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YIS | Category: All
It is with gratitude and awe that I look back on 2016 and all that has happened at Young Investors Society. It’s been a tremendous year and we have so many people to thank; first and foremost, you, the students and volunteers that make up YIS.
In David Letterman style, I wanted to give my “Top 10 Moments” from Young Investors Society from 2016.
My TOP 10 YIS Moments of 2016:
Number 10 — Nathaniel Driggs, of Oak Park California became the first “Dollar-a-Day” scholarship recipient of Young Investors Society receiving a $365 match of investment funds. Many more to come!
Number 9 — Receiving an invitation from the Young Federation of Young Investors, a regulatory body in Europe, for YIS to join their organization which promotes best practices in teaching financial literacy around the world.
Number 8 — Seeing the Prezi presentations come together for our lessons. Didn’t they turn out amazing?! Our curriculum team did a fantastic job creating these.
Number 7 — Meeting with education officials in Chile and Brazil and both expressing interest in us putting our stamp of approval on a personal finance curriculum. This eventually led us to develop our Module 1: Five Steps to Financial Freedom.
Number 6 — Our YIS Live Broadcasts. Guy Spier, billionaire value investor and Paul Smith, CEO of CFA Institute, have both been fantastic, and what a dream come true it was to interview them! We have a few huge surprises for future speakers for 2017 (hint… one is a SharkTank shark, owner of an NBA team, and whose name rhymes with Cark Muban).
Number 5 — Seeing our YouTube lesson videos come together. Ok, I’ll admit, being in front of a camera was not the most pleasant experience for me — in fact, I hated it! But I think the end product turned out great and helps make the lessons feel more interactive.
Number 4 — Getting the MyYIS Portal up and running. We heard over and over that we needed to “gamify” the learning and create a community within YIS. Seeing the MyYIS portal come together with quizzes, net worth points, leaderboards and stock pitches has been fun to see and hopefully even more fun for you to play.
Number 3 — Meeting with teachers and educators at conferences. It’s been an honor to meet and greet with many teachers at conferences we’ve attended in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Utah, Texas and Phoenix. Every time we leave the takeaway is always the same: “These teachers are just amazing!”
Number 2 — Seeing YIS clubs go from 2 to 4 to 6 to 15 and now to 50. We now have more than 1,000 kids across the United States, Canada, Brazil and Hong Kong that are participating in Young Investors Society. Amazing! Incredible! And this is just the start….
Number 1 — The students during the National Stock Pitch Competition in May. When the first stock pitch reports started hitting our inbox and I saw how good they were and how much learning had taken place, I literally sat down and started to cry (seriously, ask my wife!). And then the pinnacle was seeing teams present their cases in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and California. It was beyond impressive and very touching to see this next generation being stretched and lives changed. Two out of our five national finalists, Grant and Katia, both were offered paid internships in finance based on their work. Amazing!
Thank you for making 2016 a wonderful year for Young Investors Society! I want to express my personal thanks to you for all that you do. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
James Fletcher, CFA
Founder and President
www.yis.org
e: jfletcher@younginvestorssociety.org
