SHERMAN, TX--Here's a class worth going to! It's worth a million dollars! Austin College students are learning the in's and out's of the S&P 500. It's not just a grade they're trying to keep. They're trying to manage real money.
What would you do with a million dollars? A few Austin College students are banking on the stock market.
"Knowing that it's something tangible, it's real and it's not something that's theoretical. If you get a bad grade it's ok," Bryan Botello said, Austin College student.
If these students make a bad purchase, it translates into thousands of dollars. So far, that hasn't happened.
"We're currently at $1,080,000," Austin College Professor David Griffith said. "We own Goldman Sachs, which is a banking firm, we own General Electric."
Not to mention Google. The students own and manage about 30 different stocks and companies. $20,000 of it is stock from the manufacturing giant Caterpillar.
"Our goal is to create a portfolio that is balanced in such a way that when one company that we're investing in has a bad week or month, it won't bring the entire portfolio down," William Griffith said, Austin College student.
For three years, the investment class has been offered at Austin College. It's the first semester that students get to work in the new and highly interactive Morris Foundation Conference Center.
"It has a lot of state of the art equipment," Botello said. "We're very fortunate to have it."
The initial $1 million came from an Austin College alum who worked for Goldman Sachs, whose hobby as an undergraduate was investing.
"It was dedicated only for students to manage," Professor David Griffith said.
Their earnings go back into the stock market or finance student scholarships.
"It will be reinvested into students and not just the stock market," Professor David Griffith said.
This grade translates into gains...or losses.
"Generally at the end of the day, we almost always almost always vote unanimously, but there's often a lot of disagreement before we reach that point.
Maybe someday, these students will be managing your money.
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