1st Place Team Wins Trip to New York City

Liberty Township, OH (April 26, 2017) –Two of Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School’s (MTCES) Stock Market Game teams won first and second place among all middle school teams in the state of Ohio. The Stock Market Game is a year-long competition among regional schools using online market simulation allowing students to manage a virtual stock portfolio with real-time data.

Junior high math teachers Lauren Austin and Nicole Stewart enroll their pre-algebra and algebra 1 classes in The Stock Market Game, a program offered by the University of Cincinnati
Economics Center, at the beginning of the school year. They were elated when UC recently notified them that two of their eight teams won first and second place in the state. “This is a well-deserved honor for our teams. These 8th graders spent a great deal of time together establishing a portfolio and strategy. They’ve truly grasped the fundamentals of economics, saving, and investing,” said Lauren Austin.

Since 1977, The Stock Market Game has provided teachers with a vast library of learning materials in math, business education, economics, English/language arts, technology, social studies, and family and consumer sciences. MTCES teams met weekly at the beginning of the school year to establish their portfolios. Each student started with a virtual cash account of $100,000 and worked to create the best-performing portfolio using a live trading simulation. Throughout the year the teams continued to meet to discuss investments and share adult expertise they received about various companies.

On April 25th, the first place team, Bubble Guppy, participated in The Stock Market Game Portfolio Challenge at the University of Cincinnati with seven other high school and middle school level teams. They presented their strategy, investments, and a description about how they worked together as a team. As one of the top two Challenge teams, they won an all-expense paid trip to New York City. While in New York next month, team Bubble Guppy will present their investment strategies to real-world investment firms such as Legg Mason, Lazard, and Goldman Sachs. They will also tour the New York Stock Exchange.

Following are the 8th grade students who make up team Bubble Guppy: Andrew Larkin, Andrew Meister, Conner Sands, David Schweinefuss, Michael Schweinefuss, and Andrew Winslow. These 8th graders placed second in the state: Kathryn Bayer, Alicia Jimmar, Adrienne Kelly, Kyle Malik, Emma Trusock, and Nick Woods.

MTCES is one of only three independent, private Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. It is a premier school focused on academic excellence and faith-based education. MTCES, which opened in 1998 to 20 kindergartners in the basement of a church, now serves 495 students in grades K-8 on its 25-acre campus in Liberty Township. The opening of the new academic wing this school year allows us to bring our mission to more who seek it.