Unique fund allows real investment experience for Bay students

Pictured left to right: Mr. Matt Thornsberry, Andy Barbour, Dan Huntley, Sara Sirignano, Sam Evans, Mrs. Gina Tianello and Margaret Francotti. Photo by Bev Walborn

In 2006, the Bay Village Education Foundation, in cooperation with Joseph H. Thompson Foundation trustees, created a separate Joseph H. Thompson Award fund that gives participating Bay students a very unique, hands-on experience investing in the stock market with real money.

Every year following its inception, Mrs. Gina Tianello, enrichment resource teacher at Bay Middle School, and her seventh-grade Sail students pair up with BHS financial instructor Matthew Thornsberry’s business classes to research investment opportunities for the fund. The students meet for ten weeks and review the current portfolio while looking for new investment opportunities. They vote as a group on the final recommendations to be presented to BVEF trustees at their annual May board meeting.

A goal of the project remains that participating students will learn how companies are financed through stocks and how to purchase them as part of an individual’s savings program. They will learn that investments require research, analysis and interpretation of data to make wise choices.

The project has benefitted both students and the BVEF, with students obtaining invaluable investment experience using real money, and BVEF trustees seeing positive returns on their investment overall. This year’s participating seniors were, in fact, the first seventh-grade students involved in the project when it began.

BVEF is proud to be a part of this unique educational opportunity for Bay students.