Student-run investment fund performs well in uncertain market; awards scholarships | Local News

Rising inflation, a lingering pandemic and a war with impacts rippling across the globe.

These frightening scenarios have sent financial experts into a frenzy on the stock market.

Joining them were around two dozen Citrus High School students managing the Manatee Investment Fund, which weathered the storm on Wall Street thanks to lessons learned from the Nature Coast Investment Practicum (NCIP) Program taught at the Inverness campus.

On Thursday, April 7, at The Depot in Inverness, this school year’s aspiring financiers presented their respective investments to a banquet of family, friends and teachers honoring their successful returns.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for me as a teacher,” Citrus High’s NCIP instructor and business teacher Terri Cooke told attendees of the event. “I think after you hear them, you will realize how truly blessed I am to spend an hour a day with these students.”

Edward Jones Investments, the Citrus County School District and the Citrus County Education Foundation (CCEF) partnered to launch the Manatee Investment Fund to house the monies invested by students, with approval.

“This is our third year, and it continues to be a huge success; these students prove to us how bright our future is,” CCEF board president and local Suncoast Credit Union branch manager David White said at the event, “…and I continue to be amazed.”

Investment returns and private donations have grown the fund, which went from a little more than $25,000 in 2019/20 to $120,811 as of March 21, 2022.

While 2022’s rate of return so far for the Manatee Investment Fund was at -0.90 percent, the performance was still better than the -4.65 percent benchmark of the Large U.S. Cap Equities, according to the fund’s latest annual report.

Scott Lee, a financial advisor with the Edward Jones office in Inverness who taught a portion of the NCIP course alongside Cooke, said the students remained positive with their investment choices despite impacts from increasing prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The kids have done a really good job,” he said April 7. “We want them to have an education about how the world works. … Sometimes, you have things happen in the world that impact your investments, negatively or positively.”

It’s the goal of the Manatee Investment Fund to either provide at least $500 or 3 percent of the fund balance (whichever’s greater) in scholarships to participating students by December’s end.

To learn more about the Manatee Investment Fund and how to contribute toward it, visit citrus education.org/programs or call Edward Jones at 352-860-2839.

When it first started, the investment fund paid for two $500 scholarships to award to participating Citrus High students.

This year, the fund was able to pay for five $1,250 scholarships, awarded each to senior McKinley Franklin, junior Keirston Perkins, junior Bastion Sprouse, junior Darla Edwards and junior Laci Hindalong, according to the CCEF.

Before they could think about investing, the NCIP students had to learn the basics of budgeting, account balancing, banking and economic theory.

“In order for them to understand what Mr. Lee teaches,” Cooke said, “they need to understand some fundamentals of accounting, and we also try to provide them with some real-world knowledge.”

Afterward, Lee introduces the pupils to more complex subjects and financial institutions, like how a country’s gross domestic product, or GDP, is measured against another country’s; and why/how the Federal Reserve sets interest rates.

“The thought process for this program started about five, six years ago, and focuses on a lot of programs you see in college,” he said, “…to teach students about economics, finance, how the world fits together; and it’s not all about stocks and bonds.”

With guidance from the Manatee Fund Advisory Council, NCIP students were divided into groups to research, analyze, report on and invest across 10 different industry sectors of the stock market, like health care, communications, energy, technology and utilities for instance.

Lee said diversifying the investments was one of the key rules students had to follow to help them avoid losses, making sure no more than 5 percent of their fund invested in any one stock.

“You can’t put all your money in one basket,” he said. “We want to limit the exposure; bad things can happen to good companies.”

Cooke and Lee also taught their apprentices tips in the art of public speaking, preparing them for presentations to the advisory council on why their investments are sound.

Students could also only pursue stocks that were “Buy Rated” by Edward Jones.

“We try to set the students up for success so we limit them to certain stocks they can buy,” Lee said. “We force you to stay with best companies out there.”

When the latest NCIP class took over the Manatee Investment Fund Sept. 1, according to its annual report, the portfolio was worth $107,856 before the students started purchasing investments Oct. 13.

Expenses from investments and scholarships totaled $13,120 during 2022, leaving the fund with a balance of $97,246 in February before a $20,000 donation bolstered it in March.

Perkins told attendees of the April 7 NCIP banquet the course taught her how to evaluate the performance of the stock market “after the first couple weeks,” and inspired her to pursue career in either finance or accounting.

“Being in this class has provided me with many new opportunities,” she said. “When I first entered Ms. Cooke’s class on the first day of school, I had no idea what the stock market was or how it worked.”

“Throughout this course,” added Hindalong, who’d like to get a degree in criminology and biology to become a crime scene investigator, “I learned how to manage and maintain my finances properly and efficiently.”

Sprouse said the NCIP program helped move his own “rags-to-riches story” forward by teaching him how to make his money work for him after he obtains a business degree in college.

“In my future,” he said, “I want to make more money than everybody I know combined.”