Does It Make Cents for You to Join Chamblee’s New Finance Club?

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Simran Kukreja, Staff Writer

Many students are not familiar with stocks, bonds, or investing. However, Ryan Joshi (‘25) and his fellow officers strive to solve this problem by introducing a Finance Club to Chamblee.

“I started finance club because there’s not many courses at school that teach about finance. So it’s a great way for students to learn when they are going into their adult years,” said Joshi. 

Chamblee Finance Club meets every other Tuesday in 3142 for thirty minutes right after school. Joshi, the president and founder, has a variety of activities prepared for every meeting.

“We have a daily discussion about different topics, and then we segue into one of our competitions, like the stock market competition or something else. The competitions are between the whole club, and you just have to see which stock portfolio can reach the highest amount,” said Joshi. 

With Ethan Huang (‘25) as vice president, Dean Payne (‘25) as second vice president, Kayin Coaxum (‘25) as treasurer, Sai Chitta (‘25) as second treasurer, and Suramya Srivastava (‘25) as social media manager, finance club is completely led by underclassmen. 

“Although us officers are very passionate about finance and all the lessons members can take away from our club, we are indeed a sophomore-led club, so we do not possess much experience in leading a high school club yet. This inexperience could pose a potential roadblock in our success. However, we are willing to work even harder to make sure this club works out in the long run,” said Srivastava. 

On the other hand, the inexperience of being a sophomore could be cancelled by a connection with finance that adds background. 

“My mother was an accountant for Georgia Power for about 10 years. My dad has had many financial jobs working for E trade as a day trader, then all the way up to being the manager of financial advisors for a financial advisor company. My uncle was the former vice president of JP Morgan. My parents would flip houses in the Atlanta area, so I know a lot about the real estate market and how to make money from that,” said Coaxum.

Many officers also agree with Srivastava’s desire to make this club work long-term. 

“I do see [this club] continuing over the next three years. While the rest of us are still officers because as more people come in, more people want to learn about finance and there’s a new demographic that we can teach each year,” said Joshi. 

As more people join, there are more people the officers can have an impact on.

“We hope to give them a head start on their income and how to like manage it. The economics and things like that. It really does help them get a better understanding of finance and everything to do with it before they get out of high school,” said Huang. 

The sponsor of finance club is Mr. Jones, who was asked because of his familiarity with Joshi.

“He sponsors FBLA, and I had a great time working with him last year for that club. So, I figured he would be the best for me to start a new club with,” said Joshi. 

The officers encourage everyone to join chamblee finance club, no matter what your experience with finance is. 

“Finance club is fun, interactive, and we’ll teach you a lot,” Payne said. “We accept everybody. We’re just looking to have a good time and learn.”