WYO in NYC: Vermont Fourth Grade Students Win Stock Market Game and a Trip to the Big Apple

By Abby Ranz

Stephen Dexheimer, Maanya Mehrotra, Abby Ranz, and Tristan Reed were fourth graders at Vermont Primary last May when they won the National Stock Market Game and won a trip to New York City with their teacher Jennifer Gerstner. Abby wrote about their experience to share with the Wyoming community. Congratulations to all!

Stephen Dexheimer, Tristan Reed, Maanya Mehrotra, and Abby Ranz, and were fourth graders at Vermont Primary last May when they won the National Stock Market Game and won a trip to New York City with their teacher Jennifer Gerstner. Pictured on the cover, they visited Times Square after presenting their report at Legg Mason and Goldman Sachs.

When they announced that Stephen, Tristan, Maanya, and I won the trip to New York, it was an incredible feeling - I went crazy. We were all so excited and enthusiastic, we couldn't help it! When we got there, we went in a van that was very big to the Holiday Inn Express. The Holiday Inn Express was on the corner of Water Street and Wall Street. 

One of the special parts of winning the Stock Market Game was a private visit to the New York Stock Exchange, left to right, Tristan, Maanya, Abby, teacher Jennifer Gerstner, and Stephen. 

On the first day, we went to Legg Mason to give our presentation. The other team from Mason Intermediate School presented first. They did a really amazing job on the presentation. For our presentation, I was very nervous at first. I thought that the people at Legg Mason would be serious and not be interested in our presentation. Instead, they were very nice and very interested in what we said. After we presented, we got to eat some lunch at their office. They also gave us backpacks full of stuff like putty, sunglasses, pop sockets, phone chargers, and many other cool things. After that, we went to Goldman Sachs, where we gave our presentation again, and then they asked us questions. 

We also went to the New York Stock Exchange! We had to get special passes because the NYSE isn’t open to the public. A man named Peter Casteli showed us around the NYSE. 

Stephen, Maanya, Abby, and Tristan with their teacher Jennifer Gerstner as they presented to Legg Mason and Goldman Sachs. 

The NYSE isn’t as big as it looks though, they just angle it that way in pictures. It only has about eight – ten big computers in it, and surprisingly they have more work booths than computers! Mr. Casteli told us about how they work the NYSE, how to work the computers, how they understood the stock market computers, how they can expect a serious stock crash and many other amazing things. I learned there that the stock market closes after three hours of the market dropping so that people don't lose too much money.

The view from the top of the Empire State Building was amazing.

Finally, we went to a lot of amazing places! We went on a ferry that overlooked the Statue of Liberty, we saw the 9/11 Memorial, and we went up to the 84th floor of the Empire State Building! We also went to a diner and the food there was very good. Going to New York and winning the Stock Market Game meant a lot to me!

Stephen and Abby (and their team) presented their stock market decisions and choices before trading professionals – a once in a lifetime opportunity!