For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2014
Contact:
Jennifer A. Connolly
Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts
(413) 747-7670
[email protected]
Twitter: @JA_WesternMA
SPRINGFIELD—On October 29th Wall Street came to Main Street Springfield for the 10th Annual JA Stock Market Competition held at the MassMutual Center.
Nearly 600 students from 20 area schools (middle and high school) came together to test their skills by investing and trading stocks as if they were on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Later in the evening, corporate and college teams took on their own challenge! This was the 10th Anniversary of the event!
Taking first place was Duggan School from Springfield with a portfolio over $5.4 million. This was only Duggan’s second year competing in the event. Mary Kay Brown from Duggan noted
that “Our students are just over the moon with their victory! Thank you so much for proving them with the prep lessons and for holding this great event.”
Second place was Team Platanos from Mr. Lamondia’s Retailing and Marketing Class at Putnam Vocational Technical Academy. One of the students from Team Platanos said, “I can’t believe it! We worked so hard for this! It’s amazing! We really had great teamwork.”
Third place was Team Golden from St. Thomas the Apostle School in West Springfield. “The students from St. Thomas are the youngest students in the competition and but they play well each and every year,” noted Amanda Garcia, their Prep coach from Elms College. “I knew the students were going to be outstanding this year.”
The students participated through the generosity of local business, individuals and college sponsors. The Title Sponsor was St. Germain Investment Management and MassMutual Financial Group was the High School Event Sponsor. Savage Arms and Balise were Platinum Sponsors. TD Bank was the Trader Sponsor and Webster Bank sponsored the Print Stations. Elms College was a Gold College Sponsor and Springfield College, Bay Path University and Westfield State University were Bronze College Sponsors. Other sponsors included Country Bank, Easthampton Savings Bank, Chicopee Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, Maybury Material Handling, Raymond James, Comcast, Excel Dryer, United Industrial Services, The Collins Companies, Paragus Strategic IT, Quabbin Wire & Cable, Northwestern Mutual, Dave’s Soda & Pet City, Florence Savings Bank, OMG, Inc. Shatz, Schwartz & Fentin; MMWEC, Wolf & Co. PC, Consolidated Health Plans, and Paul Valickus.
Many thanks to JAWM Board Member, Nicole Denette for leading the Stock Market Competition Committee. The event raised over $75,000, which will provide 2,272 local students with JA programs this year.
About Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JA provides in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12. JA offers educational programs that focus on seven key content areas: business, citizenship, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics/character, financial literacy, and career development.
Today more than Junior Achievement Worldwide reaches almost seven million students in 98 countries. For more information, visit www.jawm.org.