Sacramento-area students to participate in stock market challenge by trading, investing fake funds
SACRAMENTO – Several students across the Sacramento area will participate in a challenge that will teach them financial literacy. The challenge involves giving them $1 million in fake money to invest in the stock market.
The Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge is not Wall Street, but to these kids, it may as well be.
"The students are going to learn about the stock market in a way that's transformational," said Andrea Leuschen, the vice principal at Visions in Education.
Students from across the Sacramento area are divided into teams of four and invest and trade fake funds. Whoever makes the most money wins.
"They had no idea that this was something they could possibly do," Leuchen said. "It's a realistic expectation for them to know that if you have money to invest in the stock market you can be an active participant in it."
The event is put on by Junior Achievement of Sacramento. Market president Susan Nelson says this is a fun way to teach kids how to make their money work for them.
"When you see you can build wealth by staying the course it's a lot more exciting to then come back, get into your full semester financial literacy class and get the most out of it," Nelson said.
This means it's not just about finance, but also friendship.
"They're going to learn how to speak to each other, they're going to learn how to do teamwork, they're going to have to learn how to communicate," Leuchen said.
They want teachers to know, there's still time to sign up. The deadline to enroll is Friday and the competition will be in March.