Somerville High School’s Personal Finance class team of Chris DeSousa, Kyle Finigan, Calvin Wicks, and Dylan Zraket won this year’s Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge. The Challenge took place on Thursday, December 6, at the new headquarters for State Street Corporation in Boston. Two other SHS teams also competed in this year’s event. Andrew DeAsevedo, Malik Dessin, AJ Feldman, and Maggie McDonagh made up the second SHS team, while the team of Samiyra Afife, Diane Pierre, Jenny Pierre, and Melinda Piltman also represented SHS. Both teams made good showings at the Challenge, coming in at 15th and 26th places, respectively.

The Stock Market Challenge is a fast-paced competition in which students use collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills to achieve the greatest rate of return on their investments over a 60-day market cycle. Each team begins with a hypothetical account balance of $500,000. Somerville’s winning team was in the top three spots from the beginning of the competition and ended the competition with $812,951.69, which translates to a remarkable rate of return of +62.59%. Any SHS student interested in next year’s competition should contact Mrs. Harney.

— Somerville Public Schools