Lakewood High School students learn important financial lessons in Stock Market competition

LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Economics students every semester at Lakewood High School are playing the market.

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That’s because they’re participating in the Sifma Foundation Stock Market Game, which gives students $100,000 to invest in the Stock Market.

The statewide 10-week competition included nearly 300 teams.

“The kids can invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds,” Lakewood High School AP government and economics teacher Ron Lewis said. “It’s a great way to teach about companies, stocks and the stock market.

“They measure the winner by the percentage growth compared to the S&P 500. Also, kids can practice without losing any real money. Then later in life, when they go to do that for real, they have that experience.”

This past semester, Lewis had 58 participating students on 12 different teams.

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“We had an all-girls team finish eighth,” he said.

“That’s the best we’ve ever finished. We’ve never finished in the in the top 10.”

That winning quartet included seniors Katie Jirousek, Lauren Lange, Alex Adamov and Jacqueline Lyall.

They finished eighth out of 293 teams in their region.

“I really enjoyed the game,” Jirousek said.

“It made me feel empowered that our all-girl team did so well and made me even more confident in my decided college major for pursuing business.”

The economics teacher noted he actually had two teams in the top 10 for the better part of the semester; however, just like on Wall Street, what the market giveth it can also taketh away.

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Such a storyline plays an important role in Lewis’ economics class.

“That’s such a hard lesson to teach to somebody,” he said.

“The kids can go on their portfolio at any time, so they can see that they were up $10,000 in one day and then down that same amount just a week later, which is exactly what happened to a number of them. So that’s invaluable.”

Lewis thanked the Lakewood Rangers Education Foundation for a grant covering the $20-per-student-team cost in the Sifma Foundation Stock Market Game.

“The nice thing that you hear is students saying they want to invest in the stock market or get involved in finance at college,” he said.

“Those are things that as a teacher you feel great about, that a kid might actually have either sparked or continued an interest. That’s the ultimate fulfillment as a teacher.”

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