Stock Market Simulation Shows Youth How to Grow Wealth

Students participating in JA Stock Market Challenge

Mar 12, 2024 (San Diego, CA) — Students experienced trading on the New York Stock Exchange through a stock market simulation competition hosted by Junior Achievement of San Diego County (JA San Diego). Presented by Mission Federal Credit Union, the 2025 JA Stock Market Challenge brought nearly 150 students from across the San Diego region to compete in building mock portfolios over a simulated 60-day trading period in the market.To prepare for the event, over 400 students participated in JA curriculum that teaches the fundamentals of the stock market and how to develop long-term investing strategies.

“My students were interested in learning about investing. Money is motivating, so they wanted to learn more about the stock market and how it works and how it could benefit them in the future,” said Breanne Ulloa, educator at King Chavez Community High School. “Once they started playing the simulation, they really got excited about how it works. They’re having fun and it’s real world.”

The experience aims to demystify the stock market by providing young people an opportunity to learn how to invest in a risk-free learning environment that prepares them to manage their personal finances as they enter adulthood. Through hands-on practice, young people become more familiar and confident in developing investing strategies and navigating the stock market.“This will help us like learn how to save, how to plan, and help us try to invest in stocks. This will help us like in the long run in how to finance our stuff better,” said Kirenia H., a junior at Hoover High.

Now equipped with the tools and knowledge on various financial vehicles and ways to grow wealth, students have begun to consider ways they can plan for their financial futures.

“I’ve already had some senior students talking about opening a CD. They want to put aside dollars that they know that they can not touch. They want to put that into an account so that it can start to earn them more money,” said Ulloa.

This year’s JA Stock Market Challenge champions were from CETYS in Tijuana, Mexico and O’Farrell Charter School secured second place.

About Junior Achievement of San Diego
Junior Achievement of San Diego (JA) has been inspiring and equipping San Diego youth to achieve economic success by planning for their futures and making informed academic and career choices since 1950. By deploying proven, experiential programs like BizTown program, JA also reaches more than 30,000 students annually through programs such as BizTown, Finance Park, and the JA Company program which help students build financial literacy, work-readiness, and entrepreneurship skills. Annually, more than 4,000 volunteers serve as role models and enable JA to deliver experiential programs to students in 42 county school districts.