Last Thursday, nearly three dozen students from Brockton Public Schools boarded a bus and made the hourlong trek to Bentley University in Waltham. The middle and high schoolers walked into Bentley’s stock trading room where TV monitors across walls showed company values and ticker symbols flashed green and red.
The kids spent the day learning about investing from Bentley finance majors — everything from what is a stock to when to buy and sell. The Brockton students, dressed for the part in blazers and dresses, then played the role of traders as they tried to squeeze as much money as possible out of stocks like Google and Facebook.
“I like the way that we have … to try to predict the future and make educated guesses,” 15-year-old Henry Ani said in between the games.
The field trip was thanks to the Brockton nonprofit Empower Yourself, dedicated to giving underprivileged students access to financial education and STEM topics they may not otherwise experience. Cedric Turner, the director of the nonprofit, said he wants to give kids realistic practice in fields ranging from rocketry to coding.
Turner works with local universities and museums to teach the students involved in the year-round program. He enters the kids in state and national competitions and connects them with internships.
The idea for the nonprofit came from a realization Turner had while working a previous job as a mutual funds accountant at John Hancock. He was frustrated that none of his clients were Black like him, due to generations of racism and segregation.
Turner knew that the racial wealth gap meant that many kids can’t afford to learn sophisticated skills that can help them secure more lucrative careers. He set out to help fill the void.
“All I do is give them hope and opportunity,” Turner said. “I show them what is possible, and I open up the door.”
Students say they’re grateful.
Montserrat Diaz Botello has long been interested in engineering. But once she joined the Empower Yourself program and actually started building drones and soldering radar boards, that interest became a passion. Now she wants to pursue it as a career.
“My whole family doesn’t even understand most of what I’m doing,” she said. “If you would have told me four years ago, ‘Oh you do drones, you do stocks, you do radars, you do autonomous cars,’ I would have looked at you like [you’re] crazy.”
Empower Yourself is mainly an after-school, weekend and summer program. Currently, it serves about 175 students from Ashfield and Plouffe middle schools as well as Brockton High School. Officials with Brockton Public Schools say they’re considering creating an elective class out of the program.
Michele Conners, an assistant superintendent with the district, says Empower Yourself has been especially meaningful amid a tough year that’s included a major budget deficit and calls for the National Guard to curb violence at Brockton Middle School, the state’s largest.
“That weighs on our students and their families and our community as a whole,” Conners said. “[The program] shows everyone else what Brockton really is behind the headlines.”
She pointed to the students’ recent success at a national stock trading competition. The top five finishers were from Empower Yourself and won a combined $15,000 in the form of an investment portfolio and college scholarship money.
Turner is confident his students will continue to find success, both inside and outside of competitions, and the program continues to add more kids.
Carlenst Dorestan joined a few weeks ago. At the recent investment training at Bentley, Dorestan was nervous about playing the mock trading games because he had little prior experience with the stock market. After initially struggling to make much money, he ended the day as one of the top finishers.
“It was exciting,” Dorestan said. “When you see everyone so invested in what they’re doing, it motivates you.”
