The Amrhein Investment Club provides students with hands on-learning experience in the field of investments. As someone who despises all things mathematical, that does not particularly sound riveting to me—but after talking to a member of the club about her experiences, as well as developing a deeper understanding of what the club actually does, I wish I knew about it my freshman year! If you like money and are interested in learning how to invest in the stock market, you need to check out the Amrhein Investment Club at Moravian.
Every Tuesday at 11:45 am, this group meets in PPHAC with Shun Yang, junior, as president and Gary Kaskowitz, Management professor, as the advisor rounding out with 30-40 people in the club. In Investment Club, students are dealing with real life scenarios such as investing actual money into the stock market using Marketwatch.com as well as Yahoo Finance to research and find the best avenues for investment.
You may be wondering where this money came from. (I was wondering the same thing too.) In 1962, Mr. and Mrs. Irving Amrhein donated $20,000 to the Investment Club with hopes students would grow their skills and learn different tactics for investments in stocks. Since that day, the students have taken that $20,000 and turned it into more than $2 million. Not bad, huh?
Serious investment takes serious planning, too. In order for the entire club to invest in a stock, students need to make a presentation to the group and get everyone on board with their action plan. Once presentations are complete and the club is satisfied, investing starts.
Maddy Shaneberger, a junior and three year Investment Club member, has nothing but good things to say about it: “I joined because I am a minor in finance and found investing interesting. [The club] is awesome because we are using real money and actually seeing it grow and seeing how the news affects markets and financial rising and falling.” Shaneberger also stated how the club gives each student .25 credits for each year you are a member, rounding out to a full credit by the time you are a senior.
One of the coolest things I’ve learned through this process is how hands on and pro-active our students are at doing what they like to do. Taking time out of the already busy student schedule to educate themselves on adult things is something I wish I did looking back as a senior. Without a doubt, the Investment Club will help students when they face the real world; they will have great background knowledge on finances, and not to mention it looks great on a resume.
To learn more about the Amrhein Investment Club, take a look at their newly revamped website.