Noble Academy Finance Club Tours Morningstar

Extracurricular education has long been complementary to the one received in the classroom at all of the Noble Charter Schools. The various campuses across the city offer a wide range of after-school extracurricular activities – including Finance Club at Noble Academy – which is generously organized by three mentors from Morningstar: David Mallett, Donald Huang, and Austin Rochon.

“We were interested in expanding Morningstar’s current high school seminar to the Noble Network of Charter Schools where Austin and I had teaching contacts. We expressed interest in starting an investment/finance club, and Noble Academy responded. Soon after, our club soon joined their after-school enrichment program,” David Mallett shared.

Donald Huang revealed their motivation to start a Finance Club, “Finance and investment knowledge is a very useful tool for everyone and many students might not have access to this knowledge. We knew we could leverage what we learned from our experiences in school and work, and provide this opportunity for students to get familiar with finance.”

Valdon Sewell, an incoming senior at Noble Academy participated in Finance Club last year. He said, “I joined Finance Club because I wanted to learn about the stock market and how to make money for retirement or a house.”

The Morningstar employees dedicated a lot of time and talent to Noble Academy’s high school students. They developed a curriculum and adjusted content throughout the school year based on students’ interests. Meeting one day every week from October until May, students learned about corporate finance, investments, stocks and mutual funds, asset allocation, financial analysis and more.

“I enjoyed learning about the different asset classes or types of investments like mutual funds, bonds, large-cap and small-cap companies, and foreign stocks,” Valdon shared.

At the end of the 2017 school year Morningstar welcomed Finance Club students to their office for a tour.

“During the club, we utilized a lot of the data and research that our company, Morningstar, has to offer individual investors. Because of this, we knew that a company visit at the end of the school year would be valuable. It also gave the students a perspective of what a corporate office environment looks like and different career opportunities within the field of investment research,” Mallett explained. The students were given presentations about Morningstar and investment firms in general, lunch, and a tour of Morningstar’s downtown Chicago office.

Valdon attended the tour and said, “My favorite part of the office tour was seeing the different office spaces and floors of the building. The role of each employee is divided into different floors and it was cool to see the unique environment of each floor.”

Huang explained the importance of extracurricular activities: “After-school clubs allow students to explore their interests outside of regular education framework. Developing interests students are passionate about expands their visions of the real world and prepares them to navigate majors or professions in their higher education.”

Mallett added, “In addition, investing can be a valuable skill for all students no matter their career aspirations as they will be making financial decisions throughout all phases of their life.”