in terms of grades, with a high class average of 89.5%. Nice work everyone!

Upcoming Week

Next week students will begin to create personal budgets. For this project I have students design a budget with an actual place they want to live, what car they want to drive, and the lifestyle they want to have after they finish any additional schooling they will pursue in order to get the job they want to have as they start their careers. We had hoped to start this week but had to push this back a bit, so we will begin this on Tuesday. 

One opportunity I would like to make everyone aware of is a budgeting challenge from H&R Block. This will likely not be a part of regular class time, but I will be creating accounts for all of our students to login with to participate in this challenge. From the website:

"Over the course of the H&R Block Budget Challenge, launching in September 2014, H&R Block Dollars & Sense will give away $3 million in scholarships and classroom grants. The 20 top-scoring students in each simulation will be awarded a $20,000 scholarship to help pay for higher education costs – resulting in 120 scholarships total. The top five classrooms in each simulation can win up to $5,000 in grants. At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, the highest scoring student will receive a $100,000 scholarship in addition to the $20,000 they’ve already won." - H&R Block Budget Challenge

Many of the skills students are learning now in personal finance will be helpful as they compete. Most importantly, if you would like for your son or daughter not to participate, please let me know ASAP. There's a letter from H&R Block that you can download here and let me know if you want to opt out.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to email me. Have a great long weekend!

~Mr. Grieve