More than 680 students from across East Texas gathered at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center on Tuesday to put their financial knowledge to the test during Junior Achievement of Tyler’s annual Stock Market Challenge.
The event brought together students from several Tyler ISD campuses, along with students from Jacksonville, Lindale, Chapel Hill and Whitehouse ISDs, for a fast-paced simulation designed to introduce them to investing and the decisions involved in managing money.
Representing Tyler ISD were students from Hubbard Middle School, Three Lakes Middle School, Moore Middle School, Early College High School, Tyler High School, Tyler Legacy High School, Caldwell Arts Academy, Birdwell Dual Language Immersion School and Boulter Middle School.
Students competed in teams of four, with each school able to enter multiple teams in the challenge. Each team received $1 million in virtual funds to buy and sell fictitious stocks during the 60-minute competition, with each simulated day lasting 60 seconds. Teams evaluated changing stock prices, developed investment strategies and made decisions under the pressure of a rapidly changing market, competing against teams from other schools as well as other teams representing their own campus.
“It’s a way to get them more engaged by playing this game,” said John McDougal, regional executive director of Junior Achievement of Tyler. “A fast game that is only 60 minutes long, every day is 60 seconds.”
The simulation was designed to make financial education interactive while introducing students to concepts they can apply long after the competition ends.
Junior Achievement’s educational programs focus on three primary areas: financial literacy, workforce readiness and entrepreneurship. Its curriculum serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade, with the Stock Market Challenge providing an additional opportunity for older students to experience financial concepts in action.
McDougal said financial literacy is an important foundation for young people as they prepare for adulthood, whether they eventually pursue entrepreneurship or enter the workforce.
“We find that about 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck,” McDougal said. “So we know that teaching financial literacy is very important to these students so that they can grow up knowing that they have a solid financial future.”
McDougal added that Junior Achievement also prepares students for both entrepreneurship and traditional employment, teaching them the skills needed to start their own businesses or succeed in the workplace.
The lessons extended beyond buying and selling stocks. Students also had to work together, assess their options and recognize that a quick decision wasn’t necessarily the best decision.
For eighth-grader Raziel Ferrulli of Moore Middle School, the competition offered a firsthand introduction to investing.
“We learned that even if the stocks are low, we buy, and if they’re high, we sell, because you buy them when the prices are low and sell them when the prices are high,” Raziel said. “And when we learned that, we learned that if it’s high, we don’t always need to rush and to buy as much as possible. You have to wait.”
In his first time participating, Raziel also said the experience emphasized the importance of teamwork and making thoughtful financial decisions.
“It’s important to learn financial literacy because you want to spend your money in the right way,” he said. “You don’t want to spend it all, and then not be able to — you might have no money because of that. So, it teaches you to save your money.”
Tyler Legacy High School brought 135 students to this year’s competition, with four of its teams finishing among the top 10.
Kala Morrow, dean of instruction at Tyler Legacy, said the event gives students an opportunity to see classroom lessons applied in a real-time setting.
“I think it gives them a real-time look at markets and economy and understanding the importance of making decisions,” Morrow said. “What I appreciate the most about this is that it requires that they use teamwork and real collaboration and even critical thinking to make decisions quickly, to process the information quickly and then to make some decisions.”
Students at Tyler Legacy had prepared for the competition through economics coursework, teacher-led instruction and training modules provided by Junior Achievement.
The school’s teams earned first, second, fifth and eighth place in the competition. The Sharks took first place, followed by The Rays in second, The Rockies in fifth and The Wizards in eighth.
Morrow said she was particularly excited to see The Sharks take the top spot, noting that the team included a freshman. She also praised The Rays for improving on their third-place finish from the previous year.
Beyond the competition itself, Morrow said the event provides students with an opportunity to try something unfamiliar, take calculated risks and learn from the decisions they make.
“I like that we have an opportunity to celebrate our kids trying new things and putting themselves out there,” she said. “I think it’s cool that kids take the risk, that they learn to take risks and make decisions and to stand by them.”
Morrow said that hands-on experiences can leave a lasting impression on students, regardless of whether they finish at the top of the standings.
“The kids do all the work,” she added. “I just get them there. I do very little.”
McDougal said the energy in the conference center throughout the competition reflected how engaged students were with the experience.
“We had so much noise in this room we could barely hear ourselves think,” McDougal said. “Some of them standing up on chairs, shouting and screaming, waving their paddle to get a floor trader to come over and be able to make trades with that floor trader. It was incredible.”
Since its founding in 1988, Junior Achievement of Tyler has served more than 167,700 students through programs focused on financial literacy, workforce readiness and entrepreneurship. The organization expects to reach more than 8,700 local students during the 2026-27 school year with the help of more than 250 teachers and volunteers.
For more information, visit tyler.ja.org.
Junior Achievement of Tyler will host an adult Stock Market Challenge session from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, at Tyler Junior College’s Apache Rooms located at 1327 S. Baxter Ave. in Tyler.
