South Terrebonne teams earn top spots in stock market state competition

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1st Place Team (L to R) Bruce Folse, Michael Verdin, Shad Pellegrin (Jacob Pellegrin is not pictured)

Two South Terrebonne teams earned the top spots in the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game (SMG), an online academic and life-skills educational program used by hundreds of Louisiana teachers that rewards the teams with the best-performing portfolios. 

 

In the game, teams of one to four students begin the simulation with an imaginary investment of $100,000 to trade stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds on the NYSE and NASDAQ. Students follow current events and global news impacting the financial markets and place trades in real-time online on the computer or the SMG smartphone app. Contestants can participate in socially responsible investing by selecting companies that have been determined to be in alignment with the United Nations’  Sustainable Development Goals, the organization said. 

 

Participants compete with peers in their classroom and with teams of other students in schools across the state to increase their portfolio value.  


 

The team of Bruce Folse, Michael Verdin, Shad Pellegrin and Jacob Pellegrin finished first in the spring competition, which ran from February through April, with a $32,114 profit. Their schoolmates Erin Fitch and Warnaisha Kimble secured second by bringing in $9,983.

Each year, SIFMA recognizes the winning teams and awards them with prizes.

“During the 2020-21 school year, The Stock Market Game continues to make learning about the capital markets fun and engaging, drawing students in and enabling them to learn about otherwise complex but important economic concepts such as inflation, price indexes, cycles and trends,” said  Melanie Mortimer, President of the SIFMA Foundation. “We are proud and thrilled for all of our student teams who reached the top spots in the Louisiana SMG competition.” 


 

Bennie Boudreaux, a math teacher at South Terrebonne, attended the Terrebonne Parish School Board’s committee meeting on Tuesday to highlight his students’ accomplishments. 

 

He said the first-place team was in 20th until the last month of the competition, but then one of the members decided to invest in GameStop, one of the popular “meme stocks” that saw its value skyrocket earlier this year. That investment propelled the group to first, said Boudreaux, who led the students with Angela Plaisance, another South Terrebonne educator.

 

Boudreaux noted he helped his students with research but made no suggestions on where they should put their money. 


 

This isn’t the first time a South Terrebonne squad came out on top in the SMG, too. Going back to the 2017-2018 school year when Boudreaux initiated the program, the school has several first-place and second-place finishes.

 

“This is a really fascinating program. But I have to say no program by itself is successful. Any time you see children and young adults succeeding in their program, there is a Mr. Boudreaux back there — whose enthusiasm you’ve seen tonight just transfers over to the kids,” Superintendent Philip Martin said. “Mr. Boudreaux, thank you for making our kids’ education not so monotonous and more real life. Your enthusiasm is evident.” 

1st Place Team (L to R) Bruce Folse, Michael Verdin, Shad Pellegrin (Jacob Pellegrin is not pictured)

 

2nd Place Team (L to R) Erin Fitch and Warnaisha Kimble