By Valerie L. Moran - Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy HS
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Members of Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School's Business & Finance Team pose in front of a portrait of Patrick T. Harker, dean of the Wharton School of Business 2001 to 2007, who in addition to many other accomplishments accumulated more than million in research grants. From left: seniors Gabriel Tejada, Marissa Salaya and Claudia Teresa-Calleja and junior Lara Suarez.
SOUTHWEST RANCHES | On a cold spring day in Philadelphia, students from the business and finance class at Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School enjoyed a warm feeling of success: They had just been ranked among the Top Ten in a global field of over 300 schools competing in the Knowledge@Wharton for High School Investment Challenge.
The investment challenge required the students to work as a team in managing a portfolio of $100K in virtual cash using the Online Trading Investment Simulator (OTIS), created by the computer science department at Wharton.
"The client" of this $100k portfolio was based on a real person who had a Skype session with the students. Millionaire Jack Abraham is a former Wharton student and founder of Milo, a software shopping engine that was sold to eBay.
The teams were required to detail their recommended strategy in a seven-page report and make a presentation to the Wharton School “client.” They also presented their investment strategy to a panel of Wharton Professors and a group of asset managers from the Aberdeen Management Group.
The Mavericks team consisted of seniors Marissa Salaya, Claudia Teresa-Calleja and Gabriel Tejada, and junior Lara Suarez. They flew at the end of April to the Wharton’s School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with Kim Zocco, who teaches in the Archbishop McCarthy Business Education Department. This was the Mavericks’ first time participating in the challenge.
“While my teaching style has always been engaging, I had never used a stock simulator or had the students compete in my previous finance classes, so I told the students that we will explore and learn together in this process,” Zocco said. “This was really exciting to watch evolve.”
She added that the challenge allowed her students to apply what they learn in the classroom with what they hear in the news, “and perhaps strike up conversation at the dinner table with their parents who deal with finances on a daily basis.”
In 1881, Joseph Wharton, an iron miner and a self-taught businessman, donated $100,000 to the University of Pennsylvania to found a "School of Finance and Economy” where students would receive an unrivaled business education.
