On April 30th, West Ranch High School Stockmarket Team competed at UPENN’s Wharton School of Business against contestants from all around the world, claiming 1st place.
The competition, founded by Wharton and sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Magazine, was of two parts. The first part included a virtual investment game, a midterm report, and finally a 20 page essay. The second section was all live interaction where the contestants presented ideas of investment and strategies in front of a panel of judges; this second part consisted of people who were eligible as finalists in previous rounds.
The West Ranch Team stated that their successes were met through dedication and long hours of studying from the beginning of their winter break through the month of April. Participant and West Ranch student, Gamin Kim, stated that passion is a key to success when she told JSR, “the subject of economy and business interested me initially because I was part of and still a part of a club called FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America)… Competing in Wharton definitely made me learn so much about business and investments on an in-depth level.”
She continued to say that this competition also opened her eyes to future opportunities at companies like “Amgen, a biotechnology company we made as our case study for our presentation, and investment analysts at NWQ Investments, where we learned about the life of a financial analyst and the process of financial analysis.”
Despite the team’s few years of competing at UPENN, their ability to grow and prosper in a short amount of time brought them victory and a large check congratulating them and putting smiles on their tired faces.
