Smeal Community Initiative Provides High Schoolers With Wall Street Perspective
Students from Penns Valley High School visited the Smeal College Trading Room on Nov. 17 for an interactive lesson on financial markets as part of the Smeal Community Initiative, an ongoing effort to link undergraduate business students with organizations in need.
Smeal Community Initiative Provides High Schoolers With Wall Street Perspective
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (November 19, 2004)—Students from Penns Valley High School visited the Smeal College Trading Room on Nov. 17 for an interactive lesson on financial markets as part of the Smeal Community Initiative, an ongoing effort to link undergraduate business students with organizations in need.
Undergraduates from the Penn State chapter of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE)—with sponsorship from Omega Bank—are conducting a broad-based financial counseling program called “Peer 2 Peer.” The goal of the initiative is to help high school students gain a better understanding of personal financial responsibility, preparing them to make smart money decisions in the future.
Fourteen members of SIFE are actively involved in developing ongoing plans for “Peer 2 Peer,” with marketing instructor Carolyn Todd as the faculty advisor from Smeal. The program is one of four Community Initiative projects underway at the college.
During the Trading Room visit, members of SIFE acted as guides for the 13 sophomores, juniors, and seniors enrolled in the Penns Valley personal finance class. The three-hour program included competitive trading simulations and a student panel on how to prepare for and manage college expenses.
During the spring semester, the “Peer 2 Peer” program will expand to include high school classroom sessions on budgeting for college, financial investing, managing savings and checking accounts, and managing credit. Longer term goals include the launch of a business club at Penns Valley and expansion of the program to other high schools in the region.
With chapters on more than 1,600 university campuses in 40 countries throughout the world, SIFE offers students the opportunity to develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through the principles of free enterprise. The recently revamped Penn State chapter has 30 active members.
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
