STEAM Academy students compete in Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge

Students got a crash course in the stock market at Mount Vernon STEAM Academy, as Junior Achievement New York began working with them on the Take Stock in Your Future program. Students learned about stocks and began preparing for the Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge during their meeting on Thursday, January 30, 2025.

“The Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge offered STEAM students a unique opportunity to develop financial literacy, critical thinking and decision-making skills while gaining hands-on experience with a simulated stock market,” said School Counselor Toni-Ann Trombetta.

Orville Gayle, a Mount Vernon resident who first heard about Junior Achievement during his time working at Verizon, one of JA’s partners, spoke to students about the stock market before they started the simulation. He has also spoken to students at Pennington and Lincoln School.

“I want them to understand money, financial literacy, financial wellness,” said Mr. Gayle. “We want to introduce kids to the stock market and to not be scared when they hear about it and to be engaged and understand that it helps them and is part of their life. This is good because the kids get a chance in our community to know that they can make a difference and help themselves. Stock market investing is a long-term thing, so being here and seeing how engaged they are makes me feel the message is getting through.”

Students competed against each other at the end of the session, and the winning teams from STEAM will go to the regional competition on April 1 in New York City. Mount Vernon STEAM Academy is one of 19 schools in the state competing.

“The focus of the program is to introduce the students to the stock market, to smart investing, to how any event in the world affects the New York Stock Exchange,” said Caroline Tzelios, a senior program manager at Junior Achievement. “We really are trying to give them a sense of the real world.”

Two teams won on Thursday and will be moving on to regional competition in Manhattan, where they will compete against students from the Lower Hudson Valley, Westchester, Long Island and NYC:

• First winning team: 11th-grade students Gerald Duxha and Steven Caraballo
• Second winning team: 10th-grade students Selom Cudjoe, Kerolos Tanios, Devendra Roopnarine and Lamar Lawrence

“I’m excited about being able to actually practice investing, so when I’m older it’s a lot easier for me to get into,” said Xavier Martin, a 10th-grade student at STEAM. “This gets me started. It’s a really good thing starting out early, and this program is going to help me learn more about that.”

The winning team from the regional competition will compete in Atlanta for a national stock market competition.