Fidelity Gives Elementary Kids a Head Start on Investing

Thanks to Fidelity Investments, students from Mattahunt Elementary School of Mattapan, Mass., that are part of the BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) program will learn how to trade and analyze stocks and bonds this summer.

“If children aren’t engaged in learning activities, they fall behind academically during the summer,” said Earl Martin Phalen, BELL Co-founder and CEO.

BELL, is a Boston-based nonprofit organization, with various summer and afterschool programs in Boston, Detroit, Baltimore and New York. The six-week program, entitled “Stock Market Made Easy,” gives rising 5^th and 6^th grade students a unique opportunity to learn more about the financial industry and investment-banking.

“This hands-on approach provides the BELL scholars with an idea of what people in the financial community do. And, we try to reinforce and make real some of the math concepts they are learning about in the BELL summer program,” said Jennifer K. Brown, Fidelity executive vice president.

“Students will gain a basic understanding of the stock market and then become very involved in picking a stock. At the end of the six-week cycle, they decide whether to ‘buy, hold, or sell’ the stock based on the analytical techniques they learned over the course of the summer,” Brown added.