Carbajal pays visit to Righetti High economics class following national investing competition

May 21—Seniors in a Righetti High School economics class received a visit from Congressman Salud Carbajal on Thursday following their participation in the Stock Market Game — a national high school investing competition.

According to teacher Joe Graack, his class has been participating in the game for the past nine years as part of their personal finance curriculum. However, this year marked the first time that Righetti was selected to be visited by the congressman as part of the associated Capitol Hill Challenge.

Righetti was selected by the SIFMA Foundation, which runs the Stock Market Game, as one of two schools in the 24th Congressional District to participate in the challenge that aims to provide real-world investing experience to young adults and increase financial literacy.

"Each team is given a $100,000 portfolio to invest in stocks and bonds ... and try to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible," Graack said of the program, which ran from February to May.

During his virtual visit on Thursday, Carbajal congratulated the students on their work during the competition, where they placed 59th out of more than 840 schools nationwide.

While he developed an understanding of financial literacy on his own over the years, he said he would have benefited greatly from a program like the Stock Market Game when he was younger.

"I think these students are incredibly lucky to have such an organization as SIFMa come into their lives and try to provide that. If I had that more readily available to me ... I would have been so much more financially successful in my life," Carbajal said.

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