On February 25, Austin Percy, Kyle Richardson, Grant Christensen, and Brice Sandahl participated in the state Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge. Sandahl and Christensen  placed first against 53 other teams, allowing them to go to nationals. 

To prepare for the competition, Dennis Johnson, the teacher in charge of the students participating in the Stock Market Challenge, shared “We met a few times before the contest to make sure they had everything they needed. They used their personal time to practice for the challenge and they came into the event with a strong strategy and it paid off.” 

The state Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge goal was to earn as much money as possible in a 60-day time period. Sandahl and Christensen started the challenge with an initial investment of $500,000. At the end, they were able to have a grand total of $1,397,997.60., which was a return of investment of 179.60 percent. This score beat the second place team by almost 40 percent. 

By winning the state Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge, Sandahl and Christensen qualified for the national competition on May 12. Sandahl shared “We are quite confident for the national competition, but anything can happen, so we’ll see. We plan on going for the same strategy, which is a strategy that embraces high volatility of small companies that have the chance of a high rate of return.” 

Lastly Johnson shared, “Overall I felt that there were a lot of unknowns going into the event as it was our first time. I am really pleased with how the competition went and proud of Brice and Grant for their hard work and their accomplishment.”