LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Education is an investment. So why not teach investments through high school education? That’s the goal of Bluegrass Young Investors.
“The students learn the basics of investment,” said Quint Tatro, an investment advisor and adjunct faculty member at UK. “They learn the basics of the markets.”
Financial literacy courses are now a state requirement, but this program is unique in that the students manage real money.
“That money, as it grows, will then be peeled off,” Tatro added. “The gains or interest will be peeled off to go back to the school in the form of scholarships.”
“It is definitely real-world knowledge, real-world skills that they are gaining from this program,” said Julia Williams, a teacher at West Jessamine High School and sponsor of the class. “In the end, several of them will get college scholarships.”
This is the second year for the program at West Jessamine. In the first year, it was one class managing $100,000. This year, it’s three classes at the high school, each with the same amount. That means the three classes are working with $300,000 total.
The program is expanding to East Jessamine and Frederick Douglass next year.
“It's been fantastic,” Tatro said about year one. “The kids got really motivated and interested in markets. They watched their portfolio grow, and then they were especially motivated when they got to apply for scholarships and get that money back into their hands to use towards college or their next stage of development.”
This portion of the class is the stock pitch competition. Each stock picked by the classes are added to their portfolio, but the top three stock pitches gave their presentations to a group of students from UK serving as judge.
“This year we have Nike, we have Walmart, and we have Alphabet, which is Google,” Williams shared.
“The winner of last year's stock pitch competition will be here today, presenting the trophy to the new winners,” added Tatro.
The Walmart group ended up taking the top prize this year. The students will continue to follow their stocks through the rest of the year to see how things progress.
