Murray, Neb. – Two students sit on the couch during seventh hour, writing and talking. Amidst their other conversation, they discuss an activity they’re taking part in for their financial math class: the stock market game. Financial math is an option for students during their senior year at Conestoga. Some students even opt to take it in addition to another math course. In it, Josh Schliefert teaches his pupils about how to build and manage wealth. A key strategy: investing.

“To be honest when I got the job at Conestoga and found out I’d be teaching Financial Math I started planning the class and knew one of the things I wanted to emphasize was investing,” Schlifert said. “So I Googled ‘stock market simulator’ and the Investopedia one came up.”

Investopedia is a website that gives up to date market information. It has articles with tips and investing strategies. Most importantly for Schliefert’s students, it has a stock market simulator. This free to use simulator lets individuals make pretend investments into real companies, cryptos and options as it tracks the market. They can join games to compete against friends, or even others from all over the world. The Conestoga 2024 simulator includes 32 seniors facing off against each other. In it, they started with $100,000 to invest. In addition to that though, many students are involved in other games and even some seniors who aren’t in financial math are taking part.

Of the group, Schlifert stated, “I love the passion, excitement, and competitiveness students have had. This is probably the most involved group of seniors I’ve had in my few years at Conestoga.”

During free times throughout the day, it’s not uncommon to hear students talking about how their investments are doing. This is something that Schliefert said he loves. “They are sharing strategies and research they are doing on their own.” He also stated, “When students take their own time to work on something it shows me they care.”

It’s clear that the passion these students are showing is taking them places. At the top of the leaderboard sits one individual who has already doubled their money. Today’s seniors are tomorrow’s investors and teaching them how to do so responsibly at an early stage can be a huge boost. Many students are taking the lessons learned to heart and getting invested in investing.