As part of an after-school program offered at his high school, Frederick was provided $200 to invest in the market in February 2021. In just 21 months, he recouped more than 200% of his initial investment despite the overall downturn in the market during this period. . “I’ve gotten some pretty attractive returns,” said Frederick, who dresses like a successful investor, wearing a suit and bow tie at his high school in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn.
Students at Uncommon’s four Brooklyn high schools have the opportunity to enroll in extracurricular classes after school. Known as High School 2.0, the free program offers a variety of classes, from coding to cooking to dance and sports streaming. They are taught by experts in their fields and are designed to encourage students to pursue their passions or discover new ones. The high schools are part of the Uncommon Schools charter network, which operates 24 schools in Brooklyn, as well as schools in Rochester, Boston and Camden, and Newark, N.J.
For the financial education program, Uncommon has hired Dan LaSalle, who runs a nonprofit called the Niche Clinic, which teaches high school students about stocks, bonds, credit cards, and how to save and invest for the future. It also provides money for students to invest in the stock market. Niche Clinic began in Philadelphia where LaSalle taught a personal finance class at Olney Charter High School. She came up with the idea of offering students real money to invest in the market. His non-profit organization, which receives funding from a variety of donors, foundations, schools and non-profit organizations, now offers the program to 800 students from 14 schools and non-profit organizations.
The program was perfect for Frederick, who has always been passionate about finance. As a high school student, he started watching The Graham Stephan Show on YouTube and became hooked on the intricacies of real estate. He inspired him to get a commercial real estate license. In his senior year, he started a finance club to focus more on understanding the stock market and other wealth-building investments.
“I’m very, very passionate about finance and I realized that there was a lack of financial education,” Frederick said. “I thought it was something that needed to be addressed. So I took it upon myself to create the Finance Club to create an environment where young adults can learn about the importance of finances and use that understanding of finances to make sound financial decisions.”
LaSalle donated $800 total to the Leadership Charter Finance Club, which then staged a mock stock competition to determine which four club members would receive $200 in real money to invest in the market. Naturally, Federico was one of the winners of the competition. Frederick said he already had a good understanding of investing because he opened his own brokerage account when he was 13. “To navigate the world, you have to understand how finance works,” said Frederick. “Finance is like a blueprint that you can use to build your life the way you want.”
The finance club he founded has fortnightly meetings with a visiting professor who works in the field. The club has already invited eight guests so far this year. Your last visitor worked at a hedge fund. “When you think about it, anyone can go on the Internet and do some finance research,” he said. “But I also like to invite visitors who work in finance to teach us about the importance of finance within their niche.”
Frederick said one piece of advice he has fully accepted is to have a mentor. He met his eventual mentor’s wife at a financial convention.
“I started talking to her and told her about my passion for finance,” he said. “We ended up talking for 30 minutes and she told me her husband loves mentoring kids who are interested in finances. He set up the meeting and he’s been my mentor ever since.”
Federico did well in school. He has attended several Advanced Placement courses, including AP Chemistry, AP English, AP US History and is currently taking AP Statistics.
She said she plans to take a gap year and get into commercial real estate in hopes of earning some cash before going to college. “I definitely plan on going to college, mostly for networking opportunities,” she said.
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