All the pre-meeting boxes were checked ahead of a recent gathering of Herriman High School’s “Girls’ Investment Club.”
All slides for an engaging digital financial presentation have been prepared and uploaded. Check. The club’s three student organizers, each wearing a “Girls Investing Club” T-shirt, stand smiling and ready to welcome fellow students and guest speakers at the club’s October meeting. Ta. Check. And dozens of donated crumble cookies were spread out on folding tables in the classroom for added temptation. And please check.
But will the students show up?
That was a fair question.
As it turned out, the freshman club met on Friday afternoons after the first week at Herriman High School.
Junior Bailey Zuniga, founder and co-president of the Girls’ Investment Club, teaches fellow students about the stock market during a Girls’ Investment Club meeting Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, at Herriman High School in Herriman. . Zuniga said: Her parents always taught her about financial literacy. She said her parents told her to read 50 books on financial literacy and education in order to buy a car when she turned 16. | Bryce Tucker, Deseret News Vincenza Vicari-Bentley, Financial Wellness Program Coordinator Strengthening at Utah State University, speaks at the Women’s Investment Club on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, at Herriman High School in Herriman. speak at a meeting. Invited by students in the club to provide insight into how learning about the stock market impacts financial literacy. | Bryce Tucker, Deseret News Vincenza Vicari-Bentley, Financial Wellness Program Coordinator Strengthening at Utah State University, speaks at the Women’s Investment Club on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, at Herriman High School in Herriman. speak at a meeting. Invited by students in the club to provide insight into how the stock market affects financial literacy. | Bryce Tucker, Deseret News Sophomore Adele Ferrin, 15, raises her hand to ask a question about the stock market during a girls investment club meeting at Herriman High School in Herriman on Friday, October 18, 2024 do. Ferrin said: She joined the club because a financial literacy class she took from her parents sparked her interest in economics. | Bryce Tucker, Deseret News Members of the Women’s Investment Club buy mock stocks on MarketWatch.com during a club meeting at Herriman High School in Herriman on Friday, October 18, 2024. Bryce Tucker, Deseret News founder and Girls Investing Club co-president, and senior Elizabeth Anderson discuss how to track stocks during a club meeting at Herriman High School in Herriman, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024 is explained. Bryce Tucker of the Deseret News, founder and co-president of the Women’s Investment Club, from left to right, Bailey Zuniga, Kaylee Arsenault and Elizabeth Anderson, during a club meeting Friday at Herriman High School in Herriman. teaching fellow students about the stock market, October 18, 2024. All three girls said they started the club after noticing a lack of financial literacy knowledge among other girls in their classes. Through the club, they hope to equip themselves and other students with the financial knowledge to succeed after high school. | Bryce Tucker, Deseret News founder and Girls Investing Club co-president, and senior Elizabeth Anderson track stocks during a club meeting at Herriman High School in Herriman, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024 It explains how. Bryce Tucker, founder of the Deseret News and co-chair of the Women’s Investment Club (front of room, left to right, Bailey Zuniga, Kaylee Arsenault, and Elizabeth Anderson), during a speech Friday at Herriman High School in Herriman. Closing club meeting, October 18, 2024. All three girls said they started the club after noticing a lack of financial literacy knowledge among other girls in their classes. Through the club, they hope to equip themselves and other students with the financial knowledge to succeed after high school. |Bryce Tucker, Deseret News Founder and Girls Investing Club Co-President Bailey Zuniga, during a club meeting Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, at Herriman High School in Herriman. Clubmate Nicole Walsman helps her buy mock stocks. Her parents always taught her about financial literacy. She said her parents told her to read 50 books on financial literacy and education in order to buy a car when she turned 16. | Bryce Tucker, Deseret News Members of the Women’s Investment Club buy mock stocks on MarketWatch.com during a club meeting at Herriman High School in Herriman on Friday, October 18, 2024. Bryce Tucker, Deseret News
Well, the weekend is approaching. Would a high school girl (and a few guys) really want to spend an extra hour wandering around campus talking about stock trading, Roth IRA contributions, compound interest, and entrepreneurship?
The answer is an emphatic yes.
By the time Herriman High School’s Girls’ Investment Club leaders ordered their October meeting, the classrooms were full. When all the seats were filled, the remaining students fell to the floor.
“Thank you so much for joining us today,” high school senior and club co-founder Kaylee Arsenault said to her fellow club members. “Today’s theme will focus on stocks and the stock market.”
Alliance of girls interested in money
The birth of the Herriman High School Girls Investment Club began last spring when Arsenault and her friend Lizzie Anderson were attending an international conference of the Distribution Education Club of America (also known as DECA). DECA is a nonprofit organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, marketing, finance, education, and other fields. hospitality and management.
They were high school seniors at the time, and although they fell short of winning the conference championship at the International DECA Business Competition, they were already aiming to win it in their senior year.
