Midland University FBLA Collegiate students recently had the opportunity to dabble in the stock market.
Two teams of Midland FBLA-C students competed in a national stock market competition during the fall semester and one of the teams earned a third place showing. Midland competed against 30-plus organizations from across the country, including several larger institutions.
Erik Hoegemeyer, Assistant Professor of Agribusiness and Economics, had the opportunity to serve as coach for the teams.
“Rita Bristol (FBLA-C Advisor) has done a tremendous job of building this organization into one of the best in the country,” Hoegemeyer said. “One thing we had never done before was to compete in the stock market game. I have a background and a strong interest in trading, so Rita asked if I would be willing to serve as coach. I love being able to talk trading and I love working with students who care and are passionate about business.”
Each team was given $100,000 of capital to work with during the 12-week competition and the team with the largest gains at the end was declared the winner. Midland’s third-place team consisted of Lucas Hjortkjaer, Cody Kent, Jon Mahoney, Ethan Smith, and Ryder Stephens.
“Our Financial Services program is fantastic, and this competition was a great way to breathe some life into that group,” Hoegemeyer said. “I’m very happy our kids did so well for their first try and they had a lot of great ideas.”
Beyond the recognition they received, Hoegemeyer said the most rewarding part was seeing students work together to not only achieve a goal, but to experience real-life situations in the process.
“There is no learning like hands-on learning,” he said. “You can’t design something like this in the classroom and it was very competitive with a robust platform and a variety of strategies. It forced them into collaboration and discussion and taught them some valuable lessons.”
Hoegemeyer said three Midland teams are currently competing in the spring semester competition.
“We are blessed at Midland to have students who are excited about business, and there is no better organization than FBLA-C,” Hoegemeyer said. “They are doing this because they love business.”
