Thanks to the Summer Stock Market Experience (SSME), the CLIMB Wave is spreading. Last year’s pilot, (which is documented in a report on the resources page of the CLIMBUSA website) has grown into a national phenomenon. Two hundred and thirty nine youth from fifteen states will participate in this summer’s version of the SSME.
The launch event was held virtually on June 8th and the five-member youth teams opened up their trading desk on June 14th when they began to deploy their fictitious one hundred thousand dollars into a stock portfolio for a ten-week period ending on August 20th.
At the launch event, Robert Wynn, founder of CLIMB USA, expressed thanks to the many collaborators who help to bring the Stock Market Summer Experience to youth who too often miss out on solid investment education in their schools.
Economics Wisconsin, United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha Count, City of Milwaukee and seven Milwaukee and Madison organizations, along with Ann and Ionnie McNeill of Florida, helped to launch the pilot in 2020.
The SSME garnered national collaborators for 2021, including CUNA Mutual Group and CUNA Mutual Foundation, the African American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC), Better Investing and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Foundation (SIFMA).
The kickoff on June 8th featured a cache of well-wishers and role models, including, Na’il Diggs an NFL Alumnus, Stock Up Kids who are Junior Investors, Arieyon White of Better Investing, Malachi Davis who serves as the SSME Roving Reporter and Andrea Finley who is a loaned executive from the AACUC .
While lots of youth around the country caught the wave this summer, we hope to empower more youth as the CLIMB Wave swells.