They knew that to compete in the international DECA competition, they needed to find, in Anderson’s words, “a winning ‘fire’ project.”
So they started looking for business-related needs within their community.
“In addition to a lack of women in the financial profession and a lack of women participating in investing, we found that there was a significant lack of financial knowledge among women,” Anderson said.
The disparity of women confidently participating in finance and investing comes after Herriman students discovered a study that revealed women actually perform better than men when it comes to investing in the stock market. It has become even more frustrating for us.
Anderson, Arsenault, and junior Bayley Zuniga, with support from business teacher and DECA advisor Randall Kammerman, are launching an investor initiative aimed at educating and empowering women in finance and investing. Started launching the project.
Their first task was to organize a girls investment club at Herriman High School.
Mission accomplished.
Herriman’s Girls Investment Club was up and running by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
“And now we want to take (investment initiatives) to middle schools and other high schools and even the entire community,” Anderson said.
Investment club leaders also reached out to local women’s shelters and the Salt Lake City YWCA.
“We are already interested in holding workshops to teach women in our community how to invest and prepare for careers in finance,” Anderson added.
In its first year at Herriman, the Girls Investment Club has more than 100 members.
Club organizers Anderson, Arsenault, and Zuniga also demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the power of networking.
They have already connected with some in the local business community and secured sponsorship for investment initiatives, while also attracting guest speakers at club gatherings.
Anderson and her fellow student leaders are also developing resilience, another important skill for navigating financial and investment turmoil.
“We’ve had a lot of success with the club, but we’ve had our fair share of challenges as well, with people not responding to us and initially having a hard time getting the club’s approval.” she said. “So we learned the importance of persistence and working with teammates.”
Meanwhile, Kammerman marvels at the young students’ ability and “get it done” spirit.
“I’ve been teaching here at Herriman for 13 years, and this is the first year I’ve started this club because I’ve never had a group like this of girls who saw a need and wanted to do this great thing. ‘Because it wasn’t there,’ he said.
“I love teaching finance, so when my students said they wanted to start a ‘women’s investment club,’ I just said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Women making strides in stock market activities
Herriman High School’s Girls’ Investment Club reflects a national trend of women of all ages becoming more confident and knowledgeable about investing.
More women than ever are taking responsibility for and investing in their finances.
Seven in 10 women are investing in the stock market, an 18% increase compared to 2023, according to a recent study from Fidelity Investment’s 2024 Women and Investing Survey.
While younger generations continue to invest more, the percentage of Gen
“It’s encouraging to see the number of women taking charge of their own finances soar over the past three years,” said Sangeeta Moorjani, head of tax-exempt markets and lifetime engagement at Fidelity Investments.
“We know there is more work to do. The financial confidence gap persists and women continue to report higher levels of financial stress than men. , we have made considerable progress.”
After school “Running with the cows”
The first half of the October Girls Investment Club meeting focused on the stock market.
But instead of simply lecturing members in depth about the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index, the three student leaders Anderson, Arsenault, and Zuniga “employed” each member as a de facto stock market investor. .
Utilizing the popular MarketWatch virtual stock exchange — “Join the bulls without the risk!” — Herriman students each opened their own mock investment account on their cellphones or laptops.
Within seconds, they analyzed market trends, searched for well-known public companies like Nike and Netflix, and made their first virtual investment with $100,000 of play money.
Over the 2024-2025 academic year, Herriman’s club members will compete for the “Top Investor” spot on the club’s MarketWatch leaderboard.
At the end of the year, the top three performers literally walk away with valuable dividends in the form of trendy new sneakers.
While feeling the rush of investing in the market and combining sweet crumble cookies, the club turned its attention to October’s guest speaker, Vincenza Vicari-Bentley.
Vicari Bentley, a certified financial counselor and coordinator of Utah State University Extension’s Empowering Financial Wellness Program, teaches financial topics such as the power of long-term investing, leveraging compound interest, taxes and budgeting, and controlling inflation. Spent 30 minutes interacting with club members about the topic. Use financial social media wisely.
“I think it’s great that you’re all here at this stage of your life and your age,” Vicari-Bentley said. “I wish this was something I had thought about or been interested in years ago, because I could have been further along.
“I’m so glad you’re open to being here and learning about this…It’s empowering.”
An investment community for all girls
Herriman College sophomore Brianna Nickerson readily admits that she doesn’t usually care about money matters.
Still, she is proud to be a member of the school’s Chartered Investment Club, which is designed specifically for girls.
“I hope this club helps people understand that they need to deal with money in their lives, and that there are ways to make that happen,” she said. “So I’m really glad I signed up for the club, because it’s a learning opportunity and there are delicious snacks.”
When Herriman’s clubs reconvene in November and beyond, they’ll be saving seats and cookies for Nickerson and many other girls.
